What is person-centred counselling? 

Person-centred counselling is one of the humanistic approaches. It was founded in the 1940s by the American psychologist Carl Rogers who believed that, given the right conditions, a person can reach their full potential and become their true self. He termed this ‘self-actualisation’ which is intrinsic and accessible to everyone. 

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Techniques one of your in house counsellors will use during counselling sessions: 

• unconditional positive regard (UPR) – accepting and valuing you 

• congruence - being honest and transparent in how they experience you and your world 

• empathic understanding – seeing your viewpoint as if they were you 

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You will be encouraged to pick the focus for the sessions and set your own pace. 

A person-centred counsellor will help you to explore your own issues, feelings, beliefs, behaviour, and worldview, so you can become more self-aware and achieve greater independence. Contrary to popular belief, the counsellor will not sort your problems for you but be there as a guide through self-actualisation.  

 

Discover yourself 

One of our skilled therapists will help you to realise what resources and support are available to you that you can use to work through your own issues, build your self-confidence and appreciate that you always have options. They will treat you as the expert on yourself, as no-one else knows exactly what it’s like to be you. 

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They will not judge you, no matter what you bring to the session. This helps build a trustworthy relationship in which you can feel free and supported to disclose whatever is troubling you. Eventually it will lead you to discover your own abilities and autonomy, so that you can cope with current and future problems. 

 

 

Person-centred therapy 

Person or client-centred therapy is based on the view that everyone has the capacity and desire for personal growth and change, given the right conditions. Rather than being seen as the expert and directing the therapy, the counsellor offers unconditional positive regard, empathy and congruence to help you come to terms with any negative feelings and to change and develop in your own way. 

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Phenomenological therapy 
A phenomenological approach looks at an individual's perception and experience of a situation or event rather than its external reality. Our therapists can help to understand why you see things in this way and discover more helpful ways of thinking and behaving. 

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Play therapy 
Primarily used with children, this uses play as a communication tool to help them express their feelings and deal with emotional problems. It can be used to diagnose the reasons for difficult behaviour, to allow children to work through their anxieties or as a relearning and desensitisation therapy. 

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Primal therapy 
Primal Therapy is based on the theory that distress which has occurred at birth or during infancy can resurface as a phobia, obsession or other issue. The therapist takes you back to the ‘primal scene’ where the trauma can be re-experienced as an emotional cleansing. Therapists using this approach will usually have had core training in another therapy. 

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Psychoanalysis 
This is based on the work of Sigmund Freud, who believed that psychological problems are rooted in the unconscious mind. Experiences from a person’s past can influence thoughts, emotions and behaviour in later life. The analyst will encourage you to talk about your experiences and use techniques such as free association or dream analysis to identify repressed feelings or conflicts that are affecting you now. Bringing these to the front of your mind allows any negative feelings to be dealt with. 

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This can be a lengthy and intensive process and is often used by clients suffering high levels of distress. 

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Psychodynamic psychotherapy 
The psychodynamic approach is derived from psychoanalysis, but focuses on immediate problems to try to provide a quicker solution. It stresses the importance of the unconscious and past experience in shaping current behaviour. A therapist will aim to build an accepting and trusting relationship, encouraging you to talk about your childhood relationships with your parents and other significant people. It also uses similar techniques to psychotherapy, including free association, interpretation and especially transference, where feelings you experienced in previous significant relationships are projected onto the therapist. 

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Psychosynthesis 
Sometimes described as ‘psychology of the soul’, this approach seeks to bring together your emotional, mental, physical and spiritual attributes to encourage personal development. Psychosynthesis is useful for people seeking a new, more spiritually oriented vision of themselves to enable change and growth.