What Is Post-Centered Therapy?

Post Centered Therapy was developed by Carl Rogers in the 1950’s. He believed that therapy could be simpler, warmer and more optimistic than that carried out by behavioral or psychodynamic psychologists (McLeod, 2008). Rogers believed in his work, he based his findings of positive reinforcement of psychologist being genuinely warm and caring to their patients. Rogerian approach to counseling and psychotherapy is best stated by Rogers (1986) himself:
'It is that the individual has within himself or herself vast resources for self-understanding, for altering his or her self-concept, attitudes and self-directed behavior - and that these resources can be tapped if only a definable climate of facilitative psychological attitudes can be provided'.(McLeod, 2008). Rogers developed his theory based on his work with emotionally troubled people and claimed that we have a remarkable capacity for …show more content…
Congruence is a form of counseling unlike psychodynamic therapy where the therapist must keep a “blank screen” which shows the therapist as emotionless and unpredictable. Congruence is a way of Rogerian (Rogers approach) which allows the client to experience what the therapist is expressing, basically it means the therapist is authentic and visually equal in understanding. Unconditional positive regard is a technique developed to comfort the client. Instead of being judgmental the therapist becomes deeply and genuinely more caring for the client, which gives the client the sense of acceptance of who they are. Lastly “Empathy”, it is the ability to understand exactly how the client is feeling. This refers to the therapist's ability to understand sensitively and accurately [but not sympathetically] the client's experience and feelings in the here-and-now. An important part of the task of the person-centered counselor is to follow precisely what the client is feeling and to communicate to them that the therapist understands what they are feeling. (McLeod,