ABSTRACT
Although it is sometimes used somewhat imprecisely to refer to a way of doing therapy, the person-centred approach is a global term for the application of the principles derived from the work and ideas of Carl Rogers, his colleagues and successors to many fields of human endeavour. It is one of the most striking things about the method of psychotherapy originating with Carl Rogers – and which has variously been referred to as ‘non-directive therapy’, ‘client-centred therapy’ and ‘person-centred therapy’ – that it, or rather the ideas underpinning it, gave rise to something described as an ‘approach’. This is the person-centred approach of which Wood (1996: 163) pointed out:
This ‘way of being’ (p. 169) has the following elements:
• a belief in a formative directional tendency; • a will to help; • an intention to be effective in one’s objectives; • a compassion for the individual and respect for his or her
autonomy and dignity;
• a flexibility in thought and action; • an openness to new discoveries; • ‘an ability to intensely concentrate and clearly grasp the
linear, piece by piece appearance of reality as well as perceiving it holistically or all-at-once’: that is to say a capacity for both analysis and synthesis or the perception of gestalts;
• a tolerance for uncertainty or ambiguity.
