The Person-Centred Approach: A Growth Map

Abstract

This chapter will discuss the other main second-wave approach, the person-centred approach to counselling and assessment, an approach that is basically problem-orientated but with a strong focus on the person. This is a humanistic approach with links to phenomenology and existentialism. The person-centred approach has its origins in the work of Carl Rogers, whose basic belief was that clients know best what is the problem and how to make progress in dealing with it, provided that they have a relationship that offers the climate in which they can grow towards fulfilment. The theory is therefore much taken up with the conditions for growth, first the conditions for getting the work started, and second the conditions for a successful process, for progressing towards a successful change outcome.