Person Centred Therapy (PCT)

At the heart of person-centred therapy is the belief that as a client experiences the therapist’s attitude, they will be encouraged and enabled to explore their own lives perhaps for the first time.

Person-centered therapy views the client as the expert and therefore I will not take control of your experience by diagnosing or assessing you. We will not instruct you on how best to deal with the issues you bring to therapy.

Carl Rogers who founded PCT believed that we all have the capacity and tendency to grow and called this our ‘self-actualizing tendency’ and is brought forth within the context of a therapeutic relationship. It is a very powerful approach and also deeply respectful in nature.

Therapeutic Relationship

The kind of therapeutic relationship we can build together is perhaps like no other experienced in everyday life. This is central to the person-centred approach and you will find a safe space to explore places previously less travelled including a greater awareness of yourself as a person and your relationships.

We will be focused on really hearing you as a person and at times deeply sense your emotions and experiencing of life. We will work closely together to process all that comes up in sessions and journey towards a clearer and stronger way of being.

Remember that you are the expert on you and our role is to stand with you and help create an environment which allows you unlimited space to safely heal and grow.

It can take time to build a trusting relationship with a therapist and know that it can be a scary thing to take the first step. Our firm hope is that we can move forward together as a team and at your pace to build such a relationship which in itself is therapeutic in nature.

Core Conditions

At the heart of Person-centered Therapy are three Core Conditions that we hope you both experience but also share within and value as part of your lived experience outside of Therapy

Congruence (Genuiness) – In short, this is the balance between our inner experience and our outward expression, if we can hold both of these in balance then we can authentically share ourselves and build trust within the relationship.

Unconditional Positive Regard – UPR in a nutshell simply means that the therapist listens in a non-judgmental warm way to the client. There are no conditions put upon the relationship, just acceptance of the individuals postion

Empathy – The ability to work to understand life through another person’s perspective is to invite change within our own “ to sense another private world as if it were our own, but without losing the as if” and to hold their feelings and experiences.

Elements

For some clients, there may be a specific aspect or event in life which they wish to discuss. For others it may be the culmination of life itself or factors around how certain things impact them. Whatever the difficulty or challenge we aim to support you to find your way of dealing with it. Examples of areas we have experience include:

  • Bereavement
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Issues with addiction and substance use
  • Trauma
  • Loneliness and isolation
  • Psychological impact of serious illness
  • Relationship issues (family, friends, partner, colleagues}
  • Coping with loss and change
  • Loss of personal direction
  • Anger issues
  • General desire to find your true self

Process

We hope you experience us to be empathic in a way that goes deeper than sympathy.

By actively listening to you we will become aware of moments when we sense and view your world as if we were experiencing it including your emotions and attitudes. We will always check out this sensing with you for accuracy when it occurs.

These moments can be very powerful and help you to feel deeply understood and to awaken sometimes hidden issues and feelings.

You can expect us to be genuine in therapy. We will be willing to share our experience with you in a way that is beneficial to your well-being and sense of self.

Finally, you can expect us to accept you as you are without judgment or bias. Unconditional positive regard is something to expect from us at all times.

We will engage you in ways you will know and experience this during therapy.

These elements are often seen as the vehicle through which positive change is enabled, each playing a different but equally important part in successful therapy.

Fluidity

We believe that the positive impact of person-centred therapy can be profoundly life-changing and long-lasting lasting. We offer you an environment in which to realise the true parts of who you are and find your way of dealing with whatever issues have arisen in life.

It really is worth taking the opportunity to not only deal with the presenting difficulty but also discover your emerging magnificence as a unique human being.