Person-Centered Therapy Over Time

In Person-Centered Therapy Over Time, David J. Cain demonstrates a contemporary version of Carl Rogers's pervasively influential approach, which focuses on how the quality of engagement and collaboration between therapist and client can create optimal conditions for growth. This empirically supported therapy emphasizes therapist presence, empathic attunement, acceptance and affirmation of the client, and congruence or authenticity in the therapist.

Person-centered therapy is based in the belief that clients are resourceful persons capable of taking responsibility for their lives and solving their own problems. It emphasizes honoring and preserving clients' autonomy and choice, as well as the client's role as an active participant in all aspects of therapy. In essence, being person-centered means to create a therapy that fits the unique person of the client, so therapists consider clients as experts on what works best for them, and thus engage clients as cotherapists.

In these sessions, Dr. Cain works with a young African American woman grieving the recent loss of her father. As therapy progresses, she comes to terms not only with her loss, but with troublesome aspects of her father's personality and behavior, especially regarding his treatment of her sister. She also gradually learns to let others take responsibility for themselves and to let go of her role as the "responsible one" in her family and social relations.

Throughout these sessions, Dr. Cain provides an empathic, affirming presence that enables the client to feel accepted and safe, and to develop insights about how she approaches life and her capacity to make effective choices.

In this six-session DVD, David J. Cain demonstrates a Rogerian form of therapy called collaborative person-centered psychotherapy. Consistent with Rogers, this approach emphasizes therapist presence, empathic attunement to the client's internal frame of reference, acceptance and affirmation of the client, congruence in the therapist, and a fundamental belief in the client's resourcefulness and potential to move forward in their lives. It also honors and preserves clients' autonomy and choice.

In collaborative person-centered therapy, the client's role as an active and involved participant in all aspects of therapy is emphasized.The therapist and client individualize each therapy by being collaborative partners in the definition of the client's problems, desired goals, means to achieve those goals and the definition and development of an optimal therapeutic relationship.

In essence, clients are engaged as cotherapists based on the assumption that they are experts on what fits and what works best for them. The therapist embraces a fundamental value of pragmatism, which is guided by the intention to do whatever is in the best interests of the client. Therefore, the therapist, in addition to striving to be present, empathic, accepting, and congruent, brings forth for the client's consideration any and all personal and professional resources that may be of value to the client,especially those backed by research evidence. By doing so therapists are freed to expand the ways they may engage various aspects of themselves and to integrate concepts and responses from other therapeutic systems that that fit the client's current needs. In other words, being person-centered means to create a therapy that fits the unique person of the client.

Another emphasis of collaborative person-centered psychotherapy is to focus on and encourage clients to attend to and process potent emotional experiences with the intent to facilitate adaptive learning and more effective behavior. The therapist also takes responsibility to continuously monitor the quality of the therapeutic relationship, client progress and any strains in the relationship, and collaborate with the client to make any needed or desirable adjustments.

In the therapy session featured on this DVD, Dr. Cain was aware that the client found cognitive–behavioral therapy to be congenial to her personality and learning style, especially challenges to her irrational beliefs. Therefore, when the situation called for it, he became more challenging of beliefs and behaviors that were causing the client extreme psychological stress and worry.

Cain aligned his challenges with the client's desire to free herself from being hyper-responsible and overly protective of her family members. Knowing that the client had a strong internal locus of evaluation, he felt confident that she would reject any challenges that did not fit her goals or psychological well-being. In another session, Cain offered the client the possibility of engaging in a gestalt two-chair exercise to deal with a conflict with a relative. She found the exercise both helpful and liberating.

Throughout the therapy, Cain strove to be empathically attuned and responsive and to be authentic in all of his responses. He naturally affirmed many of her qualities, values, and behaviors. By doing so, Dr. Cain enabled the client to confirm and solidify her fundamentally positive self-concept.

David J. Cain, PhD, ABPP, CGP, is the editor of Humanistic Psychotherapies: Handbook of Research and Practice (2002) and of Classics in the Person-Centered Approach (2002). He received his doctorate in clinical and community psychology from the University of Wyoming. At present, he teaches at the California School of Professional Psychology, San Diego Alliant International University and the psychology department at Chapman University.

A former colleague of Carl Rogers, he is the founder of the Association for the Development of the Person-Centered Approach and was the founder and editor of the Person-Centered Review. He is a diplomate and fellow in clinical psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology and a member of the National Register of Certified Group Psychotherapists.

Dr. Cain is the psychotherapy editor for the Journal of Humanistic Psychology and serves on the editorial boards of The Humanistic Psychologist, Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies, Person-Centered Journal, and the Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy. He edited a special issue of the Journal of Humanistic Psychotherapy entitled "Advancing Humanistic Psychology in the 21st Century" and edited a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy entitled "Contributions of Humanistic Psychotherapies to the Field of Psychotherapy."

Dr. Cain is a former president of the Society for Humanistic Psychology (Division 32) of the American Psychological Association and initiated its first annual conference. His primary professional commitment is the advancement of humanistic psychology and psychotherapy. He maintains private practice in Carlsbad and San Marcos, California.

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APA Videos

• Client-Centered Therapy
  Nathaniel J. Raskin
• Emotion-Focused Therapy for Depression
  Leslie S. Greenberg
• Emotion-Focused Therapy Over Time
  Leslie S. Greenberg
• Emotionally Focused Therapy With Couples
  Leslie S. Greenberg
• Existential–Humanistic Therapy Over Time
  Kirk J. Schneider
• Process Experiential Psychotherapy: An Emotion-Focused Approach
  Leslie S. Greenberg
• Three Approaches to Psychotherapy With a Female Client: The Next Generation
  Judith S. Beck, Leslie S. Greenberg, and Nancy McWilliams
• Three Approaches to Psychotherapy With a Male Client: The Next Generation
  Judith S. Beck, Leslie S. Greenberg, and Nancy McWilliams

APA Books

• Emotion-Focused Therapy: Coaching Clients to Work Through Their Feelings
  Leslie S. Greenberg
• Existential–Humanistic Therapy
  Kirk J. Schneider and Orah T. Krug
• How Clients Make Therapy Work: The Process of Active Self-Healing
  Arthur C. Bohart and Karen Tallman
• Humanistic Psychotherapies: Handbook of Research and Practice
  Edited by David J. Cain and Julius Seeman
• Interpretive and Supportive Psychotherapies: Matching Therapy and Patient Personality
  William E. Piper, Anthony S. Joyce, Mary McCallum, Hassan F. Azim, and John S. Ogrodniczuk