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Originally Posted by RiverX
Theres loads of person centred Ts everywhere, maybe you could keep searching till you find one that really works for you. One with whom you experience being set free to be yourself.
I do have concerns about therapy dynamics where the therapist becomes the centre of the piece : s - and for that matter of the client's emotions. (It's happened to me tooo many times) Im glad you had that expereince, we should be reclaiming our  s in therapy, rather than losing them, do you recon?
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I hate therapists like that too River. sometimes it feels as though they are the actor on the stage and we are the audience and they are reciting some boring monologue. It really was a truly magical experience. T said that she wants to walk in the clients shoes, experience their pain and heartaches but be there to take it away.
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Originally Posted by Starry_Night
Thats how my therapy is. Its very healing.
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You have such a great relationship with your T starry, I am so jealous.
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Originally Posted by Anne2.0
This type of therapy has been around since the 50's. Many T's saw it as an alternative to behaviorism (predecessor to CBT) and certainly to psychoanalysis. Many T's consider themselves to be psychodynamic in nature, meaning that they pay attention to many of the core concepts in psychoanalysis (e.g. defense mechanisms), but they have a person-centered approach. At its core, this just means that you reflect back to people what they say to you and make sure you have understood them and that they hear you. My friends in clinical psychology school learned this first, and they got super annoying practicing it on the rest of us, as to me at least, someone repeating, "what I hear you saying is . . . . " makes me want to smack them, after about 3 iterations of this. I have interviewed T's who seemed to only have this trick up their sleeve, and they couldn't even restate what I'd said properly. Fail and fail.
Like any T approach, it's not the be-all-end-all of therapy. I wouldn't strive, if I were in T school, to make this my one trick pony.
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Yes, Carl Rodgers founded it. I am reading his book about it, on becoming a therapist- its very interesting. I really think that this type of therapy would benifit me personally as I have tried the CBT and I think it is too pushy for me, right now I need support and love not someone telling me I ruined my life by the choices I have made- empowerment pffftttt.
I think most T's are eclectic now, they learn so many different theories that it would be impossible to use only one type for every client and based on the clients needs it would depend on the type of therapy, correct me if I am wrong. All t's use the reflection tool, it can be annoying but it does help to feel that you are being heard and understood.
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Originally Posted by Asiablue
Mine is person-centred. The central tenet of person-centred therapy is Unconditional positive regard, Empathy and Congruence ( genuineness)
It's is a softer approach, it's very much about what the client brings in to the room. The sessions are led by the client.
To be honest, at first i found it too open, not structured enough and just felt like tea and sympathy almost. I felt for a long time i wasn't getting anywhere. However i did get somewhere with it, i stopped (mostly) feeling depressed and suicidal, i don't have the same pervasive self-hatred, i've had good results.
However, i think it's very much about the relationship you have with your therapist rather than what theoretical school they are from. If you like this approach, by all means look for a therapist who practices it, but find one that is eclectic and has "other tricks up their sleeves" and is able to work on multiple levels.
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Tea and sympathy
this is it exactly- thats what friends are for and we don't have to pay them either. What really struck me about this t was her openness- I found it refreshing. She moved her chair right in front of mine and took my hands in hers, I told her my problem about being stuck in time at the moment and I cant move past this stage of my life. She reflected back what I had said about my relationship ending but she said he and after the third time I corrected her and said she. She took it on the chin and apologised and said it was a big mistake making assumptions for any client. She didn't offer any advice or opinions and just listened and sat with me, she didn't try force it, she just wauted till I was ready. I told her I had a big ball of stress in my stomach. She asked what the ball was telling me and after I acknowleged those feelings I have repressed I haven't felt the pain in my stomach or had anxiety since.