Person Centered Therapy is also known as Client Centered Therapy and it was introduced by Dr. Carl Rogers many years ago. It was considered a revolution in psychotherapy and, with well-trained Ts, it has helped thousands, maybe millions, of people.

The therapist listens and offers unconditional positive regard, something many people are missing in their lives. In fact, many people have never experienced uncritical and accepting interactions with other people. Never, in their whole lives.

Dr. Rogers believed that people had within them the ability to think and feel about their life problems in a way that would allow them to find their own answers and solutions if they were allowed to talk, vent, brainstorm and discuss with a T who actively listened to them with warmth, empathy and unconditional positive regard.

Does it work? I've known people who really benefited from it. After a while, it positively changed the way they interacted with people. For the first time in their lives they'd had someone listen to them without ripping them to shreds directly or indirectly and that's the way they started acting toward their children, partner, friends and family. They slowly learned to give positive regard to the people they cared about, lived with and worked with. That made life better, not just for them, but for their families. They listened more and criticized less. They didn't become doormats. But they stopped the automatic, non-thinking criticism and complaining that had formerly been habitual.

At the time when Dr. Rogers created Client Centered Therapy, it was considered caring to correct and criticize children so they could improve themselves. That kind of verbal correction and criticism were considered loving as long as it wasn't shouted. So you had all these people who, no matter what they did or how well they did it, were told they should do better. It was the way I was raised. No matter what you did, it was never good enough, you were always exhorted to do better. It gets oppressive.

However, Client Centered Therapy wasn't for me. I like an active, directive approach. That's my personality. But if it was all that was available to me, I'd use it and do my best to benefit from it because it does help a lot of people. I guess a lot depends on how much effort the client is willing to put into it.

I hope it works for you!