Person-Centred Approaches 

Person-Centred approaches or better known as Person-Centred Therapy (PCT), was developed by Carl Rogers, who believed that individuals possess an innate drive toward self-actualisation and psychological growth. Unlike the psychodynamic approach, where the therapist interprets the client’s unconscious. PCT empowers clients to take charge of their own healing within a safe, supportive environment. The therapist’s role is to facilitate self-discovery, helping clients build self-esteem, confidence, and resilience through genuine understanding and empathy.

Rogers proposed several core conditions for effective therapeutic change:

• Psychological contact between therapist and client expressed by a strong, trusting connection beyond the basic therapeutic alliance.
• Client incongruence: the distress caused by a gap between one’s self-image and external experiences.
• Therapist congruence: authenticity and transparency in sessions.
• Unconditional positive regard: acceptance of the client’s experiences without judgment.
• Empathic understanding: the therapist’s ability to perceive the client’s emotions and worldview.
• Client perception: the client recognising the therapist’s empathy and acceptance.

Rogers viewed diagnosis as unnecessary, focusing instead on the client’s lived experience. Though some consider PCT less suited for severe mental health conditions, it remains widely used across diverse settings, with flexible session structures and no assigned homework. It’s also necessary to note that the core conditions are usually applied across all therapeutic approaches, which facilitates and strengthens the therapeutic alliance and makes the treatment more effective. 

Several therapeutic models evolved from the person-centred framework:

Existential Therapy (ET)

Helps clients explore philosophical questions about life, meaning, freedom, and mortality. It is particularly helpful for individuals facing grief, terminal illness, substance use issues, or existential anxiety, guiding them toward purpose and acceptance.

The core theory behind it is learning to live as uncertainty arises, and it poses six important statements that define the framework of ET: 

• All persons have the capacity for self-awareness.
• As free beings, everyone must accept the responsibility that comes with freedom.
• Each person has a unique identity that can only be known through relationships with others.
• Each person must continually recreate himself. The meaning of life and of existence is never fixed; rather, it constantly changes.
• Anxiety is part of the human condition.
• Death is a basic human condition that gives significance to life.

As reported by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (1999)

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)

A goal-oriented approach that focuses on identifying practical, short-term solutions rather than analysing problems. Clients are encouraged to draw from past successes and envision desired outcomes. SFBT is cost-effective, as it is a short-term therapy, but it does not mean that it does not have the therapeutic alliance seen in the person-centered approach. Unlike other approaches, it focuses on guidance towards suitable and appropriate solutions to a present problem. So, it does not focus on processing past events. It also focuses on solution-framed goals, and it’s achieved by asking them the miracle question, which guides clients to verbalize their goals. 

Gestalt Therapy (GT)

Guides clients to focus on the present events and their response to them, rather than relying on the response of their past experience. Developed by Fritz Perls, his premise was to understand the person holistically and integrate the mind, body, and emotions rather than relying on a trait or diagnosis. This ultimately helps the person to regain their autonomy and responsibility for what they can do for themselves and others. GT involves engaging exercises that help to highlight the negative thought patterns or habits the person has, which include role-playing (using an empty chair) or expressing themselves using artistic measures. 

References 

• Bowins, B. (2021). Chapter 21 – Person-centered therapy. In B. Bowins (Ed.), States and Processes for Mental Health (pp. 183–186). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-85049-0.00021-0
• Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. (1999). Brief interventions and brief therapies for substance abuse (TIP Series No. 34), Chapter 6 — Brief humanistic and existential therapies. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US).https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64939/
• Cleveland Clinic. (n.d.). Existential therapy.https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/25089-existential-therapy
• Langmaid, S. (2024, April 19). What is gestalt therapy? WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-gestalt-therapy
• Perls, F., Hefferline, G., & Goodman, P. (1951). Gestalt therapy. New York, 64(7), 19-313.
• Psychology Today. (n.d.). Gestalt therapy. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/gestalt-therapy#:~:text=Gestalt%20therapy%20is%20an%20approach,do%20for%20themselves%20and%20others.
• Routledge. (n.d.). An introduction to solution-focused brief therapy.https://blog.routledge.com/mental-health-and-psychology/an-introduction-to-solution-focused-brief-therapy/#:~:text=What%20is%20Solution%2DFocused%20Brief,the%20past%20or%20the%20problem
• Temiz, R. (2025). Existential social work in coping with death and grief. Clinical Social Work Journal, 53, 129–139. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-024-00922-5
• Yao, L., & Kabir, R. (2025). Person-centered therapy (Rogerian therapy). In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK589708/