Person Centred Counselling Quotes

Behavior is basically the goal-directed attempt of the organism to satisfy its needs as experienced, in the field as perceived.

Development is not about learning how to counsel but about becoming the kind of person who can counsel.

Part of the discipline of the person-centred approach is not to make assumptions about the client's appropriate process, but to follow the process laid out by the client.

An openness to being changed by the client is required of the person-centred therapist. A person-centred therapist who is closed off from being changed implicitly denies the full humanity of the client.

Person-centred counselling may be thought of as 'not enough'. In my experience it is. It allows for self-determination through an acknowledgement of a person's human rights.

Psychotherapy is an art enlightened by wisdom, theory and research.

The counsellor who never reads a novel or never opens a book of poetry is neglecting an important resource for empathic development.

In a world where we seem to be beset by a trend towards 'manualising treatment modalities' the person-centred approach stands and says NO, that is not the way forward.

Being an effective person-centred counsellor is not so much a matter of possessing skills and knowledge, but of having a particular set of deeply-held values and beliefs and then being able to express these qualities in interactions with other people.

unless you take the view that footballers should be picked on their form as players, and not for personal considerations.’ ‘Ah!’ said Mr Bowles, ‘but that’s what Vicar would call a counsel of perfection. People talk a lot about the team spirit and let the best side win, but if you was to sit in this bar and listen to what goes on, it’s all spite and jealousy, or else it’s how to scrape up enough money to entice away some other team’s centre-forward, or it’s complaints about favouritism or wrong decisions, or something that leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. The game’s not what it was when I was a lad. Too much commercialism, and enough back-biting to stock an old maids’ tea-party.

The therapist seeking to offer a relationship at depth does not use the relationship as a means to treat, cure or change the client's problem. The clients problem is accepted and respected as a expression of their self-experience, but it does not define the person: the therapist remains oriented towards the whole person - not towards the client's specific symptoms or difficulties.

In a counselling context, theory should be held lightly. It is always inadequate in that it reduces complexity to a series of simple statements.

We need to enter into the counselling relationship not as curious and objective observers, but as involved and active participants.

I would much rather be rejected for who I am than accepted for who I am not.

When Margaret Thatcher transitioned her speaking voice to a more male register to be listened to by men of the House of Commons, she was not scrutinised in the same way a trans man would be - her voice was mainly praised ... becoming more masculine is always [socially] favoured over perceived femininity.

People in a majority or socially supported position, no matter how well-meaning, are often so protected in their assumptions about the world that they do not even know they are making assumptions.

Our ideas of gender and sex being opposites does not fit the overlapping complexity of gender or sex. Is a beach part of the land or the sea? It has aspects of both, and tides that flow between two states. Some genderfluid people experience something very similar and can only say with certainty where they are right now, knowing that tomorrow they may feel very differently.

If saying a different pronoun is that difficult for us due to the cultural programming we've had around gender, we can start to get a picture of the power of the structures trapping our [trans] clients.

When somebody types on their smartphone and sends a message over the internet that someone is 'unnatural', it is worth remembering that the internet and smartphones are also 'unnatural'.

The commitment within the person-centred approach [is] to dismantling the structural distribution of power within society.

Psychotherapy is not a method of repairing problems or fostering personal happiness. That is psychotechnique. On the contrary ... it is fundamentally an ethical and a political task.

a new person in an old life’. This experience is common for clients who have achieved a turnaround in their attitude to their self. Previously they will have built a life around them that reflected their lack of self-acceptance. They may have been self-defeating, over-submissive and under-valuing of their own abilities. When self-acceptance is achieved all these things can now change, but sometimes at the cost of considerable turmoil. Perhaps the client’s relationships at home and at work can be nourished and strengthened by his development but it is possible that these relationships have been founded upon the client being weak.

For me the very essence of the Person-Centred Approach is about individuality, which leads to a community of acceptance characterised by difference.