Reference no: EM133408454

Question: Person-centered therapy, commonly referred to as client-centered therapy, is a humanistic method developed by Carl Rogers. Congruence, empathy, and unwavering positive respect are the three main tenets of person-centered therapy (Raskin, 2019). When these are used in tandem with the client, that person will be more inclined to open up and take steps towards achieving their own potential. Although I think these fundamental requirements are essential and provide a strong foundation for producing a therapeutic personality change, additional elements like cultural awareness, drive, and reassurance play essential roles (Silberschatz, 2007). The respect-focused therapy (RFT) method outlined in Slay-Westbrook (2017) comes to mind when I think about humanistic and person-centered therapy. Slay-Westbrook (2017) notes that "Respect for a client as a full person with strengths and advantages as well as weaknesses might actually help them be more empowered to take responsibility for changing their overall life". Although I think the humanistic approach may impact clients' lives in a good way, I also think there are other requirements that must be met in order to result in a significant therapeutic personality change.

According to (Slay-Westbrook, 2017) the concept of "patient" or "client" or "student" is a person who should be fully regarded as such in treatment and education training but there is a paradigm shift as it relates to the medical model whereby the doctor is the expert and the patient has to follow doctors order's. The shift in power and responsibility from the side of the service provider to be shared in partnership with the client/patient is crucial (Slay-Westbrook, 2017). I was surprised when I read the section on psychotherapy in the multicultural world in (Raskin et al., 2019) whereby it says that client-centered therapists have reacted with skepticism to arguments supporting the necessity of cultural specific approaches and that attempts to sensitize student therapists to cultural differences have often led to simplistic stereotypes about differing groups. They go further to say that a client-centered approach does not assume "difference" except as the client asserts how he or she experiences self as different. Are we to assume that the cultural barriers exist only because of the clients assertions?