Person Centered
A therapy approach that aims to help clients move toward self-actualization.
What is the goal of person-centered therapy?
A therapy focused on awareness, experience, and personal responsibility.
What is the primary emphasis of Gestalt therapy?
A counseling approach that promotes equality and empowerment.
What is the primary goal of feminist therapy?
The belief that reality is created through perceptions and meaning-making.
What is the main idea behind constructivist approaches?
Individual behavior reflects the functioning of the entire family.
What is a core idea of systems theory?
Humans grow through connection, not independence.
What is the core belief of RCT?
A statement separating the client from the issue.
What does “the problem is the problem” mean?
Both feminist and RCT emphasize empowerment, but each uses it differently in relationships.
Which theories emphasize empowerment and how do they differ?
Congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathic understanding.
What are the three core conditions of person-centered therapy?
Clients are encouraged to explore their thoughts, feelings, and actions in the present moment.
What is “here and now” awareness?
It is an egalitarian partnership.
How does feminist therapy view the counseling relationship?
Helping clients build solutions rather than analyze problems.
What is the goal of solution-focused brief therapy?
A family’s tendency to seek stability and resist change.
What is homeostasis?
Mutually supportive and growth-enhancing relationships.
What are growth-fostering relationships?
Talking about the issue as if it exists outside the person.
What is externalization?
Both involve authenticity, but person-centered centers genuineness while Gestalt centers awareness.
How do person-centered congruence and Gestalt authenticity compare?
It is viewed as a sign of incongruence, not defiance.
How does person-centered therapy view resistance?
Unexpressed feelings that interfere with current functioning.
What is unfinished business?
Helping clients reclaim their power and agency.
What is empowerment?
A question that invites clients to imagine life without the problem.
What is the miracle question?
A third person is pulled into a conflict between two others.
What is triangulation?
The ability to understand each other’s feelings within connection.
What is mutual empathy?
The story people believe about themselves based on repeated messages.
What is a dominant narrative?
Both examine power imbalances, though feminist focuses on sociopolitical systems and RCT on relational dynamics.
How do feminist therapy and RCT view power?
The therapist’s ability to be genuine and transparent.
What is congruence?
A technique where clients dialogue with parts of themselves or others.
What is the empty-chair technique?
They influence mental health through oppression and inequity.
Why do feminist counselors analyze sociopolitical systems?
Times when the problem doesn’t occur.
What are exceptions?
Rules that determine levels of closeness or separation.
What are boundaries?
It leads to shame, isolation, and reduced functioning.
How does disconnection affect mental health?
New stories that reflect strengths and preferred identities.
What are alternative stories?
Feminist, narrative, and person-centered approaches challenge diagnosis.
Which theories critique diagnosis and why?
Psychological problems occur when there is a gap between the real self and the ideal self.
According to Rogers, what causes psychological problems?
Changing “you made me” to “I choose to” statements.
How does Gestalt therapy promote personal responsibility?
Messages society teaches about expected behaviors based on gender.
What is gender-role socialization?
A tool to measure progress, motivation, or difficulty on a numerical scale.
What are scaling questions?
The ability to separate one’s thoughts and emotions.
What is differentiation?
Showing up authentically in relationships.
What is relational authenticity?
Clients rewrite meaning from their lived experience.
Why is meaning-making central to narrative therapy?
Both believe language shapes experience and change.
What do narrative and solution-focused therapies share in their use of language?
Responding with non-judgment, warmth, and acceptance.
How does a therapist demonstrate unconditional positive regard?
Used to increase awareness, not attack the client.
What is the purpose of confrontation in Gestalt therapy?
Relationships where power is shared rather than top-down.
What are egalitarian relationships?
A stance of curiosity and not-knowing.
What therapeutic stance is essential in SFBT?
Smaller relational units within the family system.
What are family subsystems?
They are acknowledged and explored rather than ignored.
How do RCT therapists address power dynamics?
Moments that contradict the problem story.
What are unique outcomes?
Narrative, family systems, and RCT often support trauma work due to focus on meaning and relationships.
Which theories work well for trauma and why?
It is considered unnecessary and often limiting.
What is the person-centered stance on diagnosis?
The internal power struggle between the “bossy” and the “rebellious” parts of self.
What are the top-dog and under-dog?
It may reinforce stereotypes or pathologize marginalized groups.
Why does feminist therapy critique diagnosis?
The idea that words shape our reality.
What does “language creates meaning” refer to?
Patterns reveal how the system operates and repeats itself.
Why are patterns more important than isolated behaviors?
Bouncing back through supportive connections.
What is relational resilience?
Shifting from problem-saturated stories to preferred ones.
What is re-authoring?
Systems sees reality as relational; constructivist sees it as individually constructed.
How do systems and constructivist theories differ in defining reality
A discrepancy between who you are and who you feel you should be.
What is the difference between the real self and ideal self?
Modifying speech to reflect ownership and empowerment.
Why is language important in Gestalt therapy?
It recognizes that overlapping identities influence experience.
What is intersectionality?
It is assumed that clients already have motivation and strengths.
How does SFBT view client motivation?
An understanding that problems are created by mutual influence.
What is circular causality?
Relationships occur within cultural, social, and systemic forces.
Why is culture essential in RCT?
It avoids labeling or pathologizing the client.
Why do narrative therapists avoid diagnostic language?
Person-centered uses insight through reflection; Gestalt uses direct experience.
How does insight differ in person-centered versus Gestalt?
Because the client directs the process and selects their focus.
Why is person-centered therapy considered non-directive?
Ways clients numb or avoid discomfort or emotions.
What is avoidance in Gestalt therapy?
Personal experiences often reflect broader societal forces.
What does “the personal is political” mean?
Because discussing problems often strengthens them.
Why does SFBT avoid focusing on problems?
A visual tool to map family relationships across generations.
What is a genogram?
Feeling seen, valued, and significant in relationships.
What is mattering?
Stories are shaped by culture, identity, and power.
How does narrative therapy address culture?
Both use story frameworks to understand people in context.
What do narrative and family systems share?
By creating a safe relationship that allows them to explore and grow.
How does person-centered therapy promote self-actualization?
Gestalt emphasizes experiencing change, not just talking about it.
What is the difference between insight and experience?
It is essential to supporting client change beyond the therapy room.
What role does advocacy play in feminist therapy?
It means looking ahead to the preferred future.
What does it mean that SFBT is “future-oriented”?
They define how members function and interact.
What are family roles?
Healing occurs through connection with others.
How does RCT define healing?
Tools that reinforce progress and identity re-storying.
What is the purpose of therapeutic documentation?
A case can be conceptualized through person-centered warmth, SFBT future focus, and narrative externalization.
How can one case be matched with three different theories?