By Malynn Kuangparichat, Psy.D., J.D.
My dad came from very little and moved to the US to become a physician. As a private practitioner, my dad is well-known for his skills and humor and beloved in the community.
His story continues on by inspiring my own private practice as a psychologist. He truly put people first in his practice, and served his community expertly through person-centered practices. Simply put, he’s a compassionate human caring for other humans.
Our client-centered therapy approach has been and continues to be a cornerstone of our practice at CCWB.
In fact, if you peruse each of our client’s thoughtful bios on our About Us page, you’ll see that we all hold a space for compassion and empathy for our clients and are passionate about helping our clients discover their own resourcefulness and strength through high quality therapy sessions.
So, let’s talk about client-centered therapy, who it is for, and the empowering benefits of the client-centered approach.
What is Client-Centered Therapy
Founded by Carl Rogers, a psychologist and founder of the humanistic approach in psychology, client-centered therapy is an approach to talk therapy.
Instead of the top-down “psychologist treating a patient” approach, client-centered therapy balances the power so the therapist-client relationship is seen as equal partners.
What that looks like in a therapy session is the client leads the conversation while the therapist actively listens with positive unconditional regard (more on this in a bit).
Additionally, clients have autonomy to set their own goals with the support of their therapist. Essentially, they’re active participants in their journey to well-being.
Would Client-Centered Therapy Fit Your Needs?
Client-centered therapy is for anyone struggling with a challenge such as low self-esteem, stress management, trauma, relationship conflicts, phobias, panic attacks, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, or grieving a loss. Really, therapists use this approach for a variety of mental health needs.
From the client perspective, people looking for client-centered therapy most often search for a therapist who prioritizes building trust and an authentic relationship.
For the most part, at CCWB, many of our clients don’t realize how resourceful they are in solving daily challenges, and that’s okay. We’re each starting in the perfect place, right here, right now. An interwoven strand with the client-centered approach is strength-based therapy which you can learn more about strength-based therapy in my blog post here.
If you want to tackle your personal challenges with confidence, whether that’s stress management, perfectionism, or trauma recovery, then the client-centered therapy approach may be a good fit for your needs.
7 Benefits of Client-Centered Therapy
Empowering your well-being is our priority, and that’s why we practice client-centered therapy at CCWB. There is a long list of benefits, including boosting your confidence and trusting yourself more.
But, before we get into the benefits, I want to address the purpose for developing greater trust in yourself. When you trust yourself more, you can feel confident in your decisions and tap into your resourcefulness when you encounter a challenge.
This is what empowered well-being looks like, and the list of client-centered benefits doesn’t stop here.
#1 Promote Personal Growth and Development
A part of the healing journey for your well-being is understanding that it starts with you. This is a life-long quest to better ourselves through understanding our values, and continually growing personally to build a stronger relationship with ourselves and those around us.
#2 Increase Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is about how you appreciate and value yourself, while self-confidence has to do with believing in yourself and your abilities. Having low self-esteem means you have a strong inner critic that causes you to think negatively about yourself, expect the worst, and disregard your strengths and abilities.
When you increase self-esteem through client-centered therapy, you’ll find yourself valuing and appreciating yourself. That means practicing self-compassion that helps you think more positively about yourself, and using positive self-talk that empowers you to increase awareness around your strengths while still taking into account your shortcomings in a healthy manner.
#3 Reduce Distress
Feeling distress may look like low energy, self-isolation, excessive worry, or feeling helpless or hopeless. As humans, our bodies are wired to feel distress as a warning signal for us.
Client-centered therapy can help you learn healthy ways to cope with distress such as identifying triggers, deep breathing, and mindfulness.
#4 Build self-awareness and self-understanding
Within the strand of personal growth, enhancing your understanding of yourself helps you lead a more fulfilling and intentional life. You’ll be able to take on different perspectives, release any biases and assumptions, and communicate with clarity. What’s more, building self-awareness is linked to greater well-being.
#5 Find Better Alignment of Your Ideas and Actual Self
You may have ideal perceptions of yourself that don’t align with your actual self. For example, you want to ideally be a patient mom, but in actuality you find yourself snapping at your kids and feeling guilty about it. Client-centered therapy helps you bridge the gap so you can actualize your ideal self in a realistic and self-compassionate way.
Moreover, when you’re aligned in mind, body, and spirit, you’re living more authentically within yourself and outwardly to others.
#6 Decrease Defensiveness, Guilt, and Insecurity
A part of client-centered therapy includes approaching your shortcomings, mistakes, and failings in a nonjudgmental fashion. I know, easier said than done, but it’s absolutely possible to notice and get curious (versus judging ourselves harshly) when we have a strong negative reaction to a situation.
Instead of your defenses coming up, feeling guilty, or having insecurities about how you reacted to something, you can pause, get curious, plan, and respond accordingly.
#7 Nurture Healthier Relationships
Not surprisingly, when you know yourself better, tap into your resourcefulness, and actively use mindfulness and coping techniques, you’ll find yourself communicating better with yourself and others.
You may be less defensive, and more open to speaking with understanding rather than wanting to be right.
Ultimately, as your well-being improves through client-centered therapy, this creates positive ripple effects with your relationships which may open doors to letting go of relationships, creating new ones, or nurturing relationships you currently have.
If you want to learn more about how to improve communication with your partner, you can read more here about 5 common communication breakdown areas and what to do to repair them.
What to Look For in a Client-Centered Therapist
Now that you have some clarity around what exactly is client-centered therapy and the benefits, let’s dive into what a therapist does to be client-centered.
As I had mentioned earlier, one of the most important qualities for a therapist that uses the client-centered approach is listening non judgmentally with “unconditional positive regard.” This is just a psychological lingo way of respecting, accepting, and caring about their clients.
That means therapists providing quality services know that you’re starting from exactly the right place to dig and grow in your well-being journey. They understand that you’re doing the best with your knowledge and abilities that are available to you in your current situation.
When a therapist is listening non judgmentally, that includes their tone of voice and body language. It may sound simple, but it’s certainly not easy. Listening non judgmentally is an expert skill to help you discover your strengths and resourcefulness.
Remember, your therapist believes in your inner strength, and believes you can tap into your resourcefulness in times of challenges.
How Therapists Help You Grow in the Short-Term and Long-Term
According to the founder of the client-centered approach, Carl Rogers, he states that therapists don’t intervene with strategies or techniques and pull directly from client’s resources.
However, at CCWB we believe it’s helpful to provide strategies and techniques to support clients as part of the personal development journey.
We believe, as the therapist, we can be a helpful resource with a “toolbox” of strategies and techniques customized to your mental health needs in the short-term.
Basically, the strategies or techniques are there to decrease the day-to-day symptoms, such as poor motivation or excessive worry while the client-centered approach addresses the deeper layer to process through or resolve the underlying trigger or core beliefs.
We want to decrease the overall level of symptoms because then it allows the individual to confront that deeper level more effectively.
For instance, imagine a cup of water and the water is your emotions. When you use a strategy, it brings down the water level of your emotions. Then, when you confront the underlying conflict, the water level begins to rise because it can be an emotional journey.
Essentially, we need to initially bring down the “water level” so the individual doesn’t start overflowing with emotions as we are working together
If you’d like to learn more about personal growth and development through therapy, check out my blog post on how to take back control of your life by defining your story.
Contact Us
Here at CCWB, we value our clients and acknowledge the courage it takes to seek professional mental health support.
Chester County Well-Being (CCWB) provides a range of mental health services to ensure we meet our community’s needs. We serve individuals, couples, and families in the Chester County area. Reach out to us here.
Our specializations include:
- Therapy for Depression and Anxiety
- Work and Career issues
- Stress Management
- Conflict Resolution
- Couples Counseling
- Family Counseling
- Parenting Support
- Grief Counseling
- Addiction & Recovery
Teletherapy
All our clinicians provide safe and secure teletherapy sessions to anyone residing in PA. Additionally, we provide telehealth options for residents of other states, depending on the clinician. Simply head to our About Us page, and click each clinician’s “read more” tab for telehealth details.
Telepsychology services are provided by Dr. Kuangparichat and Dr. Stern to clients who reside in a state that participates in PSYPACT. Find out if your state is on the list of participating states HERE.
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About the Author
Malynn Kuangparichat (Psy.D., J.D.) is founder and psychologist at Chester County Well-Being.
She has a collaborative approach that results in highly tailored evaluations intended to meet her clients’ unique needs. She focuses on an individual’s strengths, which are integrated in the practical, personalized recommendations identified by the findings of an evaluation.
In her free time, she enjoys running, spending time with family and friends, and getting ice cream or doughnuts from the local shops.