Foundations Of Person Centred Approach

Philosophical foundations.
In order to gain deeper understanding in to philosophy behind the person centred approach it is important to explore philosophical roots it has stemmed from. Person centred approach has developed from three different philosophical beliefs: humanism, existentialism, phenomenology as well as Eastern religions such as Buddhism (Casemore, 2011). All of these philosophical beliefs are intertwined and all of them contribute to development of person centred approach in psychotherapy.
Humanism firstly and utter mostly is based on a fundamental attitude that emphases the dignity and worth of each individual human being .The essence of humanistic philosophy can be summarised “by the metaphor of how an acorn, if provided with

Existential philosophy is a set of philosophical systems, concerned with person’s free will, choice and personal responsibility. Free will and personal responsibility are seen as inseparable, one comes with the other. It is primarily concerned with understanding of “being in the world” (McLeod, 2009 p.277). Anxiety is viewed as valuable experience and not to be avoided, but looked at and understood in order to live life to its fullest. “For existential philosophers, anxiety is not a symptom or a sign of psychiatric disorder, but instead is regarded as an inevitable consequence of caring about others, and the world in general” (McLeod, p.277, 2009). It is prominent that existential philosophy pursues the task of describing human every day experiences, such as personal responsibility, anxiety, death and etc.
Phenomenology is seen as a philosophical movement and a method of inquiry. Its aim is to understand the way people create and inhabit their worlds. Its philosophy is rooted in premise of persons subjective experience of reality, meaning that there is only one reality that each of us experience. And in order to truly understand other person’s world and experiences in it, it’s crucial to put your own assumptions from our own experiences aside, in order to be truly present for others