Person-Centered (Rogerian)

Therapy would not exist without the relationship between therapist and client. Carl Rogers believed in exhibiting positive regard to all those who sat in front of him. The client is the expert on their own story.

Person-centered, client-centered, or humanistic therapy was strongly emphasized in my graduate program at Lamar University and my clinical internship at Nystrom & Associates. The person-centered perspective says that the client is an equal partner in the therapeutic relationship; the therapist models empathy that the client learns to practice toward themselves and others; and the therapist doesn't change the client but facilitates the emergence of the client's own potential for growth.

I believe that you are the expert on yourself, and that the things you feel are most important to discuss are what will guide our therapeutic work together.

Person-centered therapy is a collaborative approach between therapist and client. As the name sounds, it is very much focused on the individual and their goals. The belief of person-centered therapy is that everyone has the capacity to fulfill their own potential through personal growth and change. Essentially, you are the one that holds the power to make positive changes in your life and my role is to help you learn new skills and strengthen current ones to support that.

My doctoral studies and training focused extensively on classical, Client-Centered theory and therapies in the tradition founded by Carl Rogers. I teach Person-Centered therapy at the graduate level, contributing to clinical research and international conferences.

See my qualifications as the Executive Director of the Center for Studies of the Person, La Jolla, California

I am an empathic and authentic therapist. My style is gentle, but direct, and I believe in providing unconditional positive regard to all of my clients. That is, you are worthy of respect and care as a human being, without judgment. My job is to support your process of self-exploration and helping you to challenge the different ways that your worthiness as a human as been constructed according to certain "conditions" -- like, feeling a need to be perfect or successful in order to feel worthy.

I strive to show up for my clients with warmth, empathy, genuineness, and authenticity and to help create a space safe enough for clients to share their story. Fear, shame, blame, and judgement are not emotions that lead to true change. Instead, I want to help clients approach themselves with compassion, curiosity, and understanding for the parts of themselves they want to change.

I was trained in Person-Centered Therapy in my master's program, and have practiced it for the last 15 years. I am now a professor in a graduate program and have the honor of teaching this type of therapy to therapists in training!

I work from a Person-Centered perspective, I believe that you are the expert on yourself and my job is to provide a safe space for you to explore the idea of change. Sessions typically look like a conversation where I provide feedback and sometimes challenge you to explore ideas that maybe you haven't thought of previously. I treat all of my clients with unconditional positive regard, meaning that I will never judge your decisions or actions, rather we may examine what led to these decisions.

I strongly resonate with Carl Rogers' belief that therapy is an equal partnership between therapist and client and that each individual has the desire and capacity for personal growth. Rogers believes that for therapy to be effective it requires three core conditions from the therapist: genuineness, unconditional positive regard, and empathy.

Like many therapists, I believe in holding a space for my clients that is unconditionally accepting as well as showing up in sessions with my authentic personality, beliefs, and reactions. It is this kind of authentic space that allows for genuine encounters that lead to positive change and growth.

This form of psychotherapy is grounded in the idea that people are inherently motivated toward achieving positive psychological functioning.

Person-centered therapy, also referred to as Rogerian therapy, was developed and cultivated by psychologist Carl Rogers from the 1940s through the 1980s. The aim of person-centered therapy is to facilitate a client's innate drive toward personal growth and "self-actualization." This is done by providing the conditions now generally recognized by other therapeutic methods as necessary for change, including unconditional positive regard, therapist congruence (genuineness), and empathic understanding. Rogers is quoted as having said "I can't make corn grow, but I can provide the right soil and plant it in the right area and see that it gets enough water; I can nurture it so that exciting things happen. I think that's the nature of therapy."

My expertise lies in person-centered therapy, where I create a non-judgmental, empathetic space for clients to uncover their expertise in their lives. Together, we explore your unique journey, fostering self-discovery, growth, and healing.