Person-Centered (Rogerian)

I am deeply passionate about the principles of Person-Centered Therapy and have extensive training and experience in its application. I believe in fostering a genuine and empathetic therapeutic relationship built on trust, respect, and unconditional positive regard. By creating a safe space for you to express yourself authentically, I empower you to tap into your own inner resources and find solutions that resonate with your values and beliefs.

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.

A client-centered approach was integral to my early training as a counselor for women in the battered women's shelter and rape crisis programs I worked in at the beginning of my career. This approach involves unconditional positive regard for the client and active listening. All of this came quite natural to me. This can be a very warm and compassionate approach. It is far from the only tool in my tool box, but it is fundamental.

Person-Centered Therapy focuses on the therapeutic relationship. People are not flawed and are not their mental diagnosis. Everyone has the capacity to change and are on a path to self-actualization. The therapist provides the client with empathy and unconditional positive regard to create change in therapy. The client may have had "conditional" positive regard with many people in their life. This therapy creates a safe environment for the client to explore thoughts and feelings in the moment.

My approach involves allowing clients to lead their sessions as experts of their own lives while assisting them along the journey. My role is to listen non-judgmentally using active listening techniques and unconditional positive regard. I utilize this technique with every client to build rapport and empower them with tools to solve their own problems.

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."

As a social worker, I meet the client where they are, and I follow their lead. I set the frame with clear boundaries leaving a lot of space for the client to feel safe and secure to share knowing that they will be accepted and not judged. My approach is interactive, open, authentic and unconditionally supportive. I see the interaction as a collaborative partnership to help my clients achieve a greater sense of wellbeing in their lives.

Through a Person-Centered approach to therapy, I will create an atmosphere that is inviting and accepting. I will essentially meet you exactly where you are and will empower you through continued increases in self-acceptance and modifications of behavior.

Alyson's approach is grounded in a person-centered therapy approach. Alyson believes it is important to make clients the center of the treatment team and to work with them in a collaborative manner throughout the treatment process. Person-centered therapy believes in holding a nonjudgemental space for clients to process their feelings and to empowers clients to make their own decisions in their life.

Humanistic, or 'person-centered,' therapy focuses on helping you recognize your worth and value as a person. Using this type of therapy, I emphasize that you're the expert on your own experience, and that I'm here as a tool to help you identify what will work best for you. It encourages acceptance of yourself, just as you are, while also bringing about freedom to enact change.

I believe in meeting a client where they are in life. To me, the client knows themselves best and I will never pretend to know them more than they know themselves.

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.

Therapy is a collaborative process and I see my role as a therapist to be a partner in to progress toward self-change. You are the expert in your own life. I am hear to take your lead and offer the tools I have for you to work toward the goals that are important to you. I strive to offer unconditional positive regard and to make sessions a safe place for those I work with. I am open to feedback to make therapy work for you.

I work from a person-centered approach with all of my clients. By utilizing this approach, I strive to listen without judgment to acknowledge your experience without shifting our conversation in another direction. You are the expert on you! With that in mind, I will encourage and support you as we explore the process of self-discovery. In doing so, we will uncover what is hurting you and what is needed to be done in order to repair the hurt.

My primary approach to counseling is person-centered. I believe the relationship is the most important factor in successful counseling. I am genuine and down to earth, providing an unconditionally accepting atmosphere so you may explore your struggles.

Person-centered therapy is centered on the belief that you, as a client, have vast internal resources that can lead you on a path to growth, and my job as a therapist is to create the conditions that allow you to access them. I believe in this approach as a foundation for all that I do, even when I am integrating other modalities (such as solution-focused or art therapy). I taught this approach and communication skills to counselors-in-training at Saint Mary's College of California.