Steps from the Green Line
Massachusetts Person-Centered Therapy
One of the main goals of therapy is to work towards your true potential. That potential could be mental health-specific. For example, the goal could be to minimize your anxiety symptoms and reach your least anxious self. In other cases, the goal will be to increase your self-confidence to embody your ideal self as much as possible.
One of the best ways we can help you reach your treatment goals is through person-centered therapy. This humanistic therapy option prioritizes the client’s experience and feelings. We work with you to understand how you see yourself and help you reach your potential or “true self.”
This process is known as “self-actualization.”
It can be a powerful tool for you, so we offer many of our clients person-centered therapy.
What is Person-Centered Therapy?
Carl Rogers developed person-centered therapy in the 1940s. Rogers believed that putting the client’s feelings and experiences at the forefront of the session, instead of the counselor’s, would help people naturally come into their true selves. This therapy was the self-actualization process.
Rogerian therapy continues to this day. Today, it’s the basis of most therapeutic relationships.
Client-Centered Therapy vs Person-Centered Therapy
Client-centered therapy is just another word for person-centered therapy, so if you’re after one or the other to help you improve your self-esteem and confidence, we can help. We offer this person-focused therapeutic process to our clients struggling with self-worth issues.
What does Person-Centered Therapy Include?
Rogerian therapy, known as person-centered therapy or client-centered therapy, puts you at the forefront of your treatment. Carl Rogers also believed that this person-centered approach towards therapy could only be achieved if the client was comfortable, felt safe, and was willing to be open with their person-centered therapist.
Thanks to our luxury facilities, You’ll have a safe, comfortable experience during each session. We combine comfort, safety, and trust to guide you through your person-centered therapy session every time.
Our client-centered approach involves three main concepts. Each of our person-centered therapists will use:
Unconditional Positive Regard
Your client-centered therapist will be non-judgemental and completely open. Your therapist’s unconditional positive regard allows them to create a client-centered space where you feel safe to open up about your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
You can tell your therapist anything, they are bound by law to keep your thoughts, feelings, and, yes, even what you’ve done privately. The only exception is if they believe you are at risk of harming yourself or at risk of harming others.
Congruence
Congruence means that your trained counselor is genuine and feels authentic. This requires training and experience. Without this congruence, you may not feel willing to open up honestly and share your experiences during your client-centered therapy session.
Empathic Understanding
Another key component of person-centered therapy is empathetic understanding. Your person-centered therapist will try to understand your point of view and approach. Understanding your thought process is essential. The therapist takes what you say, works to understand it, and then uses that understanding to help guide you through the self-discovery process.
Benefits of Person-Centered Therapy
There are many benefits of person-centered therapy. It’s ideal, for example, for those who want a safe space to feel heard. Your therapist will employ active listening techniques throughout your session and use nondirective therapy so that you may come up with your own solutions and come into your true self.
You'll benefit in several key ways with this approach, including:
Gain a Better Sense of Your Actual and Idealized Self
One of the goals of this type of therapy is to help you understand your actual self, to solidify your idealized self, and to help you narrow the gap between the two. This can help you reach your mental health and personal goals.
Improve Self-Awareness
Self-awareness goes beyond understanding your actual self. We can also help you understand your actions and how those actions impact those around you. Being fully self-aware can help you improve your relationships with yourself and others. It can also help you make positive changes in your life.
Overcome Insecurities
We help you understand your negative thoughts and work on building a positive view of yourself. Overcoming insecurities and learning how to be kind to yourself are two key elements needed for therapeutic change. It is your therapist’s role to help you build up that confidence, often through tools like cognitive behavioral therapy. The goal here is to recognize negative thought patterns, stop them, and change them into something more positive.
Learn to Trust Yourself
Your therapist can also help you learn how to trust yourself. This is done through validation and active listening. Each of our therapists listens to their client’s thoughts and then works with them to confront negative ones and approach their beliefs in a new way. We can particularly help if you are dealing with doubt due to gaslighting and have started to not trust your gut due to those false self-beliefs.
Improve your Relationships
Understanding more of yourself and learning how to trust yourself can also help you naturally improve your relationships. If you have specific relationships you want advice and guidance on, then your therapist can help you with those goals as well.
Learn to Focus on the Present
If you find yourself either stuck in the past (past mistakes, going over conversations, etc) or if you are consistently worried about the future, then we can help you stay grounded in the present. One of the goals of person-centered therapy here is to help you learn how to forgive yourself for perceived faults of the past and to help stop the what-ifs that cause you to struggle in the present.
Improve Your Self-Expression and Self-Esteem
Being immersed in a nonjudgmental environment and using talk therapy and clinical psychology can be used to help you improve your self-esteem and your ability to express yourself in healthy ways. This can help you if you suffer from mental illness like anxiety or mood disorders, and can also help if you struggle socially or with your confidence.
Who is Person-Centered Therapy For?
Person-centered therapy is for anyone who would prefer a personal approach to their therapy rather than a structured approach. Structured approaches can help you when you need to build specific skill sets. For example, those with ADHD who want to improve their ability to adapt to school or work would usually benefit more from a structured therapy approach.
Those who need help emotionally, however, tend to benefit either from client-centered therapy or a hybrid approach that combines methods. It is often useful for students going through the difficulties of creating new lives and new friends as well as balancing work loads, especially those who might not have had access to such help before.
While not comprehensive, those with these mental health conditions tend to do best with client-centered therapy.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
When a client has PTSD, how they perceive the world changes. Person-centered therapy then works to help you address your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors so that you can work on establishing fear from fact. We may also combine therapies. For example, we may use eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) to help your brain physically reprocess the memory, while we use humanistic psychology to help you mentally confront negative beliefs and thoughts and help you towards a healthier state of mind.
Anxiety and Depression Disorders
The same applies to those with anxiety and depression. By using person-focused therapeutic approaches, we can help those with anxiety or depression air out their emotions. We also work with each client to confront negative or untrue beliefs about themselves so that they can experience therapeutic personality change toward their true self.
Substance Abuse
Poor self-esteem, mood disorders, depression, abuse, and more can lead to substance abuse as a way to self-medicate. With a person-first approach towards your psychotherapy, your therapist can help you address both the core conditions affecting your mental health as well as your addiction itself.
Our goal is to help the client connect to their emotions in a healthy way rather than through substance use. Your therapist will be entirely non-judgemental, allowing you to safely express yourself and your attempts at healing in a safe space.
Grief
Grief can change a person. Person-centered therapy gives you a safe, comfortable place where you can express your grief. Thanks to the non-directive approach towards your session, you can naturally explore your grief with psychotherapy professionals who can help you focus your thoughts so you process your grief in a productive way.
Abuse Recovery
Those who have lived through abuse don’t always walk away with PTSD. You don’t need to have PTSD to qualify for our psychotherapy. Abuse of any level can disrupt how a client perceives themselves. Person-centered theory, especially coupled with other treatments, can help you regain your sense of self and confidence following abuse.
Who Qualifies for this Person-Centered Therapeutic Relationship?
Person-centered therapy is available for any of our clients. It is an approach to therapy rather than specifically a treatment. Therefore, the most important factor is that you, the client, are responding to person-focused therapy.
We start every new client relationship with an evaluation. During this time, we’ll work to understand your mental health concerns, your needs, and also your preferences. We will use that information to then create a personalized treatment plan and schedule designed for you.
If you don’t respond to our initial treatment suggestions, we will change things up. Our goal is to find the right therapeutic relationship approach for you.
What Back Bay Mental Health Intensive Outpatient Program Offers
Our intensive outpatient programs here at Back Bay Mental Health are designed to help those struggling with their mental health. You may struggle with managing depression symptoms by dealing with addiction, mood disorders, personality disorders, or anxiety disorders.
If you would benefit from multiple sessions per week and a rounded approach to your therapy, then we are just what you need.
We address each client’s problems on a personal level. This means that we personalize your treatment plan with psychiatric treatments, therapeutic process treatments, and holistic therapy options. You will have access to one-on-one therapy sessions as well as group therapy.
Our luxury facilities also have extended opening hours. This is how we can help students with busy or shifting schedules get the care that they need between classes and their responsibilities. We can also help working professionals thanks to our evening psychotherapy sessions.
It’s this flexibility that allows us to take on clients from all backgrounds.
Get Started with Your Recovery Journey at Back Bay Mental Health Today
If you are ready to build a lasting relationship with your therapist who could help you meet your personal goals, then get in touch with our team. Our clients are at the forefront of everything that we do. With us, you’ll get access to personalized psychotherapy, psychiatry, and holistic health sessions.
All you need to get started with one of our person-first therapists is to get in touch with our team today. We can help you no matter your mental health condition with our non-directive, person-centered therapy approach.