Good morning!

In mental health therapy, we have different treatment frameworks, also known as modalities, which guide us in our work with clients. Today’s question pertains to the Person-Centered Therapy framework. Who created this framework?

Bonus points: The framework requires certain conditions to be present in order for an individual to grow. What are these required conditions?

History

Deinstitutionalization

There are an estimated 553,742 people in the United States experiencing homelessness on any given night. Forty percent of prisoners were diagnosed with a mental health disorder between 2011 and 2014.

Why do we have such high rates of homelessness? And why are our prisons and jails housing so many mentally ill people?

Many factors contribute to these statistics. Yet today, we will briefly touch upon one of the primary drivers behind these trends: deinstitutionalization.

In the 17th century, there was an increase in privately run asylums which housed the mentally ill. Unfortunately, there were a lot of unethical and inhumane practices throughout asylums. As a result, social movements in the late 20th century began to advocate for patient freedom. These movements, along with the invention of psychiatric drugs that could pacify the mentally ill and a government desire to “save money,” led to the deinstitutionalization movement which removed mentally ill people from institutions.

Unfortunately, while this movement brought people out of institutions, it did not provide the necessary supportive services and resources that were needed to help people who were coming out of institutionalization. And here we find ourselves today with a broken system that contributes to homelessness and the incarceration of mental illness.

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Policy

Sunshine Protection Act

“Spring forward, fall back”

That little saying is used to help us remember how to set our watch throughout the year. More specifically, we turn our clocks ahead and lose an hour on the second Sunday in March, which we call Daylight Savings Time. In turn, we set our clocks back and gain an hour on the first Sunday in November, which we call standard time.

[Still confused? Check out this video]

The Sunshine Protection Act, introduced by US Senator Marco Rubio in 2018, aims to establish a permanent daylight savings time in the United States, which means that we would no longer be setting our clocks back and forward during the year. Why?

Research has shown that this transition of time leads to an increase in heart problems, mood disorders, and car accidents. Some people may also experience insomnia and other sleep difficulties.

Research

• How does use of mental health care vary by demographics and health insurance coverage?

• Impact of internet usage time on mental health in adolescents

Answer: Carl Rogers developed Person-Centered Therapy in the 1940s. The conditions for growth that it outlines include:

• Therapist-Client Psychological Contact: A relationship between the therapist and client must exist in order for the client to achieve positive personal change.

• Client Incongruence or Vulnerability: A discrepancy between the client’s self-image and actual experience leaves him or her vulnerable to fears and anxieties. The client is often unaware of the incongruence.

• Therapist Congruence or Genuineness: The therapist should be self-aware, genuine, and congruent. This does not imply that the therapist be a picture of perfection, but that he or she be true to him- or herself within the therapeutic relationship.

• Therapist Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR): The clients’ experiences, positive or negative, should be accepted by the therapist without any conditions or judgment. In this way, the client can share experiences without fear of being judged.

• Therapist Empathy: The therapist demonstrates an empathic understanding of the clients’ experiences and recognizes emotional experiences without getting emotionally involved.

• Client Perception: To some degree, the client perceives the therapist’s unconditional positive regard and empathic understanding. This is communicated through the words and behaviors of the therapist.

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