ABSTRACT
Although it might seem inconsequential and common to many approaches to therapy, the fact that person-centred practitioners refer to the people they work with as clients rather than patients is significant. The term ‘client’ was originally used by Rogers in 1940 and he intended it to indicate a therapeutic relationship of a different kind to that common up to that time. Although it is now often taken for granted, the notion of working with ‘clients’ embodies much of the person-centred attitude and stance towards people. It is about seeing them as autonomous and self-determining. Additionally, whereas ‘patients’ are ‘sick’ and are dependent on medical practitioners for a cure, person-centred theory does not allow that people who seek the help of a therapist are in need of diagnosis and expert guidance. Rather there is the explicit knowledge that each of us contains within us the seeds of our own growth and healing. We may need a companion but never someone to take over and decide what is wrong and how to put it right. It is not the expertise in terms of skills, techniques and interpretations of the therapist which is helpful but the ability to embody the attitudes of congruence, empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard. In its time, this was a subversive, revolutionary move away from the prevailing medical/psychiatric model and, in many ways, it remains such.
