ABSTRACT
In many ways, that the therapist has a non-directive attitude is the fundamental and original precept of person-centred therapy; however, it is and has been controversial more or less from Rogers’ early statements of the principle in, for example, the classic Counseling and Psychotherapy (1942). Most of this controversy centres on just what is meant by ‘non-directivity’. That the non-directive therapist is a ‘non-expert’ (clients are the experts on themselves) has been confused with a lack of expertise. Clearly, person-centred therapists are required to have expertise in practices rooted in a particular theory and specifically to those derived from the statement of the necessary and sufficient conditions (Rogers 1957: 96, 1959: 213) and a way of being in relationship. Also, being non-directive has sometimes been operationalised as a set of passive behaviours where the therapist does little but mechanistically ‘reflect’ what has been heard. Empathic responding, which is at the heart of classical client-centred therapy and therefore of a non-directive approach, requires much more of the therapist than these simple behaviours (Point 20).
