Reflection Papers
Person-Centered Therapy Self-Inventory
Directions. The purpose of this self-inventory scale is to identify and clarify your attitudes and beliefs related to the key concepts of and issues raised by Rogers and Person-Centered Therapy. Complete the self-inventory before you read the textbook chapter. Then, after reading the chapter, review over the self-inventory again to determine whether you have modified your position on any of the issues Respond to each statement, giving the initial response that most clearly identifies how you really think or feel. Remember that the idea is for you to express your view, not to decide which is the “correct” answer. Each statement is a true assumption of the particular approach. Thus, you are rating your degree of agreement or disagreement with the assumptions that are a part of the theory.
Using the following code, write the number of the response that most closely reflects your viewpoint on the line at the left of each statement.
5 = I strongly agree with this statement.
4 = I agree, in most respects, with this statement.
3 = I am undecided in my opinion about this statement.
2 = I disagree, in most respects, with this statement.
1 = I strongly disagree with this statement.
____ 1. At a person’s deepest core is a socialized, forward-moving being striving to become a fully functioning self.
____ 2. People have the capacity for understanding their problems and the resources for resolving them.
____ 3. The basic goal of therapy is to create a psychological climate of safety in which clients will not feel threatened or will thus be able to drop their pretenses and defenses.
____ 4. The therapist’s function is rooted not primarily in techniques but in his or her ways of being and attitudes.
____ 5. Effective therapists use themselves as instruments of change.
____ 6. The client uses the therapeutic relationship to build new ways of relating to others in the outside world.
____ 7. The client can make progress in therapy without the therapist’s interpretations, diagnoses, evaluations, and directives.
____ 8. The relationship between the therapist and the client is the crux of progress in therapy.
____ 9. The therapist’s genuineness, accurate empathy, and unconditional positive regard are essential qualities of effective therapy.
____ 10. When people are free, they will be able to find their own way.
____ 11. Forming a diagnosis and developing a case history are not important prerequisites for therapy.
____ 12. It is important that the therapist avoid being judgmental about a client’s feelings.
____ 13. Therapeutic change depends on clients’ perceptions, both of their own experience in therapy and of the counselor’s basic attitudes.
____ 14. It is important that the therapist, while experiencing empathy with clients, retain his or her own separateness and not get lost in the client’s world.
____ 15. Therapist congruence, or genuineness, is one of the most important conditions for establishing a therapeutic relationship.
____ 16. It is best that therapists avoid giving advice.
____ 17. Therapy can proceed without psychological testing or formal diagnosis.
____ 18. Clients are empowered by their participation in the therapeutic relationship.
____ 19. The primary responsibility for the direction of therapy rests not with the therapist but with the client.
____ 20. Exploring transference is neither essential nor significant in the therapeutic process.
***Once you have completed the self-inventory, write a one-page reflection and discuss your thoughts regarding your responses and/or what you learned about yourself through this activity.***
