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Person-Centered and Experiential 

Psychotherapy

What is person-centered psychotherapy?

Person-centered therapy originated in the pioneering work of psychologist Carl Rogers in the mid-20th century and has since developed through both clinical practice and research. It rests on the conviction that people possess an inherent tendency toward growth and psychological development, and that they have substantial resources for finding their own way forward.

At the heart of this approach is the therapeutic relationship, characterized by empathy, unconditional positive regard, and authenticity. As such, the aim of therapy is not simply to solve specific problems, but to create the conditions in which you can become more deeply aware of your own experience, recognize what you genuinely feel and need, and find your own way forward. Rather than directing or prescribing, I engage with you actively and openly in the process of self-exploration. Together, we explore what you are experiencing, and through our dialogue, we can begin to make sense of what is happening within you and discover new ways of understanding yourself and move forward.

Sessions are shaped around your specific needs and preferences — whether you're grappling with anxiety, depression, trauma, navigating relationship complexities, or simply pursuing personal development. Whatever brings you here, our sessions are meant to feel like genuine human conversations rather than formal or impersonal encounters: I seek to meet you as one person meeting another, while taking full responsibility for my role as your therapist. 

You are the person with the most direct access to your own experience, so your concerns and your sense of what matters to you guide the direction of our work. My role is not to interpret you from the outside, but to engage with you in exploring your experience more deeply — in a warm, accepting atmosphere where you can express what feels true to you, connect with difficult emotions, consider new perspectives, and discover new ways of understanding yourself.

When it feels helpful, I may draw on Focusing, an experiential approach that grew out of the person-centered tradition, to help you attend to your embodied experience and allow its meaning to unfold.

More on person-centred couples therapy

What does a person-centered therapy look like?

To get a better understanding of person-centered psychotherapy, you may want to watch the following excerpt from a pedagogical TV program featuring Carl Rogers in a session with Gloria in 1965. It is a beautiful demonstration of the therapeutic method. Subtitles can be activated in different languages in the YouTube settings.


"Look at this hummingbird! Doesn't it symbolize the flexible attitude that characterizes our approach? This hummingbird has the ability not only to move forward like other birds but also to move backward. It manages to approach flowers, just enough to retreat if it's too close, to move forward again if it's too far away. At every moment, it can adjust its proximity and distance, at the very edge of flowers (or things), to avoid damaging them and to benefit from the nectar, to be in a presence that is not pressure, nor in a distance that would also be pressure by default."
- André de Peretti