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My definition of person centered counseling is the way to approach your client without coming across as over powering. The philosophy helps you connect with your client at the right level, so you can understand there needs to the fullest. While understanding the clients needs, you need to be open minded and not judge on anything that has been said. In the philosophy, you can use the elements of active listening, genuineness and paraphrasing. When actively listening to the client and then paraphrasing what they have to say, you can than question the client in a way that brings out there under lying issues. These will than give you a greater understanding about certain aspects of the clients life and how they have dealt with issues before.
For example, when working with a young who is being disruptive at school and refuses to do school work. You would than sit down with the young person in an environment they are comfortable in and let them talk to you. Using this Philosophy you would than approach the young person at the correct level. And then question situations in the young persons life. How is everything at home? Or how is life at school with you friends? You will then be able to discover the base of the issue with the young person, it may be because home life isnt so good or they are being picked on by their friends. You can than analyze the information given, and see what strengths the young person has to better the situation. You could than give advice on how to approach certain issues and bring out the strengths in the young person. If a main issue is they are seeking attention, because things are bad at home. You could than address the issue with the school and have a supported front on the matter. If it is because they young person has issues with friends you can find their strengths in dealing with the friends and see what the outcome is.
To summarize this all up, this philosophy is very useful when working