So in my last post I wrote a bit about why I describe my way of working as a ‘values-based’ approach, and I promised to come back to the other element; why I call my practice ‘relational person-centred’.
I’m conscious that it might sound like an add-on; just another prefix in an ever-growing list of therapeutic labels. But for me, describing the way I work as ‘relational person-centred psychotherapy’ is foundational. It describes something vital about how I see people, how I practice therapy, and how I experience the world.Therapy can’t happen with just one person in the room. It takes place in the relationship between us.
My original training was integrative, incorporating person-centred, CBT, REBT, and TA, but my heart always felt person-centred. That’s what drew me on to studying a masters in person-centred psychotherapy.
Rogers’ development of the theory of person-centred counselling placed deep trust in the client’s inherent capacity to grow, given the right conditions (1957). That trust remains at the heart of my practice. I hold a deep belief in the actualising tendency (Rogers, 1959) that within each of us, there exists an immutable drive towards development, growth, and healing.
But as contemporary writers within the person-centred approach have explored, people don’t grow in isolation. We are embedded in relationships and contexts, shaped by them, and shaping them in return. Schmid’s (2006) writings on the ethical imperative of encounter has influenced me deeply. It connects with my relational ethics (Austin, 2008), and my autistic view of the world as a web of relationships.
Relational person-centred therapy is deeply faithful to the therapist attitudinal conditions that Rogers (1957) proposed; empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard. But through a relational lens, I view these not as static attitudes, but as lived, mutual experiences. I have to ‘be’ the conditions, and bring myself fully into the counselling room.
I’m influenced by the work of thinkers like Schmid, Wilkins, and Rennie, who have illuminated the depth and complexity of the person-centred relationship. Schmid (2006) speaks of an “asymmetric” relationship an ethical stance that the client comes first. That resonates with me profoundly.
Of course, my values and beliefs are influenced by my worldview, which has been shaped by my developmental history and my phenomenological experiencing. And all of this is inseparable from my autism, and my history of growing up as an unidentified autistic person in a neurotypical world. Strongly held values are a key feature of my autistic way of being. "One could posit that an inherent property of autism is having an egalitarian, anti-hierarchical stance (Caldwell-Harris & Schwartz, 2023, p. 87). I have a strong sense of justice and therefore a strong ethical and moral code. “Autism justice sensitivity refers to a heightened sense of fairness, equity, and inclusion, coupled with a strong need to address and correct injustices” (Guy-Evans, 2025), and this describes me well.
My presence in the room is shaped by my autism. Whether or not clients know explicitly that I’m autistic, they are experiencing me as an autistic person. My autism means that I can be straightforward and direct, but never cruel or thoughtless; I might vary in the speed at which I can process (sometimes it’s incredibly fast, other times ploddingly slow); my processing style can be less linear or chronological and more zigzagging; and I might facilitate my empathy using clarifying questions, existential touchstones or metaphor in order to make sense of what you are communicating.
Relational doesn’t mean passive. I am a very active and engaged therapist. Relational person-centred psychotherapy is “incredibly active and dynamic — the therapist fully present and immediate in the room (Cooper, 2020). I’m present and responsive. This comes from an ongoing, moment-to-moment process of us sensing, responding, and making meaning together. Relational person-centred psychotherapy, for me, isn’t about doing something to you. It’s about being with you and alongside you.
So when I say I practise relationally, I mean that I see therapy as something that happens between us. I see people as fundamentally relational and embedded in relationships and contexts which influence their ways of being. I believe that healing and growth emerges out of a co-created process of dialogue which helps people to symbolise and make sense of their experiences. I aim to offer this type of congruent, dialogical relationship, characterised by an intention to empathise and to experience and communicate UPR to all of my clients.
References
Austin, W. J. (2008). Relational Ethics. In Given, L. M. (Ed.). The Sage Encyclopaedia of Qualitative Research Methods, Volumes 1 & 2. (pp. 748-749). Sage.
Caldwell-Harris, C. L., & Schwartz, A. M. (2023). Why Autistic Sociality is Different: Reduced Interest in Competing for Social Status. Ought, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.9707/2833-1508.1145
Cooper, M. (2020, July 1). Non-Directivity: Some Critical Reflections. Mick Cooper Training and Consultancy Blog. https://mick-cooper.squarespace.com/new-blog/2020/7/1/non-directivity-some-critical-reflections#
Guy-Evans, O. (2025, March 25). Justice Sensitivity in Autistic People. SimplyPsychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/autism-justice-sensitivity.html
Rogers, C. (1957). The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Therapeutic Personality Change. Journal of Consulting Psychology. 21(2), 95–103. Reprinted in Kirschenbaum, H., & Henderson, V.L. (Eds.) (1996). The Carl Rogers Reader. (pp. 219-235). Houghton Mifflin.
Rogers, C. (1959). A Theory of Therapy, Personality, and Interpersonal Relationships, as Developed in the Client-Centered Framework. In Koch, S. (Ed.). Psychology: A Study of a Science, 1(3). (pp. 184-256). McGraw Hill.
Schmid, P. F. (2006). The Challenge of the Other: Towards dialogical person-centered psychotherapy and counseling. Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies, 5(4), 240-254. https://doi.org/10.1080/14779757.2006.9688416