Early Childhood Educ J (2016) 44:343–348
DOI 10.1007/s10643-015-0720-7
Person-Centered Therapy: A Philosophy to Support Early
Childhood Education
Wanda Boyer1
Published online: 21 June 2015
Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015
Abstract Person-centered therapy (PCT) comes from the
experiential and relationship-oriented therapy tradition. It
is considered to be a third force in therapeutic engagement,
along with the psychoanalytic and behavioral approaches.
PCT is based on faith in and empowerment of human
beings to be joyful, creative, self-fulfilled and willing and
able to connect with others, both socially and emotionally.
The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to explore the
potential union of PCT with early childhood education. The
author will first describe the PCT model along with how its
aspects can be used to help early childhood educators
mentor young children. The author will conclude the paper
with a summary of the implications for therapeutic practice
in the classroom.
Keywords Person-centered therapy
Early childhood
education
Working alliance
Self-regulation
Emotion-
regulation
Global economists, business managers, and technology
sector leaders are exploring factors that contribute to
motivation, job satisfaction, collaboration, respectful
interpersonal interactions, and generativity (Badiola-Sán-
chez et al. 2014; Mandricel and Ionas 2014). To enable and
support these health and well-being goals, contemporary
early childhood education researchers have identified early
childhood as an important time to begin nurturing
& Wanda Boyer
wboyer@uvic.ca
1 As Mearns et al. (2000) indicate, ‘‘it pays to be human in
Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership
Studies, University of Victoria, P.O. Box 1700 STN
CSC, Victoria, BC V8W-2Y2, Canada
behavioural and emotional regulation (Boyer 2009; Blair
and Diamond 2008).
The need to support emotional and social competence,
defined as ‘‘independence, responsibility, self-regulation,
and co-operation’’ (National Association for the Education
of Young Children 2009, p. 7), is not only the realm of
early childhood educators but also counsellors. One theory
of counselling, person-centered therapy (PCT), comes from
the experiential and relationship-oriented therapy tradition.
It is considered to be a third force in therapeutic engage-
ment, along with the psychoanalytic and behavioral
approaches (Corey 2013a). Person-centered therapy is
based on faith in and empowerment of human beings to be
joyful, creative, self-fulfilled and willing and able to con-
nect with others, both socially and emotionally (Corey
2013b).
Yet, when we connect this person-centered approach
back to early childhood education, we must ask ourselves
what developmentally appropriate practices and philo-
sophical guidance will nurture emotional and social com-
petence in young children. The purpose of this paper,
therefore, is to explore the potential union of PCT with
early childhood education. The author will first describe the
PCT model along with how its aspects can be used to help
early childhood educators mentor young children. The
author will conclude the paper with a summary of the
implications for therapeutic practice in the classroom.
Person-Centered Therapy Model (PCT): The
Human Touch
the therapy room’’ (p. xi). It also pays to be human in the
classroom because it is the crux of contemporary challenge
123
344
for interpersonal interactions between teachers and stu-
dents. To be fully human involves investment, risk toler-
ance, and humility. Ideally, one can transcend gracious
acceptance of personal fallibility and come to recognize the
possibilities and opportunities afforded by making
mistakes.
Rogers (1942, 1992) maintained that normally people
can become who they are capable of becoming with the
support of other people who genuinely care about them, try
to understand them, and unconditionally accept them. This
provides a supportive environment where people are able
to be ‘‘trustworthy, resourceful, capable of self-under-
standing and self-direction, able to make constructive
changes, and able to live effective and productive lives’’
(Corey 2013b, p. 178). When care, acceptance, and
understanding are not available, people may lose contact
with themselves and resort to facades and pretenses. These
facades and pretenses, created by a client, demonstrate an
incongruity between client self-perceptions and their
experience in reality, which might lead to anxiety and
personal vulnerability.
Supportive relationships have the potential to promote
positive personality change if six core conditions are met:
(a) two people must be in interpersonal contact; (b) the first
person, a client, must be experiencing a difference between
what they want to be and what they are, and this must
create anxiety, frustration, and vulnerability for the client;
(c) the second person, a counsellor, is genuine and models
the human struggle to be real through the expression of a
range of emotion behaviors that match inner feelings;
(d) the counsellor expresses and experiences unconditional
positive regard for the client; (e) the counsellor empathi-
cally understands the client’s experience and feelings and
communicates this empathic understanding to the client in
the here and now; and (f) the client accepts the counsellor’s
communication of empathic understanding and unqualified
positive regard (Rogers 1992). In particular, the client
needs to experience the counsellor’s natural expression of
warmth, loyalty, and trustworthiness (Bozarth 2012). As
the counsellor listens in an accepting way to a client, the
client learns how to listen to their own narrative. As the
counsellor cares for and values a client, no matter what, the
client begins to see their own worth and value. As clients
experience a counsellor who really likes them, they begin
to drop many of the pretenses or lies and know they can be
real, warts and all, with themselves and with the counsellor
(Rogers 1992; Bazzano 2011).
These core conditions can also been fostered in early
childhood classrooms to promote positive change for
children. Individuals who are in an environment where the
core conditions prevail may begin to feel nurtured. Using
these core conditions as guiding principles, early childhood
educators have the potential to be attuned to the emotional
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Early Childhood Educ J (2016) 44:343–348
and social needs of young children. In turn, when early
childhood educators are attuned to young children, there is
a possibility for children to increase their self-understand-
ing, self-appreciation, and self-confidence. They begin to
understand, appreciate, and trust other people due to being
in a confirming psychological environment where they are
permitted to be themselves (Rogers 1979).
In PCT, the counsellor’s role is an extension of these six
therapeutic core conditions. The counsellor must be gen-
uinely present, accessible, engaged, interested, and focused
on the immediate experience that the client is sharing. In
this relationship, the counsellor’s role is to ensure and
maintain congruency not only between their own internal
emotional states and their attitudinal, behavioural, and
physiological responses to the client but also between their
states and their client’s internal and external states. The
counsellor’s regard for the client is not ‘‘contaminated by
evaluation or judgement of the client’s feelings, thoughts,
and behaviour as good or bad’’ (Corey 2013b, p. 183). The
counsellor must be willing to be real and, when appropriate
to the context, judiciously and reflectively express a ‘‘range
of feelings including anger, frustration, liking, concern, and
annoyance’’ (Corey 2013b, p. 183) on behalf of the client
and in relationship with the client.
Axline (1974), the originator of child-centered play
therapy (CCPT), identified the importance of promoting
mental health of children and teachers as a way to support
safe, sound and successful educational practices in the
classroom. She indicated that the most important factor in
supporting sound mental health of children in schools is
relationship building. Therefore, in the classroom, Rogers’
core conditions of caring are intrinsically linked with safe,
sound and successful educational practices. For example,
certain behaviours are not appropriate in the classroom. We
accept all students unconditionally, but not all behaviour is
safe, kind, forgiving, or loving. The early childhood edu-
cator must consider the mental health and physical safety
of all students and set appropriate limits.
Limit setting is an important part of the relationship
established in counselling and is also important at school
and home for ensuring the safety and well-being of the
child, other children, and adults. Limit setting can be
implemented using simple language to clarify interactional
boundaries, such as ‘I am not for hurting, you are not for
hurting, and the things around us are not for breaking’
(Giordano et al. 2005). Landreth and Bratton (2006)
developed an acronym, A.C.T., that is used in play therapy:
Acknowledge the feelings, Communicate the limit, and
Target alternatives. However, A.C.T. can be used by edu-
cators to set realistic limits in the classroom and on the
playground so that all children and adults feel safe. For
example, in the classroom there is a need to ensure that
children are using arts and crafts materials in the
Early Childhood Educ J (2016) 44:343–348
appropriate center, using and applying the appropriate
amount of materials such as glue and glitter for each pro-
ject, cleaning up messes, and practicing ways to share
materials. If a student named Heather decides to misuse the
arts and crafts materials by spreading them on other chil-
dren instead of using them on her craft project, all educa-
tors would recognize a time for setting limits. An educator
could use the A.C.T. limit setting model as follows:
‘Heather, I know that you would like to spread white glue
and glitter all over the other children at the center’ (ac-
knowledge), ‘But the white glue and glitter are not for
putting on people’ (communicate), and ‘Heather, the glue
is for putting on our paper first so the glitter can be attached
to the paper in a design that you like and choose, and then
you can show people what you created with the glue and
glitter (target alternatives). In this scenario, Heather feels
understood because she was not simply provided with a
limit, but also an acknowledgement of her desire and an
alternative that could still meet her need for interaction
with other people. As early childhood educators, we can
feel empowered that we have a solution to help Heather
and that our approach is more likely to result in a positive
change in Heather’s behavior. By using A.C.T. as a limit
setting tool, early childhood educators actively change how
they attitudinally and empathically interact with young
children as well as how the children perceive their
interactions.
PCT counsellors using a multiple-perspective model of
empathy include three ways of experiencing a client:
(a) subjective empathy, which enables counsellors to
experience what it is generally like to be the client;
(b) interpersonal empathy, which involves understanding
the client’s internal frame of reference, or private mean-
ings, for their experiences; and (c) objective empathy,
which involves having knowledge that is outside client’s
frame of reference (Clark 2010; Kirschenbaum 2012). This
multiple perspective model creates a foundation for accu-
rate empathic understanding in which the ‘‘therapist will
sense clients’ feelings as if they were his or her own
without becoming lost in those feelings’’ (Corey 2013b,
p. 184).
When early childhood educators consider what it would
be like to be the child, what the child might be feeling, and
what are the perspectives of the child’s caregivers, early
childhood educators acquire a more robust understanding
and appreciation for the child’s emotional and social sup-
port needs. The deeper understanding resulting from this
multiple perspective model can, in turn, be helpful in
planning opportunities where children can practice solving
their difficulties with varied self-regulation and emotion
regulation strategies (Allan et al. 2014; Boyer 2009, 2014;
Braet et al. 2014).
345
Because the actions of a counsellor using PCT create a
context for change, counsellors need to maintain congru-
ency between their own internal and external states so that
they can be more accurately attuned to the surfacing needs
of the client throughout the change process. Uncondition-
ally accepting a client supports the client in recognizing
that they have a right to their own beliefs, feelings, and
cultural values (Cooper 2004; Cooper and McLeod 2011).
When clients feel free to express themselves, and when a
counsellor strives to sense their subjective experience in
the here and now, the client is encouraged ‘‘to get closer to
themselves, to feel more deeply and intensely, and to rec-
ognize and resolve the incongruity that exists within them’’
(Corey 2013b, p. 183).
Children in early childhood classrooms may experience
this same need to represent their emotions in personally
expressive ways such as through art, journaling, or free
play using symbolic tools like crayons or clay, paper and
pencil, or blocks and miniature figurines (Boyer and
Crippen 2014). In the classroom, early childhood educators
can provide opportunities for these experiences and
receptively respond to the symbolic representations of
children’s concerns regarding altercations, violence, and
interpersonal disagreements they may have seen or expe-
rienced in their home or community. Reappraisal and
reframing through discussion of the art, journaling, and
free play time can also help a child emotionally and
behaviourally respond to contextualized challenges (Allan
et al. 2014; Braet et al. 2014). If, however, the child is
experiencing emotional discomfort or stress, the early
childhood educator could recommend to parents and
caregivers therapeutic support in the form of play therapy
or counselling.
The therapeutic relationship in counselling contributes
to the change process (Castonguay et al. 2006). If the
therapeutic core conditions are in place, they provide a type
of relationship where the individual client feels safe to
discover how to use the relationship for growth, change,
and personal development. When the counsellor creates a
climate where the client feels safe to explore a range of
their experiences, feelings, beliefs, cultural values, and
behaviours, the client may also be more willing to try out
new behaviours (Cooper 2004). Clients create their own
self-growth and are active self-healers (Bohart and Tallman
2010; Tallman and Bohart 1999). The emphasis, therefore,
is on how clients respond to their world and interact with
others, how they move forward in constructive directions,
and how they successfully deal with internal and external
obstacles that impede their growth. Through increasing
opportunities for self-awareness and self-reflection, clients
exercise choice and make changes to their lives that allow
them to live authentically (Rogers 1979).
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Opportunities for personal growth are also a natural part of
the early childhood classroom (Jalongo 2014b). Philosophi-
cally, early childhood educators provide children with
opportunities to be aware of themselves and aware of others.
For example, they sit in circle time respecting others’ space
or sharing crayons at a center for arts and crafts, and they
promote self-awareness when they have to think about the
feelings of others after trying to push their way to the front of
a line. These opportunities to learn respect for self and others
are a part of being a member of the early childhood class-
room learning community. Early childhood educators are
detectives enabling children with varying personalities and
social, emotional, and cognitive needs to feel welcome and to
be able to lay their troubles down at the door. In other words,
they can feel comforted and comfortable in the learning
environment ‘just the way they like’ (Landreth 2012).
Progressively, the counsellor observes a client’s behaviors
for signs of growing self-actualization (Rogers 1951, 1953).
The client may be open to new experiences, such as trying
new hobbies, learning something new, and finding new ways
to invest themselves in life. The client may also demonstrate
trust in themselves by believing that they can and do
orchestrate their ‘‘own direction and process’’ (Bozarth et al.
2002, p. 175). For example, a client may begin to believe in
her ability to gain independence enough to seek certification
for a type of employment. The counsellor will give signifi-
cance to the client’s identification of their self-actualizing
behaviors. The counsellor will not the clients’ demonstrations
of their ability to evaluate themselves and their world, for
example, to determine what is right, what is detrimental, what
is self-supporting, and what is supportive of others. The
counsellor will also accentuate clients’ willingness to con-
tinue growing and learning about themselves, others, their
world, and the big wide world beyond. ‘‘Encouraging these
characteristics is the basic goal of person-centered therapy’’
(Corey 2013b, p. 179).
These self-actualizing goals are congruent with the
developmental goals for children. Early childhood educators
advocate for the learning of social skills, the promotion of
early intervention, and the acquisition of self-regulation and
emotion regulation (Jalongo 2014a, b). Early childhood
education experiences are the places where self-actualization
has a chance to begin. In early childhood classrooms, chil-
dren are introduced to new experiences such as group snack
time, hobbies like arts and crafts, working with a partner or
buddy, and relay races and other team activities. At centres
and with longer term projects, children learn to make
choices, prioritize, and pace themselves. In the early child-
hood environment, children are provided with opportunities
to view their world from different perspectives to learn what
is self-supporting, safe, and supportive of others. To foster
continued growth and learning, early childhood educators
also provide children with interactive experiences that
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demand more action orientation, such as blowing bubbles,
colouring, taking a walk, and sharing thoughts and feelings
about their life events. These experiences are a necessary
part of early childhood learning because they provide
opportunities for children to sensorially experience their
world with joy and a sense of expectation for good (Boyer
1997a, b). Over time, the child can discern what is enjoyable
and comforting for them as well as safe and socially
appropriate, and they can learn to actualize these positive
experiences for themselves.
Rogers (1979) believed that when a client’s basic needs for
love, security and belonging are met, anti-social emotions of
hostility and jealousy are more likely to dissipate, and the
client can be more self-confident and able to select positive
ways of being. The client realizes that the core of their per-
sonality is positive, social, and worth preserving. The deeper
they dig, the less they have to fear and the more they can like
themselves and the world. This leads to acceptance of being
one’s own person, able to embrace all aspects of one’s life and
state of being and willing to do what is required to ethically
and morally meet one’s personal needs.
The early childhood classroom environment is one place
where children can have their basic needs for love, secu-
rity, and belonging met. When children feel they have a
place in the classroom, they are less likely to feel threat-
ened and vulnerable. This enables them to focus on
learning about and learning to take responsibility for their
attitudes, behaviours, and emotions.
Rogers (1992) believed that creating a rapport with his
clients and creating a safe and welcoming environment
would facilitate the individual’s courageous acceptance of
self and their respectful acceptance of others. In PCT, this
requires that the counsellor obey and model the golden
rule: treat others as you would have them treat you. Hence,
the counsellor is genuinely interested, caring, concerned,
responsive and empathic to the client.
The early childhood educator is called to encourage the
manifestation of the golden rule so that all children feel
welcome and a part of a learning environment that is
consistent and framed so that each child can do their per-
sonal best (Charney 2002). Taking time at the beginning
and middle of the year to create a class mission statement
based on a mutual understanding of the classroom com-
munity can help promote a shared vision of what the
classroom community should be like and how its members
should interact with one another (Charney 2002).
Conclusion
Carl Rogers understood human nature and the possibilities
for hope and change. He created an individual conflict
resolution model based on a simple but elegant premise.
Early Childhood Educ J (2016) 44:343–348
Help and healing comes from the support of a non-judg-
mental advocate. The therapeutic alliance and bond is
important and in that relationship with a client, the coun-
sellor must be willing and able to embody trustworthiness,
resourcefulness, self-understanding, reflectivity, active
empathy, motivation and initiative to make constructive
changes to their life in order to model these qualities in
relationship with the client. When the client judges the
therapeutic alliance and the therapeutic environment to be
favorable, treatment outcomes are positive (Leibert 2011;
Sprenkle and Blow 2004).
Just as is the case for the PCT counsellor, the early
childhood educator does not have to be perfect but humble
and willing to be imperfect and still worthy of respect and
dignity, just as the child is human and still worthy of
respect and dignity. This relationship creates a safe envi-
ronment for the child. Likewise, when children see the
student–teacher relationship as warm and low conflict,
there is more likely to be a trajectory leading to academic
success (Graziano et al. 2007). Creating an alliance with
our students, based on PCT principles, can allow us to be
caring and non-judgmental advocates for the young chil-
dren in our care. This teacher–child alliance frames how
the early childhood educator wants to interact with the
child, how the child wants to interact with the early
childhood educator, how the child wants to interact with
others, and ultimately how the child wants to interact with
the self.
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