What Does It Mean to Be ‘Client Centred’? – Mike Trier

My aim was to enable a discussion on what it might mean to be client centred: this phrase seemed to be used by many counsellors, and indeed by many non-counsellors, for example in health, education, and youth work. Maybe we could find some common agreement about what it meant, that straddled different modalities?

I divided the discussion into separate segments, with each addressing a particular question. I asked the audience for their ideas, rather than waiting for questions and issues to emerge, so I hoped the discussion was engaging and participative. Here are some questions that we addressed:

Q1 What does it mean to be 'client centred'?
Q2 What does it mean not to be 'client centred'?
Q3 What about the grey area between being 'client centred' and not being 'client centred'?
Q4 What about the power relationship between client and counsellor?
Q5 Does the nature of the relationship between client and counsellor impact on the 'client-centredness'?

I've written a document which sets out my ideas in more detail; if you're interested, please follow the link:

Moreover, I wanted to try out an experiment involving participants: I wanted to write an article for say Therapy Today about this subject and include comments from the Online Events chatroom.

If you are interested or concerned about this idea, you might like to contact me in advance – my contact details are given at the bottom of this page. An obvious concern is about permission.

We would probably have to use a contracting out system, so if you don’t want your comments to be used, please contact myself, or Sandra or John Wilson at Online Events.