Interdisciplinary Handbook of the Person-Centered Approach: Research and Theory

This book examines the scientific contribution and increasing relevance of the Person-Centered Approach (PCA) in psychotherapy. The direction taken in the book is to provide readers with a multidisciplinary and multi-perspective view as well as practical applications. Beyond the more conventional psychotherapy applications (client-centered, experimental, emotion-focused, child-centered, motivational interviewing, existential, filial, etc.) others have evolved including peace and conflict resolution work, encounter and T-groups, nonviolent communication, parent effectiveness training, person-centered planning for people with disabilities, relationship enhancement methods, learner-centered education, technology-enhanced learning environments, human relations leadership training, etc. Simultaneously, scientific disciplines were influenced by this perspective in less obvious ways. Hence, the major contribution of this book is to identify and characterize the key bridges-so far only partly recognized- between the PCA and several other disciplines. Based on the results of the bridge-building endeavor, the editors will propose an initial formulation of the PCA as a meta-theory. It is intended as a generic framework to solve complex, social problems and to stimulate further research and development concerning the human species in relationship to its environment.

Table of Contents:
On the Origins of the Handbook.- The Essence of the Person-Centered Approach.- Introduction to Interdisciplinary Research and Theory.- An Interactive Cognitive-Emotional Model of the Person-Centered Approach.- Carl Rogers Meets The Neurosciences: Insights from Social Neuroscience for Client-Centered Therapy.- The Circle of Contact: A Neuroscience View on the Formation of Relationships.- Rogers’ Generative Framework of Organismic Integrity: Scientific Evidence Challenging Academic, Medical, and Pharmaceutical Forces.- Mindfulness, Authentic Connection and Making “Right” Decisions:Using Neuroscience to Build a Bridge with the Person-Centered Approach.- You Can Inspire Me To Live Further: Explicating Pre-reflexive Bridges to the Other.- The Awakened Heart – Mindfulness as a Bridge between the Person-Centered Approach and Eastern Philosophies.- Centered in Presence: Meditation with Gifted Students at Hansenberg Castle.- On Correspondences Between the Person-Centered Approach and Attachment Theory.- Relational Psychophysiology and Mutual Regulation during Dyadic Therapeutic and Developmental Relating.- First Relationship, Neuro-psycho-biology and the Person-Centered Approach.- Person-Centered Theory Encountering Mainstream Psychology: Building Bridges and Looking to the Future.- Self-Determination Theory, Person-Centered Approaches, and Personal Goals: Exploring the Links.- A Strengths Based Approach Towards Coaching In a Multicultural Environment.- Person-Centred Approach and Systems Theory.- Relationship Worlds and the Plural Self.- Higher-Order Change within the Person Centered Approach.- How Can I Trust You? Encounters With Carl Rogers and Game Theory.- The Person-Centered Approach in Research.- The Learner-Centered Model:  Implications for Research Approaches.- A Practice of Social Ethics — Anthropological, Epistemological and Ethical Foundations of the PCA.- Christian Spirituality and the Person-Centered Approach.- Formative Empathy as a MysticalWay of Being.- Reflections and a Preview.

About the Author :
Jeffrey H. D. Cornelius-White, Psy.D., LPC is Professor of Counseling at Missouri State University and doctoral faculty at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is former editor of The Person-Centered Journal and former chair of the World Association for Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapy and Counseling. He has published more than 75 works, including Learner-Centered Instruction (Sage, 2010 with Adam Harbaugh), Facilitating Young People’s Development (PCCS, 2008 with Michael Behr), and Carl Rogers: The China Diary (PCCS, 2012). Jef studied at the Chicago Counseling Center and the Pre-Therapy Institute and is a graduate of Argosy University-Chicago. He enjoys cycling, volleyball, his friends and family. Renate Motschnig-Pitrik, born in Ostrava, Czech Republic, is a professor of computer science and head of the Computer Science Didactics and Learning Research Center at the University of Vienna, Austria. Renate held positions at the RWTH Aachen in Germany, the University of Toronto, Canada, and teaches and cooperates with the Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. She participated in encounter groups and several events based on the Person-Centered Approach. She is deeply interested in the multiple ways in which mutual understanding and whole-person learning happen. She is an author/co-author of more than 130 scientific articles, one book, and is determined to foster a style in education that is based on person-centered attitudes, our co-actualizing potential, and thoughtful support by web-based technology. She appreciates synergies between presence and distance, and a multitude of (scientific) disciplines and cultures. Michael Lux, born in Stuttgart, Germany, has Master degrees in psychology and gerontology. He is a certified person-centered psychotherapist and works as a psychotherapist and neuropsychologist in the Neurological Rehabilitation Center Quellenhof in Bad Wildbad,Germany. Over the past few years, he has been intensively engaged with linkages between the Person-Centered Approach (PCA) and neuroscience. As a result he developed the model of a neuroscientifically based person-centered psychotherapy, which he described in a book and in scientific articles. Furthermore, he gives lectures and workshops on the neuroscientific bases of the PCA at conferences and training institutes.