PCN 500: combining client-centred and existential therapy
These two are unusually compatible, which makes the easy answer yes. The question that earns marks is what the combination would actually look like in a session.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 15, 2026
Compatible on assumptions, or only on technique?
Start with what each approach actually commits you to, because compatibility is a question about premises rather than about technique. Person-centred therapy holds that the client has the capacity for growth and that the therapist's job is to supply the conditions — genuine regard, empathy, congruence — rather than to direct. Existential therapy holds that distress often arises from the givens of existence: mortality, freedom and its responsibility, isolation, and the absence of given meaning. Those are compatible at the root, which is why the answer to the first question is usually yes: both are humanistic, both treat the client as the author of their own meaning, and both refuse the medical model's framing of the therapist as expert diagnostician. Say which version of each approach you mean, too, since both have developed. Person-centred practice has extensions that are more active than Rogers was, and existential therapy covers a range from the strongly philosophical to the practically integrated.
The tension worth naming is one of stance. Person-centred practice is strictly non-directive; existential practice is willing to confront, to raise the thing the client is avoiding, to challenge a self-deception. A therapist doing both has to decide when following becomes collusion, and that decision is the actual content of the combined approach. Then answer the third clause concretely, because it asks what the combination looks like: the conditions and the following are person-centred, and the existential contribution is in what you notice and are willing to name — a client circling a decision they are treating as having been made for them, a bereavement that is also a confrontation with mortality, a life arranged so no choice is ever visibly taken. Describing one such moment does more for the post than a paragraph about theoretical integration. A therapist who is directive when it suits them and non-directive when it does not has alternated between approaches rather than integrated them.
Likely learning objectives
Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.
- 01Compare therapeutic approaches on their underlying premises.
- 02Identify a genuine tension between compatible approaches.
- 03Describe an integrated approach at the level of practice.
- 04Distinguish following a client from colluding with avoidance.
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
Course-wide instructions that accompany this question
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS Discussion Questions (DQ) Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words. Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source. One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words. I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses. Weekly Participation Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately. In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies. Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work). Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week. APA Format and Writing Quality Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required). Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation. I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition. Use of Direct Quotes I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly. As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content. It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source. LopesWrite Policy For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me. Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes. Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own? Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score. Late Policy The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies. Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances. If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect. I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension. As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading. Communication Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class. Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
Turn the brief into deliverables
- 01The core premises of each approach.
- 02An assessment of compatibility at the level of assumptions.
- 03The directive tension named honestly.
- 04A concrete description of what a combined session would involve.
Two premises, then the integration question
Client-centred premises
Set out the conditions model and the non-directive commitment.
Existential premises
Set out the givens and how distress is understood.
Where they agree and where they pull
Assess compatibility and name the stance tension.
What the combination looks like
Describe a moment in session where both are operating.
Where integration has actually been attempted
Recommended databases
- PsycINFO
- PubMed Central
- Your course text
- SAMHSA treatment resources
Search sequence
- 1.Read a primary account of the necessary and sufficient conditions.
- 2.Find how existential practitioners describe confrontation and its limits.
- 3.Look for documented integrative humanistic approaches.
- 4.Note where integration has been criticised as incoherent.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.
- 01
Person-Centered Therapy (Rogerian Therapy)
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023
Sets out person-centred therapy's conditions and its non-directive commitment precisely.
- 02
Chapter 6 — Brief Humanistic and Existential Therapies
Treatment Improvement Protocol 34, SAMHSA, NCBI Bookshelf · 1999
A treatment-focused account of brief humanistic and existential therapies, including how they are used together.
- 03
Integrating Existential Perspectives into Schema Therapy: A Conceptual Framework with Clinical Applications
Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy · 2026
A worked attempt at integrating existential perspectives into another framework, which is the integration question in practice.
- 04
Standards and Evaluation of Healthcare Quality, Safety, and Person-Centered Care
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023
On person-centred care standards more broadly, useful for placing the therapeutic stance in a wider context.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Answering yes on the grounds that both are humanistic and stopping there.
- Comparing techniques without examining premises.
- Ignoring the non-directive versus confrontational tension.
- Leaving the combined approach abstract.
Submission checklist
- Have you compared premises rather than techniques?
- Is the directive tension acknowledged?
- Does your combined approach describe something a therapist would do?
- Would a reader recognise both approaches in your description?
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Written by
Aaron Bishop
MA, Education
assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines
Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.
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Dr. Nathan Cole
PhD, Rhetoric & Composition
Argumentation and thesis development
Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.