Person-centred
therapy.
Empathy, unconditional positive regard, and the belief that the client is the expert in their own life. For disabled clients, this model matters because it honours self-definition rather than imposing a medicalised narrative from the outside.
The three core conditions, read through disability
Congruence
The therapist shows up as a real person, not a blank professional surface — which matters especially when a client is used to professionals hiding behind clinical distance.
Unconditional positive regard
Acceptance that isn’t contingent on “progress,” compliance, or performing resilience.
Empathic understanding
Trying to understand the client’s frame of reference rather than translating their experience into a diagnostic one.
Where it can go wrong
Person-centred therapy isn’t automatically disability-informed just because it centres the client. “Unconditional positive regard” can slide into avoiding disability altogether, out of a well-meaning but mistaken belief that not mentioning it is the most respectful option. A client who wants to talk about disability, and finds the therapist steering away from it, doesn’t experience that as neutrality — they experience it as another place where the topic can’t be raised.