According to Gerald Corey (1995), phase three of person-centered therapy canbe subdivided into three periods:
Period 1: In this period, the nondirective counselor conspicuously avoided interaction with the client. The counselor functioned as a clarifier but submerged his orher own personhood. The emphasis was based on the innate growth of the client.
Period 2: During this period, therapy shifted away from thecognitive emphasis to clarification, which was lead to insight. The counselor'srole was redesigned to emphasize the counselor's responsiveness to the client'sfeelings. The counselor does not simply clarify client's comments, but thecounselor also reflects feelings. To implement clients' reorganization ofself-concepts, the therapist's basic job was to remove sources of threat fromthe therapeutic relationship and function as amirror so that clients might better understand their own internal and externalworld. In short, during this stage, the counselor, as a person, served a minimalrole in the therapeutic process.
Period 3: This last period emphasized certain needed conditions for personalitychange, within the client, to occur. This period introduced the three counselorattributes that are distinct in Rogers approach - congruence,unconditional positive regard, and empathic understanding. As a result, thisallowed for greater flexibility and shifted to include not only the client'sreflection but also the therapist's expression of his or her own immediatefeelings in relationship with the client.