Family-centered therapy: Implications of Pacific spirituality for person-centered theory and practice

ABSTRACT Based on the authors’ different backgrounds and experiences of working in Pacific communities and with Pacific people as clients, supervisees, trainees, and colleagues, and taking a critical perspective informed by Talanoa research methodology, mainly Samoan and by Southern theory, this article examines person-centered theory and practice. The article firstly reviews Rogers’ theory of therapy, personality, and interpersonal relationships; and second deconstructs Rogers’ original ‘general structure’, offering a reconstruction of the theory that accounts for placing the family and spirituality at the center of psychological practice and theory. The article concludes with identifying three epistemological shifts necessary to make person-centered psychology more relevant to the Pacific context.