CBT, Person Centered Therapy and Gestalt Therapies are three theoretical models that have been applied in psychotherapy for many years. Despite their similarities and use in counselling, the three theoretical models hold distinct differences from each other. These differences are realized especially in regard to the assumptions, the goals of each, therapeutic relationship, key techniques of each and limitations (Corey 2009).
Being one of the most preferred theoretical models in counselling, CBT has demonstrated explicit justifications as well as definite rates of success in most of the instances where it has been applied (Brewin 1989). The diversity of its applications in major psychological and emotional problems has also encouraged most psychotherapists to utilize it in therapeutical sessions (Stallard 2002). In contemporary psychotherapy, as described by Stallard (2002), CBT has been integrated with other theoretical models due to its multidimensional nature. CBT has been applied in clinical psychology and other psychological therapies on the basis of its premise of the importance of thinking about individual actions and feelings in relation to psychological and emotional health (Fall & Holden 2010; Ingram & Siegle 2000).
Person-Centered Therapy was developed by Carl Rogers in the 1940's, and has been a critical theoretical model in counselling. According to Fall & Holden (2010), this theory of counselling developed in three different phases. In the first phase, the theory "focused on how the nondirective counsellor's conduct differed from that of more "directive" psychotherapists such as psychoanalysts and behavior therapists" (Fall & Holden 2010, p 171). The second phase focused "away from the counsellor and firmly onto the client as a responsible agent whose nature provided the rationale for the counsellor's therapeutic conduct" (Fall & Holden 2010, p 171).The third phase emerged when the theory included past counselling philosophies which formed major...