Jay Slupesky, M.A., MFT
Carl Rogers revolutionized psychotherapy by developing the person-centered approach to treatment. Rogers believed that people are capable of solving their own problems when the right conditions for self-discovery and growth are present. Therefore, the task of the counselor is merely to create a fertile therapeutic climate and allow the client to work out his or her own issues. Rogers also assigned much more value to the communication skills of the counselor and the quality of the counselor-therapist relationship than he did to the counselor's knowledge, training, or mode of therapy. He found that once the client discovers, possibly for the first time, that another person values him or her unconditionally and truly understands his or her feelings, the client's self-image will improve and personal growth will result.
Carl Rogers had a very positive view of people; he believed that at our core humans are trustworthy, good, and healthy beings who have a natural tendency toward mental health. Rogers conceived of an actualizing tendency which drives humans, and in fact all living organisms, to develop and grow to the fullest extent possible (Bozarth, 2000). This actualizing tendency is the driving force underlying all other motivations, including survival, creativity, pain avoidance, and pleasure-seeking. It can be suppressed but not destroyed. Because of the actualizing tendency, all people are capable of emotional growth and are innately driven to do their best; they tend to make the right choices.
People need acceptance, approval, and love from others (the need for positive regard) and that same approval and acceptance of themselves (the need for positive self-regard). Unfortunately, such feelings are usually not unconditional, but in fact only come after certain conditions or expectations set by society, another person, or oneself are met. Rogers used the terms conditional positive regard and conditional positive self-regard to denote the types of positive regard which must be earned (Boeree, 1998).
According to Rogers's phenomenological thinking, a person's experiences are more important than any abstract conception of reality. For example, if your experience has led you to believe that you are ugly, it doesn't matter if you truly are ugly or not! What you believe to be true is more important that what is objectively true. Experiences are the prime determinant of our self-concept, the sum total of the characteristics which we ascribe to ourselves. Humans also have an ideal self-concept, which is their notion of how they "should" be. Clearly, there can be a gap between the self-concept and the ideal self-concept, and Rogers termed this incongruity.
When the incongruity between the self-concept and the ideal self-concept is too great, a person is maladjusted and neurotic. If an individual has received a significant amount of conditional positive regard then he or she is likely to be burdened with a large incongruity. Dysfunctional people become defensive over their self-perceived limitations and begin to feel manipulated by others. This problem with self-acceptance results in anxiety and low self-esteem. The freedom to choose is diminished and people become more conforming. Instead of looking within themselves for answers, they look to others and become concerned with meeting the expectations of others (Corey, 2001).
Rogers describes the mentally healthy person as fully-functioning. Fully-functioning individuals have numerous positive qualities. They live in and enjoy the present moment, not feeling guilty about the past nor worrying about what the future may bring. They are free of defenses and feel able to make their own decisions and choices and when necessary can take responsibility for whatever consequences may arise from them. Fully-functioning people can solve their own problems. Rather than being defensive, fully-functioning people accept themselves as they are and accept their own feelings, even those feelings which are confusing or difficult to understand. They are creative and anxious for new experiences that can lead to further growth. Acting true to themselves, the well person is always in charge of his or her own life (Corey, 2001).
Rogers turned traditional psychotherapy on its ear by placing most of the responsibility for healing and growth on the client rather than on the therapist. In this non-directive or person-centered approach the therapist is more of an equal to the client than he or she is the superior and wise counselor who always knows what is best. The therapist relies on reflecting the client's feelings back to the client and refrains from making decisions for the client or setting treatment goals, and avoids conducting a large number of assessment tests early on in the therapy process. The client takes primary responsibility for direction of therapy and chooses his or her own goals.
Rogers believed that since humans are capable of solving their own problems, the therapist need only create a fertile therapeutic climate by developing positive and caring relationship with the client. Once the client believes that he or she has unconditional respect from the therapist and that the therapist truly understands the client's feelings, the client will move back "on track" and the healing will come from within (Corey, 2001).
Rogers also conceived the revolutionary notion that the therapist's attitudes and relationship with the client are more important than the therapist's knowledge or theoretical training. The therapy technique is secondary to the quality of the relationship between the client and the therapist. In fact, Rogers identified three key attributes of a helpful therapist (Corey, 2001). Unconditional positive regard means that the therapist deeply cares for the client regardless of who the client is or what he or she has or has not done. Note the distinction here with the conditional positive regard mentioned earlier and which the client may have received too much of in the past. Empathic understanding implies that the therapist of capable of experiencing the client's feelings as well as if they were the therapist's own feelings. Finally, genuineness means the therapist is not a phony. He or she never pretends to like the client if the truth is otherwise. Rogers taught that any counselor who demonstrated these three characteristics would help his or her clients to drop their defenses, look at themselves, and become more fully-functioning.
2004 Oct 7