CARL ROGERS: CLIENTCENTERED THERAPY

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Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was a humanistic American psychologist who focused on the therapeutic relationship and developed a new method of client-centered therapy.

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Carl Rogers

Father of American humanistic therapy Psychologist, 1902-1987, created client-centered therapy Use of client Active listening, empathy is paramount
5/3/12 Process more important than content

Hallmarks:

Therapy centered on individuals own experience as his existence is in his own frame of reference, it must be understood this way Central drive in organisms is selfactualization (more paramount than Maslow) Organism behaves in ways that are consistent with the concept of self; 5/3/12 discrepancies between real self and

Goals of therapy

Provide unconditional positive regard Content is not as important as process Therapist must have congruence (genuineness, honesty); Empathy; Respect (unconditional acceptance) If therapist has these qualities, client will improve

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cont

Goal: existential living living in the moment, experiencing life fully without distorting experience to fit self-concept n Goal Freedom of choice without barriers to authenticity being true to ones self is encourage (not giving up authenticity to external 5/3/12 conditions)

Experience is, for me, the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my own experience. No other person's ideas, and none of my own ideas, are as authoritative as my experience. It is to experience that I must return again and again, to discover a closer approximation to truth as it is in the process of becoming in me." -Carl Rogers, On 5/3/12 Becoming a Person

During the 1950s, humanistic psychology began as a reaction to psychoanalysis and behaviorism, which dominated psychology at the time. Psychoanalysis was focused on understanding the unconscious motivations that drive behavior while behaviorism studied the conditioning processes that produce behavior. Humanist thinkers felt that both psychoanalysis and behaviorism 5/3/12

Humanistic psychology was instead focused on each individual's potential and stressed the importance of growth and selfactualization. The fundamental belief of humanistic psychology is that people are innately good and that mental and social problems result from deviations from this natural tendency.
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Rogers Maslow's hierarchy of needs was one of the first to use the term client rather than patient.

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Rogerian Theory & The Role Of The Mother

Rogers thought that the role of the mother was a crucial factor in developing an adult personality. He felt that a healthy personality derives from unconditional love or positive regard. Without positive regard, this could 5/3/12 stunt and limit the development of

Client-centered therapy focuses on the role of the client, rather than the therapist, as the key to the healing process. Rogers believed that each person experiences the world differently and knows his or her own experience best (Rogers, 1961). According to Rogers, clients do "the work of healing, and within a supportive and nurturing clienttherapist relationship, clients can 5/3/12

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.

Carl Rogers
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The therapist takes a personcentered approach, a supportive role, rather than a directive or expert role, because Rogers viewed the client as the expert on his or her life.

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The therapist must promote the client's self-esteem as much as possible through three central concepts:

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 Unconditional positive regarda nonjudgmental caring for the client that is not dependent on the client's behavior Genuinenessrealness or congruence between what the therapist feels and what he or she says to the client Empathetic understandingin which 5/3/12 the therapist senses the feelings and

Carl Rogers (1961) believed that a psychologically healthy person has:

What Makes a Psychologically Healthy Person?

Freedom of thought and action Openness to all experience will try pretty much anything. Ability to live every moment of every day fully to take on the challenge of life and to immerse themselves in it. The willingness to follow their 5/3/12 instincts, rather than that of others

Rogers also believed that the basic nature of humans is to become selfactualized, or to move toward selfimprovement and constructive change. We are all born with a positive self regard and a natural inclination to become self-actualized. If relationships with others are supportive and nurturing, the person retains feelings of self-worth and 5/3/12 progresses toward self-actualization,