Client centered therapy

L ROGERS

HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
• Humanism is referred to as the third force in Psychology.
• Felt human beings were capable of incredible acts of creativity,
selflessness, and high levels of spirituality.
• Believed humans are basically good and worthy of respect.
• Humanistic psychology is a perspective that emphasizes looking at whole
individual and stresses concepts such as free will, self-efficiency, and self
actualization.
 Humanistic Psychology

• “People are essentially trustworthy

that they have a vast potential for
understanding themselves and
resolving their own problems without
direct intervention on the therapist’s
part and that they are capable of self-
directed growth if they are involved in
a specific kind of therapeutic
relationship.”
Carl Rogers (born January 8, 1902, Oak
Park, Illinois, U.S.—died February 4, 1987, La Jolla,
California) was an American psychologist who
originated the nondirective, or client-centred,
approach to psychotherapy, emphasizing a person-to-
person relationship between the therapist and the
client (formerly known as the patient), who determines
the course, speed, and duration of treatment.
• According to Rogers (1957), in order for constructive personality change to occur, it is necessary
and sufficient that the following conditions exist and continue over a period of time:

• 1. Two persons are in psychological contact.

• 2. The first, whom we shall term the client, is in a state of incongruence,
being vulnerable or anxious.
• 3. The second person, whom we shall term the therapist, is congruent or integrated in the
relationship.

• 4. The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard for the client.

• 5. The therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the client’s internal frame of

reference and endeavors to communicate this experience to the client.
• Rogers (1986) described the foundation of his person-centered approach this way: It is
that the individual has within himself or herself vast resources for self-understanding, for
altering his or her self-concept, attitudes and self-directed behavior—and that these
resources can be tapped if only a definable climate of facilitative psychological attitudes
can be provided.
• Roger developed his theory not from his experimental laboratory research but from his
experiences working with clients.
• Formulation on structure and dynamics of personality derive from his therapeutic
approach.
• To change one’s personality is centered within the person.
• Roger believed that we are rational beings ruled by a conscious perception of our
selves and our experiential world.
• No importance to Freudian principles or unconscious.
• He insisted on current feelings and emotions have better impact than past
experiences or childhood experiences.
• Inborn tendency to actualize the self and to become fully functioning
personality.
 ROGER-CORE IDEAS

• The self
• Self-actualization
• Organismic valuing process
• Empathy
• Congruence
• Conditional versus unconditional
positive regard.
• The fully functional person.
 The self

• Rogers believed that when a child comes into this

world, the concept of ‘self’ is presenting him just
like a tiny dot and it grows and develops as the
age of child increases.

• Self-concept is defined as the totality of a

complex, organized, and dynamic system of
learned beliefs, attitudes and opinions that each
person holds to be true about his or her personal
existence.

• Rogers described the self as a social product,

developing out of interpersonal relationships and
striving for consistency
 Self actualization

• “The organism has one basic tendency and striving to actualize , maintain,
and enhance the experience organism .” ( Rogers, 1951).
• Carl Rogers (1959) believed that humans have one basic motive ,that is the
tendency to self-actualize –to fulfill one’s potential and achieve the highest
level of “human-beingness” we can.
• Carl Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self – actualization they
must be in a state of congruence. This means that self-actualization occurs
when a person’s “ideal self” is congruent with their actual behavior (self
image).
 EMPATHY

• It refers to the counsellor’s ability to understand the client at a deep level.

Rogers refers to the internal frame of reference to denote the client’s unique
experience of personal problems.
• In order to stay within the client’s internal frame of reference, it is necessary
for the counsellor to listen carefully to what is being conveyed (both verbally
and nonverbally) at every stage of counselling.
• Once the counsellor understands the feelings and experiences of the client, the
same thing needs to be communicated to the client.
 Congruence/Genuineness

• The Person Centered Therapy relationship must always be an honest one. The
counselor needs to be real and true in the relationship.

• A person’s ideal self may not be consistent with what actually happens in life and
experiences of the person. Hence, a difference may exist between a person’s ideal
self and actual experience. This is called incongruence.
• Where a person’s ideal self and actual experience are consistent or very similar, a
state of congruence exists.
• The development of congruence is dependent on unconditional positive regard. Carl
Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self- actualization they must be in a
state of congruence.
 Organismic Valuing Process

• People who experienced a caring, supportive ,and loving

environment during childhood were more able and likely
to trust themselves and their internal feelings in regards
to decision making and goal achievement.
• The organismic valuing process includes many variables
such as
• Authenticity
• Autonomy
• An internal locus of evaluation
• Unconditional positive regard
 Unconditional positive regard

• Unconditional positive regard is an essential component of

person-centered or Rogerian therapy, a therapeutic approach
developed by psychologist Carl Rogers.
• In Rogerian therapy, a therapist listens and allows clients
to decide for themselves what to discuss.
• The therapist’s role is to develop a better understanding of
the client (or, in Rogerian terms, to cultivate empathic
understanding), to be authentic and genuine in their
interactions with clients, and to accept the client in a
nonjudgmental, compassionate way. That nonjudgmental,
compassionate acceptance is what Rogers termed
unconditional positive regard.
 Fully functioning personality

• Fully functioning people tend to possess certain traits and characteristics that help them stay
in tune with their own emotions and embrace their need to grow as an individual. Some of
the key characteristics of a fully functioning person include:
• Openness to experience
• Lack of defensiveness
• The ability to interpret experiences accurately
• A flexible self-concept and the ability to change through experience
• The ability to trust one's experiences and form values based on those experiences
• Unconditional self-regard
• The tendency to be open to new experiences
• Does not feel the need to distort or deny experiences
• Open to feedback and willing to make realistic changes
• Lives in harmony with other people
 PERSON CENTERED THERAPY

• Person-centered psychotherapy (also known as client- centered or Rogerian therapy) is a form

of talk therapy developed by Carl Rogers in the 1940s and 1950s.

• It is an approach to counseling and psychotherapy that places much of the responsibility for
the treatment process on the client, with the therapist taking a nondirective role.

• The goal of client centered therapy is to provide a safe, caring environment where clients get
in closer touch with essential positive elements of themselves that have been hidden or
distorted.

• Less distortion and more congruence lead to greater trust that their organism can be relied on
for effective reactions to people and situations.
• The purpose of this form of therapy is to increase a person’s feelings of self-worth, reduce
the level of incongruence between the ideal and actual self, and help a person become more
fully functioning.

• Rogers’s strong belief in the positive nature of human beings is based on his many years of
clinical counseling.

• He suggests that all clients, no matter what the problem, can improve without being taught
anything specific by a counselor, once they accept and respect themselves.

• In Rogers client centered therapy, human beings are seen as possessing goodness and the
desire to become fully functioning i.e. to live as effectively as possible.
• According to Rogers, if people are permitted to develop freely, they will flourish and become
positive, achieving individuals. Because Rogers’s theory expresses faith in human nature, it is
considered as humanistic approach to counselling.
• Person centered therapy focuses on the person, not on the person’s presenting problem.
Goal is to assist clients in their growth so they are better able to cope with both today’s
problems and future problems.
• If provided with a nurturing environment, people will grow with confidence toward self-
actualization.
• If they do not receive love and support from significant others, they will likely to see
themselves as lacking in worth and see others as untrustworthy. Behavior will become
defensive and growth toward self actualization will be hampered.
the client centered therapist’s perception of people is based on four key
beliefs:
1) People are trustworthy
2) People innately move toward self – actualization and health
3) People have the inner resources to move themselves in positive directions
and
4) People respond to their uniquely perceived world.
 THERAPEUTIC PROCESS
 Therapeutic goals

 Therapeutic function and role

 Client’s Experience in therapy

 Relationship between therapist and clients

GOALS OF THERAPY

• Helping a person become a fully functioning person.

• Clients have the capacity to define their goals.
• An openness to experience.
• A trust in themselves.
• An internal source of evaluation.
• A willingness to continue growing.
• Work through distortions that create incongruence
• Become more “here and now”
• Become more actualized .
 Therapeutic function and role

• Therapist’s attitude and belief in the inner resources of the client, not in
techniques, facilitate personal change in the client.
• Therapist makes a healthy relationship and to focus on their immediate
experience.
• Therapist acts like a catalyst, being congruent ,accepting, empathetic.
• Therapist functions to be present and accessible to clients, to focus on immediate
experience, to be real in the relationship with clients.
• Through the therapist’s attitude of genuine caring, respect, acceptance, and
understanding, clients become less defensive and more open to their experience
and facilitate the personal growth.
• Clients are able to loose their defenses and rigid perceptions and move
to a higher level of personal functioning with the therapist attitude of
genuine caring , respect, acceptance, support and understanding.

• On pleasant attitude of therapist ,clients feel freedom to explore areas

of their life that are denied.
 CLIENT’S EXPERIENCE IN THERAPY
• Therapeutic change depends on client’s perception of both of their own experience
in therapy and of the counselor’s basic attitudes.

• As clients feel understood and accepted, their defensiveness is less necessary and they become
more open to their experiences.
• Clients have the opportunity to explore the full range of their experience : feelings,
beliefs, behavior when therapist gives them amble opportunity.
• Clients seek therapist when they feel helplessness, powerlessness , inability to
take decisions. Clients learn to be more free by using the relationship to gain
greater self-understanding.
• Their experience in therapy is like throwing off the self-imposed shackles that kept
them in a psychological prison.
• With increased freedom they tend to become more mature psychologically and
move towards increased self-actualization.
• Therapy relationship provides a supportive measure within which client’s self
healing capacities are activated.
 REALTIONSHIP B/W THERAPIST AND
CLIENT
• According to Roger,
• A person-centered therapist is a facilitator.
• Two persons are in psychological contact.
• Client is in a state of incongruence being vulnerable or anxious.
• Therapist experiences unconditional positive regard for client.
• The therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the clients’ internal frame
of reference and endeavors to communicate this experience to the client.
• Communication to the client of the therapist’s empathic understanding and
unconditional positive regard is to a minimal degree achieved.
Conclusion
Rogers maintained that three therapist attributes create a growth-promoting
climate :
 Congruence
 Unconditional positive regard
 Empathy
 Person centered approach rejects the role of therapist as the
authority who knows best of client.
 Therapy is rooted in clients’ ability for awareness and self-directed
change in attitude and behavior.
 By exercising self concept and self-awareness in clients they gets the
power
of choice.
Reference

Corey,G.(1996).Theory and Practice of Counselling and

Psychotherapy.
Cole Publishing Company.

Hall , C.S(1978).Theories of Personality. John Wiley Publishing

Company. Schultz(2013).Theories of Personality (10th

edition).Cengage Learning
Publishers.