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Subject PSYCHOLOGY
Paper No and Title Paper no.6 – Self and Inner growth
Module No and Title Module no.7: Carl Rogers Client Centered Therapy
Module Tag PSY_ P6_M7
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Learning outcomes
2. Introduction
3. Periods of Development of this approach
4. Basic Assumptions of Client Centered Therapy
4.1 – Theory of Personality Growth and Maladjustment
4.2 - The Counseling Relationship
5. Summary
Learning Outcomes
PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. 6 – Self and Inner growth
MODULE No. 7 : Carl Rogers Client Centered Therapy
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1. LEARNING OUTCOMES
After studying this module, you should be able to
Understand the basic assumptions of Client Centered Therapy
Know about the theory of personality growth and maladjustment
Analyze the three core conditions required in client centered therapy
Identify six sufficient &necessary conditions for therapy
Evaluate the development of this approach
2. INTRODUCTION
The person associated with person centered counseling is none other than Carl Rogers. It was
Rogers who initiated this theory and named it as the non-directive approach to psychotherapy, in
which the chief responsibility of the clinician is to facilitate people express, clarify and gain
insight into their emotions. Person-centered therapy was formulated by Carl Rogers in the 1940s.
He was qualified to be a clinical psychologist and from 1928-40 he worked as a director of child
study department of the Rochester Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. While
working over there he developed his client centered therapy. Rogers’ work in the field of
counseling and psychotherapy had a great impact and it was not only because of his skills in
writing, speaking, and management of encounter groups, but it was also the result of the various
unique skills he introduced to the therapeutic field. He was the one who introduced the concept of
teaching students how to do counseling by observing the counseling sessions and he also came up
with ways to test therapy techniques’ effectiveness in controlled studies.
3. PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT OF THIS APPROACH
The development of Person centered therapy originated with the work of Carl Rogers and his
belief in human goodness .The development of this approach can be divided into four phase:
(1) First Phase/Period can be classified as the one in which, Carl Rogers in 1942 published
his first major work called counseling and psychotherapy at the time only two approaches
were in the limelight namely psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approach and behavioral
approaches. Unlike the other two approaches Rogers had a positive view toward human
being and emphasized on human potential and growth .Roger felt that these two
approaches lack scientific method and gave all the responsibility to the therapist as they
assumed clinicians know best and how the session of therapy should progress. In lieu of
that he evolved his therapy known as Non Directive Counseling. The main goal of the
clinician is to facilitate the clients’ process of gaining insight into their emotions to
express and clarify any misconceptions and doubts they have about themselves. Roger’s
theory highlighted the counselor’s formation of a nonjudgmental and nondirective
climate. Rogers also confronted the validity of frequently acknowledged conventional
PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. 6 – Self and Inner growth
MODULE No. 7 : Carl Rogers Client Centered Therapy
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therapeutic techniques such as advice, suggestion,
direction, persuasion, teaching, diagnosis, and
interpretation. Rogers believed that diagnostic tools and comprehensive
interventions techniques lacked validity and in contrast they gave in power to the clinicians
over the client which could be misused. Nondirective counselors avoided sharing a great deal
about themselves with clients and in its place concentrated primarily on reflecting and
clarifying the clients’ verbal and nonverbal communications with the purpose of gaining
insight into the feelings expressed by clients.
(2) In The Second Period /Phase Carl Roger in the year 1951 published Client Centered
Therapy to stress the importance of client rather than on the directive method. Rogers
main focus was still on the individual’s emotions, his latest book highlighted that how his
thinking had undergone change on many aspects. Thus he changed his therapeutic
technique from non-directive counseling to Client Centered Therapy. He now
emphasized that counseling cannot take place entirely in a non-directive manner. This
period focused on the phenomenological world of the client. He felt that during the
course of counseling the clinicians role should be more active and significant and he
emphasized that by communicating the feelings of empathy, congruence and acceptance,
clinicians build in the environment that is conducive to facilitating people make positive
changes .therefore these three factors became the core components of Client centered
Therapy namely Empathy, Congruence and Unconditional Positive regard. Rogers
supposed that the best way of understanding how people behave was from their own
internal frame of reference. He focused more clearly on the actualizing tendency as the
basic motivational force that leads to client change.
(3) The Third Phase/ Period of development of Carl Roger’s counseling began in the 1960s
with his famous publication of the book on “Becoming A Person” in the year 1961 and
continued till 1970s. In this publication Carl Roger mentioned about his major concept of
fully functioning person and healthy individual. According to him fully functioning
individual has some characteristics which are that they are open to experience, a trust in
one’s experience, an internal locus of evaluation, and the willingness to be in process. In
his book Carl Roger laid emphasize on the necessary and sufficient conditions of
therapy. He was interested in how people best progress in psychotherapy, and he studied
the qualities of the client-therapist relationship which facilitated as an important factor
leading to personality change. Throughout Roger focused on positive growth of human
beings and stressed upon innate goodness of individuals. This belief motivated Carl
Roger to apply his approach to various settings beyond clinical setting. He applied his
approach to the student-centered teaching. He is also known as the prominent force
behind the Encounter groups which were used to help positive development. During the
1970s his interest research was noticed and he made continues efforts to identify those
elements of the client clinician relationship and the therapeutic process that are most
likely to bring about positive changes in an individual.
(4) The Fourth Phase/ Period, was marked during the late 1970s and 1980s, Roger’s work
broadened and he applied his techniques to various spheres of life. Hence again the term
Client Centered was replaced by Person Centered .He replaced this term to person
centered as he believed that it best described his concern with all humanity as it dealt
with the human potential and not just client –therapist relationship. Carl Rogers therapy
PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. 6 – Self and Inner growth
MODULE No. 7 : Carl Rogers Client Centered Therapy
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was not just used for the treatment of individuals but
also in families ,organizations , groups, conflict
resolution, cross cultural settings ,administration and most significantly to promote world
peace. This theory came to be known as person-centered approach. This alteration in
term mirrored the broadening application of the approach. Areas of further application
included education, health care, and inter racial activity, international relations, politics,
and most significantly the achievement of world-peace. All the way through his career,
Rogers helped all individuals to feel powerful and in control of their lives at the same
time boosting them to respect the right of others to have their own feelings of power and
competence. His Person Centered theory emerged with the belief that each individual has
within themselves potential to grow fully and for self-understanding for developing their
self-concept and self-direction.
4. BASIC ASSUMPTION OF CLIENT CENTERED THERAPY
In the course of time Carl Rogers’s therapeutic approach has undergone lot of name change a: He
in the beginning called it non-directive, as he believed that the therapist is not supposed to lead
the client, but instead should be there for the client and at the same time the client should direct
the movement of the therapy. During the course of time while initiating the process of counseling,
he realized that, as "non-directive" as he was, he still influenced his client by his very "non-
directiveness!”. Thus it can be said that, clients seem to be looking towards the therapists for
direction, and he/she would find out ways to gain some /other kind of guidance even though
therapist is trying not to guide because of this reason he changed the name of his therapy to
Client-Centered. Though he was of the belief that it should be the client who should be the one
who must be analyzing and revealing his faults and then should come up with ways of improving,
and client should be the one who should decide the conclusion of therapy. His therapy was still
especially "client-centered" in nature even though he recognized the importance of the therapist.
Sadly lot of therapists believed that this name for his therapy was blow for them. Thus because of
this reason he changed the name of his approach to client centered therapy, reflecting his
understanding that treatment cannot and probably should not be completely non-directive. Roger
now believed that clinician’s function is extremely active and vital and believed that by
communicating precise empathy, congruence & acceptance clinicians create an environment
which is conducive in helping people make positive changes. In present days, the terms non-
directive and client-centered are still used; the majority of people now call it as Rogerian
therapy. Later it was Rogers who said that his therapy is "supportive, and not reconstructive he
cited the e.g. of a “child who is learning to ride a cycle” while the child is learning how to ride the
cycle one can’t just instruct the child but they have to try it for themselves and same goes for the
therapy. According to Rogers, acceptance reflection and genuineness are key components of
counseling session. He avoided intricate diagnostic and intervention techniques as he felt that it
gave power to clinicians over the clients. Client-centered therapy varies from other forms of
therapy because client-centered therapy does not focus on therapeutic techniques. What's most
essential in client-centered therapy is the quality of the relationship between the therapist and the
client.
One of the most important changes which humanistic counselors brought about in contrast to the
other therapist was that they used the term 'clients', instead of ‘patients’. As they believed that
both therapist and the client are equally responsible for the progress of the client. In other words
unlike other therapies the client is himself/herself accountable for improving his or her life, not
the therapist. This was a major shift in paradigm from both psychoanalysis and behavioral
PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. 6 – Self and Inner growth
MODULE No. 7 : Carl Rogers Client Centered Therapy
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