For those of you who are not familiar with the work of Carl Rogers or the Person-Centered Approach, the following information has been put together to offer a brief yet well regarded introduction to the theories of this approach. Please note, throughout this web page you will find links to other web sites that offer additional resources to help you carryon your study of the Person-Centered Approach.
To begin with, the Person-Centered Approach can be understood as an evolution in Client-Centered Therapy as originated by the famous American psychologist Carl Rogers.Client-Centered Therapy can be understood as a sub-branch of the Humanistic school of psychology and philosophy.
Often referred to as the Third Force, Humanistic Psychology can be understood as a grouping of psychological, philosophical, sociological, and biological theories that arose in reaction to the psychological theories of Psychoanalysis and Behaviorism. Compared with the theory of Psychoanalysis which attempts to understand and work with unconscious motives, and Behaviorism that attempts to generate change through learning, the theory underlying Humanistic Psychology (and Client-Centered Therapy by extension) attempts to help individuals increase their innate healing capacities and thereby allow self-directed positive growth to occur.
Rogers’s form of psychotherapy, known as Client-Centered Therapy, and now referred to as the Person-Centered Approach, is usually expressed through three core conditions: unconditional positive regard, empathy, and congruence.
In Roger’s own words:
“Individuals have within themselves vast resources for self-understanding and for altering their self-concepts, basic attitudes, and self-directed behavior; these resources can be tapped if a definable climate of facilitative psychological attitudes can be provided. There are three conditions that must be present in order for a climate to be growth promoting. These conditions apply whether we are speaking of the relationship between therapist and client, parent and child, leader and group, teacher and student, or administrator and staff. The conditions apply, in fact, in any situation in which the development of the person is a goal. I have described these conditions in previous writings; I present here a brief summary from the point of view of psychotherapy, but the description applies to all of the foregoing relationships.”
"The first element could be called genuineness, realness, or congruence. The more the therapist is himself or herself in the relationship, putting up no professional front or personal facade, the greater is the likelihood that the client will change and grow in a constructive manner. This means that the therapist is openly being the feelings and attitudes that are flowing within at the moment. The term "transparent" catches the flavor of this condition: the therapist makes himself or herself transparent to the client; the client can see right through what the therapist is in the relationship; the client experiences no holding back on the part of the therapist. As for the therapist, what he or she is experiencing is available to awareness, can be lived in the relationship, and can be communicated, if appropriate. Thus, there is a close matching, or congruence, between what is being experienced at the gut level, what is present in awareness, and what is expressed to the client.”
“The second attitude of importance in creating a climate for change is acceptance, or caring, or prizing--what I have called 'unconditional positive regard.' When the therapist is experiencing a positive, acceptant attitude toward whatever the client is at that moment, therapeutic movement or change is more likely to occur. The therapist is willing for the client to be whatever immediate feeling is going on--confusion, resentment, fear, anger, courage, love, or pride. Such caring on the part of the therapist is nonpossessive. The therapist prizes the client in a total rather than a conditional way.”
“The third facilitative aspect of the relationship is empathic understanding. This means that the therapist senses accurately the feelings and personal meanings that the client is experiencing and communicates this understanding to the client. When functioning best, the therapist is so much inside the private world of the other that he or she can clarify not only the meanings of which the client is aware but even those just below the level of awareness. This kind of sensitive, active listening is exceedingly rare in our lives. We think we listen, but very rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy. Yet listening, of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that I know.”
“How does this climate which I have just described bring about change? Briefly, as persons are accepted and prized, they tend to develop a more caring attitude toward themselves. As persons are empathetically heard, it becomes possible for them to listen more accurately to the flow of inner experiencings. But as a person understands and prizes self, the self becomes more congruent with the experiencings. The person thus becomes more real, more genuine. These tendencies, the reciprocal of the therapist's attitudes, enable the person to be a more effective growth-enhancer for himself or herself. There is a greater freedom to be the true, whole person.”
From Carl R. Rogers. Way of Being. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980, p.115-116
http://www.carlrogers.info/booksbyCarl.htmlThe expression of these core conditions, in combination with “non-directive” interaction, can be understood as the fundamental facilitating force that can help increase the “actualizing tendency” of Client-Centered clients.
In the words of Jerold Bozarth, a well known modern Person-Centered theorist:
The foundation block of person-centered therapy is the actualizing tendency. Rogers stated:
Practice, theory and research make it clear that the person-centered approach is built on a basic trust in the person . . . (It) depends on the actualizing tendency present in every living organism’s tendency to grow, to develop, to realize its full potential. This way of being trusts the constructive directional flow of the human being toward a more complex and complete development. It is this directional flow that we aim to release. (Rogers, 1986b, p. 198)
Rogers’ construct of the actualizing tendency is an organismic theory wherein the fundamental qualities in human nature are viewed as those of growth, process and change. In Rogers’ theory," Man is an actualizing process" (Van Belle, 1980, p. 70). Actualization is the motivational construct in organismic theory and, thus, is embedded in the organismic growth process and is the motive for change. The organism/person is the basic unit of inquiry in Rogers’ conceptualizations. Although Rogers focused on the self-concept in earlier writings and brings in the concept of the formative tendency of the universe in later writings, the construct of the actualizing tendency for the human being is the clear foundation block in individual therapy.
The person-centered therapist operates on a number of assumptions associated with the
actualizing tendency. These assumptions include the orientation that emphasizes the world of the whole person wherein the therapist eschews knowledge ‘about’ the client, relates as an equal to the client, and trusts and respects the client’s perceptions as the authority about him/herself.
The basic client/person-centered value is that the authority of the person rests in the person rather than in an outside expert. This value emphasizes the internal (i.e., the client ’s) rather than the external (i.e., the therapist’s) view. Clients are viewed as going in their own ways, allowed to go at their own pace, and to pursue their growth in their unique ways. The external view is meaningless in the therapy process since the only function of the therapist is to facilitate the client’s actualizing process. This process is a directional, growth directed process that includes movement towards realization, fulfillment and perfection of inherent capabilities and potentialities of the individual (Rogers, 1963). It is a selective process in that it is directional and constructive. It tends to enhance and maintain the whole organism/person. A summary of the theory can be stated as follows:
(1)There is one motivating force in a client; i.e., the actualizing tendency.
(2) There is one directive to the therapist; i.e. to embody the attitudinal quality of genuineness and to experience empathic understanding from the client’s internal frame of reference and to experience unconditional positive regard towards the client.
(3) When the client perceives the therapist’s empathic understanding and unconditional
positive regard, the actualizing tendency of the client is promoted.
Necessary and Sufficient Conditions Person-Centered theory posits the presence of a client who is incongruent, vulnerable and anxious but who is also in psychological contact with an attentive, empathic therapist. The therapist experiences and manifests three basic attitudes in the relationship. These attitudes are labeled as (1) congruence, (2) unconditional positive regard, and (3) empathic understanding of the client’s internal frame of reference (Rogers, 1957; 1959). Rogers’ most explicit statements about these attitudes were in his 1957 statement that hypothesized the necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change in all therapies and constructive interpersonal relationships that have constructive personality change as a goal. These conditions are also presented with a slightly different slant in his 1959 theoretical statement on psychotherapy, personality theory and interpersonal relations from the Client-Centered frame of reference. In the integration statement of 1957, he stated:
(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.
(6) The communication to the client of the therapist’s empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard is to a minimal degree achieved. (p. 96)
There are slight but perhaps important differences between the 1957 and 1959
statements. In the 1959 statement, Rogers does not mention that the therapist should
‘ . . .endeavor to communicate . . .’ the experiences of empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard to the client. He continued to emphasize the importance of the client perceiving these two attitudinal experiences of the therapist. Also, the 1959 theory statement refers to the first condition (the pre-condition) simply as ‘contact’between the client and therapist rather than ‘psychological’ contact. Rogers’ (1957) definitions of the three attitudinal conditions are the following:
Congruency (or genuineness): ‘ . . .within the relationship (the therapist) is freely and deeply himself, with his actual experience accurately represented by his awareness of himself . . .’ and ‘ . . .he is what he actually is in this moment of time . . .Unconditional Positive Regard: ‘ . . .the extent that the therapist finds himself experiencing a warm acceptance of each aspect of the client’s experience as being a part of that client . . .’ Empathic Understanding: ‘To sense the client’s private world as if it were your own, but without ever losing the ‘as if’ quality . . .’
The particular manifestations or implementation of these attitudes are variable, within limits, depending upon the personal characteristics of both the therapist and the client. Rogers, in his classic delineation of a theory of psychotherapy, personality and interpersonal relationships in 1959, hypothesized that in the psychotherapeutic relationship that the more fully and consistently the therapeutic attitudes are provided by the therapist and perceived by the client, the greater the constructive movement that will occur in the client. Rogers’ hypothesis can be generally stated in the following way:
When the therapist can consistently be a certain way (i.e., embodying the attitudinal
qualities) towards the client while trusting the client’s natural growth process, the forward growth tendency (the actualizing tendency) of the client will be promoted.
The natural growth process of the individual is promoted when the therapist can be a certain way by embodying certain attitudinal qualities. The therapist strives to be congruent, to experience unconditional positive regard and empathic understanding toward the client. It is interesting to note that Rogers’ message is that the therapist experience empathic understanding of the client’s frame of reference and experience unconditional positive regard towards the client. He adds that the client must perceive these two conditions, at least, to a minimal degree. In therapy, the foundation block of the theory is the actualizing tendency; i.e., the tendency of the organism to grow in a positive and constructive direction; for the person ‘ . . .to become all of his/her potentialities.’ (Bozarth & Brodley, 1991). Put another way: when the therapist can be a certain way by embodying certain attitudinal qualities, then the client’s actualizing tendency is promoted. In addition, the self-actualizing tendency is promoted in a way that is harmonious with the experiencing of the actualizing organism.
Taken from the online paper “The Foundation of Person-Centered Therapy”by Jerold D. Bozarth. www.personcentered.com/therapist.html
The Person Centered Approach attempts to expand upon Client Centered Therapy by extending the range of the application of the core conditions and non-directivity to individuals and groups outside of the psychotherapy practice.
In the words of Barbara Brodley, a well known modern Person-Centered theorist:
Rogers has recently stated the basic hypothesis and the therapeutic conditions that distinguish the person-centered approach as follows:
The central hypothesis of this approach can be briefly stated. It is that the individual has within him or her self vast resources for self-understanding, for altering her or his 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.
There are three conditions which constitute this growth-promoting climate, whether we are speaking of the relationship between therapist and client, parent and child, leader and group, teacher and student, or administrator and staff. The conditions apply, in fact, in any situation in which the development of the person is a goal. I have described these conditions at length in previous writings (Rogers, 1959, 1961).
I present here a brief summary from the point of view of psychotherapy, but the description applies to all of the foregoing relationships.
The first element has to do with genuineness, realness, or congruence. The more the therapist is him or herself in the relationship, putting up no professional front or personal facade, the greater is the likelihood that the client will change and grow in a constructive manner. . . .
The second attitude of importance in creating a climate for change is acceptance, or caring or prizing--unconditional positive regard. It means that when the therapist is experiencing a positive, nonjudgmental, accepting attitude toward whatever the client is at that moment, therapeutic movement or change is more likely. . . .
The third facilitative aspect of the relationship is empathic understanding. This means that the therapist senses accurately the feelings and personal meanings that are being experienced by the client and communicates this acceptant understanding to the client. (Rogers, 1986)
Additional assumptions, beliefs and hypotheses that are central to the Person-Centered approach are the following:
Belief that human nature is basically constructive.
Belief that human nature is basically social.
Belief that self-regard is a basic human need and that self-regard, autonomy and individual sensitivity are to be protected in helping relationships.
Belief that persons are basically motivated to perceive realistically and to pursue the truth of situations.
Belief that perceptions are a major determinant of personal experience and behavior and, thus, to understand a person one must attempt to understand them empathically.
Belief that the individual person is the basic unit and that the individual should be addressed, (not groups, families, organizations, etc.), in situations intended to foster growth.
Belief in the concept of the whole person.
Belief that persons are realizing and protecting themselves as best they can at any given time and under the internal and external circumstances that exist at that time.
Belief in abdication of the pursuit of control or authority over other persons and, instead, a commitment to strive to share power and control.
A commitment to open mindedness and humility in respect to theory and practice.
Presented at the First Annual Meeting of the Association for the Development of the Person-Centered Approach which met in Chicago, Illinois at International House on the University of Chicago Campus September 3 - 7, 1986.
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