This book is written with a depth of insight and delicacy of touch gained during many years of working with people. Originally interested in agricultural science as a career, Carl Rogers was drawn into psychotherapy and counseling at a time when this field was emerging from the nursery bed of Freudian and other styles of psychoanalysis.
It was a time when the analyst was seen as an expert who would use his superior knowledge to analyze and then guide the client in order to help that person to heal. This model put pressure on the analyst to be an expert in the field of human emotions and behavior – a difficult task to say the least.
Through his work in this field he began to realize that this model of a therapeutic relationship was limited in its scope and did not encourage client autonomy and wholeness.
The Therapeutic Relationship According to Carl Rogers
Carl Rogers describes how he soon started to realize one of the core beliefs of Person Centered Counseling, i.e. that the client has within themselves the ability to move towards wholeness (which is also referred to as the ability to achieve “self actualization”. He realised that the human spirit has a capacity to flourish when given the correct conditions.
He also discovered that the more real and honest he could be – i.e. not hiding behind the façade of being an expert – the more he could empower the client “to come out from behind the facades he has used, to drop his defensive behaviors, and more openly to be what he truly is”.
He further discovered that in order to make this relationship work, the counselor needs to have a genuine desire to help the client, borne out of feelings of utmost respect, warmth and kinship. He needs to be able to hear, understand and empathize with the changing feelings expressed by the client. Analysis and judgmentalizm, he realised, were the antithesis of this empathic relationship.
Carl Rogers Explaining and Defending his Theories
The book was written in 1961 at a time when his theories were new and needed to be explained and to some extent, defended against the prevailing Psychodynamic viewpoint that existed at the time. In it Carl Rogers explains how his ideas began to take shape. He also gives examples of client case studies - written in some detail - that illustrate how Person Centered Counseling works.
Allowing the Person to Grow Through Person Centered Counseling
Carl Rogers describes how, by creating a relationship where the counselor listens empathically, non judgementally and with utmost positive regard, the client is empowered to explore frightening attitudes and feelings that would normally be repressed.
This in turn, he believed, allows rigid views to be relinquished and helps the client move towards a more flexible, self aware, self accepting and self confident way of being.
Wider Implications of Person Centred Theory
Carl Rogers goes on to suggest that his theories are equally valid other fields of activity such as parenting, teaching, in the workplace and in all interpersonal relationships. He goes on to suggest that these principles can help to unleash our creativity both as individuals, groups and as a society by allowing us to let go of limiting self beliefs and harmful dogmas.
Conclusion
This book summarizes very elegantly the essence of what Carl Rogers learned during his 30 years as a psychotherapist and during his years as Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin. In its humanity and compassion, it points the way to a freedom of relating to each other that is life changing and self-empowering.
Reference
Carl R Rogers, "On Becoming a Person, A therapist’s view of psychotherapy"
ISBN-10 1-84529-057-7, ISBN-13 978-1-84529-057-3
Publisher: Constable
