Carl Rogers Theories

Organizational Behaviour

Carl Rogers Theories

Person-Centred Approach

8/30/2010

This Document aims to discuss Carl Rogers’ Person-Centred Theories. Namely, Counselling Theory, Student Centred Learning, Encounter Groups, Personality Theory and Psychotherapy.

Team RogersMukul GargMonu Gupta

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Mithil Jain 10DM-086Mohit 10DM-087NavinPratik Bafna

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ContentsIntroduction...........................................................................................................................................3

Counselling Theory................................................................................................................................4

Nineteen Propositions....................................................................................................................4

Student Centred Learning......................................................................................................................6

Encounter Groups..................................................................................................................................9

Personality Theory...............................................................................................................................11

Psychotherapy.....................................................................................................................................16

References...........................................................................................................................................18

IntroductionCarl Rogers (1902–1987) is the most influential psychologist in American history. His lifetime of research and experiential work focused on demonstrating the psychological conditions for allowing open communication and empowering individuals to achieve their full potential. He pioneered the move away from traditional psychoanalysis, and developed client-centered psychotherapy, which recognizes that “each client has within him or herself the vast resources for self-understanding, for altering his or her self-concept, attitudes, and self-directed behavior—and that these resources can be tapped by providing a definable climate of facilitative attitudes.”

His contributions are outstanding in the fields of education, counselling, psychotherapy, peace, and conflict resolution. A founder of humanistic psychology, he has profoundly influenced the world through his empathic presence, his rigorous research, his authorship of sixteen books and more than 200 professional articles.

His best known books are:

On Becoming a Person, Client Centered Therapy, Freedom to Learn, A way of Being, Carl Rogers on Personal Power, and Becoming Partners: Marriage and Its Alternatives. Two of his books have been published posthumously: The Carl Rogers’ Reader, a collection of his most influential writings, and Carl Rogers’ Dialogues, which features interchanges with such other giants in the field as Paul Tillich, B.F. Skinner, Gregory Bateson, and Rollo May.

Counselling TheoryCarl Rogers’s counselling technique is known as Rogerian counselling. Theory is based directly on the "phenomenal field" personality theory of Combs and Snygg (1949). Rogerian counselling involves the counsellor’s entry into the person's unique phenomenological world (the study of the development of human consciousness and self-awareness as a preface to philosophy or a part of philosophy.). In this process, the counsellor does not disagree or point out contradictions. Nor do he / she attempt to delve into the unconscious. The process of counselling is described by him as a process of freeing a person by removing obstacles so that normal growth and development can proceed and the person can become more independent and self-directed.

During counselling, the client can move from rigidly to fluidity of self perception. Certain conditions are necessary for this process, they are:

1) A 'growth promoting climate' requires the counsellor to be congruent, to have unconditional positive regard for the person as well as show empathic understanding.

2) Congruence on the part of the counsellor refers to her / his ability to be completely genuine whatever the self of the moment. He / she are not expected to be a completely congruent person all the time, as such perfection is impossible.

He suggests that any person, no matter what the problem is, one can improve without being taught anything specific by the counsellor, once the person accepts and respects himself. All the resources lie within the person. This type of therapy, however, may not be effective for severe psychopathologies such as schizophrenia, which today is considered to have strong biological component, or other disorders such as phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder or even depression etc. His theory is based on 19 propositions.

Rogers noted that every theory, including his own, contains "an unknown (and perhaps at that time unknowable) amount of error and mistaken inference". He believed that a theory should serve as a stimulus to further creative thinking. This theory has very strong heuristic value and continues to generate debate and interest. The theory further focuses on the whole individual as he / she experiences the world. It gives considerable attention to the concept of self and the suggestion that we can all overcome damages inflicted in childhood is most appealing. Full functioning is not the exclusive domain of a very lucky few. It is, at least theoretically, attainable for many; strength is that Rogerian theory is grounded in the study of persons, leading to its strong applied value in many areas of life.

Nineteen Propositions

His theory (as of 1951) was based on nineteen propositions:

1. All individuals (organisms) exist in a continually changing world of experience (phenomenal field) of which they are the centre.

2. The organism reacts to the field as it is experienced and perceived. This perceptual field is "reality" for the individual.

3. The organism reacts as an organized whole to this phenomenal field.4. A portion of the total perceptual field gradually becomes differentiated as the self.

5. As a result of interaction with the environment, and particularly as a result of valuational interaction with others, the structure of the self is formed - an organised, fluid but consistent conceptual pattern of perceptions of characteristics and relationships of the "I" or the "me", together with values attached to these concepts.

6. The organism has one basic tendency and striving - to actualize, maintain and enhance the experiencing organism.

7. The best vantage point for understanding behaviour is from the internal frame of reference of the individual.

8. Behavior is basically the goal-directed attempt of the organism to satisfy its needs as experienced, in the field as perceived.

9. Emotion accompanies, and in general facilitates, such goal directed behaviour, the kind of emotion being related to the perceived significance of the behaviour for the maintenance and enhancement of the organism.

10. Values experienced directly by the organism, and in some instances are values interjected or taken over from others, but perceived in distorted fashion, as if they had been experienced directly.

11. As experiences occur in the life of the individual, they are either, a) symbolized, perceived and organized into some relation to the self, b) ignored because there is no perceived relationship to the self structure, c) denied symbolization or given distorted symbolization because the experience is inconsistent with the structure of the self.

12. Most of the ways of behaving that are adopted by the organism are those that are consistent with the concept of self.

13. In some instances, behaviour may be brought about by organic experiences and needs which have not been symbolized. Such behaviour may be inconsistent with the structure of the self but in such instances the behaviour is not "owned" by the individual.

14. Psychological adjustment exists when the concept of the self is such that all the sensory and visceral experiences of the organism are, or may be, assimilated on a symbolic level into a consistent relationship with the concept of self.

15. Psychological maladjustment exists when the organism denies awareness of significant sensory and visceral experiences, which consequently are not symbolized and organized into the gestalt of the self structure. When this situation exists, there is a basic or potential psychological tension.

16. Any experience which is inconsistent with the organization of the structure of the self may be perceived as a threat, and the more of these perceptions there are, the more rigidly the self structure is organized to maintain itself.

17. Under certain conditions, involving primarily complete absence of threat to the self structure, experiences which are inconsistent with it may be perceived and examined, and the structure of self revised to assimilate and include such experiences.

18. When the individual perceives and accepts into one consistent and integrated system all his sensory and visceral experiences, then he is necessarily more understanding of others and is more accepting of others as separate individuals.

19. As the individual perceives and accepts into his self structure more of his organic experiences, he finds that he is replacing his present value system - based extensively on introjections which have been distortedly symbolized - with a continuing organism valuing process.

Student Centred Learning

Student-centred learning (also called child-centred learning) is an approach

to education focusing on the needs of the students, rather than those of others involved in the

educational process, such as teachers and administrators. This approach has many

implications for the design of curriculum, course content, and interactivity of courses. For

instance, a student-centred course may address the needs of a particular student audience to

learn how to solve some job-related problems using some aspects of mathematics. In contrast,

a course focused on learning mathematics might choose areas of mathematics to cover and

methods of teaching which would be considered irrelevant by the student.

Student-centred learning is focused on the student's needs, abilities, interests, and learning

styles with the teacher as a facilitator of learning. This classroom teaching method

acknowledges student voice as central to the learning experience for every learner. Student-

centred learning requires students to be active, responsible participants in their own learning.

Traditionally, teachers direct the learning process and students assume a receptive role in

their education. Student centred-learning means reversing the traditional teacher-centred

understanding of the learning process and putting students at the centre of the learning

process.

Student-centered learning allows students to actively participate in discovery learning

processes from an autonomous viewpoint. Students consume the entire class time

constructing a new understanding of the material being learned without being passive, but

rather proactive. A variety of hands-on activities are administered in order to promote

successful learning. Unique, yet distinctive learning styles are encouraged in a student-

centered classroom. With the use of valuable learning skills, students are capable of

achieving life-long learning goals, which can further enhance student motivation in the

classroom. Because learning can be seen as a form of personal growth, students are

encouraged to utilize self-regulation practices in order to reflect on his or her work. For that

reason, learning can also be constructive in the sense that the student is in full control of his

or her learning. Such emphasis on learning has enabled students to take a self-

directed alternative to learning. The following provides a few examples of why student-

centered learning should be integrated into the curriculum:

Strengthens student motivation

Promotes peer communication

Reduces disruptive behaviours

Builds student-teacher relationships

Promotes discovery/active learning

Responsibility for one’s own learning

With the openness of a student-cantered learning environment, knowledge production is vital

when providing students the opportunity to explore their own learning styles. In that respect,

successful learning also occurs when learners are fully engaged in the active learning process.

In terms of curriculum practice, the student has the choice in what they want to study and

how they are going to apply their newfound knowledge. In teacher-directed instruction:

Students work to achieve curricular objectives in order to become critical thinkers

Students complete activities designed by the teacher to achieve academic success

Students respond to positive expectations set by the teacher as they progress through

activities

Students are given extrinsic motivators like grades and rewards in which motivates

children to internalize information and objectively demonstrates their understanding of

concepts

Student work is evaluated by the teacher

To implement a student-centred learning environment, attention must be given to the

following aspects of learning:

What the child wants to do

How the teacher is able to accommodate the child's whims

What makes the child happy

Student interaction

Because much of the power resides with students, teachers must realize that they are

submissive in the learning process. This is a role teachers must be comfortable with if they

are to implement a student-centred learning environment. To be considered a student-centred

learning environment it will be open, dynamic, trusting, respectful, and promote the primacy

of children's subjectivity over objective learning. Students will collaborate on hands-on

problems with little to no teacher instruction and make their own conclusions. This

experiential learning involves the whole person – their feelings, thoughts, whims, social

skills, and intuition. The result is a person who is empowered against conventional societal

norms; a student who is carefree and doesn't judge others.

One of the most critical differences between student-centred learning and teacher-centred

learning is in assessment. In student-centred learning, students participate in the evaluation of

their learning. This means that students are involved in deciding how to demonstrate their

learning. One of the main reasons teachers’ resist student-centred learning is the view of

assessment as problematic in practice. Since teacher-assigned grades are so tightly woven

into the fabric of schools, expected by students, parents and administrators alike, allowing

students to participate in assessment is somewhat contentious.

Encounter GroupsAn encounter group is typically an unstructured psychotherapy group in which the participants seek to increase their sensitivity, responsiveness, and emotional expressiveness, as by freely verbalizing and responding to emotions. These groups are also known as sensitivity (or sensory) awareness groups and training groups (or T-groups). The use of continual feedback, participation, and observation by the group encourages the analysis and interpretation of their problems.

Carl Rogers coined the term, ‘The Basic Encounter Group’ to identify encounter groups that operated on the principles of the person-centred approach.

Encounter groups are formed, usually under the guidance and leadership of a psychologists or therapist, to provide an environment for intensive interaction. In Rogers’ model, the therapist is mostly there to facilitate the communication between group members, possibly repeating or rephrasing the comments of individuals when there are pauses or when such repetition mirrors valuable thoughts and feelings. Some group leaders take a more interpretive or analytic role and might explain, elucidate, or compare individual’s feelings. Groups can evolve from relatively passive sitting and speaking to dynamic adventures where things like acting out or movement are encouraged.

The Rogers’ model of encounter group did not presuppose such considerations as the target population, size of the group, establishment of goals and ground rules, or specific facilitator or participant behaviours.

Essence

It includes giving autonomy to persons in groups, freeing them to ‘do their thing’ (i.e., expressing their own ideas and feelings as one aspect of the group data), facilitating learning, stimulating independence in thought and action, accepting the ‘unacceptable’ innovative creations that emerge, delegating full responsibility, offering and receiving feedback, encouraging and relying on self-evaluation, and finding reward in the development and achievement of others.

A typical encounter group setting

It usually involves a group of thirty to three hundred individuals who meet for three days to two weeks in a psychological atmosphere founded upon the principles of the person-centered approach. The setting is generally one in which participants will have contacts in their daily activities including dormitory rooms with shared baths, cafeteria meals, and facilities which offer opportunities for participants to meet each other. There are generally small groups, topic groups, paper presentations, experiential activities such as expressive therapy; and recreational activities. These may or may not be structured prior to the meeting.

They often develop from the large group community meeting. It is the large group meeting of all participants that might be described as the one major activity of person-centered community groups. The large group involves the meeting of all workshop participants who choose to attend a ‘nondirective’ meeting. There are facilitators who are dedicated to the principles of the approach and who have previously experienced such groups. These facilitators presume various responsibilities depending upon the particular facilitators. However, they are for the most part willing to go with the direction and pace of the group.

]In such groups, there are usually periods of silence, anger, attempts to organize, criticism of the facilitators and expression of various emotions as well as, at times, long dialogues by participants. In the case of cross-cultural workshops, the verbal communications are translated into one or two languages. Personal encounters among individuals and power struggles among group factions often occur. These large groups usually meet for three or more hours. They usually meet, at least, once each day.

Role of therapist in an encounter group

Treatment is focussed on the INDIVIDUAL. The therapist tries to see the world through the client’s eyes so that the client will come to see his or her view of reality as having value. The therapist empathizes with the client and offers unconditional positive regard i.e. UNLIMITED ACCEPTANCE. By doing this, the therapist hopes to induce the client to accept the totality of his or her experience and thus facilitate unconditional positive SELF-regard.

The therapist hears the client by mirroring back the message they are getting from the client. They restate the content and state the feelings they are picking up from the client. This process helps the client clarify their feelings and not to feel threatened when doing so. The touchstones of this approach are EMPATHY, INTUITION, and UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD. Ultimately the client is responsible for his or her own growth - the therapist just helps to facilitate this process.

Applications

Rogers applied the concept of encounter group in various cases of persons suffering from:

Depression Anxiety Alcohol disorders Cognitive dysfunction Personality disorders 

Personality TheoryRogers tells us that organisms know what is good for them.  Evolution has provided us with the senses, the tastes, the discriminations we need:  When we hunger, we find food -- not just any food, but food that tastes good.  Food that tastes bad is likely to be spoiled, rotten, and unhealthy. That what good and bad tastes are -- our evolutionary lessons made clear!  This is called organismic valuing.

Among the many things that we instinctively value is positive regard, Rogers umbrella term for things like love, affection, attention, nurturance, and so on.  It is clear that babies need love and attention. In fact, it may well be that they die without it.  They certainly fail to thrive -- i.e. become all they can be.

Another thing -- perhaps peculiarly human -- that we value is positive self-regard that is, self-esteem, self-worth, a positive self-image.  We achieve this positive self-regard by experiencing the positive regard others show us over our years of growing up.  Without this self-regard, we feel small and helpless, and again we fail to become all that we can be!

Like Maslow, Rogers believes that, if left to their own devices, animals will tend to eat and drink things that are good for them, and consume them in balanced proportions.  Babies, too, seem to want and like what they need.  Somewhere along the line, however, we have created an environment for ourselves that is significantly different from the one in which we evolved.  In this new environment are such things as refined sugar, flour, butter, chocolate, and so on, that our ancestors in Africa never knew.  These things have flavours that appeal to our organismic valuing -- yet do not serve our actualization well.  Over millions of years, we may evolve to find brocolli more satisfying than cheesecake -- but by then, it’ll be way too late for you and me.

Our society also leads us astray with conditions of worth.  As we grow up, our parents, teachers, peers, the media, and others, only give us what we need when we show we are “worthy,” rather than just because we need it. We get a drink when we finish our class, we get something sweet when we finish our vegetables, and most importantly, we get love and affection if and only if we “behave!”

Getting positive regard on “on condition” Rogers calls conditional positive regard.  Because we do indeed need positive regard, these conditions are very powerful, and we bend ourselves into a shape determined, not by our organismic valuing or our actualizing tendency, but by a society that may or may not truly have our best interests at heart.  A “good little boy or girl” may not be a healthy or happy boy or girl!

Over time, this “conditioning” leads us to have conditional positive self-regard as well.  We begin to like ourselves only if we meet up with the standards others have applied to us, rather than if we are truly actualizing our potentials.  And since these standards were created without keeping each individual in mind, more often than not we find ourselves unable to meet them, and therefore unable to maintain any sense of self-esteem.

Incongruity

The aspect of your being that is founded in the actualizing tendency, follows organismic valuing, needs and receives positive regard and self-regard, Rogers calls the real self.  It is the “you” that, if all goes well, you will become.

On the other hand, to the extent that our society is out of synch with the actualizing tendency, and we are forced to live with conditions of worth that are out of step with organismic valuing, and receive only conditional positive regard and self-regard, we develop instead an ideal self.  By ideal, Rogers is suggesting something not real, something that is always out of our reach, the standard we can’t meet.

This gap between the real self and the ideal self, the “I am” and the “I should” is called incongruity.  The greater the gap, the more incongruity. The more incongruity, the more suffering.  In fact, incongruity is essentially what Rogers means by neurosis:  Being out of synch with your own self.  If this all sounds familiar to you, it is precisely the same point made by Karen Horney!

Defences

When you are in a situation where there is an incongruity between your image of yourself and your immediate experience of yourself (i.e. between the ideal and the real self), you are in a threatening situation.  For example, if you have been taught to feel unworthy if you do not get A's on all your tests, and yet you aren't really all that great a student, then situations such as tests are going to bring that incongruity to light -- tests will be very threatening.

When you are expecting a threatening situation, you will feel anxiety.  Anxiety is a signal indicating that there is trouble ahead, that you should avoid the situation!  One way to avoid the situation, of course, is to pick you up and run for the hills.  Since that is not usually an option in life, instead of running physically, we run psychologically, by using defences.

Rogers' idea of defences is very similar to Freud's, except that Rogers considers everything from a perceptual point-of-view, so that even memories and impulses are thought of as perceptions.  Fortunately for us, he has only two defences:  denial and perceptual distortion.

Denial means very much what it does in Freud's system:  You block out the threatening situation altogether.  An example might be the person who never picks up his test or asks about test results, so he doesn't have to face poor grades (at least for now!).  Denial for Rogers does also include what Freud called repression:  If keeping a memory or an impulse out of your awareness -- refuse to perceive it -- you may be able to avoid (again, for now!) a threatening situation.

Perceptual distortion is a matter of reinterpreting the situation so that it appears less threatening.  It is very similar to Freud's rationalization.  A student that is threatened by tests and grades may, for example, blame the professor for poor teaching, trick questions, bad attitude, or whatever.  The fact that sometimes professors are poor teachers, writes trick questions, and have bad attitudes only makes the distortion work better:  If it could be true, then maybe it really was true!  It can also be much more obviously perceptual, such as when the person misreads his grade as better than it is.

Unfortunately for the poor neurotic (and, in fact, most of us), every time he or she uses a defence; they put a greater distance between the real and the ideal.  They become ever more incongruous, and find themselves in more and more threatening situations, develop greater and greater levels of anxiety, and use more and more defences....  It becomes a vicious cycle that the person eventually is unable to get out of, at least on their own.

Rogers also has a partial explanation for psychosis:  Psychosis occurs when a person's defence are overwhelmed, and their sense of self becomes "shattered" into little disconnected pieces.  His behavior likewise has little consistency to it.  We see him as having "psychotic breaks" -- episodes of bizarre behavior.  His words may make little sense.  His emotions may be inappropriate.  He may lose the ability to differentiate self and non-self, and become disoriented and passive.

The fully-functioning person

Rogers, like Maslow, is just as interested in describing the healthy person.  His term is "fully-functioning," and involves the following qualities:

1.  Openness to experience.  This is the opposite of defensiveness.  It is the accurate perception of one's experiences in the world, including one's feelings.  It also means being able to accept reality, again including one's feelings.  Feelings are such an important part of openness because they convey organismic valuing.  If you cannot be open to your feelings, you cannot be open to actualization.  The hard part, of course, is distinguishing real feelings from the anxieties brought on by conditions of worth.

2.  Existential living.  This is living in the here-and-now.  Rogers, as a part of getting in touch with reality, insists that we not live in the past or the future -- the one is gone, and the other isn't anything at all, yet!  The present is the only reality we have.  Mind you, that doesn't mean we shouldn't remember and learn from our past.  Neither does it mean we shouldn't plan or even day-dream about the future.  Just recognize these things for what they are:  memories and dreams, which we are experiencing here in the present.

3.  Organismic trusting.  We should allow ourselves to be guided by the organismic valuing process.  We should trust ourselves; do what feels right, what comes natural.  This, as I'm sure you realize, has become a major sticking point in Rogers' theory.  People say, sure, do what comes natural -- if you are a sadist, hurt people; if you are a masochist, hurt yourself; if the drugs or alcohol make you happy, go for it; if you are depressed, kill yourself....  This certainly doesn't sound like great advice.  In fact, many of the excesses of the sixties and seventies were blamed on this attitude.  But keep in mind that Rogers meant trust you’re real self, and you can only know what your real self has to say if you are open to experience and living existentially!  In other words, organismic trusting assumes you are in contact with the actualizing tendency.

4.  Experiential freedom.  Rogers felt that it was irrelevant whether or not people really had free will.  We feel very much as if we do.  This is not to say, of course, that we are free to do anything at all:  We are surrounded by a deterministic universe, so that, flap my arms as much as I like, I will not fly like Superman.  It means that we feel free when choices are available to us.  Rogers says that the fully-functioning person acknowledges that feeling of freedom, and takes responsibility for his choices.

5.  Creativity.  If you feel free and responsible, you will act accordingly, and participate in the world.  A fully-functioning person, in touch with actualization, will feel obliged by their nature to contribute to the actualization of others, even life itself.  This can be through creativity in the arts or sciences, through social concern and parental love, or simply by doing one's best at one's job.  Creativity as Rogers uses it is very close to Eriksson’s generativity.

PsychotherapyRoger's theory led him to practice a non-directive psychotherapy in which the client sat face-to-face with him rather than lying on the couch. It sends a message to the client that they are collaborators and that the therapist is not the one who 'knows,' but is there to facilitate the client's growth (which can only come from 'within,' so to speak). Finally, Rogers held to the strict criteria that genuineness, empathy and unconditional positive regard are essential on the part of the therapist if the client is to be healed and "self-actualize."

Rogers felt that he could not be of help to troubled people by means of any intellectual or training procedure.  No approach which relies upon knowledge, upon training, upon the acceptance of something that is taught, was of any use.  It is possible to explain a person to him, to prescribe steps which should lead him forward, to train him in knowledge about a more satisfying life.  But such methods, Rogers felt, are futile and inconsequential, based on his experience.  The most they can accomplish, he said, was some temporary change, which soon disappears, leaving the individual more than ever convinced of his inadequacy.

The failure of any such approach through the intellect had forced him to recognize that change appears to come about through experience in a relationship. Rogers outlined what he felt were three essential conditions for a therapeutic relationship:

 1) Genuineness

Rogers found that the more genuine he was in the relationship, the more helpful it would be.  This means that the therapist needs to be aware of his own feelings, in so far as possible, rather than presenting an outward facade of one attitude, while actually holding another attitude at a deeper or unconscious level.  Being genuine also involves the willingness to be and to express, in one's words and one's behavior, the various feelings and attitudes which exist in one's self.  Rogers found this to be true even when the attitudes he felt were not attitudes with which he was pleased, or attitudes which seemed conducive to a good relationship.  It seemed extremely important to be REAL.

 2) Acceptance

As a second condition, Rogers found that the more acceptance and liking he felt toward a client, the more he was willing to create a relationship which the client could use.  By acceptance, Rogers meant a warm regard for him as a person of unconditional self-worth--of value no matter what his condition, his behavior, or his feelings.  It means a respect and liking for him as a separate person, willingness for him to possess his own feelings in his own way.  It means an acceptance of and regard for his attitudes of the moment, no matter how negative or positive, no matter how much they may contract other attitudes he had held in the past.  This acceptance of each fluctuating aspect of this other person makes it for him a relationship of warmth and safety, and the safety of being liked and prized as a person seems a highly important element in a helping relationship.

 3) Understanding

Rogers also found that the relationship was significant to the extent that he feel a continuing desire to understand--a sensitive empathy with each of the client's feelings and communications as they seem to him at that moment.  Acceptance, Rogers felt, does not mean much until it involves understanding.  It is only as one UNDERSTANDS the feelings and thoughts which seem so horrible to the client, or so weak, or so sentimental, or so bizarre--it is only as one sees them as the client sees them, and accepts them and the client, that the client feels really free to explore all the hidden nooks and frightening crannies of his inner and often buried experience.  This FREEDOM is an important condition of the relationship.  There is implied here a freedom to explore oneself at both conscious and unconscious levels, as rapidly as one can dare to embark on this dangerous quest.  There is also a complete freedom from any type of moral or diagnostic evaluation, since all such evaluations are, Rogers believed, always threatening.

Rogers writes: "Thus the relationship which I have found helpful is characterized by a sort of transparency on my part, in which my real feelings are evident; by an acceptance of this other person as a separate person with value in his own right; and by a deep empathic understanding which enables me to see his private world through his eyes.  When these conditions are achieved, I become a companion to my client, accompanying him in the frightening search for himself, which he now feels free to undertake." (On Becoming a Person)

Rogers felt that the individual will discover within himself the capacity to use this relationship for growth.

Rogers' experience led him to the conclusion that the individual has within himself the capacity and the tendency, latent if not evident, to move forward toward maturity.  In a suitable psychological climate this tendency is released, and becomes actual rather than potential.  It is evident in the capacity of the individual to understand those aspects of his life and of himself which are causing him pain and dissatisfaction, an understanding which probes beneath his conscious knowledge of himself into those experiences which he has hidden from himself because of their threatening nature.  It shows itself in the tendency to reorganize his personality and his relationship to life in ways which are regarded as more mature.  Whether one calls it a growth tendency, a drive toward self-actualization, or a forward-moving directional tendency, it is the mainspring of life, and is, in the last analysis, the tendency upon which all psychotherapy depends.

ReferencesThe Carl Rogers Reader, edited by Kirschenbaum and Henderson (1989).

Carl Rogers biography, http://www.nrogers.com/carlrogersbio.html