Carl Rogers

Overview

Carl Rogers developed client-centred therapy against both the psychoanalytic model, in which the analyst interprets, and the behavioural model, in which the therapist conditions. His claim was that people have a tendency toward growth that resumes when three conditions are present: the therapist's genuineness, unconditional positive regard, and accurate empathic understanding. He was also unusual among clinicians of his generation in his methods: he recorded and transcribed sessions at a time when that was almost unheard of, and he pushed for therapy outcomes to be measured rather than asserted, which made his approach one of the first to be studied empirically. The term client rather than patient was itself an argument, refusing the medical framing of the relationship. His influence runs well beyond therapy into counselling training, education, and conflict mediation.

Where to start reading

• Counseling and Psychotherapy 1942

  The first statement of the non-directive approach, including transcribed session material as evidence.

• Client-Centered Therapy 1951

  The full theory of therapy and of personality, setting out the conditions he held to be necessary for change.

• On Becoming a Person 1961

  Essays for a general reader on what changes in a person over the course of therapy; his most widely read book.

Part of

• Humanistic psychology

Sources

1. Significant Aspects of Client-Centered Therapy Classics in the History of Psychology, York UniversityRogers' 1946 paper, a compact statement of the approach with case material.
2. Carl Rogers Wikipedia
3. Person-centered therapy Wikipedia