Learning and Being in Person-Centred Counselling (third edition)

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This process of the good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-hearted. It involves the stretching and growing of becoming more and more of one's potentialities. It involves the courage to be. It means launching oneself fully into the stream of life.(Rogers 1961) One reason why Rogers (1951) rejected interpretation was that he believed that, although symptoms did arise from past experience, it was more useful for the client to focus on the present and future than on the past. Rather than just liberating clients from their past, as psychodynamic therapists aim to do, Rogerians hope to help their clients to achieve personal growth and eventually to self-actualize. Unlike person-centred therapy, psychoanalysis relied on the therapist being a blank slate, distancing themselves from the client, and not getting involved on a personal level. 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. Why are Rogers’ ideas about the six necessary and sufficient conditions so important to facilitate change within the client?

Psychological maladjustment exists when the organism denies to awareness significant sensory and visceral experiences, which consequently are not symbolized and organised into the gestalt of the self-structure. When this situation exists, there is a basic or potential psychological tension. When we experience something that doesn’t fit with our picture of ourselves and we cannot fit it in with that picture, we feel tense, anxious, frightened or confused. A reading of the ‘nineteen propositions’ gives a clear sense of how person-centred personality theory reflects a view of the person continually in process. The person is able, or potentially able to become free from conditions and move away from its debilitating effects towards becoming more integrated and fully functioning. In other words, Rogers viewed the negative effects of early relationships imposing conditions of worth as being largely responsible for the development of emotional or psychological disturbance; the other side of this coin is the person-centred idea that whilst some relationships can be damaging, others can be positively growth promoting.” (Merry, 2002: 23-27). We have developed the Counselling and Psychotherapy Associates at the University of Nottingham, a membership organisation for graduates to support and maintain our community. Central to Rogers’ personality theory is the notion of self or self-concept. This is “the organized, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs about oneself.”Reliability and constructiveness – they can be trusted to act constructively. An individual who is open to all their needs will be able to maintain a balance between them. Even aggressive needs will be matched and balanced by intrinsic goodness in congruent individuals. Merry, Tony. (2002) Learning and Being in Person-centred Counselling. 2ndedition Ross-on-Wye: PCCS Books.

Congruence is also called genuineness. Congruence is the most important attribute in counseling, according to Rogers. This means that, unlike the psychodynamic therapist who generally maintains a “blank screen” and reveals little of their own personality in therapy, the Rogerian is keen to allow the client to experience them as they really are. Rogers offered a group of nineteen hypothetical statements which, together constitute his person-centred theory of personality dynamics and behaviour . ‘A theory of personality and Behaviour’ can be found in Rogers (1951, pp. 481-533). Rogers makes the following statement: “Thistheory is basically phenomenological in character, and relies heavily on the concept of the self as an explanatoryconstruct. It pictures the end-point of personality development as being a basic congruence between the phenomenal field of experience and the conceptual structure of the self - a situation which, if achieved, would represent freedom from internal strain and anxiety, and freedom from potential strain; which would represent the maximum in realistically oriented adaptation; which would mean the establishment of an individualised valuesystem having considerable identity with the value system of any other equally well-adapted member of the human race.”(p. 532)There are a number of ways I can meet my experiences. I can make personal some of the meanings and integrate them into my view of the world. Or I can ignore them because they do not fit with how I see myself or the world. They become destructive only when a poor self-concept or external constraints override the valuing process. Carl Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization, they must be in a state of congruence. A person enters person-centered therapy in a state of incongruence. It is the role of the therapists to reverse this situation. Rogers (1959) called his therapeutic approach client-centered or person-centered therapy because of the focus on the person’s subjective view of the world.

Rogers, C.R. (1959). A theory of therapy, personality, and interpersonal relationships as developed in the client-centered framework in S. Koch (Ed.), Psychology: A Study of a Science, Vol.3: Formulations of the Person and the Social Context (pp.184-256). New York: McGraw-Hill.As a result of interaction with the environment, and particularly as a result of evaluational 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. The organism has one basic tendency and striving – to actualize, maintain and enhance the experiencing organism. Importantly, the authors mention that researcher bias may have played a role in the superiority of the other psychotherapies. After controlling for researcher allegiance, the differences in efficacy between non-directive therapy and other psychotherapies disappeared. This was true for all three meta-analyses. One study also notes no significant difference in effect sizes of non-directive supportive therapy versus full person-centered therapy. However, this was only based on two studies. [7] Unconditional positive regard can be used by parents, teachers, mentors, and social workers in their relationships with children, to foster a positive sense of self-worth and lead to better outcomes in adulthood. For example Rogers, C. (1951). Client-centered therapy: Its current practice, implications and theory. London: Constable.