Carl Rogers’ Person-Centered Therapy

Humanism refers to a psychological strategy that looks into a person as a whole and
focuses on their uniqueness. It was developed as a rebellion to behaviorist and
psychodynamic approaches. Humanistic approaches stress conscious awareness
instead of unconscious conflict and the importance of therapists to comprehend their
clients’ heuristic worlds (Kramer et al., 2014). An example of a humanistic approach
is Carl Rogers’ person-centered psychotherapy. Its focus is to develop the required
conditions for clients to take part in profound self-exploration of their beliefs, feelings,
perceptions, and behavior to facilitate growth and the capacity to deal with existing
and future problems. The overall premise of this theory is that people are on the
whole trustworthy, ingenious, able to understand and direct themselves, capable of
making positive changes to lead productive lives. The attributes of the therapist
determine the therapeutic relationship and the upshots of the therapeutic process.
This paper discusses healthy functioning, personal factors that can cause
dysfunction, attainment of growth, intervention techniques, and drawbacks of Carl
Rogers’ person-centered psychotherapy. The relationship of the theory with personal
traits, values, and views about human nature are also discussed.

Healthy Functioning/Development According to Carl

Rogers’ Person-Centered Therapy
Rogers considers a wholly functioning individual as one who is aware of their secret
feelings and longings. Such a person comprehends their emotions and trusts their
intuitions and impulses. The attainment of healthy functioning requires unconditional
positive regard and self-actualization. Unconditional positive regard refers to
categorical tolerance, love, or esteem (Greene, 2017). The main difference between
unconditional love and unconditional positive regard is that the latter does not require
real feelings of tenderness and affection. Instead, it requires an individual to be
accommodating and friendly, even if the other party has done debatable deeds.

Rogers asserted that people need to reach their maximum potential. This
phenomenon is what is referred to as self-actualization. It involves reaching the
highest point of psychological development, accomplishment, and contentment.
Humans have inherent resources to understand themselves and change their
perceptions, attitudes, and behavior. However, these resources can be exploited in
the presence of a climate that enables psychological attitudes (Proctor et al., 2016).
Therefore, fully functional individuals are always striving to become self-actualized. A
healthy functioning individual does not impose conditions on their worth, can convey
their feelings freely, and is receptive to life’s experiences. In other words, they have
accepted “existential living” by maximizing every moment and opportunity. As a
result, they attain inner freedom, accept creativity, exhilaration, and contests.

Characteristics or Factors Regarding Persons that Can

Result in Dysfunction
Healthy-functioning individuals have specific traits that help them to be cognizant of
their emotions and accept their requirements for personal growth. These attributes
include receptive to new experiences, the lack of defensiveness, the capacity to
construe experiences accurately, possess categorical self-regard, and the ability to
live cordially with other people. They should be flexible and capable of adapting to
various situations. Additionally, they should accept constructive feedback and be
willing to make the necessary changes. Being open to experiences implies that
negative and positive emotions are embraced. The ability to work through negative
encounters and learn from them promotes healthy functioning. In contrast, turning to
ego defense machinery is detrimental and may result in dysfunction.

Other characteristics include experiential living, creativity, and fulfilled life.

Experiential living is having an intuitive awareness of various happenings as they
occur. It involves appreciating the present without dwelling on the past or anticipating
the future. Creativity refers to taking risks to explore new experiences and
opportunities, whereas living a fulfilled life means that one is happy and contented. A
person should always trust their gut feelings and the ability to make the right
decisions. Dysfunction happens when poor self-perception or outside constraints
supersede the valuing process.

How Change and Growth Occur as Described by Carl

Rogers’ Person-Centered Psychotherapy
Change and growth occur as an individual self-actualizes. Rogers alleged that self-
actualization can only be attained if a person is in a state of congruence, which
implies that the person’s idyllic self corresponds to their real self-image (Proctor et
al., 2016). Growth within an individual is promoted by six factors: perception of the
client, therapist empathy, unconditional positive regard from the counselor,
psychological contact between psychotherapist and client, genuineness of the
counselor, and client vulnerability. The client should be able to perceive empathy and
unconditional positive regard from the therapist as communicated through words and
actions. Psychoanalyst empathy denotes the ability to exhibit an empathic
understanding of the client’s experiences or situation without emotional involvement.
The psychotherapist should be able to visualize things from the patient’s perspective.

The therapist should accept the client’s good and bad experiences devoid of
preconditions or judgment. Consequently, the client can express themselves freely
without the fear of judgment. There needs to be a relationship between the client and
psychoanalyst for the attainment of positive personal change. In contrast, client
vulnerability refers to fears and apprehensions that ensue from incongruence or
discrepancy between their self-perception and real experiences. Genuineness of the
therapist denotes congruence, which means that the psychoanalyst should be true to
themselves within the remedial relationship. Being authentic establishes trust and
encourages patients to be true to themselves, which results in a positive therapeutic
relationship. However, this factor does not exemplify perfection.

Intervention Techniques that Facilitate Change or Growth

within the Theory
Client-centered therapy offers a reassuring environment for clients to recreate their
true identity. Currently, client-centered therapy uses a nondirective, humane
methodology that emboldens and enables the client during the therapeutic process
without the direct involvement of the therapist. One of the techniques used is
nondirectiveness, which alludes to permitting clients to be the focal point of the
psychoanalysis session without any advice, activities, or execution of strategies
(Murphy & Joseph, 2016). The second technique is empathy, which requires the
counselor to show an understanding of the client’s feelings. However, therapists
need to be cautious to avoid showing sympathy. The key difference between
empathy and sympathy is that sympathy involves feeling sorry for the patient and
encouraging self-pity, whereas empathy motivates the client to open up.

Another technique is unconditional positive regard, which requires the therapist to be

receptive and non-judgmental. Nevertheless, the psychotherapist does not need to
consent to everything that is done or said by the client. Instead, the counselor should
presume that the client is doing their best and show this by expressing concern
instead of disagreeing with them. Person-centered therapy involves congruence. The
counselors should ensure that their body language and speech match. Any confusion
should be clarified as soon as they occur. Additional techniques used in person-
centered therapy include open questions, rephrasing, rumination of feelings, and
applying words of encouragement.

Drawbacks or Issues with Carl Rogers’ Person-Centered

Therapy
The shortcomings of Carl Rogers’ person-centered therapy stem from its humanistic
approach, which has been applied in areas such as abnormality, therapy, personality,
and motivation. It has a limited impact on academic psychology due to its adoption of
a non-scientific approach to investigating humans (Greene, 2017). The theory lacks
empirical evidence from research. The all-inclusive approach of humanity permits
vast variation but does not pinpoint adequate unchangeable variables that can be
investigated with precision. This shortcoming can be attributed to the use of
untestable ideas such as congruence and self-actualization.

The theory is disapproved because of low levels of effectiveness in the treatment of

serious mental health issues, refutation of pertinent behaviorist and psychoanalytic
ideas, as well as numerous oversimplifications about humans. Psychotherapists also
argue that the theory has a radical focus on the biased experiences of the individual,
which does not consider or account for the influence of society on the development of
personality. Another shortcoming of the theory is the ambiguity of its concepts.
Personal ideas, for instance, real experiences cannot be actualized. One person may
consider an experience real, whereas a different person may regard the same
experience and inconsequential.

The humanistic approach that entrenches Rogers’ person-centered therapy is

considered ethnocentric. Most concepts that are fundamental to humanistic
psychology, for example, autonomy, personal freedom, and growth are easily linked
to individualistic Western cultures. Communist cultures that underscore the value of
interdependence and team effort may not identify with the principles of humanistic
psychology, including Rogers’ person-centered theory. Therefore, the theory is
considered an invention of the cultural milieu in which it was established.

How the Theory Fits with the Personality, Values, Style,

and Ideas about Human Nature
The author’s initial view of human nature was that humans are unique beings with
distinct ways of acting, feeling, and thinking. Therefore, each individual needed to be
regarded as distinct and handled in ways that match their beliefs, attitudes, and
outlooks. This theory has redirected this thinking to the concepts of innovativeness
and the need for self-actualization that apply to all humans. The author’s values
include the client’s integrity and autonomy, respect for individuals as well as universal
human rights. The person-centered approach to therapy described by Carl Rogers
fits with these values.

A self-assessment of the author’s personality traits reveals qualities such as self-

awareness, empathy, flexibility, and good communication skills. These characteristics
align with the theory’s expectations of counselors. According to Carl Rogers,
therapists should be congruent, empathic, and nonjudgmental (Kramer et al., 2014).
Self-awareness enables psychoanalyst congruence, whereas good communication
skills, which include being a keen listener, give the impression that the therapist is
understanding and empathetic. Overall, the theory informs the author’s clinical
approach by combining research facts about human behavior and mental processes
to understand the clients’ views and help them to overcome their challenges.

Conclusion
Humanistic psychotherapists perceive humans as innovative beings who are capable
of growth. If provided with the right environment, humans can redirect their behavior
towards the attainment of their maximum potential. Dysfunction arises as a result of
conflicts in awareness or limitations on the actuality that can be removed through
different therapeutic experiences. Carl Rogers’ person-centered therapy highlights
self-actualization and unconditional positive regard as the two important client
concepts that determine healthy functioning. In contrast, therapists should possess
three crucial qualities of congruence, empathic understanding, and unconditional
positive regard to create a positive environment that promotes growth. The theory
influences the author’s personality by enhancing the cultivation of empathy and a
non-judgmental attitude to encourage growth in clients.