Carl Rogers was an American psychologist and who is considered as the founder of the client-centered therapy. He was born on January 8, 1902, in Oak Park, Illinois. Rogers grew up as an intelligent and discipline boy due to the strict religious and ethical environment as an altar boy. He became a dependent, but rather isolated boy as he acquired the knowledge for scientific methods in a practical world. He attended a teachers college at Columbia University where he obtained MA in 1928 before proceeding to get a Ph.D. in 1931. While he was undertaking his doctorate, Rogers also engaged in the child study and later he became the director of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in Rochester, New York. Later on between 1935 and 1940, he was a lecturer at the University of Rochester where he wrote a few books including the “Clinical Treatment of the Problem Child” in 1939 (Gendlin,1988).
Rogers became a professor at Ohio State University in 1940, a time where he wrote the second book, “Counseling and Psychology.” He later set up a counseling center at the University of Chicago where he became a professor of psychology between 1945 and 1957. This time saw him get elected to the position of the president of the American Psychological Association. In 1957, he was a psychology lecturer at the University of Wisconsin. In 1961, Rogers was elected to the position of a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He lectured at the University of Wisconsin until 1963 when he left to become the president of the new Western Behavioral Sciences Institute in La Jolla. Rogers became one of the most respected personalities in the field of psychology by his desire to discover new things. Once he discovered something, he had to follow it up with a lot of research until he could get sufficient information to either approve or disapprove a given point of view. Among some of the achievements by Rogers include election as the president of the American Psychological Association in 1945 where he brought clinical practice into scientific realism and holding that hypothesis in psychotherapy should be tested and verified (Miller & Moyers, 2017). Rogers suddenlydied after he underwent surgery for a broken hip on February 4, 1987.
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Carl Rogers remain to play a vital role in the historical development of psychology and psychotherapy. He was the first person to propose the idea of comprehensive theory on psychotherapy. He is the founder of the client-centered therapy that belongs to the class of humanistic psychology. Unlike the previous psychologists who emphasized the manipulations and interpretations, Rogers came with a non-directive approach which focused on allowing the individuals' space to reflect and actualize their potential (Hermsen, 1996). This approach is a self-directed growth that is based on the relationship between the client, and the helper and trust is the fundamental issue of reaching a solution. In his theory, Rogers believes that therapy is a journey that is shared by two fallible people and that a person inner cycle can strive for self-actualization. He believes that therapy requires the creation of a specific environment that is permissive and growth promoting.
Instead of viewing people as being problematic and need treatment, the client-centered therapy notes that every person has the ability and desire for personal growth and change. According to Rogers, people have the resources and capacity for self-understanding as they can alter their concepts, attitudes and self-direct their behavior. Rogers believed that certain basic concepts are necessary to ensure that there is an effective therapy. The first concept that Rogers mentions is unconditional positive regard. He notes that therapists must demonstrate a belief that people are basically good and they must show this to the client to create an open environment where the client can disclose all the necessary information. Without unconditional positive regard, the client could feel unworthy and may not disclose all the information to the therapist. Rogers further notes that client-centered therapy requires a non-judgmental attitude. The therapist should not pass judgment to the client as this could hinder the disclosure of all the required information. Disclosing information require the therapist to be open and also share some information with the client. By the therapist sharing personal information with the client, an environment of trust is created that facilitate the ability of the client to share all the information necessary. Remaining secretive as a therapist encourages the client also to hold back some information that could be very significant for the therapy. The most critical factor in understanding the self is to reflect rather than interpret. When the client reflects a person’s words, it tells the client that the client is paying attention and understanding his/her thoughts and feelings. Rogers believes that the client always has the answer to their problem and the role of the therapist is to guide the client towards these answers.
Rogers further suggest under the client-centered therapy that three conditions are necessary to facilitate growth in a therapy. These conditions he mentions to include realness, acceptance and empathy understanding. Realism according to Rogers involves the therapist being transparent with the client. He suggests that when a therapist creates a congruent environment without putting a professional front, the client will be willing to change and develop positively. Genuineness and self-awareness are necessary to achieve an effective therapeutic process. Rogers also notes that the therapists should be willing to accept the client the way they are and understand their feelings as this promotes the chances of the client to develop a positive behavior. Accepting the client the way they are without any judgment creates an environment where the two can effectively understand each other. He also believes that the therapist must show empathy by being sensitive to the feelings of the clients. He believes that the more empathetic understanding the therapist is, the higher the chances of the client making improvements. Demonstrating empathy and understanding of the experience of the client shows an understanding of the emotions of the client and making them feel that the therapist is also involved in sharing their emotions.
Rogers believes that the therapeutic process involves the focus on the person and not on the problem the person is facing. Allowing the client to reconnect with self and accept the situation is the key to making positive improvements (Heim, 2012). He also came with the concept of a fully functioning person. He suggested that individuals who strive to fulfil their actualization could be become fully functioning people. According to Rogers, a fully functioning person is one who is completely congruent and lives in the moment. He notes that unconditional positive regard plays a vital role in the development of a fully functioning person. The characteristics of a fully functioning person as mentioned by Rogers include openness to experience, unconditional regard for self, living in harmony with others and having a flexible self-concept. Many have however criticized the work of Rogers on the client-centered therapy. They claim that sometimes clients may fail to be real rendering the whole process ineffective. It also depends on the discounts significance of the client’s past (Kensit, 2000). Other than the client-centered therapy, Rogers also developed a principle on the self-concept. He described self-concept as an organized, consistent conceptual gestalt made up of perceptions and relationships. He believed that conditional and unconditional positive regards play a crucial role in self-concept. Rogers notes that the formation of a healthy self-concept was an ongoing process that can be shaped by the life experience of a person. Individuals who have stability in their sense of self usually tend to have confidence and greater ability to cope with the life challenges. Self-concept starts to develop at childhood and moves throughout as one grows. Parenting and the environment where a person is brought up remains to play a key role in the development of self-concept. The people raised in an environment of unconditional positive regard usually have the chance to actualize themselves. Rogers also believed that people learn that they are rewarded and valued for specific traits.
In conclusion, Rogers remains a crucial figure in the field of psychology, especially in client-centered therapy. His significant contribution to this area of psychotherapy has led to great achievements and changed the whole practice of therapy. His theory is still being used today despite having died many years ago. His contribution to various areas such as self-concept and the fully functioning person remains to be relevant in the field of psychology. Whenever one talks of psychology, the name of Rogers will always come in due to his significant contribution and achievements in this field. By emphasizing on human potential, Carl Rogers had a great influence on both psychology and education. He is the most influential psychologist in the 20 th century due to his contributions to the various areas in psychology. He remains a model of compassion and a person who dedicated his entire life to research and innovation in the field of psychology.
References
Gendlin, E. T. (1988). Obituary: Carl Rogers (1902–1987). American Psychologist , 43 (2), 127–128. https://doi-org.libproxy.westoahu.hawaii.edu/10.1037/h0091937
Heim, C. (2012). Tutorial facilitation in the humanities based on the tenets of Carl Rogers. Higher Education (00181560) , 63 (3), 289–298. https://doi-org.libproxy.westoahu.hawaii.edu/10.1007/s10734-011-9441-z
Hermsen, E. (1996). Person-Centered Psychology and Taoism: The Reception of Lao-tzu by Carl R. Rogers. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion , 6 (2), 107. Retrieved from http://libproxy.westoahu.hawaii.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pbh&AN=7426104&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Kensit, D. A. (2000). Rogerian theory: a critique of the effectiveness of pure client-centered therapy. Counselling Psychology Quarterly , 13 (4), 345–351. https://doi-org.libproxy.westoahu.hawaii.edu/10.1080/09515070110046551
Miller, W. R., & Moyers, T. B. (2017). Motivational interviewing and the clinical science of Carl Rogers. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology , 85 (8), 757–766. https://doi-org.libproxy.westoahu.hawaii.edu/10.1037/ccp0000179
