The Rogerian therapy (person-centered therapy), which started with Carl Rogers, presently serves as among the basis for humanistic field of psychotherapies, while it serves as among the key psychotherapy fields. Developed in 1940s, this form of therapy deviated from the conventional approach of counselors as experts and shifted to empathic strategy, which focuses on motivating and empowering clients during the therapy process. The therapy revolves around the belief by Roger that people emphasize on the need for fulfilling their individual potential (Elliott, 2013) . Today, Rogerian therapy has had significant influence on the area of psychotherapy in line with diverse other disciplines while Rogers acknowledged that his therapy served as the best when dealing with intellectual and motivated individuals when it comes to addressing the problems they encounter (Elliott, 2013) . Based on the emphasis it directs toward deep reflecting toward feeling, thinking, and interpretations of feeling and thinking, Rogerian therapy serves as among the major therapy and counselling approaches presently. However, the person-centered therapy is subject to various criticisms because of its ‘humanistic’ perception, that what people wish to do or be is okay. The approach also faces criticisms in that it fails to offer answers or solutions to problems people desire to explore deeply with their therapists (Joseph & Murphy, 2013) . Hence, the paper discusses the theory and ideas on Rogers’ therapy.
Rogerian Theory in Practice
As opposed to perceiving individuals as innately flawed, characterized by difficult thoughts and behaviors needing treatment, the Rogerian therapy reveals that all people have the desire and ability of realizing individual change and growth. Rogers referred to this natural inclination by humans as “self-actualization.” He compared it with the manner in which other living creatures struggle to realize order, balance, and increased sophistication. In the viewpoint of Rogers, people feature numerous self-understanding resources within themselves, which affect their rudimentary attitudes, self-concepts, as well as self-directed conduct. People are capable of tapping these resources through availing an environment of facilitative psychological outlook (Muntigl, Knight, Watkins, & Horvath, 2013) .
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The therapist following the person-centered approach learns ways of identifying and trusting the potential of humans, offer empathy to clients, and provide unreserved positive repute to assist in instituting change. For the therapists, they refrain from directing the path the therapy should follow by emphasizing on the lead that clients offer whenever conceivable (Feldthusen, Dean, Forsblad-d’Elia, & Mannerkorpi, 2016) . Rather, the therapist ensures to provide guidance, support, and structure to make sure that the client is able to realize tailored results within themselves. The Rogerian therapy was at the vanguard during the movement that revolved around humanistic psychology. It has also had various influences on numerous therapeutic approaches and the overall field of mental health. Furthermore, Rogerian approaches have affected other fields, ranging from education to medicine (Quinn, 2013) .
Forces Driving Growth in Rogerian Theory
Rogerian introduced six major forces that drive growth inside a person. He proposed that upon meeting these conditions, an individual would be inclined toward constructive realization of potential. The six forces required for growth comprise of the following. Firstly, the Therapist-Client Psychological Contact factor stipulates that the relationship that exists between clients and therapist should prevail to ensure that a client is able to realize positive individual change (Muntigl, Knight, Watkins, & Horvath, 2013) . Secondly, the Client Vulnerability or Incongruence factor reveals that any discrepancy that exists between the self-image of clients and the real encounters leave them susceptible to anxieties and fears. Often, the client lacks awareness concerning incongruence. Thirdly, the Therapist Genuineness or Congruence concept requires that therapists be congruent, genuine, and self-aware. The therapist does not require reflecting on perfection, but should ensure to remain truthful to clients during the therapeutic process (Feldthusen, Dean, Forsblad-d’Elia, & Mannerkorpi, 2016) . Fourthly, the Therapist Unconditional Positive Growth factor requires that the therapist ensure to accept the experiences of the client whether negative or positive, without exercising judgments or imposing any conditions. This way, the client is better placed to share encounters without portraying any fear of being subjected to conditions or judgments by the therapist. Fifthly, the Therapist Empathy factor ensures that the therapist shows empathetic comprehension of the experiences by the client while refraining from emotional involvements. Lastly, the Client Perception concept ensures that the client recognizes the unreserved empathic understanding and positive regard of the therapist (Quinn, 2013) . The behaviors and words that the therapist uses would communicate thee to the client.
Fundamental Conditions
To expand to the work of Rogers, various theorists have reduced the six vital conditions to three fundamental ones. The key force that leads to successful therapy entails the relational climate, which the attitude of the therapist establishes to clients. The three major interrelated fundamental conditions are as follows. Firstly, the Congruence concept requires that therapists have the willingness of relating with customers while refraining from hiding behind their personal façade or professional image (Feldthusen, Dean, Forsblad-d’Elia, & Mannerkorpi, 2016) . Secondly, the unconditional positive regard idea needs therapists to provide acceptance and levering for their clients for who they are while avoiding showing disapproving actions, feelings, or traits. They should portray willingness for listening to their clients attentively without judgment, interruption, or offering advice. Finally, the Empathy factor ensures that therapists communicate their desire for comprehending and respecting the perspectives of their clients (Elliott, 2013) .
Processes in Three Core Conditions
According to Rogers, he acknowledged the idea that therapists exercising the three vital and reflexive behaviors would be able to liberate their clients to ensure they realize increased confidence when expressing real feelings without fearing to be judged. In realizing this, the therapists following the Rogerian therapy approach should ensure to avoid challenging the manner in which clients communicate themselves during therapy sessions (Elliott, 2013) . Doing so would ensure that the therapist is able to discover issues most intimate to clients more deeply without outside referencing. Rogers refrained from telling his clients what they needed doing, although he supported the idea that the answers offered to the questions clients raised lay inside the client as opposed to the therapist. Accordingly, the duty of the therapist was to establish an empathetic and facilitative atmosphere that would provide the clients with an avenue of discovering answers within on their own (Feldthusen, Dean, Forsblad-d’Elia, & Mannerkorpi, 2016) .
Negative or Positive Opinions
Marital Counselling
A positive opinion affiliated with Rogerian therapy can be attributed to marital counselling. The role of this kind of therapy in marital counselling entails improving communication between spouses as well as allowing them to share feelings. Via special processes, the couples are offered a guide on how to boost their listening and speaking skills as well as boosting their capability when it comes to emotional honesty. For the counselor deploying this approach, the major area of emphasis entails communicating unconditional positive regard and empathy to the clients. This entails deploying skills, including reflecting on feelings, active listening, summaries and meaning in the perspective of authentic interaction between clients and the counselor (Joseph & Murphy, 2013) . The role that the counselor plays in this case is one of a ‘non expert’ to allow the clients realize personal strengths as well as acquire answers that match with their beliefs and values.
Student Life
An additional area I have noted the positives of person-based therapy revolves around my student life. In the educational sector, our school counselor believes that the key issues of emphasis revolve around deep and unending learning. This permits participants to grow and develop hence emerge as whole persons as opposed to just gaining knowledge on certain subject matter. Our counselor believes it is essential to combine cognitive skills with interpersonal behavior and understanding of self. Failure to emphasize on the entire person leads individuals to miss the chance for fulfilling the real meaning associated with education, which targets enriching the lives of people. For instance, our high school coach has cancelled several basketball games during a winning season while focused on teaching us the school is more important than failing grades or winning a basketball game. Our coach teaches us that school entails emerging as a whole person, including a person capable of attaining good grades, winning basketball game, while at the same time emerging as a person capable of listening to others and the self, be respectful, sensitive, as well as empathetic to other people. In this manner, the adoption of the Rogerian therapy by our coach has played a critical role in allowing us to emerge as better people and focus on attaining a good life.
Pastoral Counselling
Despite its positives, the Rogerian therapy is attributed to a negative, especially on matters related to pastoral counselling. On pastoral counselling, a major problem emerges in exercising the person-centered therapy because of how it views humanity. When it comes to pastoral counselling, humans are not innately inclined toward realizing positive growth while the person-centered approach based on the humanity concept can result to selfishness. The idea of self-actualization revolves around the self and eradication of personal hindrances (Feldthusen, Dean, Forsblad-d’Elia, & Mannerkorpi, 2016) . Understanding oneself and attaining optimal potential might reveal that a client would fail to fulfill duties to other people, especially when they emerge as increasingly self-focused. Any time individuals embark on ‘finding themselves while at the same time neglecting the relationship they have with others, they end up being considered as selfish since the Bible requires people to be selfless and show concern toward others (Elliott, 2013) . In the event that pastoral counselling encourages individuals to care for themselves by adopting the Rogerian therapy approach, that would be going against Biblical teachings.
References
Elliott, R. (2013). Person-centered/experiential psychotherapy for anxiety difficulties: Theory, research and practice. Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies, 12 (1), 16-32.
Feldthusen, C., Dean, E., Forsblad-d’Elia, H., & Mannerkorpi, K. (2016). of person-centered physical therapy on fatigue-related variables in persons with rheumatoid arthritis: a randomized controlled trial. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 97 (1), 26-36.
Joseph, S., & Murphy, D. (2013). Person-centered approach, positive psychology, and relational helping: Building bridges. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 53 (1), 26-51.
Muntigl, P., Knight, N., Watkins, A., & Horvath, A. O. (2013). retreating: Person-centered practices to repair disaffiliation in therapy. Journal of Pragmatics, 53 , 1-20.
Quinn, A. (2013). A person-centered approach to multicultural counseling competence. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 53 (2), 202-251.
