On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy

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I get defeated sometimes, I get hurt sometimes, but I’m learning that these experiences are not fatal.” Rogers originally developed his theory as the foundation for a system of therapy. He initially called it "non-directive therapy" but later replaced the term "non-directive" with "client-centered", and still later "person-centered". Even before the publication of Client-Centered Therapy in 1951, Rogers believed the principles he was describing could be applied in a variety of contexts, not just in therapy. As a result, he started to use the term person-centered approach to describe his overall theory. Person-centered therapy is the application of the person-centered approach to therapy. Other applications include a theory of personality, interpersonal relations, education, nursing, cross-cultural relations and other "helping" professions and situations. In 1946 Rogers co-authored "Counseling with Returned Servicemen" with John L. Wallen (the creator of the behavioral model known as The Interpersonal Gap), [27] documenting the application of person-centered approach to counseling military personnel returning from World War II. A helping relationship might be defined as one in which one of the participants intends that there should come about, in one or both parties, more appreciation of, more expression of, more functional use of the latent inner resources of the individual.” Creativity: it follows that they will feel freer to be creative. They will also be more creative in the way they adapt to their circumstances without feeling a need to conform. So yes, Carl Ransom Rogers was a pioneer. Yes, he was one of the most influential figures in the field of psychotherapy, but he was also an incredibly tedious and challenging writer.

A person learns significantly only those things that are perceived as being involved in the maintenance of or enhancement of the structure of self" (Rogers, 1951). Therefore, relevancy to the student is essential for learning. The students' experiences become the core of the course.Kramer, Robert (1995). "The Birth of Client-Centered Therapy: Carl Rogers, Otto Rank, and 'The Beyond'". Journal of Humanistic Psychology 35.4: 54–110. That’s it, Rogers realized: all we need to live a more fulfilled life is to feel that our desires and actions are normal! To understand that, we should probably introduce you to the idea of “confirming the other” developed by Martin Buber, an existentialist philosopher and mystic from the University of Jerusalem.

On the whole,” writes Rogers, “the viewpoint of the professional worker as well as the layman is that man as he is, in his basic nature, had best be kept under control or under cover or both.”

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Self-concept is an idea much discussed by both psychologists and sociologists. Carl Rogers describes his notion of self-concept in his well-known book On Becoming a Person, originally published in 1961. The structure and organization of self appears to become more rigid under threats and to relax its boundaries when completely free from threat" (Rogers, 1951). If students believe that concepts are being forced upon them, they might become uncomfortable and fearful. A barrier is created by a tone of threat in the classroom. Therefore, an open, friendly environment in which trust is developed is essential in the classroom. Fear of retribution for not agreeing with a concept should be eliminated. A supportive classroom tone helps to alleviate fears and encourages students to have the courage to explore concepts and beliefs that vary from those they bring to the classroom. Also, new information might threaten the student's concept of themself; therefore, the less vulnerable the student feels, the more likely they will be able to open up to the learning process. American Academy of Psychotherapists History of the Academy". Archived from the original on 2012-07-10 . Retrieved 2008-01-31. My copy of Carl R. Rogers’ On Becoming a Person has taken a good battering over several years of training to become a qualified counsellor.

Proctor, Gillian, and Napier, Mary Beth, eds. (2004). Encountering Feminism: Intersections Between Feminism and the Person-Cerntered Approach. PCCS Books. ISBN 978-1-898059-65-3. Wilkins, P. (1997). Congruence and countertransference: similarities and differences. Counselling, 8(1), 36±41.

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This doesn’t mean that he didn’t consider psychotherapists to be people; on the contrary, in fact. And that is one of the main ideas of this book. And then Rogers realized something else: whenever he had come across a problem in his life, what helped and healed him wasn’t a talk with someone acting from an above-position, but a conversation with one who is a peer in every sense of the word.