Carl Rogers -- Initial overview

Client-Centered (a.k.a. Person-Centered) Therapy (know generally what this is), Unconditional Positive Regard (know what this is and why it’s important), emphasis on becoming & process over curing & treating (know this distinction), know what process is, emphasis on the relationship over technique (know why), emphasis on hearing C deeply and letting him/her know it.

On Becoming a Person -- Chapter 1

Know the reasons why Rogers’ biography is integral to his theories, also relation to holism,

From first 6 “significant learnings”

Importance of honest & transparency in therapy -- how its opposite may work in the short run but not in the long run, importance of listening acceptantly to oneself -- also the paradox we noted with respect to aspirations and growth (as well as Rogers’ position on that paradox), importance of permitting oneself to understand the client (as well as its riskiness -- connection to possibility of change for both parties), emphasis on communication of one’s private perceptual world (and hence the importance of an atmosphere of safety), emphasis on acceptance of the client (as well as the place of the intrinsic rewards of doing so), the importance of not rushing in to “fix” the client (this is an important one) -- how the desire to “fix” implies a judgment of the client’s world, “fixing” as being for the therapist’s benefit,

From next 8 “personal learnings”

Importance of one’s “total organismic experience” (know what this means -- relation to intellectual understanding), place of evaluation by others and its relation to individual choice, experience as the highest authority (know also the connection to human fallibility and error -- esp. as entry to openness to new experience), discovery of experience as intrinsically rewarding, the ultimate “friendliness” of the facts (even when they call for us to revise our cherished understandings), “what is most personal is most general” (know what this means, plus its connection to personal expression), people’s fundamentally positive direction (also Rogers’ contention that he doesn’t have a “Pollyanna” view -- know what this means), Rogers’ view of destructiveness, neurosis, evil, etc. Emphasis on life as process of continual growth, change, with no fixed final answers, no closed, ultimate system of beliefs.

Chapter 2

Why and how Rogers moves away from the “medical model” of therapy and its language, the relationship over intellectual theories and therapeutic techniques (relation to temporary and permanent changes), ACCEPTANCE as important to a therapeutic environment (non-judgmental valuing -- letting the client be himself/herself), EMPATHY (attempting to understand the client’s world as though from his/her eyes), HONESTY (transparency in which real feelings, thoughts, etc. are expressed), Rogers’ view on inevitability of change in the long term (although not in the short term -- know why), main motivation for change (innate tendencies toward moving forward in life, which is awaiting the proper conditions), general outcomes of client-centered therapy (see list that we mentioned in class).

Chapter 3

You don’t need to memorize the mainstream research results that Rogers mentions to support his theory. Emphasis on being perceived by client as trustworthy, emphasis on expressiveness, emphasis on experiencing positive attitude toward client, emphasis on being strong enough to separate from client, emphasis on being secure enough to permit client to be who he/she is, emphasis on stepping into client’s world of feelings and personal meanings, emphasis on being acceptant of client, emphasis on being sensitive enough so as not to be perceived as a threat by client, emphasis on free client from threat of external evaluation & judgment (including the seeming paradox around positive judgments), emphasis on allowing becoming, as opposed to being ruled by the past.

Chapter 5 (and also the Gloria tape we viewed)

The general ideas of therapeutic praxis we noted in class, viz., Reflective (but only the subjective, experiential parts (not external details) esp. around suffering), Non-directive (not giving answers, advice, orders, recommendations, etc.) -- letting client come to his/her own answers (know why this is important), Therapist always checks with client to validate interpretation, client as leader of the T/C relationship, the place of silence is therapeutic praxis (relation to client’s finding his/her own answers).

Chapter 7

Continuum of fixity/change, rigid structure/flow, stasis/process,

The general characteristic of stage 1 -- “no problems,” no desire to change, feelings & personal meanings neither recognized nor owned, personal constructs rigidly defined, close relationships perceived as dangerous, no likely to come voluntarily to therapy, interprets experience mostly in terms of the past, constriction of richness of experience.

The general characteristics of stages 6/7 -- Full, immediate flow of experience, acceptance of that, living subjectively in the experience (as opposed to feeling about it), disappearance of self as object (immersion in the moment, being “in the zone”), process quality of feelings, physiological loosening, feeling cut loose from one’s previously stabilized framework, life-problems no longer external, acceptance ownership of changing feelings, basic trust in one’s own process, situation experienced mostly in its newness (not the past), self no longer an object but something felt in process, personal constructs tentatively formulated.

General observations -- rarity of stage 7, value of fluidity/change, change at this level happens slowly.