What is Person Centred Therapy?

The popularity of Carl Rogers’ person centred therapy has survived decades of myriad emergent therapies, many of which build on his core concepts of humanism, self-actualising tendency, and that of a fully-functioning person. In this article, we explore the chief assumptions and core concepts that spring from this view of personality and behaviour and undergird his therapy.

Related articles: Therapies for First Nations Australians: Rogerian/Person-centred, Rethinking Narrative Therapy, What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy?, What is Dialectical Behaviour Therapy?

Introduction

When most therapists are given the stimulus, “Carl Rogers”, the response is typically, “congruence, empathy, and unconditional positive regard”. That the qualities so closely associated with his approach are so famously on the tip of our therapist tongues is testament to the enduring power of Rogers’ humanistic, person centred therapy.  In the mid-fifties when it emerged, it was a radical departure from the two therapy schools which existed at the time: psychodynamic (Freudian) and behavioural therapies. Yet Rogers’ legacy is far broader than what we may immediately associate with those well-known phrases, encompassing also Rogers’ “19 propositions” (an elegant theory of how people change, and under what circumstances), a beautifully articulated set of assumptions and core concepts, and more. You can find a list of the 19 propositions in the Mental Health Academy course, Person-centred Therapy: The Basics. In this article, we explore the chief assumptions and core concepts that spring from this view of personality and behaviour and undergird his therapy.

Humanism: It’s all about the people

Rogers’s ideas emanate from the humanistic perspective, which has been defined as “a style of thought or attitude which makes the human central, important, valuable, crucial, pivotal, wonderful, powerful – even miraculous” (Barton, 1992). Humanism differs from psychoanalysis and behaviourism (as noted, the prevailing psychotherapies before Rogers came onto the scene) in three chief ways:

1. Humanism is phenomenological, centring on individuals’ own frames of reference and the personal meaning that they attach to experiences.
2. Humanism is optimistic, encouraging wellness, achievement of potential, and development toward the fully functioning person.
3. Humanism emphasises higher values, such as choice, freedom, and goals that distinguish human beings from other species.

If people have the above potentials, reasoned Rogers, then the goal of treatment is to affirm and empower them so that they have sufficient confidence in themselves to utilise their own inner resources (Seligman, 2006). The following concepts help explain how individuals move forward toward that or become blocked in those attempts.

The person centred therapy concepts

Practitioners of person-centred therapy believe in the dignity and worth of each individual and the importance of accepting people for who they are at essence rather than trying to fit them into a mould. People, they say, have a right to their own thoughts and opinions and should be free to build and shape their own lives (Seligman, 2006; Raskin & Rogers, 1995). Many of the concepts are extensions of these basic notions.

Self-actualising tendency

There is, claim person centred practitioners, an inherent tendency in people to develop in positive ways that enhance and maintain themselves as well as humanity. Thus, it is important to acknowledge individuals’ natural inclination toward self-actualisation, growth, and health. This is an integral principle in the writings of Abraham Maslow, Harry Stack Sullivan, Karen Horney, Hobart Mowrer, and Kurt Goldstein. The actualising process occurs, believed Rogers, as people develop in holistic, unified ways. It is a constant process, manifesting throughout life (infants taking the painful falls that lead eventually to being able to walk is one example) as people first meet more basic needs (such as for air, food, and shelter) and then develop greater independence from outside forces, contributing in healthy ways to their world. It is a directional movement toward intrinsic goals, self-realisation, and fulfilment, meaning that after basic needs are met, people move to meet higher-order needs, such as for knowledge, art, and beauty. It involves growth toward autonomy and self-regulation in order to further the optimal development of the total person (Raskin & Rogers, 1995; Seligman, 2006; Archer & McCarthy, 2007).

Organismic valuing process

According to Rogers, evolution equipped human beings for self-actualisation through the organismic valuing process, an ongoing one in which individuals rely freely on the evidence of their own senses for making judgments about what is good for them and what is not. The survival mechanism in this is obvious; the baby doesn’t care what opinions or priorities the people around it have; it cries until fed. This is in contrast to someone operating from a fixed system of introjected values, characterised by what they and others “should” and “ought to” do. The organismic valuing process is consistent with the person-centred hypothesis of confidence in the individual, which – even though each person establishes it personally – nevertheless leads to a highly responsible societal system of values and behaviour. The responsibility comes from people choosing on the basis of their direct processing of situations rather than acting out of fear of what others will think of them, or what others have taught them to do or think (Raskin & Rogers, 1995; Archer & McCarthy, 2007).

Reacting as an organised whole

The client’s company Christmas party is happening right when his Aunt Angela arrives at the airport for her Christmas visit. Does he go to the party or go to pick up his aunt? Psychotherapy can help clients become clear about what is important to them, resulting in behavioural changes directed toward the clarified goals. In this case, the client may have come to realise that he wishes to be more engaged with his family, so he heads to the airport. Perhaps in the past he would have told Aunt Angela to get a taxi and let her know where the spare key to the house was hidden.

Limits to the self-actualising tendency

Notwithstanding the first two concepts above, Rogers recognised that individuals’ early and ongoing environments were not always perfect and sometimes militated against self-actualisation. Infants, for example, intrinsically knew how to value that which would enhance their growth, but as children grew older, acceptance by other people gradually came to be more important. Thus are upheld basic concepts similar to that of ACEs, the psychodynamic notion of the ultra-importance of adverse childhood experiences coined by researchers Felitti, Anda, and colleagues in 1997 (Bartlett & Sacks, 2019) and also “base chakra” psychospiritual tasks in the Chakra Model of Development (Palmer, 2001; Myss, 1997). Namely, these are that it is important to gain acceptance from “the tribe” (our first tribe being our family) so that the tribe doesn’t kill us, but also, it is important for continued growth to avoid taking on the toxic beliefs of the tribe (those beliefs and values that are not in line with our own, but which may become introjected). To the extent that individuals experienced the latter – introjection – their fulfilment and the meaning that they could derive from life would be thwarted.

Community – that is, interaction with “Other” – is crucial to our wellbeing, as we are hard-wired to be social, but while healthy families are a source of nurturance and support, Rogers saw how dysfunctional families could inflict grave psychological wounds on children. Similarly at a level of community or culture: healthy cultural and societal institutions could inspire their citizens, maintain order, and provide for wellbeing, but maladaptive regimes could degrade and repress them (Archer & McCarthy, 2007).

The internal frame of reference

In the Rogerian framework, this is the perceptual field of the individual. The internal frame of reference provides the fullest understanding of why people behave as they do. It does not include external judgments of behaviour, attitudes, and personality. Rather, it is the way the world appears and the meanings each individual attaches to experience and feelings (Raskin & Rogers, 1995).

Conditions of worth

The key reason that clients get stuck in a state of incongruence is that important people in their lives (such as caregivers) have given them judgmental and critical messages that they are only worthwhile and lovable if they think, feel, and act in ways that meet the needs of others. The incongruence that arises from feeling worthy only upon meeting others’ expectations – feeling accepted for what they do rather than who they are – allows the development of conditions of worth, in which a discrepancy develops between the real self and the ideal self. Children in such negative environments tend to internalise the criticisms they receive, perceiving aspects of themselves as unworthy, shutting down or inhibiting those parts. This creates inner conflict, which curtails a natural tendency toward growth. Messages of conditional worth restrict authenticity, making it difficult for people to respond with honesty in their emotions, thoughts, or behaviours.

Rogers saw conditions of worth as being inevitable in a modern society, where so much emphasis is placed on achievement. Despite acknowledging the harm that could be done by a maladaptive environment, he remained ever optimistic about the profound resources individuals had within themselves for self-understanding and for altering their self-concepts, basic attitudes, and self-directed behaviour. The resources could be tapped, he asserted, if “a definable climate of facilitative psychological attitudes can be provided” (Rogers, 1980, p 115).

Concept of self and self-structure: Self and ideal self

The self, as proposed by Rogers, is an organised, consistent set of perceptions and feelings through which we relate to the outside world (Rogers, 1961/2003). The terms of “self”, “concept of self”, and “self-structure” refer to the conceptual Gestalt comprised of perceptions of the characteristics of the “I” or “me” and the perceptions of the relationships of the “I” or “me” to others and to various aspects of life, along with the values attached to these perceptions. Rogers saw it as a Gestalt available to awareness although not necessarily in awareness. Fluid and changing, it could at least be defined in operational terms at any given moment (Meador & Rogers, 1984, in Raskin & Rogers, 1995).

In a view similar to those of object relations (psychodynamic) theorists, Rogers believed that in early development, infants do not have a notion of “self”: they are their reflexes and impulses, and then their perceptions (MacVicar, 1985), only later coming to have reflexes, impulses, and perceptions, as they distinguish between themselves and the outer world. Once able to separate their own feelings and experiences from those around them, daily life can be managed in a profoundly different way. Those with a healthy sense of self are not only able to identify and value their feelings as their own (through organismic valuing process), but they are also able to work cooperatively with others on mutually beneficial goals (MacVicar, 1985; Archer & McCarthy, 2007).

This important development is the gateway to self-regard, because it is spawned by regard from others. If significant others regard the developing individual positively, the young child experiences self-regard and values their own experiences and feelings. In the absence of positive regard from others, the child may begin to construct an ideal self, which we can define as the self-concept the person would like to possess but does not. The greater the gulf between the real self and the ideal self, the more the person is at risk for psychological distress, or incongruence.

A colleague of Rogers developed the Q-sort: an instrument of up to 100 cards with written statements on them describing various aspects of the person’s self and which the person being assessed was to sort into nine piles, ranging from “most like me” to “least like me”. Rogers and colleagues used sorting tasks to determine how clients experienced themselves (perceived self) and what they would like to become (ideal self), the goal of counselling being to reduce the discrepancy between the two (Archer & McCarthy, 2007).

Symbolisation

The process by which a person becomes aware or conscious of an experience is referred to as symbolisation. There is a tendency to deny symbolisation to experiences that would conflict with the concept of self. For instance, if you think of yourself as a gentle, considerate person, you will tend to object to symbolisation of an aggressive act. Ambiguous experiences tend to be symbolised in ways that are consistent with the individual’s self-concept (Raskin & Rogers, 1995). Thus, a person who sees himself as a high-calibre, people-developing leader may resist hearing that some of the people working for him do not believe that they have many opportunities for growth or advancement.

Psychological adjustment or maladjustment

How much consistency is there between a client’s sensory/visceral experiences and that client’s concept of self? If the person’s self-concept allows for aspects of weakness and imperfection, it will be easier for the person to symbolise failure experiences, and the person can show greater consistency between the two aspects. In this case, there is little need to deny or distort such experiences and a condition of psychological adjustment is facilitated (Raskin & Rogers, 1995).

The fully functioning person

Those who rely on organismic valuing processes (above) – that is, their own internal frame of reference – are individuals who come to be what they are: in awareness as well as in experience a fully functioning person (Rogers, 1980). Such persons, said Rogers, have authenticity and can respond with congruence and honesty. They have an innate capacity to know what is important to them and thus what will help them lead a fulfilling life. The fully functioning person (Rogers’s ideal person of emotional health) would, he said, characteristically possess three chief personality dimensions: openness to experience, living with a sense of meaning and purpose, and trust in themselves and others. With those traits, people could move in positive directions, have a sense of their place in the world, feel connected to themselves and others, and possess an internal source of evaluation, channelling their lives in productive ways. Motivated by their own high standards rather than being driven by needs for approval, such individuals have high self-esteem, manage their lives well, and are proud self-actualisers. Rogers believed that, while therapists should move clients toward the fully functioning ideal, they, too, should be moving toward becoming a fully functioning person, thus becoming a role model for clients (Seligman, 2006; Raskin & Rogers, 1995).

Reality/phenomenological perspective

Person centred therapy clinicians take a phenomenological approach with clients. This means that they believe that each person has his or her unique perception of the world, which determines their beliefs, behaviours, emotions, and relationships. According to Rogers (1951/2003), the individual reacts to the perceptual field as it is experienced and perceived; thus, we have to regard that the perceptual field is, for the individual, reality. Along with this, we note that, as individuals, we are the focus of our own universe, because all the choices we make stem from our perceptions, and we each exist at the centre of a constantly changing world of experience.

Even when we think we are being “objective”, our subjective perceptions are determining how our lives play out (a similar view is found in narrative therapy). For example, let’s say one evening many of the townspeople of a small, provincial town see strange lights and what seems to be a flashing, rotating, whirling vehicle in the sky. Zachary and Taylor, eleven year old twins who are very tech-savvy, assume that it is the new model of drone which recently came out. They are planning to ask their parents to buy them one for Christmas. Greta, a woman in her 90s, cannot see that well, but decides that it is probably the community’s amazing new helicopter on a rescue mission. Martin, an ex-Air Force pilot, is fairly certain that it is a U.A.V. (unidentified aerial vehicle, or what used to be called a U.F.O.), as he often saw lights and vehicles that could not otherwise be identified when he used to fly missions for the Air Force.  

Consistent with the concept of a phenomenological perspective and the client’s internal frame of reference, Rogers wanted only the clients’ own experience to inform their treatment. He believed that no authority, including that of the therapist, should take priority over the client’s direct experience. To this, Rogers added the heartening force of his own example, drawing heavily on his own experience and perceptions, both in sessions with clients and in the development of his theories (Seligman, 2006; Raskin & Rogers, 1995).

Experience

The private world of the individual constitutes his or her “experience”. Some of it is conscious. As you read this, for example, are you aware of the feel of the back of the chair on your back? How aware are you of the comfort of your feet, or the feeling in your eyes of restfulness or fatigue as they pass over the words? Other experience may be difficult to bring into awareness. What if, for example, as you are reading this, you perceive that you are lacking intelligence, because you are not reading the words faster than you are? Such awareness may be more difficult to bring into consciousness than physical perceptions. Notwithstanding that your experiential field might be limited by what you are willing to perceive, Rogers believed that you are (that is, each individual is) the one who can know that field completely (Raskin & Rogers, 1995).

Conclusion

Carl Rogers’ theories of personality and growth, and the therapy that sprang from them – so radical when they emerged – have been “validated” over these many decades by virtue of the plethora of psychological therapies which have built on his notions. The ever-hopeful, optimistic view of the human being and the inherent potential of the individual to achieve full functioning and self-actualisation can still inspire us in the current era when there are many more therapies to choose from than what were available in Rogers’ time.

Person centred therapy training

Parts of this article were adapted from Mental Health Academy’s person centred therapy training course, Person-centred Therapy: The Basics. This 3-hour course introduces you to the basic concepts of Carl Rogers’ person centred approach, a humanistic, phenomenological way of being with clients which has had a profound impact on counselling, psychotherapy, and other fields since the mid-1900s.

Other person centred therapy training courses you may be interested in:

• Key Elements of Person-centred Suicide Risk Assessment
• The Role of Mattering in Personal, Organisational, and Community Wellbeing
• 10 Tips for Integrating Neuroscience Ethically and Effectively into your Practice

Note: These courses are accessible (on-demand) through Mental Health Academy membership. If you are not currently a member, click here to learn more and join.

Key takeaways

• Carl Rogers developed a humanistic, person-centred therapy which sprang from his positive view of human potential to become fully functioning and self-actualise.
• The self-actualising tendency and organismic valuing process could lead, he said, to an internal frame of reference and a fully-functioning person if the growth process were not inhibited.
• Conditions of worth and a negative environment early on could lead to psychological maladjustment and a wide gulf between the perceived ideal and real selves.
• A phenomenological approach would ensure that the client’s own experience would inform their treatment.

References

• Archer, J., & McCarthy, C.J. (2007). Theories of counselling & psychotherapy: Contemporary applications. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, Inc.
• Bartlett, J.D., & Sacks, V. (2019). Adverse childhood experiences are different than child trauma, and it’s critical to understand why. Child Trends. Retrieved on 10 July 2024 from: https://www.childtrends.org/publications/adverse-childhood-experiences-different-than-child-trauma-critical-to-understand-why      
• Barton, A. (1992). Humanistic contributions to the field of psychotherapy: Appreciating the human and liberating the therapist. Humanist Psychologist, 20, 332-348.
• MacVicar, J. (1985). Constructive developmental theory and Psychosynthesis, in Readings in Psychosynthesis: Theory, process, and practice, Weiser, J., & Yeomans, T. Eds. Toronto, Canada: Ontario Institute of Studies in Education.
• Myss, C. (1997). Anatomy of the spirit: The seven stages of power and healing. United States: Random House, Inc.
• Palmer, H. (2001). The Chakras (a four-day course on using the chakras in Psychosynthesis psychotherapy). Helen Palmer, counsellor/psychotherapist, is a teacher and one of two founding directors of the Institute of Psychosynthesis of New Zealand (now closed).
• Raskin, N.J., & Rogers, C.R. (1995). Person-centred therapy. In Corsini, R.J. & Wedding, D., Eds. Current Psychotherapies, 5^th Ed. Itasca, Illinois: F.E. Peacock Publishers, Inc.
• Rogers, C.R. (1951/2003). Client-centered therapy: Its current practice, implications, and theory. London: Robinson Publishing.
• Rogers, C. R. (1961/2003). On becoming a person: A therapist’s view of psychotherapy. London: Little, Brown Book Group.
• Rogers, C.R. (1980). A way of being. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• Seligman, L. (2006). Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: Systems, strategies, and skills, 2^nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN 0 – 13 – 114975 – X