PSYCHOTHERAPY 137
approval—both from them and from
society. In direct contrast, the rates
of students who drop out or fail
university courses are strikingly
low among those who have have
received little support but worked
to pay for their own tuition.
The ways in which people can
influence our desires and how we
define ourselves can be intensely
complex. Resentment can be
buried deep within us when we
act in accordance with someone
else’s wishes rather than our own.
If our actions are free of external
influences, we feel more authentic,
more solidly in control of creating
our own destiny, and more satisfied
with the results.
Person-centered approach
Rogers’ philosophy became the
cornerstone of a new approach
called humanistic psychology,
which he founded in the 1950s
with Abraham Maslow and Rollo
May. It was based on a positive
view of humanity as basically
Teaching a child to ride a bicycle
requires encouragement and support
but ultimately the child must be brave
and trust himself. Rogers likened his
person-centered therapy to this process.healthy and capable of growing
and realizing its potential. This
approach was in contrast to the
other main psychological therapies
of the time—psychoanalysis and
behaviorism—both of which
focus on the pathology of the
individual and how to fix it.
Rogers initially called his
approach “client-centered,” and then
changed it to “person-centered,” and
it has since been hugely influential
in education, parenting, business,
and other areas as well as in clinical
work. In person-centered therapy,
which Rogers described as “non-
directive therapy,” the therapist
takes the role of a facilitator who
helps the client find his or her own
answers, based on the belief that
the client knows himself best. In
person-centered therapy, the client
identifies his problems and what
direction the therapy should take.
For example, the client may not
wish to focus on his childhood but
rather deal with issues he is facing
at work and the therapist may helphim find what sort of role he would
really like to take. Rogers describes
the process as “supportive, not
reconstructive;” the client must
not come to rely on the therapist
for support, but instead needs to
learn how to become sufficiently
self-aware and self-trusting to
be independent and able to live
“the good life.”Rogers’ legacy
Rogers was one of the most
influential psychotherapists of the
20th century, and his new client-
centered, non-directive therapy
marked a turning point in the
development of psychotherapy.
He was instrumental in the
encounter-group philosophy of
the 1960s, which encouraged
open communication between
individuals. He was responsible
for the spread of professional
counseling into areas such as
education and social work, and was
a pioneer in attempting to resolve
international conflict through more
effective communication. ■The process of the
good life... means
launching oneself fully
into the stream of life.
Carl Rogers