322 Part III Humanistic/Existential Theories
∙ An individual becomes a person by making contact with a caregiver
whose positive regard for that individual fosters positive self-regard.
∙ Barriers to psychological growth exist when a person experiences
conditions of worth, incongruence, defensiveness, and disorganization.
∙ Conditions of worth and external evaluation lead to vulnerability,
anxiety, and threat and prevent people from experiencing unconditional
positive regard.
∙ Incongruence develops when the organismic self and the perceived self
do not match.
∙ When the organismic self and perceived self are incongruent, people will
become defensive and use distortion and denial as attempts to reduce
incongruence.
∙ People become disorganized whenever distortion and denial are
insufficient to block out incongruence.
∙ Vulnerable people are unaware of their incongruence and are likely to
become anxious, threatened, and defensive.
∙ When vulnerable people come in contact with a therapist who is
congruent and who has unconditional positive regard and empathy, the
process of personality change begins.
∙ This process of therapeutic personality change ranges from extreme
defensiveness, or an unwillingness to talk about self, to a final stage in
which clients become their own therapists and are able to continue
psychological growth outside the therapeutic setting.
∙ The basic outcomes of client-centered counseling are congruent clients
who are open to experiences and who have no need to be defensive.
∙ Theoretically, successful clients will become persons of tomorrow, or
fully functioning persons.