Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionIII. Humanistic/Existential
Theories- Rogers:
Person−Centered Theory
© The McGraw−Hill^327
Companies, 2009Psychotherapy
Client-centered therapy is deceptively simple in statement but decidedly difficult in
practice. Briefly, the client-centered approach holds that in order for vulnerable or
anxious people to grow psychologically, they must come into contact with a thera-
pist who is congruent and whom they perceive as providing an atmosphere of un-
conditional acceptance and accurate empathy. But therein lies the difficulty. The
qualities of congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathic understanding
are not easy for a counselor to attain.
Like person-centered theory, the client-centered counseling approach can be
stated in an if-then fashion. If the conditions of therapist congruence, unconditional
positive regard, and empathic listening are present in a client-counselor relationship,
then the processof therapy will transpire. If the process of therapy takes place, then
certain outcomescan be predicted. Rogerian therapy, therefore, can be viewed in
terms of conditions, process, and outcomes.
Conditions
Rogers (1959) postulated that in order for therapeutic growth to take place, the fol-
lowing conditions are necessary and sufficient. First, an anxious or vulnerable client
must come into contact with a congruent therapist who also possesses empathyand
unconditional positive regard for that client. Next, the client must perceive these
characteristics in the therapist. Finally, the contact between client and therapist must
be of some duration.
The significance of the Rogerian hypothesis is revolutionary. With nearly any
psychotherapy, the first and third conditions are present; that is, the client, or patient,
is motivated by some sort of tension to seek help, and the relationship between the
client and the therapist will last for some period of time. Client-centered therapy is
unique in its insistence that the conditions of counselor congruence, unconditional
positive regard,and empathic listeningare both necessary and sufficient (Rogers,
1957).
Even though all three conditions are necessary for psychological growth,
Rogers (1980) believed that congruence is more basic than either unconditional pos-
itive regard or empathic listening. Congruence is a general quality possessed by the
therapist, whereas the other two conditions are specific feelings or attitudes that the
therapist has for an individual client.
Counselor Congruence
The first necessary and sufficient condition for therapeutic change is a congruent
therapist. Congruenceexists when a person’s organismic experiences are matched
by an awareness of them and by an ability and willingness to openly express these
feelings (Rogers, 1980). To be congruent means to be real or genuine, to be whole
or integrated, to be what one truly is. Rogers (1995) spoke about congruence in these
words:
In my relationships with persons I have found that it does not help, in the long
run, to act as though I were something that I am not.... It does not help to actChapter 11 Rogers: Person-Centered Theory 321