Client-Centered Therapy: Its Current Practice, Implications and Theory

by Carl R. Rogers, Thomas Gordon, Nicholas Hobbs

Presenting the non-directive and related points of view in counselling and therapy, Rogers gives a clear exposition of procedures by which individuals who are being counselled may be assisted in achieving for themselves new and more effective personality adjustments.

Genres: Psychology, Counselling, Nonfiction, Social Work, Science, Mental Health, School

572 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

"Experience is, for me, the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my own experience. No other person's ideas, and none of my own ideas, are as authoritative as my experience. It is to experience that I must return again and again, to discover a closer approximation to truth as it is in the process of becoming in me." -Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person

DEVELOPED THEORIES - THERAPIES
Person-Centered; Humanistic; Client-Centered; Student-Centered

TIMELINE
1902 - Carl Rogers was born in Oak Park, Illinois.
1919 - Enrolled at University of Wisconsin.
1924 - Graduated from University of Wisconsin and enrolled at Union Theological Seminary.
1926 - Transferred to Columbia.
1931- Earned Ph.D. from Columbia.
1940 - Began teaching at University of Ohio.
1946 - Elected president of American Psychological Association (APA).
1951 - Published Client-centered Therapy.
1961 - Published On Becoming A Person.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd read bits and pieces of this book over the last 12 months in order to get references for essays. Having those snippets of Rogers' thoughts was useful, but I felt a duty to read from cover-to-cover the foundational work of the person-centred approach if I was serious in training to be a counsellor. So, during the summer break, that's what I've done and found it definitely worthwhile.

It took me a while to get through, not because I found it difficult or boring, but because it was thought-provoking and challenging. Many times I've had to put the book down to work through a chain of thought, to reflect upon my own values and ways of being (forgive the in-reference). If I had some of the bricks for an edifice of a person-centred way of being, I think this provides the mortar. Now all I need to do is build something!

[Gerald Jerome · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's probably going to be hard to formulate my thoughts on this material in a consistent and progressive manner. But I'll give it a shot just the same... I'll mainly be outlining what I interpreted as the general gist of the material as well as particular points that felt impacting along with page citations for certain references (wherever I've recorded them).

Early on in the preface the reader is faced with Rogers' philosophical roots when he refers to himself as 'a midwife to a new personality.' (x,xi) This quotation is reminiscent of Socrates who once considered himself a midwife to men concerning their souls and self-knowledge. It would only stand to reason that such familiarity with basic considerations of life would go hand in hand with proposing fundamental roots of human behavior and introspection as Rogers attempts to do in this publication. It is not just a formulation of a theory, but (following indications of the full title) is an overview of practice and application of client-centered therapy overall.

Rogers is particularly sharp and expressively clear in some of his approaches concerning therapy and philosophy of the therapeutic relationship. That being said, there are some areas where the reader can apprehend that vagaries will be rife and grasping difficult. The major stumbling blocks of this sort appear to be his concepts of "self" and "self-actualization." It should be noted for the author's benefit however that from the beginning he states that he feels words are incapable of capturing the entirety of the therapeutic process and understanding thereof. Therefore, experience should dictate and precede theory as words will always fall short of the full experience. (Preface, 15-17)

I already found one of his propositions to resonate well within me from the beginning. It was stated that [American?] culture had become less homogenous; this resulted in fewer "right" answers to be found socially and a greater press for therapy and self-exploration. (4, 192) I've sometimes found myself envious of the strict guidelines held by some cultures. These guidelines for personal and social conduct can make it easier for a person to determine where they fit in to everything without much thought or effort. This is not to assume that problems do not occur everywhere or that there aren't drawbacks inherent in allowing social guidelines to dictate your life, but that with such exaggerated freedom comes a press for individual responsibility and lack of clarity of where one might guide themselves.

The entire approach appears to be the clients as experts on themselves. A coalescence of experience and perception is idiosyncratic and private only to ourselves. It is the role of the therapist to reflect (and accept) the expressions of the client with the emotional obfuscation removed. Something that Rogers seemed to hint on but never address completely is that often the thoughts suppressed from consciousness are those that don't fit into the essentially BINARY worldview of the client. It is once they accept all manners of gradient in assessing situations and see themselves as the assessors and judges of all things good and bad with no one thing actually possessing "good" or "bad" elements free from relative assessment that the client moves toward a more self-aware level of relation to the world around them. This is what eventually leads to the easing of tensions that grew from inconsistencies in experience and self-concept. Again, experience is the most direct element of reality we possess (ex. I find myself attracted to the same sex). By contradicting experience with self-concept (I shouldn't be attracted to the same sex [because society, relatives, and religion say so], I can't be attracted to the same sex [because this would render me unlovable], therefore I am NOT attracted to the same sex [because I fear the outcome, whether consciously or otherwise]), anxieties and disconnect with one's self arise.

Maybe this approximation is only my own but I found Rogers' view to be similar to that of Zen Buddhism. The "goal" appears to be consistence and congruence of self-concept with the actual self, if it can be so called a "goal" in such an approach as this which attempts to free itself from value-judgments. Zen of course claims to also not be wholly transmitted through words but I would at least approximate it to experiencing experience.

The publication is expected to be a bit outdated from the earliest manuscript in the 50s. The research support also seems to be meek, but again, psychology was and can still be considered in its infancy.

Back to the concepts of "self" and "self-actualization." The former seems to be a structure of experiential and perceived experiential exposure of the "organism." The words "perceived experiential" exposure here is meant to imply that the experience is not truly the individual's, but an assimilation of outside social assessments of the individual or phenomena the individual may find him or herself experiencing. Self-actualization, from the best I could glean, is the organism's move toward a more positive and consistent wholeness of self-concept and experience. I'm sorry if all this seems vague. The publication itself is not very thorough in these definitions, my own understanding may be lacking, and I must refer once again that Rogers felt that some parts of experience are not adequately captured by words.

I don't feel like finishing this review at the moment. I'll come back to it at a later time and add the rest of my understanding as well as personal assessment of the material presented.

Update 8-26-15: I'll probably never fully review this at this point. So what I have written so far is all we have. Sorry.

[Geert Dijkstra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prachtig boek over client gerichte therapie inzichten zijn dat je alle attitudes van de ander kunt accepteren en zien vanuit een onconditionele aanvaarding. Hierdoor kun je de ander helpen een beter geïntegreerd persoon te worden. Het gaat uiteindelijk om zonder oordeel luisteren en de ander accepteren in hoe hij is. De inhoud van het boek vond ik fantastisch de leesbaarheid wat minder vanwege academisch taalgebruik en langdradigheid.

[Gijs Limonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1951, this appraoch was way ahead of its time; Rogers putting the client front and centre, thereby forever altering the client-therapist relationship from a top-down affair to a together-forward undertaking; yes, some of the ideas are outdated and the presented science does not hold up to today's standards; it is the therapeutic paradigm shift that makes this worth your time.

[Laurent · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars

I've felt fondly attracted to Carl Rogers years ago when I came across his concept of congruence. And Boy! After reading his textbook I can positively say that he is my favorite psychologist.

Carl Rogers' well known technique of active listening (mirroring back to the client what he just said) is more than a therapeutic gimmick, it is the manifestation of a profound theory of psychology and an act of faith in humanity.
Rogers came to believe, based in his experience of counseling, that people have a fundamental capacity of positive reorganization of themselves, and that the therapeutic process is best left under their responsibility. He came to reject the idea that the therapist ought to be a source of authority, a moral reference, a problem solver for the patient; rather, he saw the therapist as one who can assist the client in his exploration and resolution of his inner contradictions.

The commonly known technique of active listening is better viewed this way: echoing back to the person his perception of his inner world. Do not listen to explain, do not listen to solve a problem. Listen to understand the person's perception, and to accept it. Then, express this understanding and acceptance to the client.
The way I understand it, Client Centered Therapy is about providing a warm, accepting echo chamber to the client. By reflecting his inner reality back, this provides the client with an opportunity to dive more deeply into his psyche, down to the layer of conflict.

What happens next is what makes Client Centered Therapy more subtle and complex than the touchy-feely impression people may get from it. Once the client has reached the layer of inner conflict, a psychological disintegration occurs. The old model of the world is shattered and the client finds himself psychologically lost. From this disintegration, the client comes to build a new model of the world that encapsulates contradictory experiences without conflict. The client doesn't leave the therapeutic process with fixed answers, one could say that they feel more lost after therapy than before, but therapy has equipped him with the ability to navigate the confusion of his inner contradictions.
Carl Rogers theorized that this level of disintegration and reintegration of the self can only occur in the total absence of judgment, in an environment of positive acceptance.

In Client Centered Therapy, the practitioner has the disconcerting attitude of a non-judgmental, person-less mirror. Everything the client says will be reflected in back to him. At no point does the client receive validation or disapproval. He will never come to know his practitioner's personality: does he like me, dislike me? A Client Centered office is void of any moral compass.

My appreciation for Rogers is deeply magnified by the fact that he was a ruthless seeker of truth, wherever it may lead. He was cautious to submit his model of therapy to the scientific method and, when available, he defended his ideas with academic studies. When his ideas were unproven, he had the intellectual honesty to highlight the potential weak spots of his theory.
Where other schools of psychology had a flavor of armchair philosophy, Rogers meticulously studied transcripts of his therapy sessions, trying to identify what worked and what didn't. His Client Centered theory was not a top-down theory of the mind, rather a bottom-up set of ideas abstracted out of countless experiences in the therapy office. He was also concerned with the matter of measuring whether therapy actually improved an individual's life or not, although he failed to come up with a satisfying way to measure therapeutic outcome.

Equally admirable is Rogers' claim that the therapist must involve himself personally in the therapeutic process. He made that claim against all common wisdom that the therapist ought to be emotionally detached from the process. How could this make sense, given Rogers' approach of offering the client a non-judgmental, non-personal mirror? For Rogers, the warm attitude of the practitioner for the client, the love (if he dares to go that deep) is felt by the client, and that love assists the client in the scary process of exploring his inner depths. For Rogers, a therapy room where the practitioner forbids himself to involve himself emotionally to the client sends a message: in this room it is unsafe to explore emotions.

What "conflicts" are we talking about, in Client Centered Therapy? Conflicts are either internal, or internal-external. Internal conflicts are when two tendencies are in contradiction (eg: a gay person in the closet). Inner-external conflicts are when an individual's internal representation of himself and the world is in conflict with his experience of the world. An example would be when someone has convinced himself of being a genius, yet fails to get decent grades at school.
Carl Rogers states that these conflicts create psychological tension, defensiveness, and that an individual is "ripe" for therapy once that tension becomes unbearable.

One side note that I loved: through the exploration of his unconscious experiences and resolving his conflicts, the client comes to develop a more accurate symbolization of reality, a better representation. One can stop saying "my mother is bad", for a more accurate "she is denigrating in some aspects, but she cares about me in others".
My own visual interpretation of this point is the following: at birth we start with a blank slate, a cube of granite. Then, every time we learn something about reality, we slice a part of the cube out. As this process continues, we carve a model of reality that becomes more and more refined, more and more accurate.

[Jenny Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a general concept of client-centered therapy and a client-centered approach to counseling that I had acquired through working at my social service agency for the past thirteen years, but through reading this book I came to fully understand the foundational concepts of this approach and how it might work in implementation with clients in real life scenarios. I do not fully agree that a nondirective approach would work in all cases, but I feel that there is much benefit in beginning the counseling relationship with the idea that a client is worthy of respect and should be seen as someone who has an ability to make changes himself rather than someone needing to be taught the answers by the counselor. I also found the emphasis placed on the importance of the counselor having a genuine attitude of acceptance and empathy, as well as being comitted to achieving a high level of personal awareness and growth to be a refreshing reminder.

I felt that the first part of the book was helpful in defining the idea of client-centered therapy, expanding on the idea of how the process of this type of therapy is experienced by both the client and the counselor, and how this type of therapy can be beneficial in facilitating change in the client and helping the client achieve a more adjusted and integrated sense of self.

I found the second half of the book more challenging since it provided examples of client-centered techniques in situations that did not apply to areas in which I work, but there were some chapters that I found completely engaging and helpful. The chapter, "Group-centered Leadership and Administration," was particularly enlightening in the way it viewed the stucture of the organization and how using a client-centered/group-centered approach can help myself and other members of the organization feel more satisfied within the organization and in return cause the organization to function more effectively. I also feel like the chapter, "A Theory of Personality and Behavior," provided me with a new way of viewing personality that I connected with and will continue to refer back to in future study.

All in all I feel like this book helped me to grow as a counselor and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is seeking a better understanding of client-centered therapy. I will most certainly be re-reading sections of the book again and using it to inform my approach to counseling moving forward.

[Erik Graff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Grinnell College had about 1200 students and a generally middle-aged faculty devoted to teaching. The younger teachers were there either as visiting instructors or on probation, hoping for regular appointments. The faculty of the Department of Psychology were basically experimentalists, not psychotherapeutically inclined.

Thus, when I returned to college newly interested in psychology after being out of it during the 1971/72 year owing to problems with the draft board, there were few classes in the catalog which spoke to my particular interests in the field. Fortunately, two of the new visiting professors, names, but not faces, now forgotten, were psychotherapists and agreed to offer independent and group independent studies on their own particular interests in what was called "humanistic" psychology. I read Roger's CCT in such a context, my second exposure to him, the first having been in an earlier EdPsych class.

While I had liked his Freedom to Learn, I found CCT to be very boring after the first sections on at least two accounts. First, Rogers and his coauthors spoke to my own prejudices and weren't challenging. Second, the idea of taking money from clients for the kind of minimalist non-directive therapy they advocated seemed unethical.

[Áureo Ventura · Rating 5 out of 5]

The exposure can be somewhat repetitive, but the main ideas and suggested techniques are pure gold.

[Brandt · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Client-Centered Therapy: Its Current Practice, Implications and Theory, Carl R. Rogers, Elaine Dorfman, Thomas Gordan, and Nicholas Hobbs, present a synthesis of the basic philosophy of nondirectional counseling. This book exposes the meaning through which personal counseling is achieved through a subtle process of self-realization.

Through the integration of commentary on documented therapeutic sessions, the perspective of Dr. Roger’s counseling procedures are subjected to both experimental and scientific analysis. The unfolding of the nondirective attitude contributes to every field of therapy from play to group considerations.

This text expresses the deeply held belief that what is genuine and has real meaning cannot sometimes be expressed in words. Nondirective counseling is thought of as a process and experience in a dynamic relationship.

More importantly, Dr. Rogers has endeavored to bring the realities of the counseling session – the anxiety, the despair, the hope, and the satisfaction – into the text. Moreover, great consideration is given to the uniqueness of the relationship between client and therapist, culminating in the personal experiences of both.

This review could go on for well over twenty pages if I was to cover the most important concepts developed in this book. Therefore, I will stand by my rating and end with two quotes I found to be valuable from the reading.

First,

“…[C]lient-centered therapy, with the intense focusing upon self which it involves, has as its end result, not more self-consciousness, but less. One might say that there is less self-consciousness and more self…That the self functions smoothly in experience, rather than being an object of introspection. Or as one client states in a follow-up interview one year after the conclusion of therapy: ‘I’m not self-conscious like I used to be…I don’t concentrate on being myself. I just am’” (129).

Second, the VIIth proposition from the chapter “A Theory of Personality and Behavior”,

“The best vantage point for understanding behavior is from the internal frame of reference of the individual himself” (494).

If you are so inclined to “really” read the book (sorry for my transference in this comment, it just appears that some of the reviewers failed to read the book, or grasp its concepts), I would highly suggest that you take your time and understand the last chapter, “A Theory of Personality and Behavior,” as the culmination, or “proof” if you will, about the fundamental soundness of the client-centered approach to counseling.

Happy Reading!

[Victor Mazereel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tremendous work in the field of psychotherapy as many of the initial ideas and principles of client-centered therapy have gathered research evidence in the sense that the therapeutic relationship is of primordial importance in therapy.
The fundamental and radical belief in a person's self-actualization capacities remains a worthy idea to strive for and to talk about, but not always so easy to actually implement in therapy. This book challenges the ideas of many contemporary therapeutic endeavours and really hammers home the message that the basics are the most important. Something many therapeutic school often attribute as important, but not always take as seriously as Rogers and his contemporaries themselves.

Some of the information in the book, and especially some of the studies mentioned, are now outdated, but the larger questions remain the same: who benefits from therapy and how does that work? Although we have gathered a lot of evidence and practice since the publication of this book, the central questions remain the same.

What I missed in this book was a more elaborate discussion on the actual techniques of clarification, reflection, restatement, resonance that are used in therapy. You get a feeling of what is actually meant by the often very elaborate verbatim case notes, but a more theoretical and practical discussion might have been useful.

[Simon Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been on my in progress list for a year, as I've been dipping in and out of it while reading other books. It's a key person-centred text that every counsellor or would-be counsellor should own, but it's a world away from many of today's more easily accessible texts. This was back when Rogers was still used to writing academic papers, so parts of it are pretty heavy going, with a lot of transcriptions of counselling sessions. What was really eye-opening for me was in the latter stages of the book, when Rogers talks about how person-centred therapy should be taught. Those ideas and concepts form a learning model that is still in use today, which is testament to its longevity. It's interesting to see Rogers talk about introjected values at length, too and shows just how much of a pioneer he was in an age were psychoanalysis was largely still the dominant force.

[Georgina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was really hard for me to review as on one hand the concept of person centred therapy and what he brought to the field is incredible, but on the other I found it quite hard going in places. I am glad that I persevered and finished it and I will be reading more of his work, but perhaps in smaller chunks at a time.
This is the original bible for person centred therapists where the basis for this type of therapy is founded. In my own journey I have found this to be the best approach and empowers the client to make their own path through therapy, rather than be given homework and exercises or have an analyst try to piece together the parts to come to a conclusion for you.
I'm glad to have read it, but don't think I'd have finished if I wasn't studying this area.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mean, it's like the bible as far as person-centred counselling is concerned. Sure, aspects of it are obviously dated (it's from 1951 for god sake) but Carl Rogers was incredibly ahead of his time in the way he conceived of the therapeutic alliance (even practitioners of other modalities have been influenced by him) so most of this still rings true.

Overall an incredibly strong foundation for what is now one of the more common counselling modalities. You should obviously familiarise yourself with more recent literature on the subject (from diverse perspectives) as well, but as a starting point and something to refer back to for the bones of the theory? You can't really go wrong here.

[Ali Angus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very technical text on therapy, but worth the work of reading. The insightful research is carried along with the client vignettes which bring the theory into focus. A must read for those involved in psychotherapy.

[Jean Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was impressed with Roger’s practical ways of writing about how the client centred approach should be implemented. Through his thought provoking statements this book helped me reflect on my practice and hopefully helped me become a better counsellor.

[Mad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Counsellors must be genuine.
Counsellors must be non-judgmental.
Don't use an evaluative tone.
Don't be passive.
Try to understand the person's attitude.
Show respect.
Try to consider their lens.
The person is on a journey and is respected as they are and as they may potentially be.

[Debra Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and a must for any model of counselling or psychotherapy

[Adam Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Changed my life.

[Jo Gaffney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave up half way through- most of this went totally over my head 🤦🏼‍♀️

[Rebekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite psychologist of undergrad. Rogers is where I learned the term “unconditional positive regard” the phrase that still governs my parenting and therapy relationships

[Mr. Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still the best, most comprehensive book on client-centered date more than 50 years past its publication.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read excerpts of this for a final paper for Counseling Theories. It has much to offer despite its age.

[Maxim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carol Rogers on his crusade on training new wave of psychotherapists. Might be interesting to mentors and educators.

[David J. Harris]

Read this for research for a project on Rogers’ theological assumptions beneath his methodology.

[Justin]

Pretty difficult to get to the point

[Luchino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Testo molto utile nella comprensione dell'approccio psicologico centrato sulla persona.
Pregno di contenuti interessanti non risulta sempre di scorrevole lettura, soprattutto laddove si fatichi a trovargli un tempo di qualità da dedicargli.
Merita tuttavia dedicargli una lettura concentrata ed attenta. Molto ricco di spunti in particolare l'ultimo capitolo dedicato alla teoria della personalità e del comportamento.

[Samara Serotkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential reading for me right now, I love Carl Rogers but am feeling a little bogged down by his language in this book. Matbe it's just the look of the copy I have- it's a really old, musty copy I got for $1 from the school library sale a while back. I love Carl Rogers' ideas, though, and I find it really validating to read about his work with clients.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like Carl Rogers' approach to therapy, but I was hoping for more technique from the book. It was mostly research practices and some great client perspectives, but not a lot for someone who wants to learn about /doing/ this type of therapy other than the awesome base philosophy. Still looking for the right book.

[Bobparr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ovviamente per addetti ai lavori, molti capitoli di dimostrazione teorica non servono al lettore pragmatico, ma tentano di dare supporto statistico alle teorie. Rimane un autore piacevole da leggere e con intuizioni semplici e ugualmente profonde.

[Peter Koukoulis · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for a thorough grounding in counselling practice, then this is a must read.