Carl Rogers.
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Gregory Ph. This opening statement encouraged people to be accountable for their own knowledge, and for their part in the group process. When Rogers spoke of power, he'd explain, "I'm not interested in power over anyone. What I want is influence, to influence you to become the best you can possibly be.
Carl Rogers Psychologist Biography
In every country that he visited, Rogers met with professionals and offered them the principles he'd spent a lifetime developing. In Latin America , Northern Ireland , South Africa, and eventually the Soviet Union , he attempted to facilitate dialogue that truly would make war-torn people "the best they could possibly be.
In Belfast, Northern Ireland, at the height of the troubles, he managed to get Protestant and Catholic leaders to meet and to have active communication for a period of several days. Over that time, the two dissenting sides came, as "Red" Thomas said, "to see each other as people. Sadly, both the Protestants and the Catholics attending these meetings did not want this video shown out of fear that their constituents would feel betrayed. Bobibe today is the dean of students at a South African college and utilizes Rogerian concepts in his counseling practice.
When asked what it was that Rogers brought to South Africa that so influenced him, Bobibe stated, "It Rogers's theory gives one faith in who we are, and shows one how to find the essential humanity in the other, whoever they might be. He was quoted as saying that his last few years were the best times of his life. Explanation Carl Rogers was not the sole creator of what Maslow called "the third force," humanist psychology.
Carl Rogers
Freud's psychoanalytic theories were considered one force, and behavioral theories pioneered by Ivan Pavlov and B. Skinner were a second force. Abraham Maslow, Karen Horney , and Rogers expressed an optimism regarding the human state that neither Freud nor Skinner found to be possible—humanistic psychology, or the "third force. Rogers's own observations had shown him that people are decent; they care about the society they live in; they are capable of positive accomplishments; and they deserve to be trusted.
Early in his career, Rogers also discovered that he did not subscribe to other commonly held beliefs promulgated by Freud and his disciples; namely, that early experiences and relationships set in place fixed and inevitable mental processes leading to neurosis. Instead, Rogers seemed much more at home with the philosophy of the humanists who believed that people were capable of changing.
As in all of his later work, Rogers developed the seeds of these humanistic notions from the experiences he derived in his work with abused and neglected children at the Institute for Child Guidance in the Rochester, New York area in the early days of his career. Working with these children helped Rogers see the tremendous impact of both the biology he would later write about and the negative experience of childhood on which Freud based his theories.
Yet in the majority of cases, Rogers found in these young lives the hopeful, humanistic philosophy that would be his mantra for the next six decades. Rogers was one of the earliest adherents of what has been called "interactional psychology"; as a result, much of the philosophy ascribed to him less abstract, simpler, and more practical than the complex theories proposed by many of his peers.
Interactional psychologists believe that a healthy psyche is the result of appropriate and beneficial communication between people. Rogers continually described how such interactions should be carried out if therapists are to help people. He also explained how psychology measures helping people, and perhaps most importantly, he re-evaluated what the goals of such therapy should be.
Rogers redefined everything: the description of the person seeking help, who could provide that help, what help was actually provided, and how such help was given. Rogers did more than change terminology when he changed what patients were called. Rogers's "patients" became "clients"—persons who were in need of assistance in reaching their innate potential.
This change in perception would have far-reaching implications, and it would make Rogers the father of client-centered psychotherapy. This practice of referring to clients would spread across the world, forever altering the way the psychology profession perceives people seeking help. This model would also, in keeping with Rogers's core beliefs, improve the self-esteem of the clients whom psychologists and psychiatrists saw in therapy.
It would reinforce a belief Rogers shared with his colleagues Karen Horney, Abraham Maslow, and others: that there is an ever-present capacity within each of us that instinctively seeks mental health, stability, and beyond that, the fulfillment of our potential. Rogers's use of the reflection technique in his therapy sessions has been one of the most-parodied facets of Rogerian therapy. Rogers believed that "reflection of feelings" was one of two necessary methods used toward accomplishing what Rogers calls release, the freeing of the client from the pent-up feelings.
This reflection, together with simple acceptance had to be manifested in order for the client to feel free to open up and experience catharsis—the expression of feelings previously not expressed or sometimes not even consciously felt. Both of these techniques are designed to provide the client with assurance that the therapist is attentively involved in the psychotherapy session and is accepting of what is being expressed by the client.
A classic example of simple acceptance would be the therapist's response of "Yes, I see The ability to listen completely and totally is demonstrated to the client by the therapist mirroring back, and restating, the emotions behind what the client says. Example Rogers provides the example of reflection in this interaction with one of his students who is getting failing grades.
The supposed purpose of the session for this student is to make Rogers take responsibility for the student's decision to tell his parents. Student: "Oh, I don't know if they're going to sort of condemn me. You don't have enough will power'. Student: "Well my—I'm pretty sure my father will.
He hasn't been—he doesn't experience these things; he just doesn't know what it's like. The session goes on to eventually bring forth the real problem—the student's animosity toward his father and feeling of shame that this man is his father.
Professional Life
Because of his focus upon interaction, many of Rogers's tenets regarding therapy bring the contact between client and therapist under a microscope with a far sharper and more distinct lens. Though libertarian in his approach, refusing to be handcuffed by any pre-set protocols developed by Freud or anyone else, Rogers still actively set standards for psychotherapy. For Rogers, a pioneer in developing a complete and cogent school of psychological theory, the rationale behind the method of treatment used always remained less important than the personal qualities that the therapist possessed and brought to each counseling session.
Far more than other humanists, Rogers insisted on taking a long and hard look at the attitude that the therapist brings to the psychotherapeutic session and how this affects the person being treated. Over the years, Rogers began to experience and discover certain requirements for success in treating people. Much of what he learned and taught to others resulted from his innovative use of technology. Rogers began tape-recording therapeutic interviews with clients in , long before this became a standard practice for psychotherapists. Based on what he learned from this experience, Rogers was one of the first to elaborate certain capabilities a therapist must possess in order to help clients attain their treatment goals.
Carl Rogers | Biography & Facts | taira-kousan.com
Rogers was also among the first to make these theoretical requirements a part of what he called "his hypothesis" of mental health care. Rogers believed any therapist must possess four qualities, which he describes as being "necessary and sufficient":. Example Everyone, at one time or another, has tried to express to someone else how they feel when some terrible tragedy has visited them. If, for example, the person lost their spouse in the World Trade Center on September 11, , and the listener responds, "Yeah, I know just how you feel.
Rogers's theories not only redefined who received therapy and the requirements for the provision of psychotherapy, but they also revolutionized who could provide such counseling. Prior to Rogers, mental health services were almost exclusively delivered by psychiatrists or analysts trained in psychology. Rogers's criteria for psychotherapists, however, make no mention of medical degrees or the need to have personally experienced psychoanalysis. Rogers actively encouraged the involvement of others in the provision of counseling services.
For the first time, this inclusion brought social workers, teachers, clergy, and other people into the counseling area of mental health care. These innovative ideas paled in comparison, however, to the other changes in treatment that were developed by Rogers. Initially, Rogers called the type of psychotherapy that he provided "non-directive.
Rogers eventually changed this description to "client-centered" psychotherapy. Rogers believed that this title accurately indicated what was and was not provided by him during therapy. Rogers called his therapy "supportive rather than reconstructive. Rogerian therapy would eventually undergo one more name change, coming less from Rogers than from others. It would become known as "people-centered," due to its increasingly wide application in so many other aspects of the real world beyond psychology—in marriage and parental counseling, child guidance, education, and even leadership seminars.
From the start of his career, Rogers developed methods to test the effectiveness of his therapy; he would continue that effort throughout life. More than any of his peers, Rogers always tried to define what he and his client were trying to accomplish in psychotherapy.