Therapy

Carl Rogers is known as one of founding people in cognitive therapy. His practice was founded in the 1950’s. He proposed that everyone has an ideal self, how the client feels they really should be, and a real self, how the client see their traits and abilities. The closer the selves match up the happier the client will feel. In order to have the two selves match up the client must receive unconditional regard, which is love, warmth, respect, and affection.

Rogers proposed a therapy where the therapist’s job was to provide a positive regard for the client and to help the client realize the differences between their actual self and their ideal self. The client would work out their problems on their own under the direction of the therapist. This is why this therapy was called client-centered therapy but became later known as person-centered therapy and was acknowledged as being non-directive.

There are four basic concepts of this therapy. The first one is reflection. Reflection is when the therapist allows the person to talk without interruptions. This step is known as reflection because the therapist lets the person talk, uninterrupted and simply reflects back to the person what they have said. The therapist does not add any comments.

The second one is unconditional positive regard which is the warmth, acceptance, and an uncritical atmosphere. The therapist must show respect for theperson’s feelings, values, and goals. The therapist must show to the person that regardless of what is expressed the therapist has unconditional acceptance of anything that the person shares.

The third is empathy. The therapist must acknowledge what the person is feeling and experiencing. They will listen carefully and closely to what the person is saying and try to empathize or feel what the person feels.

The fourth concept is authenticity. The therapist must be real, open, and honest. They must be able to tolerate the person’s differences without being judgmental. The person must be able to interpret the therapist’s attitudes as being authentic in nature in order to have the therapy be successful.

Some advantages to this therapy is that the person works out their problems and the therapist helps to provide the unconditional positive regard that everyone needs. This style of therapy has been criticized by behaviorists for lacking structure and by psychoanalysts for actually providing a conditional relationship but it has been indicated over time as being vastly effective and popular. I don’t really see any disadvantages.