Carl Rogers’ Client-Centered Therapy

This psychotherapeutic approach is one of the most important in Humanistic Psychology.

Current psychotherapy gives great importance to the relationship between the therapist and the client, who is considered an equal to be understood and respected. However, this was not always the case.

Carl Rogers and his client-centered, or person-centered, therapy marked the beginning of a new era.or person-centered therapy, marked a very significant turning point in the conception of psychotherapy. In this article we will describe Rogers' therapy, as well as this author's analyses of the clinical process in general and the therapist's attitudes that allow the intervention to be successful.

Carl Rogers and client-centered therapy.

Client-centered therapy was developed by Carl Rogers in the 1940s and 1950s. His contributions were fundamental for the development of scientific psychotherapy as we know it today.

Rogers' work is framed within the framework of psychological humanism, a movement that vindicated the goodness of human beings and their innate tendency to personal growth. innate tendency to personal growth the colder and more pessimistic perspectives of psychoanalysis and behaviorism. Rogers and Abraham Maslow are considered the pioneers of this theoretical orientation.

For Rogers psychopathology is derived from the incongruence between the experience of the organism ("organismic self") and the self-concept, or sense of identity; thus, symptoms appear when behavior and emotions are not coherent with the person's idea of him/herself.

Consequently, therapy should focus on the client achieving this congruence. When he does so, he will be able to develop fully, being open to the experiences of the present and feeling confident in his own organism.

Probably Rogers' most important contribution was the identification of common factors that explain the success of different therapies. common factors that explain the success of different therapies.. For this author -and for many others after him- the effectiveness of psychotherapy does not depend so much on the application of certain techniques as on going through specific phases and on the therapist's attitudes.

Phases of therapy

Based on his research, Rogers proposed a basic and flexible scheme of the psychotherapeutic process; this model is still in use today, regardless of the theoretical orientation of the therapist.Although each type of therapy may focus on a specific stage.

Subsequently, authors such as Robert Carkhuff and Gerard Egan subjected Rogers' proposal to research and developed it. Let's see what are the three main phases of psychological therapy.

1. Catharsis

The word "catharsis" comes from Classical Greecewhere it was used to refer to the capacity of tragedy to purify people by making them feel intense compassion and fear. Later Freud and Breuer called their therapeutic technique, consisting of the expression of repressed emotions, the "cathartic method".

In this model, catharsis is the exploration of one's own emotions and life situation on the part of the client. Egan speaks of this phase as "identification and clarification of conflictive situations and untapped opportunities"; the aim is for the person to focus the problem in order to be able to resolve it during the following stages.

Rogers' person-centered therapy focuses on the catharsis phase: it promotes the client's personal development so that he can later understand and solve his problems on his own.

Insight

"Insight" is an Anglo-Saxon term which can be translated as "intuition", "introspection", "perception", "understanding", "insight", or "deepening", among others. or "deepening", among other alternatives. In therapy this term denotes a moment when the client reinterprets his or her situation as a whole and perceives "the truth" - or at least comes to identify with a particular narrative.

In this phase the role of the client's personal goals is key.According to Egan, in the second stage a new perspective is constructed and a commitment to the new goals is generated. Psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapy focus on the insight stage.

3. Action

The action phase consists, as its name indicates, in to act to achieve the new objectives. In this phase, strategies are prepared and applied to solve the problems blocking well-being or personal development.

Behavior modification therapy, which uses cognitive and behavioral techniques to solve specific client problems, is probably the best example of psychotherapy focused on the action phase.

Therapeutic attitudes.

According to Rogers the success of therapy depends fundamentally on the fulfillment of certain conditions; he considers these to be necessary and sufficient for therapeutic change, and therefore more important than any particular technique.

Among these requirements, which refer to attitudes of the client and the therapist, Rogers highlights the three that depend on the clinician: authenticity, empathy, and unconditional acceptance of the client.

1. Psychological contact

There must be a personal relationship between the therapist and the client for therapy to work. Furthermore, this relationship must be meaningful to both parties.

2. Client Incongruence

Therapy will only be successful if there is an incongruence between the client's organismic self and his or her self. between the client's organismic self and his or her self-concept****o. As previously explained, the concept of "organismic self" refers to physiological processes and that of "self-concept" to the conscious sense of identity.

3. Authenticity of the therapist

For the therapist to be authentic, or congruent, means that he or she is in touch with his or her feelings and communicates them openly to the client. This helps to create a sincere personal relationship and may involve the therapist making self-revelations regarding his or her own life.

4. Unconditional positive acceptance

The therapist must accept the client as he/she is, without judging his/her actions or thoughts, as well as respecting him/her and taking a sincere interest in him/her. Unconditional positive acceptance allows the client to perceive his or her experiences without the distortion to perceive his or her experiences without the distortion of everyday relationships, and therefore to reinterpret them.Therefore, he/she can reinterpret him/herself without a priori judgments.

5. Empathic understanding

For Rogers, empathy implies the capacity to enter into the client's perspective and to perceive the world from it, as well as to experience his or her feelings. Understanding on the part of the therapist facilitates the client's acceptance of himself and his experiences.

6. Client's perception

Even if the therapist feels true empathy for the client and accepts him unconditionally, if the client does not perceive this, the therapeutic relationship will not develop properly; therefore, the therapist must be able to transmit to the client the attitudes that will help him to change.