The Theory Of The Fully Functioning Person

Carl Rogers (1902-87) was the founder of the client-centred or person-centred approach to counselling and therapy. (McLeod 2001)

Rogers worked with many others in developing the idea that clients could heal themselves, if only the therapist provided ‘facilitative’ or core conditions of, ‘empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard.’

Rogers like Maslow used the ideas of Albert Einstein when it came to creating his theory of self actualization. In his belief a person who has reached self actualization is very centered and feels at ease in social and non social situations alike. In his thoughts the road to fulfillment was just as important as actually becoming fulfilled, and that each of these was define by the experiences they had. Through his use of patients who were already seeking therapy, he was able to concentrate more on the functioning of the individual rather than the dysfunction of the individual itself. Unconditional positive regard is something that was coined by Rogers to describe support or love that is given from one person to another with no strings attached so to speak. He focused this belief on the love between a parent and a child by believing that the correction of a child’s behavior does not have to come at the cost of a parents love.

We learn to view ourselves as others view us, ignoring our inner experience whatever we feel it is in conflict with the values of those significant others on whom we depend. Roger’s term for this was locus of evaluation. By this, he meant the tendency of some people to rely on the evaluations of others for their feelings of acceptance and self esteem (Mearns & Thorne, 2007). Unconditional positive regard defined as being non-judgmental, accepting, and respectful toward the client (Mearns & Thorne, 2007).

Before looking at the latter 3 in more detail, it is important to understand Carl Rogers’s view of the person and perhaps what is ultimately bringing the client to therapy. Carl Rogers believed that there is incongruence between the self that is the actualisation part, that has a desire to grow, is open to experiencing in the moment and ultimately psychological well being and the actual experience of the self. He believed this effect was caused

Carl R. Rogers constructed the person-centered theory by his influences of Elizabeth Davis and Frederick Allen who studied under Jessie Taft as well as Otto Rank and John Dewey (Patterson, 2007; Walsh, 2010). Influenced by Jessie Taft, Rogers adopted an optimistic view of people, individuals are capable of recreating themselves and are not the end products of their past (Patterson, 2007; Walsh, 2010). Otto Rank advocated that treatment of a client be centered around that client and that therapist be more emotionally involved within the process. Third Rogers was influenced by John Dewey who helped him understand and develop his position that self-actualized people live in harmony rather then conflict

This application paper will discuss my personal theory of counseling or psychotherapy in a number of different areas. Specifically, I will discuss the seven areas of interest. First, I will discuss and describe

“enhancing self-awareness, recognizing values of ‘congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathic understanding’, self-responsibility, understanding one’s feelings, awareness of one’s own perspective, being open to experience, being rational, living a fuller life, positive life-direction, acceptance of one’s and other’s uniqueness, prizing one and others, and living a moral and ethical life” (pg. 343).

When we do so, self actualisation will occur. Rogers likened this actualisation process to the growth of plants, having an innate tendency to grow from a seed to full potential when exposed to favourable conditions. Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualisation they must be in a state of congruence, thus, self-actualisation occurs when a person’s ideal self is congruent with their actual behaviour and self-image. For the client to self actualise; key principals must be employed during the counselling process. Outlined as follows:

It is inevitable that in psychotherapy there are numerous theories. Theories arise out of scholarly investigations of ideas on human behavior. Human behavior is an extraordinarily interesting subject and therefore produces a plethora of ideas from a variety of theorists. These theorists are influenced by their education, culture, and time period. One influential theorist is Carl Rogers. His contributions to human behavior have changed many of the theories that preceded him, and his theory contributed to many theories that followed.

Carl Rogers view the self-concept as a collection of beliefs about one’s nature, unique qualities, and typical behaviour. Rogers believed that people are aware of their self-concepts. Our self-concept is our mental image of our self. It is a collection of our self-perceptions. For example, a self-concept might include such beliefs as the case example suggests, Dan expresses “I’m such a failure!” or “I just can’t cope with this!” Rogers used the term incongruence to introduce the disparity between one’s self-concept and one’s actual experience. On the contrary, congruence is an adequate match between the self-concept and reality. Our self-concept is not completely constant with our actual experiences. Forthrightly, our self-concept may be imprecise. Most people are likely to misinterpret their experience to a certain degree in order to develop a positive self-concept. For example, you believe that you are brave enough to do a skydive but when the actual time arrives you intend to surrender. Rodgers advocated that a great deal of incongruence can weaken an individual’s psychological well-being. On the other hand, if a person’s self-concept is fairly

He believed people learn to grow toward self-actualization during their entire life span. Rogers viewed this concept as counseling instead of psychotherapy. Rogers did not believe the idea about the therapist and client as a patient-doctor relationship. He believed that the relationship was person-to-person because he viewed the idea as the therapist talking with the client, not the client doing the majority of the talking (Cooper & McLeod, 2011). Rogers preferred to use the term “client” instead of “patient” because he related the term “patient” to an individual that is sick or has an illness. Roger’s theory was based on his insight into the human condition (Cervone & Pervin, 2010).

Carl Rogers originated client-centred therapy, which is based on the belief that individuals, rather then environment or subconscious drives, can control their choices and values and fulfil their own unique potential. Rogers' theory stresses that it is the individual's own comprehension of his or her experiences that is important, rather then the therapist's professional interpretation (Rogers, 1951). Kelly founded what is known as the personal construct system. He suggested that our personal constructs reflect our constant efforts to make sense of our world, just as scientists make sense of their subject-matter; we observe, we draw conclusions about patterns of cause and effect, and we behave according to those conclusions (Kelly, 1963). Both theories emerged at a time when psychotherapy was the most commonly practiced therapy technique.

The purpose of this assignment is to review the case study of the therapeutic session of Dr Carl Rogers and his client, Gloria. I will give a brief account of the presenting problem and some theory of Person Centred Therapy to enable me to observe and analyse the techniques used as a strategy to self actualisation. Using transcripts, I will identify some of these skills and observe how effective they were by observing Gloria. I will discuss my opinion of the counselling session and evaluate Dr Rogers’ strengths and weaknesses. In closing I will provide my thoughts as to how he could have improved the therapy.

Person-centered therapy originated in the mid-1900s with Carl Rogers, who developed an alternative to Freudian psychoanalysis that adopted a more supportive approach. Rogers perceived the role of the therapist to be supportive and encouraging,