Roger's Theory
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- Date Submitted: 01/11/2011 03:27 PM
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Produce an essay demonstrating your knowledge of person centred theory and its
application in practice. A critical analysis of the efficacy of the approach is required with a balanced evaluation of the researched opinions for and against its effectiveness.
Person centred theory finds it roots in the work of Carl Rogers. An influential American counsellor and psycho therapist. Early in his career he realised the importance of the
person in the counselling process. When writing about a counselling experience that,
despite Rogers insights, came to an unresolved conclusion. Rogers wrote,
[this] helped me to experience the fact--only fully realized later that it
is the client who knows what hurts, what directions to go, what
problems are crucial, what experiences have been deeply buried. It
began to occur to me that unless I had a need to demonstrate my
own cleverness and learning, I would do better to rely on the client
for the direction of movement in the process. Rogers (1961c:11)
It was this insight that Rogers developed into a life long practice that became known as
the person centred theory.
Knowledge of key concepts and person centred theory
Organismic self
With a gestalt flavour the term organismic refers to the entireity of the individual as being 'more than the sum of its parts'. We have a drive to grow physically and psychologically- an actualising tendancy. We need to know what is of value to that growth. Personcentred theory calls this ability to weigh up and value experiences positively or negatively, the organismic valuing process. For example, If we are hungry we will rate food highly and move towards it. Once the hunger is satisfied, food loses it high value status. Humanistic psychologists tend to focus on the whole person rather than isolating different processes such as behaviour, thoughts, or feelings. If we listen to our 'organismic valuing process' we will know what will help us move towards our...
application in practice. A critical analysis of the efficacy of the approach is required with a balanced evaluation of the researched opinions for and against its effectiveness.
Person centred theory finds it roots in the work of Carl Rogers. An influential American counsellor and psycho therapist. Early in his career he realised the importance of the
person in the counselling process. When writing about a counselling experience that,
despite Rogers insights, came to an unresolved conclusion. Rogers wrote,
[this] helped me to experience the fact--only fully realized later that it
is the client who knows what hurts, what directions to go, what
problems are crucial, what experiences have been deeply buried. It
began to occur to me that unless I had a need to demonstrate my
own cleverness and learning, I would do better to rely on the client
for the direction of movement in the process. Rogers (1961c:11)
It was this insight that Rogers developed into a life long practice that became known as
the person centred theory.
Knowledge of key concepts and person centred theory
Organismic self
With a gestalt flavour the term organismic refers to the entireity of the individual as being 'more than the sum of its parts'. We have a drive to grow physically and psychologically- an actualising tendancy. We need to know what is of value to that growth. Personcentred theory calls this ability to weigh up and value experiences positively or negatively, the organismic valuing process. For example, If we are hungry we will rate food highly and move towards it. Once the hunger is satisfied, food loses it high value status. Humanistic psychologists tend to focus on the whole person rather than isolating different processes such as behaviour, thoughts, or feelings. If we listen to our 'organismic valuing process' we will know what will help us move towards our...