He believed that a person could only achieve their potential for growth if they if they had a positive view of themselves – Positive self regard, however this can only happen if they feel they are valued by others -unconditional positive regard. However, Rogers found that most people don’t identify the positive regard of others as being unconditional, but feel they need to meet conditions of worth. These conditions create incongruity between the self and the ideal self. Rogers developed one of the most frequently used humanistic therapies, Client-Centred Counselling, which focuses on encouraging the client to concentrate on how they feel at the present moment.
Client-Centred Counselling
Client-Centred therapy primarily concentrates on the client. The counsellor is not there to advise or suggest recommendations, instead the client is the expert on defining their own thoughts and feelings and therefore are capable of finding appropriate solutions. The counsellors main purpose is to reflect on what the client has been saying, to show empathy and understanding in order to enable the clients psychological growth.
Rogers rejected Freud's psychodynamic approach, he believed that the focus of psychology was not the unconscious mind but how individuals perceive and interpret events. The psychodynamic perspective is considered as dehumanising by humanistic