Carl Rogers
Founder of client-centered therapy
Most quoted
"When the other person is hurting, confused, troubled, anxious, alienated, terrified; or when he or she is doubtful of self-worth, uncertain as to identity, then understanding is called for. The gentle and sensitive companionship of an empathic stance… provides illumination and healing. In such situations deep understanding is, I believe, the most precious gift one can give to another."
— from A Way of Being, 1980
"I have found the greater the degree of congruence of experience, awareness, and communication on the part of one individual, the more the ensuing relationship will involve: a tendency toward reciprocal communication; a tendency toward more mutually accurate understanding; improved psychological adjustment and functioning in both parties; mutual satisfaction in the relationship."
— from A Theory of Therapy, Personality and Interpersonal Relationships, 1959
"I believe it will have become evident why, for me, adjectives such as happy, contented, blissful, enjoyable, do not seem quite appropriate to any general description of this process I have called the good life… I believe they would be perceived as by-products of the directions I have described."
— from On Becoming a Person, 1961
All quotes by Carl Rogers (245)
It is the client who knows what hurts, what directions to go, what problems are crucial, what experiences have been deeply buried.
The more I am able to force myself to listen to myself, the more I find myself able to listen to others.
The goal of therapy is not to solve problems but to help the individual grow to the point where he can cope with problems.
I have found that I am more effective when I can listen acceptantly to myself, and can be myself.
The person who is fully functioning is one who is open to experience, lives existentially, and is trusting of his own organismic valuing process.
The very essence of creativity is its novelty, and hence we have no standard by which to judge it.
When a person is understood, he feels accepted, and when he feels accepted, he is free to change.
The core of therapy is the relationship.
I have come to feel that the more I can be genuine in the relationship, the more helpful I will be.
The individual has within himself the capacity and the tendency, latent if not evident, to move in the direction of maturity and integration.
Learning is facilitated when the student participates responsibly in the learning process.
The client-centered therapist is primarily concerned with understanding the client's phenomenal world.
The person-centered approach is a way of being, a way of being with others.
The process of therapy is essentially a process of freeing the individual to grow and develop in his own unique way.
I have found that I can trust my experience.
The most effective help is given by a person who is psychologically mature.
The fully functioning person is one who is able to live in the present, to be open to experience, and to trust his own organismic valuing process.
The greatest obstacle to communication is the tendency to evaluate.
The only true education comes from within.
The client is the one who knows what is best for him.
Contemporaries of Carl Rogers
Other Psychologys born within 50 years of Carl Rogers (1902–1987).