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)
I have found that when I am able to be truly present with another person, a healing process often begins.
The greatest learning comes from experience, not from being told.
The core of the therapeutic relationship is trust.
The fully functioning person is open to experience, lives existentially, and trusts his or her own organismic valuing process.
The only reality I can truly know is my own subjective experience.
The power of the individual to heal and grow is immense.
I have learned that I cannot force growth, but I can create conditions that facilitate it.
The greatest gift you can give another is the gift of your presence.
When I look at the world, I'm pessimistic, but when I look at people, I'm optimistic.
People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don't find myself saying, 'Soften the orange a bit on the right hand corner.' I don't try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds.
The greatest need in the world is for people to be heard, to be understood, to be accepted as they are.
Man's only hope for survival is to be able to learn to live together in peace and harmony.
Real listening is one of the most potent forces for change that I know.
When I accept myself as I am, then I change.
The person-centered approach is based on the premise that human beings are trustworthy.
The only true education is self-education.
In my early professional years I was asking myself the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?
The greatest need of the human heart is to be understood.
We think we listen, but we very rarely listen with real understanding, true empathy. We listen to advise, to judge, to refute, to interpret, to analyze, to agree, to disagree, to console, to praise, or to change. Very rarely do we listen simply to understand.
The only learning that significantly influences behavior is self-discovered.
Contemporaries of Carl Rogers
Other Psychologys born within 50 years of Carl Rogers (1902–1987).