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)
Growth occurs when individuals confront problems, struggle to cope with them, and discover within themselves new aspects of their identity.
I have found that people are much more likely to listen to you if you don't try to tell them what to do.
Learning is not a spectator sport.
The more I am able to be myself in the relationship, the more the other person will be able to be himself.
I find that the more I am able to be myself, the more I am able to help others.
The best way to understand another person is to listen to them.
It is not the facts that hurt people, but the interpretation of the facts.
When a person is understood, he or she is able to drop defenses and begin to grow.
I have learned that I cannot be a therapist without being a person.
The client knows best.
The more I am open to the realities in me and in the other person, the less do I find myself wishing to rush in to 'fix' things.
What I am is good enough if I would only be it openly.
The only way to help someone is to be with them, not to do something to them.
I have found that when I am able to be myself, I am most effective.
The greatest obstacle to communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.
The person who is truly free is the one who is able to choose.
To be fully human is to be fully alive.
The more I try to be like someone else, the less I am myself.
The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.
I am not in business to change people, but to help them change themselves.
Contemporaries of Carl Rogers
Other Psychologys born within 50 years of Carl Rogers (1902–1987).