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Client Centered Therapy
In this best-selling book, one of America's most distinguished psychologists crystallises the great progress that has been made in the development of the techniques and basic philosophy of counselling. Carl Rogers gives a clear exposition of procedures by which individuals who are being counselled may be assisted in achieving for themselves new and more effective personality adjustments.
Contemporary psychology derives largely from the experimental laboratory or from Freudian theory. It is preoccupied with minute aspects of animal and human behaviour or with psychopathology. But there have been rebels, including Carl Rogers, Gordon Allport, Abraham Maslow and Rollo May, who felt that psychology and psychiatry should aim higher and be more concerned with growth and potentiality in man. The interest of such a psychology is in the production of harmoniously mature individuals, given that we all have qualities and possibilities infinitely capable of development. Successful development makes us more flexible in relationships, more creative and less open to suggestion and control.
This book is a mature presentation of the non-directive and related points of view in counselling and therapy. The final chapter presents a formal treatment of the psychological theory which is basic to the whole client-centered point of view, not only in counselling but in all interpersonal relations.
This edition marks the 70th anniversary of first publication and includes a new introduction from Rogers' granddaughter Frances Fuchs, PhD.
PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Contemporary psychology derives largely from the experimental laboratory or from Freudian theory. It is preoccupied with minute aspects of animal and human behaviour or with psychopathology. But there have been rebels, including Carl Rogers, Gordon Allport, Abraham Maslow and Rollo May, who felt that psychology and psychiatry should aim higher and be more concerned with growth and potentiality in man. The interest of such a psychology is in the production of harmoniously mature individuals, given that we all have qualities and possibilities infinitely capable of development. Successful development makes us more flexible in relationships, more creative and less open to suggestion and control.
This book is a mature presentation of the non-directive and related points of view in counselling and therapy. The final chapter presents a formal treatment of the psychological theory which is basic to the whole client-centered point of view, not only in counselling but in all interpersonal relations.
This edition marks the 70th anniversary of first publication and includes a new introduction from Rogers' granddaughter Frances Fuchs, PhD.
PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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Published December 3, 2020
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October 14, 2025
ROGERS’ MOST DETAILED (AND TECHNICAL) EXPLANATION OF HIS THERAPY
Carl Ransom Rogers (1902-1987) was one of the founders of Humanistic Psychology; he was professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin (1957-1963) and the University of Chicago (1945-1957).
He wrote in the Preface to this 1951 book, “This book is about the suffering and the hope, the anxiety and the satisfaction, with which each therapist’s counseling room is filled. It is about the uniqueness of the relationship each therapist forms with each client, and equally about the common elements which we discover in all these relationships… This book is about me, as I sit there with that client, facing him, participating in that struggle as deeply and as sensitively as I am able… The book is, I believe, about life, as life vividly reveals itself in the therapeutic process… But the book is also about my colleagues and me as we undertake the beginnings of scientific analysis of this living, emotional experience.” (Pg. xiv-xv)
He explains, “nondirective or client-centered counseling has had its growth. It is a product of its time and cultural setting… client-centered therapy has been influenced by psychology as it has developed in the United States… it has also been indebted to Gestalt psychology, with its emphasis upon the wholeness and interrelatedness of the cluster of phenomena which we think of as the individual… Most deeply of all, it is built upon close, intimate, and specific observations of man’s behavior in a relationship, observations which it is believed transcend to some degree the limitations or influences of a given culture… interest in the [nondirective or client-centered] point of view … has grown very rapidly… There appears to be a need for some means of informing those who wish to know more fully of the development of this particular therapeutic approach…” (Pg. 4-5)
He continues, “The purpose … of this volume is to present… a current cross-section of a developing field of therapy… one aim will be to bring together the clinical thinking of those who are engaged in client-centered therapy… A further aim will be to review the research which … is being gathered in respect to the hypotheses which are explicit or implicit in therapy… Finally the effort will be made to pose some of the unanswered problems and perplexities which cry out for deeper understanding, for more adequate research, for new and more penetrating theory.” (Pg. 6-7)
He outlines, “the basic principles of such therapy have been thought to be applicable to a variety of activities… a brief mention may be made here of certain directions in which client-centered therapy has been found to have implications. Play Therapy with problem children has been found effective when carried on from a clint-centered point of view… Group therapy, both with children and adults, has been carried on effectively, operating on the same fundamental hypotheses as in individual counseling. Work has been done with maladjusted adults, with students who have problems… with veterans, with interracial groups… and with parents. Out of the experience with group therapy came the desire to conduct college in a client-centered… fashion… These are the major fields in which the implications of client-centered therapy have been worked out.” (Pg. 11-12)
He states, “It would seem justifiable to say that the faith or belief in the capacity of the individual to deal with his psychological situation and with himself is of the same order as any scientific hypothesis… if we have faith that warm maternal affection is likely to produce desirable personal reactions and personality growth in the infant, we are likely to find this hypothesis supported … by our experience.” (Pg. 23)
He argues, “A basic hypothesis has been stated concerning the capacity of the individual for self-initiated, constructive handling of the issues involved in life situations. This hypothesis is not yet definitively proved or disproved by research evidence from the field of therapy… some clinicians state that their clinical experience supports this hypothesis, but others look upon it with considerable skepticism.” (Pg. 56)
He asserts, “Contrary to what one might suppose, progress appears to be experienced by the client almost from the first. It is the fact that he discovers that some of the issues he has discussed, some of the denied experiences which have been accepted, no longer cause him pain or anxiety, which encourages the client to go forward… one segment of personality organization has been reconstructed… this it is that builds the client’s confidence in his own ability to make progress in exploring himself.” (Pg. 83)
He admits, “Let it be said at the very outset that in the present state of our knowledge we do not really KNOW what is the essential process of therapy… Rather than dogmatically attempting to make perfectly clear that which is not perfectly clear, it seems best to present the many hypotheses which are currently held in regard to the process of client-centered therapy, and the research evidence which supports some of them. Perhaps the very variety of the hypotheses will serve to broaden professional thinking and will stimulate the discovery of more accurate and inclusive hypotheses.” (Pg. 131)
He states, “We have completed our summarization of the factual knowledge and the clinical hypotheses which are available at the present time to describe the process of client-centered therapy. To the clinically-minded reader the description may seem too static… To the research-minded, it may seem too loose… Both these criticisms seem to be justifiable. The first we hope to remedy to some degree in our statement of a theory of therapy, supplying something of the dynamic element which is evident in these changes. The second criticism we hope that time will answer, as increasingly exact methods become possible.” (Pg. 187)
He summarizes, “On the basis of the foregoing experience it would be correct to say that, in each of the groupings in which we have worked, client-centered therapy has achieved noteworthy success with some individuals; with some, partial success; with others, temporary success which later suffered a relapse; while with still others failure to help has been the result… But on the whole, our experience does not lead us to say that client-centered therapy is applicable to certain groups and not to others. It is felt that there is no advantage to be gained by trying to set dogmatic limits to the use of such therapy. If there are certain types of individuals who do not respond, or for whom client-centered therapy is contra-indicated, then accumulating experience and additional research will indicate what these groups are.” (Pg. 229)
He ends the book by stating nineteen propositions, “some of [which] may be regarded as hypotheses subject to proof or disproof. Taken as a whole, the series of propositions presents a theory of behavior which attempts to account for the phenomena previously known, and also for facts regarding personality and behavior which have more recently been observed in therapy.” (Pg. 482) Here are excerpts of the propositions:
“[I] Every individual exists in a continually changing world of experience of which he is the center… [II] The organism reacts to the field as it is experienced and perceived. This perceptual field is, for the individual, ‘reality.’ .. [III] The organism reacts as a organized whole to this phenomenal field… [IV] The organism has one basic tendency and striving---to actualize, maintain, and enhance the experiencing organism… [V] Behavior is basically the goal-directed attempt of the organism to satisfy its needs as experienced, in the field as perceived… [VI] Emotion accompanies and in general facilitates such goal-directed behavior… and the intensity of the emotion being related to the perceive significance of the behavior for the maintenance and enhancement of the organism…[VII] The best vantage-point for understanding behavior is from the internal frame of reference of the individual himself… [VIII] A portion of the total perceptual field gradually becomes differentiated as the self…
“[IX] As a result of interaction with the environment, and particularly … with others, the structure of self is formed… [X] The values attached to experiences, and the values which are a part of the self structure, in some instances are values experienced directly by the organism, and in some instances are values introjected or taken over from others, but perceived in a distorted fashion, as if they had been experienced directly… [XI] As experiences occur in the life of the individual, they are either (a) symbolized, perceived and organized into some relationship to the self, (b) ignored because there is no perceived relationship to the self-structure, (c) denied symbolization or given a distorted symbolization because the experience is inconsistent with the structure of the self… [XII] Most of the ways of behaving which are adopted by the organism are those which are consistent with the concept of self… [XIII] Behavior may, in some instances, be brought about by organic experiences and needs which have not been symbolized… [XIV] Psychological maladjustment exists when the organism denies to awareness significant sensory and visceral experiences, which consequently are not symbolized and organized into the gestalt of self-structure…
“[XV] Psychological adjustment exists when the concept of the self is such that all sensory and visceral experiences of the organism are, or may be, assimilated on a symbolic level into a consistent relationship with the concept of self… [XVI] Any experience which is inconsistent with the organization or structure of self may be perceived as a threat, and the more of these perceptions there are, the more rigidly the self-structure is organized to maintain itself… [XVII] Under certain conditions, involving primarily complete absence of any threat to the self-structure, experiences which are inconsistent with it may be perceived, and examined, and the structure of self revised to assimilate and include such experiences… [XVIII] When the individual perceives and accepts into one consistent and integrated system all his sensory and visceral experiences, then he is necessarily more understanding of others … as separate individuals… [XIX] As the individual perceives and accepts into his self-structure more of his organic experiences, he finds that he is replacing his present value system… with a continuing organismic valuing process.” (Pg. 483-522)
This book will be ‘must reading’ for anyone seriously studying Client-Centered Therapy. (But for less ‘serious/scholarly’ individuals, other books of Rogers will present a less technical, research-oriented presentation.)
Carl Ransom Rogers (1902-1987) was one of the founders of Humanistic Psychology; he was professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin (1957-1963) and the University of Chicago (1945-1957).
He wrote in the Preface to this 1951 book, “This book is about the suffering and the hope, the anxiety and the satisfaction, with which each therapist’s counseling room is filled. It is about the uniqueness of the relationship each therapist forms with each client, and equally about the common elements which we discover in all these relationships… This book is about me, as I sit there with that client, facing him, participating in that struggle as deeply and as sensitively as I am able… The book is, I believe, about life, as life vividly reveals itself in the therapeutic process… But the book is also about my colleagues and me as we undertake the beginnings of scientific analysis of this living, emotional experience.” (Pg. xiv-xv)
He explains, “nondirective or client-centered counseling has had its growth. It is a product of its time and cultural setting… client-centered therapy has been influenced by psychology as it has developed in the United States… it has also been indebted to Gestalt psychology, with its emphasis upon the wholeness and interrelatedness of the cluster of phenomena which we think of as the individual… Most deeply of all, it is built upon close, intimate, and specific observations of man’s behavior in a relationship, observations which it is believed transcend to some degree the limitations or influences of a given culture… interest in the [nondirective or client-centered] point of view … has grown very rapidly… There appears to be a need for some means of informing those who wish to know more fully of the development of this particular therapeutic approach…” (Pg. 4-5)
He continues, “The purpose … of this volume is to present… a current cross-section of a developing field of therapy… one aim will be to bring together the clinical thinking of those who are engaged in client-centered therapy… A further aim will be to review the research which … is being gathered in respect to the hypotheses which are explicit or implicit in therapy… Finally the effort will be made to pose some of the unanswered problems and perplexities which cry out for deeper understanding, for more adequate research, for new and more penetrating theory.” (Pg. 6-7)
He outlines, “the basic principles of such therapy have been thought to be applicable to a variety of activities… a brief mention may be made here of certain directions in which client-centered therapy has been found to have implications. Play Therapy with problem children has been found effective when carried on from a clint-centered point of view… Group therapy, both with children and adults, has been carried on effectively, operating on the same fundamental hypotheses as in individual counseling. Work has been done with maladjusted adults, with students who have problems… with veterans, with interracial groups… and with parents. Out of the experience with group therapy came the desire to conduct college in a client-centered… fashion… These are the major fields in which the implications of client-centered therapy have been worked out.” (Pg. 11-12)
He states, “It would seem justifiable to say that the faith or belief in the capacity of the individual to deal with his psychological situation and with himself is of the same order as any scientific hypothesis… if we have faith that warm maternal affection is likely to produce desirable personal reactions and personality growth in the infant, we are likely to find this hypothesis supported … by our experience.” (Pg. 23)
He argues, “A basic hypothesis has been stated concerning the capacity of the individual for self-initiated, constructive handling of the issues involved in life situations. This hypothesis is not yet definitively proved or disproved by research evidence from the field of therapy… some clinicians state that their clinical experience supports this hypothesis, but others look upon it with considerable skepticism.” (Pg. 56)
He asserts, “Contrary to what one might suppose, progress appears to be experienced by the client almost from the first. It is the fact that he discovers that some of the issues he has discussed, some of the denied experiences which have been accepted, no longer cause him pain or anxiety, which encourages the client to go forward… one segment of personality organization has been reconstructed… this it is that builds the client’s confidence in his own ability to make progress in exploring himself.” (Pg. 83)
He admits, “Let it be said at the very outset that in the present state of our knowledge we do not really KNOW what is the essential process of therapy… Rather than dogmatically attempting to make perfectly clear that which is not perfectly clear, it seems best to present the many hypotheses which are currently held in regard to the process of client-centered therapy, and the research evidence which supports some of them. Perhaps the very variety of the hypotheses will serve to broaden professional thinking and will stimulate the discovery of more accurate and inclusive hypotheses.” (Pg. 131)
He states, “We have completed our summarization of the factual knowledge and the clinical hypotheses which are available at the present time to describe the process of client-centered therapy. To the clinically-minded reader the description may seem too static… To the research-minded, it may seem too loose… Both these criticisms seem to be justifiable. The first we hope to remedy to some degree in our statement of a theory of therapy, supplying something of the dynamic element which is evident in these changes. The second criticism we hope that time will answer, as increasingly exact methods become possible.” (Pg. 187)
He summarizes, “On the basis of the foregoing experience it would be correct to say that, in each of the groupings in which we have worked, client-centered therapy has achieved noteworthy success with some individuals; with some, partial success; with others, temporary success which later suffered a relapse; while with still others failure to help has been the result… But on the whole, our experience does not lead us to say that client-centered therapy is applicable to certain groups and not to others. It is felt that there is no advantage to be gained by trying to set dogmatic limits to the use of such therapy. If there are certain types of individuals who do not respond, or for whom client-centered therapy is contra-indicated, then accumulating experience and additional research will indicate what these groups are.” (Pg. 229)
He ends the book by stating nineteen propositions, “some of [which] may be regarded as hypotheses subject to proof or disproof. Taken as a whole, the series of propositions presents a theory of behavior which attempts to account for the phenomena previously known, and also for facts regarding personality and behavior which have more recently been observed in therapy.” (Pg. 482) Here are excerpts of the propositions:
“[I] Every individual exists in a continually changing world of experience of which he is the center… [II] The organism reacts to the field as it is experienced and perceived. This perceptual field is, for the individual, ‘reality.’ .. [III] The organism reacts as a organized whole to this phenomenal field… [IV] The organism has one basic tendency and striving---to actualize, maintain, and enhance the experiencing organism… [V] Behavior is basically the goal-directed attempt of the organism to satisfy its needs as experienced, in the field as perceived… [VI] Emotion accompanies and in general facilitates such goal-directed behavior… and the intensity of the emotion being related to the perceive significance of the behavior for the maintenance and enhancement of the organism…[VII] The best vantage-point for understanding behavior is from the internal frame of reference of the individual himself… [VIII] A portion of the total perceptual field gradually becomes differentiated as the self…
“[IX] As a result of interaction with the environment, and particularly … with others, the structure of self is formed… [X] The values attached to experiences, and the values which are a part of the self structure, in some instances are values experienced directly by the organism, and in some instances are values introjected or taken over from others, but perceived in a distorted fashion, as if they had been experienced directly… [XI] As experiences occur in the life of the individual, they are either (a) symbolized, perceived and organized into some relationship to the self, (b) ignored because there is no perceived relationship to the self-structure, (c) denied symbolization or given a distorted symbolization because the experience is inconsistent with the structure of the self… [XII] Most of the ways of behaving which are adopted by the organism are those which are consistent with the concept of self… [XIII] Behavior may, in some instances, be brought about by organic experiences and needs which have not been symbolized… [XIV] Psychological maladjustment exists when the organism denies to awareness significant sensory and visceral experiences, which consequently are not symbolized and organized into the gestalt of self-structure…
“[XV] Psychological adjustment exists when the concept of the self is such that all sensory and visceral experiences of the organism are, or may be, assimilated on a symbolic level into a consistent relationship with the concept of self… [XVI] Any experience which is inconsistent with the organization or structure of self may be perceived as a threat, and the more of these perceptions there are, the more rigidly the self-structure is organized to maintain itself… [XVII] Under certain conditions, involving primarily complete absence of any threat to the self-structure, experiences which are inconsistent with it may be perceived, and examined, and the structure of self revised to assimilate and include such experiences… [XVIII] When the individual perceives and accepts into one consistent and integrated system all his sensory and visceral experiences, then he is necessarily more understanding of others … as separate individuals… [XIX] As the individual perceives and accepts into his self-structure more of his organic experiences, he finds that he is replacing his present value system… with a continuing organismic valuing process.” (Pg. 483-522)
This book will be ‘must reading’ for anyone seriously studying Client-Centered Therapy. (But for less ‘serious/scholarly’ individuals, other books of Rogers will present a less technical, research-oriented presentation.)
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