Formation the formation of person centered therapy

Formation
The formation of person-centered therapy has been identified by four distinct periods in
history beginning in the 1940s and continuing thru the 1980s (Corey, 2013). Before Carl Rogers
began developing the person-centered approach, psychoanalysis was the most accepted
therapeutic technique (Farber, 2007). Psychoanalysis, as Rogers believed, was less concerned
with the patient’s growth, but rather with interpretation and diagnosis during the therapeutic
process (Farber, 2007; Lee, 2011). The analytical approach placed too much emphasis on the
role of the therapist as an expert asking directive questions to produce a specific outcome from
the client (Anderson, 2001). Critical of therapies that were “directive,” Rogers sought to develop

PERSON-CENTERED AND CLASSICAL ROGERIAN 4
an environment that did not depend upon the therapist’s advice or interpretations (Lee, 2011).
Breaking away from Freudian psychoanalysis, Rogers began forming the humanistic movement
which focused on the relationship of the client and counselor to facilitate change (Corey, 2013).
According to Quinn (2015) in 1942, Rogers began hypothesizing a therapeutic approach
called “nondirective therapy.” The new approach was rooted in humanistic philosophy where the
counselor would focus on the client rather than the problem (Elliott & Freire, 2007). Rogers’s
departure from traditional psychoanalysis became revolutionary as he moved away from a
medical model. The innovative nondirective approach challenged previously accepted ideas and
methods such as the theory of the counselor knowing best (Corey, 2013). Nondirective therapy
emerged upon Rogers’s hypothesis that the client understood himself and could be his own agent
for change with the trust of the counselor (Quinn, 2015).
After years of research Rogers wrote Client-Centered Therapy and changed the name of
his approach to “client-centered” in order to stress the importance of the client rather than the
methods (Corey, 2013). Rogers was growing frustrated with the misinterpretations of
“nondirectivity” and decided further research was needed to clarify the theory (Quinn, 2015). In
1957, Rogers published an article on the goals of nondirective counseling such as personality
change. Within the article Rogers outlined the core conditions of client- centered/ nondirective
therapy, which he defined as (1) congruence, (2) empathetic understanding, and (3)
unconditional positive regard (Farber, 2007). Rogers’s paper featured his hypothesis on the
conditions for therapeutic change. In any therapeutic situation which empathy, unconditional
positive regard, and congruence were applied Rogers argued personality change would occur
(Elliott & Freire, 2007). Client- centered was then applied to education and called student-
centered teaching (Corey, 2013).

PERSON-CENTERED AND CLASSICAL ROGERIAN 5
For more than twenty years Rogers’s theory was supported by research. Yet evidence
based research ended in the 1970s due to claims of PCA not being effective as a therapeutic
treatment (Quinn, 2015). Challengers to Rogers’s hypothesis began research studies indicating
that the core conditions were not necessary or sufficient alone to bring about client change.