| Rogerian Client-Centered Therapy and Self-Actualization | |
| Date: May 14, 2012 12:30 PM |
This quarter has been one of the richest and rewarding educational experiences for me here at Capella. I was eager to delve deeper into the writings of Carl Rogers ever since I was initially exposed to his orientation in my 1st quarter while I was enrolled in the counseling course. It was also a pleasure to discover that indeed his ideas penetrated basically every realm of the psychotherapeutic approach that exists today, namely the ingredients of the optimal therapeutic environment consisting of genuine congruency, reflective listening, empathy, trust and unconditional-positive regard that is elaborated upon in our text (Cormier & Hackney, 2011).
My greatest inspiration that hopefully will be sustained throughout my psychological career is to slowly go through all of Carl Rogers writings and professional career, gleam and learn as much as possible. I find, as he has expressed in his book "On becoming a person" (Rogers, 1961) that the therapeutic relationship is a genuine friendship where both client and therapist are affected and transformed. My greatest difficulty with this concept is my own negative experience of the transference and counter-transference dynamic that has always seemed to throw some of the more potentially rewarding relationships right off the tracks. This can manifest to various degrees whether the client (or friend) is physically attractive or not, or simply liked or not, and whether I have my own self egoic desires invested in the relationship. The true healer, as much as they can take on the sufferings of another and transform another's darkness into light, has to be truly whole, comfortable and grounded in their own self. The work of developing a transparent non-identity while still emanating genuine empathy for another is as much scientifically viable in the field of psychology as it is in every true spiritual or religious work. In fact I think that any person in a religious (and political) setting that does not develop a transparent non-identity in dealing with another may ultimately cause havoc in another individual whose malefic effects may spread into their community, and eventually society at large and the rest of the world.
Although I am observant of ancient Jewish law, I am continually strengthened by the force of my individual power that I am simply a human being like any other, a member of the human race and not some marginalized community. Given the quest, every individual through a series of trials and tribulations that come from confronting the make-up of ones internal and external environment, will discover that the only G-d that should rule over them, is ultimately within their own self, perhaps the light of that one self, the life thereof. In this sense, Carl Rogers rose to become the president of the APA to establish this very truth in scientific jargon yet, as one can observe in his writings, strongly maintain a humble voice that only simply points toward something quiet and magnificent that for a lack of a better word, means "soul".
Every organism has a tendency to self-actualize. This profound statement is the beginning and ending of existence, circumventing every creature regardless if somewhere arrested or accelerating in their process. Every organism is carried and maintained by a life force way beyond its comprehension. Indeed, so is the entire universe, together with time that accompanies it. Since our own life force is beyond our comprehension, when we enter into a therapeutic alliance with a Rogerian therapist, the therapist makes comprehensible what is not, meaning, the therapist is the manifestation of what exists internally within the client itself. That is why the process of congruency and reflection and especially non-identity in the therapist is supremely important. Within the client itself is the incomprehensible, non-idenity that allows for freewill, genuine and unconditional positive regard, all accepting etc. The therapist is simply the external representation of that undying soul of the client filled with love, compassion, empathy, unconditional positive regard, total acceptance that presents itself, reflecting genuinely back the client back to him/herself, mirroring in order to facilitate change and growth and above all, a choice that only the ego must by itself make. But just as those special qualities in the therapist continue in non-judgment, to allow the client to unfold and realign with their truth, so does the supreme self within the client allow for that process to occur - only if the client knew that it was so, but then again that's why a therapist appears to make what is unobvious obvious, and incomprehensible comprehensible. On a yet deeper level, that is the reason there are relationships, societies, communities - to allow the unmanifest to be manifest and what cannot be experienced when hidden, experienced with another revealed.
It is indeed a profound process, where as Rogers (1961) states that the therapist itself is changed. Given the right conditions and genuine heartfelt approach, this process allows for a what we can for a lack of a better word call a "religious" experience. Which really only means, a celebration of the union between self and non-Self, and re-ununification of the fragmented into the whole, an experience of experience as Rogers (1961) expounds upon.
Sha-Ron Kushnir
REFERENCE
Cormier, S. and Hackney, H. (2008) Counseling Strategies and Interventions (7the Ed). Boston, MA; Pearson Education, Inc.
Kirschenbaum, H., & Henderson, V. (Eds.). (1989). The Carl Rogers Reader. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Containing 33 of Rogers' most important articles and book chapters from 1942 to 1987.
Rogers, C. (1961) On Becoming A Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotheraphy Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
My greatest inspiration that hopefully will be sustained throughout my psychological career is to slowly go through all of Carl Rogers writings and professional career, gleam and learn as much as possible. I find, as he has expressed in his book "On becoming a person" (Rogers, 1961) that the therapeutic relationship is a genuine friendship where both client and therapist are affected and transformed. My greatest difficulty with this concept is my own negative experience of the transference and counter-transference dynamic that has always seemed to throw some of the more potentially rewarding relationships right off the tracks. This can manifest to various degrees whether the client (or friend) is physically attractive or not, or simply liked or not, and whether I have my own self egoic desires invested in the relationship. The true healer, as much as they can take on the sufferings of another and transform another's darkness into light, has to be truly whole, comfortable and grounded in their own self. The work of developing a transparent non-identity while still emanating genuine empathy for another is as much scientifically viable in the field of psychology as it is in every true spiritual or religious work. In fact I think that any person in a religious (and political) setting that does not develop a transparent non-identity in dealing with another may ultimately cause havoc in another individual whose malefic effects may spread into their community, and eventually society at large and the rest of the world.
Although I am observant of ancient Jewish law, I am continually strengthened by the force of my individual power that I am simply a human being like any other, a member of the human race and not some marginalized community. Given the quest, every individual through a series of trials and tribulations that come from confronting the make-up of ones internal and external environment, will discover that the only G-d that should rule over them, is ultimately within their own self, perhaps the light of that one self, the life thereof. In this sense, Carl Rogers rose to become the president of the APA to establish this very truth in scientific jargon yet, as one can observe in his writings, strongly maintain a humble voice that only simply points toward something quiet and magnificent that for a lack of a better word, means "soul".
Every organism has a tendency to self-actualize. This profound statement is the beginning and ending of existence, circumventing every creature regardless if somewhere arrested or accelerating in their process. Every organism is carried and maintained by a life force way beyond its comprehension. Indeed, so is the entire universe, together with time that accompanies it. Since our own life force is beyond our comprehension, when we enter into a therapeutic alliance with a Rogerian therapist, the therapist makes comprehensible what is not, meaning, the therapist is the manifestation of what exists internally within the client itself. That is why the process of congruency and reflection and especially non-identity in the therapist is supremely important. Within the client itself is the incomprehensible, non-idenity that allows for freewill, genuine and unconditional positive regard, all accepting etc. The therapist is simply the external representation of that undying soul of the client filled with love, compassion, empathy, unconditional positive regard, total acceptance that presents itself, reflecting genuinely back the client back to him/herself, mirroring in order to facilitate change and growth and above all, a choice that only the ego must by itself make. But just as those special qualities in the therapist continue in non-judgment, to allow the client to unfold and realign with their truth, so does the supreme self within the client allow for that process to occur - only if the client knew that it was so, but then again that's why a therapist appears to make what is unobvious obvious, and incomprehensible comprehensible. On a yet deeper level, that is the reason there are relationships, societies, communities - to allow the unmanifest to be manifest and what cannot be experienced when hidden, experienced with another revealed.
It is indeed a profound process, where as Rogers (1961) states that the therapist itself is changed. Given the right conditions and genuine heartfelt approach, this process allows for a what we can for a lack of a better word call a "religious" experience. Which really only means, a celebration of the union between self and non-Self, and re-ununification of the fragmented into the whole, an experience of experience as Rogers (1961) expounds upon.
Sha-Ron Kushnir
REFERENCE
Cormier, S. and Hackney, H. (2008) Counseling Strategies and Interventions (7the Ed). Boston, MA; Pearson Education, Inc.
Kirschenbaum, H., & Henderson, V. (Eds.). (1989). The Carl Rogers Reader. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Containing 33 of Rogers' most important articles and book chapters from 1942 to 1987.
Rogers, C. (1961) On Becoming A Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotheraphy Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
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