Who Is Carl Rogers
About Carl Rogers
Carl Rogers (1902 – 1987)
All of these applications stem from Rogers’ abilities to develop a certain way of relating (“bring with”) those people with whom he came in contact. Rogers practiced these abilities in relationships where he was moved to help another person; he researched, thought and wrote about these abilities and their successes. Rogers’ groundbreaking sensitivity is that for a person to be truly helped, the important healing factor is the relationship itself. Rogers focused on the ways that the helper can promote certain core conditions between him or herself and the client.
These core conditions at the heart of his theory of relationship are Congruence, Empathy and Unconditional Positive Regard. For many people this is the essence of the Person Centered Approach (PCA).
The Center for Studies of the Person was the organization where Rogers spent the last 20 years of his professional life, and a person-centered-approach was his focus during this period. Rogers’ contribution and leadership was in his discovery process and his articulation of personal attitudes towards such an approach. Although the principles of PCA were the same as those in his earlier client-centered therapy (CCT), he and his colleagues shifted emphasis. The core conditions which Rogers found essential for personal growth in the field of psychotherapy were experimentally, and carefully, applied to the general arena of broader applications to human relationships and interaction. Today, PCA crosses cultures—studied and practiced today in Europe, the Americas, Australia, Africa and Asia. It is a proven, effective manner for persons to come together.