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Carl Rogers: Person Centered Therapy

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Carl Rogers was a humanistic psychologist who developed the concept of person centered psychotherapy. Humanistic psychologists tend to have an optimistic perspective on human nature. Rogers believed that people are generally good, and perceives human nature as a product of environmental and social factors as well as heredity, early development, and an intuitive self-drive striving for growth through life. Human nature is viewed in a highly positive light by Carl Rogers and the humanistic view. This positive outlook of human nature profoundly leads the practice of Rogers' person-centered therapy. Because of the idea that a person has an innate, inherent capacity to escape the wrath of maladjustment, and to enter the realm of psychological health, the primary responsibility is directed at the "client." Therefore, person-centered therapy is rooted in the client's capacity for awareness and his or her ability to make decisions (Corey, 1996). By viewing individuals in this positive light, the focus is geared toward what is right with the person and not on what is wrong with him or her. …show more content…

Scott Peck (1978) states in his book, The Road Less Traveled, "Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult - once we truly understand and accept it - then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters. Life is a series of problems. Do we want to moan about them or solve them? Because it is in this process of solving problems that life has meaning" (Peck, 1978). Life is defined by the chances we take and the choices we make. It shapes us and makes us who we

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