fei75766_ch10_309-344.indd 326  02/06/20 12:29 PM
Part III    Humanistic/Existential Theories326
Process
Iftheconditions oftherapist congruence, unconditional positive regard, andempathy 
arepresent, thentheprocess oftherapeutic change willbesetinmotion. Although 
eachperson seeking psychotherapy isunique, Rogers (1959) believed thatacertain 
lawfulness characterizes theprocess oftherapy.
Stages of Therapeutic Change
Theprocess ofconstructive personality change canbeplaced onacontinuum from 
most defensive tomost integrated. Rogers (1961) arbitrarily divided thiscontinuum 
intoseven stages.
Stage 1 ischaracterized byanunwillingness tocommunicate anything about 
oneself. People atthisstage ordinarily donotseekhelp, butifforsome reason they
come totherapy, theyareextremely rigidandresistant tochange. They donotrecog -
nizeanyproblems andrefuse toownanypersonal feelings oremotions.
InStage 2, clients become slightly lessrigid. They discuss external events and
other people, buttheystilldisown orfailtorecognize theirownfeelings. However, 
theymaytalkabout personal feelings asifsuchfeelings wereobjective phenomena.
Asclients enter intoStage 3, theymore freely talkabout self,although stillas
anobject. “I’mdoing thebestIcanatwork, butmybossstilldoesn’t likeme.”Clients 
talkabout feelings andemotions inthepastorfuture tense andavoid present feelings. 
They refuse toaccept theiremotions, keeppersonal feelings atadistance from the
here-and-now situation, onlyvaguely perceive thattheycanmake personal choices, 
anddeny individual responsibility formost oftheirdecisions.
Clients inStage 4 begin totalkofdeepfeelings butnotonespresently felt.“Iwas
really burned upwhen myteacher accused meofcheating.” When clients doexpress pres-
entfeelings, theyareusually surprised bythisexpression. They denyordistort experiences, 
although theymayhavesome dimrecognition thattheyarecapable offeeling emotions in
thepresent. They begin toquestion some values thathavebeenintrojected fromothers, and
theystarttoseetheincongruence between theirperceived selfandtheirorganismic experi -
ence. They accept more freedom andresponsibility thantheydidinStage 3andbegin to
tentatively allow themselves tobecome involved inarelationship withthetherapist.
Bythetimeclients reach Stage 5, theyhavebegun toundergo significant change 
andgrowth. They canexpress feelings inthepresent, although theyhavenotyetaccu-
rately symbolized those feelings. They arebeginning torelyonaninternal locus of
evaluation fortheirfeelings andtomake fresh andnewdiscoveries about themselves. 
They alsoexperience agreater differentiation offeelings anddevelop more apprecia -
tionfornuances among them. Inaddition, theybegin tomake theirowndecisions 
andtoaccept responsibility fortheirchoices.
People atStage 6 experience dramatic growth andanirreversible movement 
toward becoming fullyfunctioning orself-actualizing. They freely allow intoaware -
nessthose experiences thattheyhadpreviously denied ordistorted. They become 
more congruent andareabletomatch theirpresent experiences withawareness and
withopen expression. They nolonger evaluate theirownbehavior from anexternal 
viewpoint butrelyontheirorganismic selfasthecriterion forevaluating experiences. 
They begin todevelop unconditional self-regard, which means thattheyhaveafeeling 
ofgenuine caring andaffection fortheperson theyarebecoming.Final PDF to printer