APPLICATION: PERSON-CENTERED THERAPY AND JOB
SATISFACTION
You may have noticed that many of Carl Rogers ’observations about person-
ality seem closely tied to therapy situations. This is not a coincidence. Rogers
developed many of his ideas from his work with therapy clients. Among his
most important contributions to the field was a new way to approach psycho-
logical counseling, an approach that places much of the responsibility for
change in the hands of the client. But the humanistic approach to personality
is not limited to psychotherapy. As we will see, Maslow ’s theory of motiva-
tion and the hierarchy of needs have been used to address issues related to
structuring work environments and job satisfaction.
Person-Centered Therapy
Carl Rogers ’personality theory presents an interesting challenge for humanistic
psychotherapists. According to Rogers, a therapist cannot possibly understand
clients as well as clients understand themselves. He also maintained that clients,
rather than the therapist, are responsible for changing themselves. So what is
left for therapists to do with people who come to them for help?
Rogers ’answer was that a therapist ’s job is not to change the client but
to provide an atmosphere within which clients are able to help themselves.
He called his approach to treatment person-centered therapy. Rogers believed
each of us grows and develops in a positive, self-actualizing fashion unlessour progress is in some way impeded. The therapist simply allows the clientto get back on that positive growth track. After successful Rogerian therapy,
clients should be more open to personal experience, more able to accept all
aspects of themselves, and therefore less likely to use defenses when encoun-tering information that threatens their self-concept. In short, they should be
more fully functioning and happier people.
But how is this accomplished? Therapists must first create the proper re-
lationship with their clients. The most important rule here is to be open and
genuine. Therapists should be themselves rather than play the role of thera-
pist they were taught in graduate school. This means being honest with cli-
ents, even if that includes being very frank (but not cruel) at times. Rogers
believed clients can always tell when a therapist isn ’t being genuine with
them, and the mistrust that comes from this perception can doom a therapeu-
tic relationship.
The proper therapeutic relationship also requires unconditional positive
regard from the therapist, something many clients have been denied elsewherein their lives. Clients must feel free to express and accept all their thoughts
and feelings during therapy without fear of rejection from the therapist. Un-
conditional positive regard does not mean therapists must approve of every-
thing clients say and do. Indeed, in the safe atmosphere provided by the
therapist, clients may disclose some disturbing information about themselves.
But because therapists accept clients with positive regard despite these faultsand weaknesses, clients learn to acknowledge —and eventually change —these
aspects of themselves.“When I accept
myself as I am, then
I change. ”
Carl Rogers294 CHAPTER 11 The Humanistic Approach