Carl Rogers' Rogerian Theory - Research Paper Example

Center of discussion in this paper is Rogerian theory, also known as person-centered theory, that is formulated by Carl Rogers. According to this idea, every person is fueled by a fierce desire to fulfill his/her potentials because of the inherent actualizing tendency which forms the bedrock of all actions and reactions. The Rogerian approach conveys this message that humans are made powerful enough to overcome any emotion or experience in life. When the actualizing tendency is suppressed, people get depressed and anxious.

It depends on people to act or behave in a certain way that would make them either happy or distressed. Person-centered theory stresses on the importance of a psychological therapy approach which instead of antagonizing a patient’s beliefs focuses on empathizing with his/her ideas to help the patient become less incongruent and powerful enough to utilize the vast resources of self-understanding. Too much incongruence suppresses a person’s emotional well-being. It is suggested that a total absence of techniques is noticed in person-centered psychotherapy in contrast to other psychotherapies which employ many smartly engineered techniques.

This is because according to the Rogerian view, the use of different techniques is meant to depersonalize the relationship between patient and therapist which should of premium quality. It is not what the therapist tells but the nature of the therapeutic relationship which matters the most. Rogers has moved the focus from techniques to client incongruence and therapist congruence. The state of incongruence is especially stressed by Rogers and has a central importance in his theory. This state is described by him as “the gap between self-concept and reality” (Weiten, 2010, p. 509). This means that a therapist should genuinely involve him/herself in relationship with the client who should be in a state of incongruence to be treated according to Rogerian psychotherapy.

Then, the incongruent state of the client should be reversed by the therapist. Benefits of theory One major benefit of the theory is that it has stressed on making greater investments in the relationship between patient and client. Many other psychotherapies stress on using many different techniques to make things work with difficult clients. But, this theory views techniques as agents of depersonalizing a relationship negatively interfering with its validity. The theory also maintains that the patient has to be in a distressed state which is why therapist congruence is critically important to turn the situation in the best interests of the client.

A patient-centered ideology is the biggest advantage of this theory which helps the client expand on the idea of self-concept and perceive things in a better way. More importance is attached to the role of the client in this theory than to the role of the therapist which can inculcate a sense of self-importance in the client equipping him/her with power to reach full potential and overcome issues in life. A person seeking help is not called a patient but a client to help him/her to feel equal to the therapist.

Drawbacks of theory: Person-centered theory has attracted much criticism. Critics strongly argue against this theory usually due to ignorance considering it a questionably simple approach to psychotherapy (Wilkins, 2009, p. 123). It is argued that the main idea of this approach is to empathize with the ideas of the clients instead of shrewdly talking sense to them in a professional way in order to empower them to actualize their potential. Now, criminals and offenders also have a desire to reach their maximum potential, so should Rogerian psychotherapists have an unconditional regard for their feelings too and should they empower them to reach their potential?

Also, this theory cannot be considered decisive because there is a large number of patients who would rather prefer a direct advice instead