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 Carl Rogers discovers conditions that work for Counselling                                            Part 2

Rogerian Counselling is non directive counselling                                                                   

Carl Rogers said that if the counsellor even for one minute doubted that the client had the resources within themselves, then the counseling process was lost.

Many years ago I myself did therapy with a very good therapist who although not Rogerian, 95% of the time acted as if she was. In the 5% of the time when she feared for me and wanted me to grow faster than I was, she would give me advice or tell me what to do.

Self-doubt would descend. I had not worked out the answer. I would go into a malaise for quite some time. I believe Rogers was so right. Given the right conditions, each of us has the ability to find our own inner resources and the answers that are right for us at that time. But it is a fragile process. A counsellor who has faith in their own inner resources, will have faith in the client's and that faith will be felt by the client.

Rogerian counselling differs from most other kinds of counselling in that the counsellor does not direct the client at all. It is non-directive therapy. Rather than a set of ideas to frame the counselling, the counsellor has simply themselves.

Brian Thorne, an English Rogerian counselor, has said that he believes that the only limit on this type of counselling is the counsellor themselves. The counsellor must be able to work in accordance with the core conditions. They must be non-directive and non-judgmental and they must themselves be able to be genuine, show positive regard and have empathy. This is not necessarily always the easiest thing in the world! The counsellor as well as the client will be continually growing.

I think that Carl Roger's belief that the client is the one who has the answers, though appearing simple is very profound.

Freud discovered that we have an unconscious and that we need to suppress a great deal of ourselves to survive in society.

Jung discovered that there are phenomenal amounts of ways by which we can perceive ourselves.

Religions also are surely simply the way experienced by the person or people who set them in motion. The problem is that whenever you take one person's experience and say "this is the right way" you create a dogma and you create a cult.

Carl Roger's way of working gives assistance for each of us to find our own uniqueness and our own way. I trust my inner feeling self and I believe that part of all of us is completely trustworthy. It may be that while we are living in this world we will never know all the answers but if we can each be able to be a little bit more of who we are, then I think that would surely be a good thing.

I see a relationship between Carl Rogers work and that of Buddhism. What Rogers calls "false self" is, I believe, what Buddhists call ego. Likewise I see a definite similarity between the transmission that Buddhists receive from their Gurus to the core conditions of the relationship between client and counselor in Rogerian Counseling.

It is also important to notice that Rogerian counsellors differ from conventional helpers such as psychiatrists in that they do not feel in control of the person they are working with. A Rogerian counsellor will take responsibility to be there with the client on the client's journey but a Rogerian counsellor will not be responsible for the client.

I believe this is the only way of working which can genuinely expect the client to be responsible for themselves. When someone is controlling you, you do not really have that opportunity.

This way of working fits very much into the Buddhist ethic of non controlling. The Buddha also said some interesting things like "Put no truth above the deepest truth you know within yourself" - which is advice I think feel worth heeding for anyone interested in personal growth.

We all have our own unique history which has made us who we are today. Each of us needs to integrate things against this background and within our present situation. Our timing and our way of doing this will be different. An inner truth can never be told to you. It can only be experienced by you. Rogerian Counselling offers conditions which are conducive for us to grow and be ever more aware and in touch with our increasingly deepening inner truths.

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Allan Turner's Person Centred site for all things Rogerian including a list of counsellors worldwide.

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