ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Carl Rogers Theories

Person-Centred Approach

This Document aims to discuss Carl Rogers’ Person-Centred Theories. Namely,

Counselling Theory, Student Centred Learning, Encounter Groups, Personality Theory and
Psychotherapy.
Team Rogers
Mukul Garg 10DM-089
Monu Gupta 10DM-088
Mithil Jain 10DM-086
Mohit 10DM-087
Navin 10DM-090
Pratik Bafna 10IT-020
Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Counselling Theory................................................................................................................................4
Nineteen Propositions....................................................................................................................4
Student Centred Learning......................................................................................................................6
Encounter Groups..................................................................................................................................9
Personality Theory...............................................................................................................................11
Psychotherapy.....................................................................................................................................16
References...........................................................................................................................................18
Introduction
Carl Rogers (1902–1987) is the most influential psychologist in American history. His
lifetime of research and experiential work focused on demonstrating the psychological
conditions for allowing open communication and empowering individuals to achieve their
full potential. He pioneered the move away from traditional psychoanalysis, and developed
client-centered psychotherapy, which recognizes that “each client has within him or herself
the vast resources for self-understanding, for altering his or her self-concept, attitudes, and
self-directed behavior—and that these resources can be tapped by providing a definable
climate of facilitative attitudes.”

His contributions are outstanding in the fields of education, counselling, psychotherapy,

peace, and conflict resolution. A founder of humanistic psychology, he has profoundly
influenced the world through his empathic presence, his rigorous research, his authorship of
sixteen books and more than 200 professional articles.

His best known books are:

On Becoming a Person, Client Centered Therapy, Freedom to Learn, A way of Being, Carl
Rogers on Personal Power, and Becoming Partners: Marriage and Its Alternatives. Two of
his books have been published posthumously: The Carl Rogers’ Reader, a collection of his
most influential writings, and Carl Rogers’ Dialogues, which features interchanges with such
other giants in the field as Paul Tillich, B.F. Skinner, Gregory Bateson, and Rollo May.
Counselling Theory
Carl Rogers’s counselling technique is known as Rogerian counselling. Theory is based
directly on the "phenomenal field" personality theory of Combs and Snygg (1949). Rogerian
counselling involves the counsellor’s entry into the person's unique phenomenological world
(the study of the development of human consciousness and self-awareness as a preface to
philosophy or a part of philosophy.). In this process, the counsellor does not disagree or point
out contradictions. Nor do he / she attempt to delve into the unconscious. The process of
counselling is described by him as a process of freeing a person by removing obstacles so that
normal growth and development can proceed and the person can become more independent
and self-directed.

During counselling, the client can move from rigidly to fluidity of self perception. Certain
conditions are necessary for this process, they are:

1) A 'growth promoting climate' requires the counsellor to be congruent, to have

unconditional positive regard for the person as well as show empathic understanding.
2) Congruence on the part of the counsellor refers to her / his ability to be completely
genuine whatever the self of the moment. He / she are not expected to be a completely
congruent person all the time, as such perfection is impossible.

He suggests that any person, no matter what the problem is, one can improve without being
taught anything specific by the counsellor, once the person accepts and respects himself. All
the resources lie within the person. This type of therapy, however, may not be effective for
severe psychopathologies such as schizophrenia, which today is considered to have strong
biological component, or other disorders such as phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder or
even depression etc. His theory is based on 19 propositions.

Rogers noted that every theory, including his own, contains "an unknown (and perhaps at that
time unknowable) amount of error and mistaken inference". He believed that a theory should
serve as a stimulus to further creative thinking. This theory has very strong heuristic value
and continues to generate debate and interest. The theory further focuses on the whole
individual as he / she experiences the world. It gives considerable attention to the concept of
self and the suggestion that we can all overcome damages inflicted in childhood is most
appealing. Full functioning is not the exclusive domain of a very lucky few. It is, at least
theoretically, attainable for many; strength is that Rogerian theory is grounded in the study of
persons, leading to its strong applied value in many areas of life.

Nineteen Propositions

His theory (as of 1951) was based on nineteen propositions:

1. All individuals (organisms) exist in a continually changing world of experience

(phenomenal field) of which they are the centre.
2. The organism reacts to the field as it is experienced and perceived. This perceptual
field is "reality" for the individual.
3. The organism reacts as an organized whole to this phenomenal field.
4. A portion of the total perceptual field gradually becomes differentiated as the self.
5. As a result of interaction with the environment, and particularly as a result of
valuational interaction with others, the structure of the self is formed - an organised,
fluid but consistent conceptual pattern of perceptions of characteristics and
relationships of the "I" or the "me", together with values attached to these concepts.
6. The organism has one basic tendency and striving - to actualize, maintain and enhance
the experiencing organism.
7. The best vantage point for understanding behaviour is from the internal frame of
reference of the individual.
8. Behavior is basically the goal-directed attempt of the organism to satisfy its needs as
experienced, in the field as perceived.
9. Emotion accompanies, and in general facilitates, such goal directed behaviour, the
kind of emotion being related to the perceived significance of the behaviour for the
maintenance and enhancement of the organism.
10. Values experienced directly by the organism, and in some instances are values
interjected or taken over from others, but perceived in distorted fashion, as if they had
been experienced directly.
11. As experiences occur in the life of the individual, they are either, a) symbolized,
perceived and organized into some relation to the self, b) ignored because there is no
perceived relationship to the self structure, c) denied symbolization or given distorted
symbolization because the experience is inconsistent with the structure of the self.
12. Most of the ways of behaving that are adopted by the organism are those that are
consistent with the concept of self.
13. In some instances, behaviour may be brought about by organic experiences and needs
which have not been symbolized. Such behaviour may be inconsistent with the
structure of the self but in such instances the behaviour is not "owned" by the
individual.
14. Psychological adjustment exists when the concept of the self is such that all the
sensory and visceral experiences of the organism are, or may be, assimilated on a
symbolic level into a consistent relationship with the concept of self.
15. Psychological maladjustment exists when the organism denies awareness of
significant sensory and visceral experiences, which consequently are not symbolized
and organized into the gestalt of the self structure. When this situation exists, there is
a basic or potential psychological tension.
16. Any experience which is inconsistent with the organization of the structure of the self
may be perceived as a threat, and the more of these perceptions there are, the more
rigidly the self structure is organized to maintain itself.
17. Under certain conditions, involving primarily complete absence of threat to the self
structure, experiences which are inconsistent with it may be perceived and examined,
and the structure of self revised to assimilate and include such experiences.
18. When the individual perceives and accepts into one consistent and integrated system
all his sensory and visceral experiences, then he is necessarily more understanding of
others and is more accepting of others as separate individuals.
19. As the individual perceives and accepts into his self structure more of his organic
experiences, he finds that he is replacing his present value system - based extensively
on introjections which have been distortedly symbolized - with a continuing organism
valuing process.
Student Centred Learning
Student-centred learning (also called child-centred learning) is an approach
to education focusing on the needs of the students, rather than those of others involved in the
educational process, such as teachers and administrators. This approach has many
implications for the design of curriculum, course content, and interactivity of courses. For
instance, a student-centred course may address the needs of a particular student audience to
learn how to solve some job-related problems using some aspects of mathematics. In contrast,
a course focused on learning mathematics might choose areas of mathematics to cover and
methods of teaching which would be considered irrelevant by the student.

Student-centred learning is focused on the student's needs, abilities, interests, and learning
styles with the teacher as a facilitator of learning. This classroom teaching method
acknowledges student voice as central to the learning experience for every learner. Student-
centred learning requires students to be active, responsible participants in their own learning.
Traditionally, teachers direct the learning process and students assume a receptive role in
their education. Student centred-learning means reversing the traditional teacher-centred
understanding of the learning process and putting students at the centre of the learning
process.

Student-centered learning allows students to actively participate in discovery learning

processes from an autonomous viewpoint. Students consume the entire class time
constructing a new understanding of the material being learned without being passive, but
rather proactive. A variety of hands-on activities are administered in order to promote
successful learning. Unique, yet distinctive learning styles are encouraged in a student-
centered classroom. With the use of valuable learning skills, students are capable of
achieving life-long learning goals, which can further enhance student motivation in the
classroom. Because learning can be seen as a form of personal growth, students are
encouraged to utilize self-regulation practices in order to reflect on his or her work. For that
reason, learning can also be constructive in the sense that the student is in full control of his
or her learning. Such emphasis on learning has enabled students to take a self-
directed alternative to learning. The following provides a few examples of why student-
centered learning should be integrated into the curriculum:

 Strengthens student motivation

 Promotes peer communication
 Reduces disruptive behaviours
 Builds student-teacher relationships
 Promotes discovery/active learning
 Responsibility for one’s own learning
With the openness of a student-cantered learning environment, knowledge production is vital
when providing students the opportunity to explore their own learning styles. In that respect,
successful learning also occurs when learners are fully engaged in the active learning process.
In terms of curriculum practice, the student has the choice in what they want to study and
how they are going to apply their newfound knowledge. In teacher-directed instruction:

 Students work to achieve curricular objectives in order to become critical thinkers

 Students complete activities designed by the teacher to achieve academic success
 Students respond to positive expectations set by the teacher as they progress through
activities
 Students are given extrinsic motivators like grades and rewards in which motivates
children to internalize information and objectively demonstrates their understanding of
concepts
 Student work is evaluated by the teacher
To implement a student-centred learning environment, attention must be given to the
following aspects of learning:

 What the child wants to do

 How the teacher is able to accommodate the child's whims
 What makes the child happy
 Student interaction
Because much of the power resides with students, teachers must realize that they are
submissive in the learning process. This is a role teachers must be comfortable with if they
are to implement a student-centred learning environment. To be considered a student-centred
learning environment it will be open, dynamic, trusting, respectful, and promote the primacy
of children's subjectivity over objective learning. Students will collaborate on hands-on
problems with little to no teacher instruction and make their own conclusions. This
experiential learning involves the whole person – their feelings, thoughts, whims, social
skills, and intuition. The result is a person who is empowered against conventional societal
norms; a student who is carefree and doesn't judge others.

One of the most critical differences between student-centred learning and teacher-centred
learning is in assessment. In student-centred learning, students participate in the evaluation of
their learning. This means that students are involved in deciding how to demonstrate their
learning. One of the main reasons teachers’ resist student-centred learning is the view of
assessment as problematic in practice. Since teacher-assigned grades are so tightly woven
into the fabric of schools, expected by students, parents and administrators alike, allowing
students to participate in assessment is somewhat contentious.
Encounter Groups
An encounter group is typically an unstructured psychotherapy group in which the
participants seek to increase their sensitivity, responsiveness, and emotional
expressiveness, as by freely verbalizing and responding to emotions. These groups are
also known as sensitivity (or sensory) awareness groups and training groups (or T-
groups). The use of continual feedback, participation, and observation by the group
encourages the analysis and interpretation of their problems.

Carl Rogers coined the term, ‘The Basic Encounter Group’ to identify encounter groups
that operated on the principles of the person-centred approach.

Encounter groups are formed, usually under the guidance and leadership of a psychologists
or therapist, to provide an environment for intensive interaction. In Rogers’ model, the
therapist is mostly there to facilitate the communication between group members, possibly
repeating or rephrasing the comments of individuals when there are pauses or when such
repetition mirrors valuable thoughts and feelings. Some group leaders take a more
interpretive or analytic role and might explain, elucidate, or compare individual’s
feelings. Groups can evolve from relatively passive sitting and speaking to dynamic
adventures where things like acting out or movement are encouraged.

The Rogers’ model of encounter group did not presuppose such considerations as the target
population, size of the group, establishment of goals and ground rules, or specific facilitator
or participant behaviours.

Essence

It includes giving autonomy to persons in groups, freeing them to ‘do their thing’ (i.e.,
expressing their own ideas and feelings as one aspect of the group data), facilitating learning,
stimulating independence in thought and action, accepting the ‘unacceptable’ innovative
creations that emerge, delegating full responsibility, offering and receiving feedback,
encouraging and relying on self-evaluation, and finding reward in the development and
achievement of others.

A typical encounter group setting

It usually involves a group of thirty to three hundred individuals who meet for three days
to two weeks in a psychological atmosphere founded upon the principles of the person-
centered approach. The setting is generally one in which participants will have contacts in
their daily activities including dormitory rooms with shared baths, cafeteria meals, and
facilities which offer opportunities for participants to meet each other. There are generally
small groups, topic groups, paper presentations, experiential activities such as expressive
therapy; and recreational activities. These may or may not be structured prior to the meeting.
They often develop from the large group community meeting. It is the large group meeting of
all participants that might be described as the one major activity of person-centered
community groups. The large group involves the meeting of all workshop participants who
choose to attend a ‘nondirective’ meeting. There are facilitators who are dedicated to the
principles of the approach and who have previously experienced such groups. These
facilitators presume various responsibilities depending upon the particular facilitators.
However, they are for the most part willing to go with the direction and pace of the group.

]In such groups, there are usually periods of silence, anger, attempts to organize, criticism of
the facilitators and expression of various emotions as well as, at times, long dialogues by
participants. In the case of cross-cultural workshops, the verbal communications are
translated into one or two languages. Personal encounters among individuals and power
struggles among group factions often occur. These large groups usually meet for three or
more hours. They usually meet, at least, once each day.

Role of therapist in an encounter group

Treatment is focussed on the INDIVIDUAL. The therapist tries to see the world through the
client’s eyes so that the client will come to see his or her view of reality as having value. The
therapist empathizes with the client and offers unconditional positive regard i.e.
UNLIMITED ACCEPTANCE. By doing this, the therapist hopes to induce the client to
accept the totality of his or her experience and thus facilitate unconditional positive SELF-
regard.

The therapist hears the client by mirroring back the message they are getting from the
client. They restate the content and state the feelings they are picking up from the client. This
process helps the client clarify their feelings and not to feel threatened when doing so. The
touchstones of this approach are EMPATHY, INTUITION, and UNCONDITIONAL
POSITIVE REGARD. Ultimately the client is responsible for his or her own growth - the
therapist just helps to facilitate this process.

Applications

Rogers applied the concept of encounter group in various cases of persons suffering from:

 Depression
 Anxiety
 Alcohol disorders
 Cognitive dysfunction
 Personality disorders 
Personality Theory
Rogers tells us that organisms know what is good for them.  Evolution has provided us with
the senses, the tastes, the discriminations we need:  When we hunger, we find food -- not just
any food, but food that tastes good.  Food that tastes bad is likely to be spoiled, rotten, and
unhealthy. That what good and bad tastes are -- our evolutionary lessons made clear!  This is
called organismic valuing.

Among the many things that we instinctively value is positive regard, Rogers umbrella term
for things like love, affection, attention, nurturance, and so on.  It is clear that babies need
love and attention. In fact, it may well be that they die without it.  They certainly fail to thrive
-- i.e. become all they can be.

Another thing -- perhaps peculiarly human -- that we value is positive self-regard that is,
self-esteem, self-worth, a positive self-image.  We achieve this positive self-regard by
experiencing the positive regard others show us over our years of growing up.  Without this
self-regard, we feel small and helpless, and again we fail to become all that we can be!

Like Maslow, Rogers believes that, if left to their own devices, animals will tend to eat and
drink things that are good for them, and consume them in balanced proportions.  Babies, too,
seem to want and like what they need.  Somewhere along the line, however, we have created
an environment for ourselves that is significantly different from the one in which we
evolved.  In this new environment are such things as refined sugar, flour, butter, chocolate,
and so on, that our ancestors in Africa never knew.  These things have flavours that appeal to
our organismic valuing -- yet do not serve our actualization well.  Over millions of years, we
may evolve to find brocolli more satisfying than cheesecake -- but by then, it’ll be way too
late for you and me.

Our society also leads us astray with conditions of worth.  As we grow up, our parents,
teachers, peers, the media, and others, only give us what we need when we show we are
“worthy,” rather than just because we need it. We get a drink when we finish our class, we
get something sweet when we finish our vegetables, and most importantly, we get love and
affection if and only if we “behave!”

Getting positive regard on “on condition” Rogers calls conditional positive regard.  Because
we do indeed need positive regard, these conditions are very powerful, and we bend ourselves
into a shape determined, not by our organismic valuing or our actualizing tendency, but by a
society that may or may not truly have our best interests at heart.  A “good little boy or girl”
may not be a healthy or happy boy or girl!

Over time, this “conditioning” leads us to have conditional positive self-regard as well.  We
begin to like ourselves only if we meet up with the standards others have applied to us, rather
than if we are truly actualizing our potentials.  And since these standards were created
without keeping each individual in mind, more often than not we find ourselves unable to
meet them, and therefore unable to maintain any sense of self-esteem.
Incongruity

The aspect of your being that is founded in the actualizing tendency, follows organismic
valuing, needs and receives positive regard and self-regard, Rogers calls the real self.  It is
the “you” that, if all goes well, you will become.

On the other hand, to the extent that our society is out of synch with the actualizing tendency,
and we are forced to live with conditions of worth that are out of step with organismic
valuing, and receive only conditional positive regard and self-regard, we develop instead an
ideal self.  By ideal, Rogers is suggesting something not real, something that is always out of
our reach, the standard we can’t meet.

This gap between the real self and the ideal self, the “I am” and the “I should” is called
incongruity.  The greater the gap, the more incongruity. The more incongruity, the more
suffering.  In fact, incongruity is essentially what Rogers means by neurosis:  Being out of
synch with your own self.  If this all sounds familiar to you, it is precisely the same point
made by Karen Horney!
Defences

When you are in a situation where there is an incongruity between your image of yourself and
your immediate experience of yourself (i.e. between the ideal and the real self), you are in a
threatening situation.  For example, if you have been taught to feel unworthy if you do not
get A's on all your tests, and yet you aren't really all that great a student, then situations such
as tests are going to bring that incongruity to light -- tests will be very threatening.

When you are expecting a threatening situation, you will feel anxiety.  Anxiety is a signal
indicating that there is trouble ahead, that you should avoid the situation!  One way to avoid
the situation, of course, is to pick you up and run for the hills.  Since that is not usually an
option in life, instead of running physically, we run psychologically, by using defences.

Rogers' idea of defences is very similar to Freud's, except that Rogers considers everything
from a perceptual point-of-view, so that even memories and impulses are thought of as
perceptions.  Fortunately for us, he has only two defences:  denial and perceptual distortion.

Denial means very much what it does in Freud's system:  You block out the threatening
situation altogether.  An example might be the person who never picks up his test or asks
about test results, so he doesn't have to face poor grades (at least for now!).  Denial for
Rogers does also include what Freud called repression:  If keeping a memory or an impulse
out of your awareness -- refuse to perceive it -- you may be able to avoid (again, for now!) a
threatening situation.

Perceptual distortion is a matter of reinterpreting the situation so that it appears less

threatening.  It is very similar to Freud's rationalization.  A student that is threatened by tests
and grades may, for example, blame the professor for poor teaching, trick questions, bad
attitude, or whatever.  The fact that sometimes professors are poor teachers, writes trick
questions, and have bad attitudes only makes the distortion work better:  If it could be true,
then maybe it really was true!  It can also be much more obviously perceptual, such as when
the person misreads his grade as better than it is.
Unfortunately for the poor neurotic (and, in fact, most of us), every time he or she uses a
defence; they put a greater distance between the real and the ideal.  They become ever more
incongruous, and find themselves in more and more threatening situations, develop greater
and greater levels of anxiety, and use more and more defences....  It becomes a vicious cycle
that the person eventually is unable to get out of, at least on their own.

Rogers also has a partial explanation for psychosis:  Psychosis occurs when a person's
defence are overwhelmed, and their sense of self becomes "shattered" into little disconnected
pieces.  His behavior likewise has little consistency to it.  We see him as having "psychotic
breaks" -- episodes of bizarre behavior.  His words may make little sense.  His emotions may
be inappropriate.  He may lose the ability to differentiate self and non-self, and become
disoriented and passive.

The fully-functioning person

Rogers, like Maslow, is just as interested in describing the healthy person.  His term is "fully-
functioning," and involves the following qualities:

1.  Openness to experience.  This is the opposite of defensiveness.  It is the accurate

perception of one's experiences in the world, including one's feelings.  It also means being
able to accept reality, again including one's feelings.  Feelings are such an important part of
openness because they convey organismic valuing.  If you cannot be open to your feelings,
you cannot be open to actualization.  The hard part, of course, is distinguishing real feelings
from the anxieties brought on by conditions of worth.

2.  Existential living.  This is living in the here-and-now.  Rogers, as a part of getting in
touch with reality, insists that we not live in the past or the future -- the one is gone, and the
other isn't anything at all, yet!  The present is the only reality we have.  Mind you, that
doesn't mean we shouldn't remember and learn from our past.  Neither does it mean we
shouldn't plan or even day-dream about the future.  Just recognize these things for what they
are:  memories and dreams, which we are experiencing here in the present.

3.  Organismic trusting.  We should allow ourselves to be guided by the organismic valuing
process.  We should trust ourselves; do what feels right, what comes natural.  This, as I'm
sure you realize, has become a major sticking point in Rogers' theory.  People say, sure, do
what comes natural -- if you are a sadist, hurt people; if you are a masochist, hurt yourself; if
the drugs or alcohol make you happy, go for it; if you are depressed, kill yourself....  This
certainly doesn't sound like great advice.  In fact, many of the excesses of the sixties and
seventies were blamed on this attitude.  But keep in mind that Rogers meant trust you’re real
self, and you can only know what your real self has to say if you are open to experience and
living existentially!  In other words, organismic trusting assumes you are in contact with the
actualizing tendency.

4.  Experiential freedom.  Rogers felt that it was irrelevant whether or not people really had
free will.  We feel very much as if we do.  This is not to say, of course, that we are free to do
anything at all:  We are surrounded by a deterministic universe, so that, flap my arms as
much as I like, I will not fly like Superman.  It means that we feel free when choices are
available to us.  Rogers says that the fully-functioning person acknowledges that feeling of
freedom, and takes responsibility for his choices.
5.  Creativity.  If you feel free and responsible, you will act accordingly, and participate in
the world.  A fully-functioning person, in touch with actualization, will feel obliged by their
nature to contribute to the actualization of others, even life itself.  This can be through
creativity in the arts or sciences, through social concern and parental love, or simply by doing
one's best at one's job.  Creativity as Rogers uses it is very close to Eriksson’s generativity.
Psychotherapy
Roger's theory led him to practice a non-directive psychotherapy in which the client sat face-
to-face with him rather than lying on the couch. It sends a message to the client that they are
collaborators and that the therapist is not the one who 'knows,' but is there to facilitate the
client's growth (which can only come from 'within,' so to speak). Finally, Rogers held to the
strict criteria that genuineness, empathy and unconditional positive regard are essential on the
part of the therapist if the client is to be healed and "self-actualize."

Rogers felt that he could not be of help to troubled people by means of any intellectual or
training procedure.  No approach which relies upon knowledge, upon training, upon the
acceptance of something that is taught, was of any use.  It is possible to explain a person to
him, to prescribe steps which should lead him forward, to train him in knowledge about a
more satisfying life.  But such methods, Rogers felt, are futile and inconsequential, based on
his experience.  The most they can accomplish, he said, was some temporary change, which
soon disappears, leaving the individual more than ever convinced of his inadequacy.

The failure of any such approach through the intellect had forced him to recognize that
change appears to come about through experience in a relationship. Rogers outlined what he
felt were three essential conditions for a therapeutic relationship:

 1) Genuineness

Rogers found that the more genuine he was in the relationship, the more helpful it would be. 
This means that the therapist needs to be aware of his own feelings, in so far as possible,
rather than presenting an outward facade of one attitude, while actually holding another
attitude at a deeper or unconscious level.  Being genuine also involves the willingness to be
and to express, in one's words and one's behavior, the various feelings and attitudes which
exist in one's self.  Rogers found this to be true even when the attitudes he felt were not
attitudes with which he was pleased, or attitudes which seemed conducive to a good
relationship.  It seemed extremely important to be REAL.

 2) Acceptance

As a second condition, Rogers found that the more acceptance and liking he felt toward a
client, the more he was willing to create a relationship which the client could use.  By
acceptance, Rogers meant a warm regard for him as a person of unconditional self-worth--of
value no matter what his condition, his behavior, or his feelings.  It means a respect and
liking for him as a separate person, willingness for him to possess his own feelings in his own
way.  It means an acceptance of and regard for his attitudes of the moment, no matter how
negative or positive, no matter how much they may contract other attitudes he had held in the
past.  This acceptance of each fluctuating aspect of this other person makes it for him a
relationship of warmth and safety, and the safety of being liked and prized as a person seems
a highly important element in a helping relationship.

 3) Understanding
Rogers also found that the relationship was significant to the extent that he feel a continuing
desire to understand--a sensitive empathy with each of the client's feelings and
communications as they seem to him at that moment.  Acceptance, Rogers felt, does not
mean much until it involves understanding.  It is only as one UNDERSTANDS the feelings
and thoughts which seem so horrible to the client, or so weak, or so sentimental, or so
bizarre--it is only as one sees them as the client sees them, and accepts them and the client,
that the client feels really free to explore all the hidden nooks and frightening crannies of his
inner and often buried experience.  This FREEDOM is an important condition of the
relationship.  There is implied here a freedom to explore oneself at both conscious and
unconscious levels, as rapidly as one can dare to embark on this dangerous quest.  There is
also a complete freedom from any type of moral or diagnostic evaluation, since all such
evaluations are, Rogers believed, always threatening.

Rogers writes: 
"Thus the relationship which I have found helpful is characterized by a sort of transparency
on my part, in which my real feelings are evident; by an acceptance of this other person as a
separate person with value in his own right; and by a deep empathic understanding which
enables me to see his private world through his eyes.  When these conditions are achieved, I
become a companion to my client, accompanying him in the frightening search for himself,
which he now feels free to undertake." (On Becoming a Person)

Rogers felt that the individual will discover within himself the capacity to use this
relationship for growth.

Rogers' experience led him to the conclusion that the individual has within himself the
capacity and the tendency, latent if not evident, to move forward toward maturity.  In a
suitable psychological climate this tendency is released, and becomes actual rather than
potential.  It is evident in the capacity of the individual to understand those aspects of his life
and of himself which are causing him pain and dissatisfaction, an understanding which
probes beneath his conscious knowledge of himself into those experiences which he has
hidden from himself because of their threatening nature.  It shows itself in the tendency to
reorganize his personality and his relationship to life in ways which are regarded as more
mature.  Whether one calls it a growth tendency, a drive toward self-actualization, or a
forward-moving directional tendency, it is the mainspring of life, and is, in the last analysis,
the tendency upon which all psychotherapy depends.
References
The Carl Rogers Reader, edited by Kirschenbaum and Henderson (1989).

Carl Rogers biography, http://www.nrogers.com/carlrogersbio.html