A Way of Being
Late Rogers, reflective and less programmatic, on presence as well as technique.
When perhaps I am in a slightly altered state of consciousness, then whatever I do seems to be full of healing. Then, simply my presence is releasing and helpful to the other.
A Way of Being gathers essays Carl Rogers wrote late in his career, near the end of a life spent building client-centered therapy. It sets down what he had come to trust about the therapeutic relationship: that empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard do their work, and that something beyond technique also matters. Rogers names presence as its own therapeutic condition, the moments when a practitioner, fully himself and closely attuned, does the most good simply by being there.
The writing is personal and reflective rather than instructional. Rogers returns to the core conditions he first set out decades earlier, now weighing them against his own aging, his intuition, and his doubts. He also carries the person-centered stance outward, into groups, learning, and questions about how people might live together.
For the consulting room, the book gives a case for attending to the quality of one's own being, not only the accuracy of one's method.
About the author
Carl Ransom Rogers
Carl R. Rogers (1902 to 1987) was an American psychologist and one of the founders of humanistic psychology. Trained during the era of psychoanalytic dominance, he developed client-centered therapy, which located the work of change in the relationship rather than the clinician's interpretations. He argued that congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathy form the conditions under which people grow. His writing shaped how many clinicians, across orientations, think about the therapeutic alliance and the practitioner's own presence in the room.
Details
- 1980
- English
- Mariner Books
- Mariner Books, 1980
- 416
- 9780395755303