SIGNIFICANT ASPECTS OF CLIENT-CENTERED THERAPY1

CARL R. ROGERS

University of Chicago

IN PLANNING to address this group, I haveconsidered and discarded several possibletopics. I was tempted to describe the process

of non-directive therapy and the counselor tech-niques and procedures which seem most useful inbringing about this process. But much of this ma-terial is now in writing. My own book on counselingand psychotherapy contains much of the basicmaterial, and my recent more popular book oncounseling with returning servicemen tends tosupplement it. The philosophy of the client-centered approach and its application to work withchildren is persuasively presented by Allen. Theapplication to counseling of industrial employees isdiscussed in the volume by Cantor. Curran hasnow published in book form one of the severalresearch studies which are throwing new light onboth process and procedure. Axline is publishinga book on play and group therapy. Snyder isbringing out a book of cases. So it seems unneces-sary to come a long distance to summarize materialwhich is, or soon will be, obtainable in written form.

Another tempting possibility, particularly inthis setting, was to discuss some of the roots fromwhich the client-centered approach has sprung.It would have been interesting to show how in itsconcepts of repression and release, in its stress uponcatharsis and insight, it has many roots in Freudianthinking, and to acknowledge that indebtedness.Such an analysis could also have shown that in itsconcept of the individual's ability to organize hisown experience there is an even deeper indebtednessto the work of Rank, Taft, and Allen. In its stressupon objective research, the subjecting of fluidattitudes to scientific investigation, the willingnessto submit all hypotheses to a verification or disproofby research methods, the debt is obviously to the

1 Paper given at a seminar of the staffs of the MfenningerClinic and the Topeka Veteran's Hospital, Topeka, Kansas,May IS, 1946.

whole field of American psychology, with its geniusfor scientific methodology. It could also have beenpointed out that although everyone in the clinicalfield has been heavily exposed to the eclectic "team"approach to therapy of the child guidance movement,and the somewhat similar eclecticism of the AdolfMeyers—Hopkins school of thought, these eclecticviewpoints have perhaps not been so fruitful intherapy and that little from these sources has beenretained in the non-directive approach. It mightalso have been pointed out that in its basic trendaway from guiding and directing the client, the non-directive approach is deeply rooted in practicalclinical experience, and is in accord with the experi-ence of most clinical workers, so much so that oneof the commonest reactions of experienced therapistsis that "You have crystallized and put into wordssomething that I have been groping toward in myown experience for a long time."

Such an analysis, such a tracing of root ideas,needs to be made, but I doubt my own ability tomake it. I am also doubtful that anyone who isdeeply concerned with a new development knowswith any degree of accuracy where his ideas camefrom.

Consequently I am, in this presentation, adoptinga third pathway. While I shall bring in a briefdescription of process and procedure, and while Ishall acknowledge in a general way our indebtednessto many root sources, and shall recognize the manycommon elements shared by client-centered therapyand other approaches, I believe it will be to ourmutual advantage if I stress primarily those aspectsin which nondirective therapy differs most sharplyand deeply from other therapeutic procedures. Ihope to point out some of the basically significantways in which the client-centered viewpoint differsfrom .others, not only in its present principles, butin the wider divergencies which are implied by theprojection of its central principles.

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THE PREDICTABLE PROCESS OF CLIENT-CENTERED

THERAPY

The first of the three distinctive elements ofclient-centered therapy to which I wish to call yourattention is the predictability of the therapeuticprocess in this approach. We find, both clinicallyand statistically, that a predictable pattern oftherapeutic development takes place. The assur-ance which we feel about this was brought home tome recently when I played a recorded first interviewfor the graduate students in our practicum immedi-ately after it was recorded, pointing out the charac-teristic aspects, and agreeing to play later interviewsfor them to let them see the later phases of thecounseling process. The fact that I knew withassurance what the later pattern would be before ithad occurred only struck me as I thought about theincident. We have become clinically so accustomedto this predictable quality that we take it for granted.Perhaps a brief summarized description of this thera-peutic process will indicate those elements of whichwe feel sure.

It may be said that we now know how to initiate acomplex and predictable chain of events in dealingwith the maladjusted individual, a chain of eventswhich is therapeutic, and which operates effectivelyin problem situations of the most diverse type.This predictable chain of events may come aboutthrough the use of language, as in counseling,through symbolic language, as in play therapy,through disguised language as in drama or puppettherapy. It is effective in dealing with individualsituations, and also in small group situations.

It is possible to state with some exactness theconditions which must be met in order to initiateand carry through this releasing therapeutic experi-ence. Below are listed in brief form the conditionswhich seem to be necessary, and the therapeuticresults which occur.

This experience which releases the growth forceswithin the individual will come about in most casesif the following elements are present.

(1) If the counselor operates on the principle thatthe individual is basically responsible for himself,and is willing for the individual to keep that re-sponsibility.

(2) If the counselor operates on the principle thatthe client has a strong drive to become mature,socially adjusted, independent, productive, and re-

lies on this force, not on his own powers, for thera-peutic change.

(3) If the counselor creates a warm and permissiveatmosphere in which the individual is free to bringout any attitudes and feelings which he may have,no matter how unconventional, absurd, or contra-dictory these attitudes may be. The client is asfree to withhold expression as he is to give expressionto his feelings.

(4) If the limits which are set are simple limitsset on behavior, and not limits set on attitudes.(This applies mostly to children. The child maynot be permitted to break a window or leave theroom, but he is free to feel like breaking a window,and the feeling is fully accepted. The adult clientmay not be permitted more than an hour for aninterview, but there is full acceptance of his desireto claim more time.)

(5) If the therapist uses only those proceduresand techniques in the interview which convey hisdeep understanding of the emotionalized attitudesexpressed and his acceptance of them. This under-standing is perhaps best conveyed by a sensitivereflection and clarification of the client's attitudes.The counselor's acceptance involves neither approvalnor disapproval.

(6) If the counselor refrains from any expressionor action which is contrary to the preceding princi-ples. This means refraining from questioning,probing, blame, interpretation, advice, suggestion,persuasion, reassurance.

If these conditions are met, then it may be saidwith assurance that in the great majority of casesthe following results will take place.

(1) The client will express deep and motivatingattitudes.

(2) The client will explore his own attitudes andreactions more fully than he has previously done andwill come to be aware of aspects of his attitudeswhich he has previously denied.

(3) He will arrive at a clearer conscious realizationof his motivating attitudes and will accept himselfmore completely. This realization and this accep-tance will include attitudes previously denied. Hemay or may not verbalize this clearer consciousunderstanding of himself and his behavior.

(4) In the light of his clearer'perception of himselfhe will choose, on his own initiative and on his own

SIGNIFICANT ASPECTS OF CLIENT-CENTERED THERAPY 417

responsibility, new goals which are more satisfyingthan his maladjusted goals.

(5) He will choose to behave in a different fashionin order to reach these goals, and this new behaviorwill be in the direction of greater psychologicalgrowth and maturity. It will also be more spon-taneous and less tense, more in harmony with socialneeds of others, will represent a more realistic andmore comfortable adjustment to life. It will bemore integrated than his former behavior. It willbe a step forward in the life of the individual.

The best scientific description of this process isthat supplied by Snyder. Analyzing a number ofcases with strictly objective research techniques,Snyder has discovered that the development inthese cases is roughly parallel, that the initial phaseof catharsis is replaced by a phase in which insightbecomes the most significant element, and this inturn by a phase marked by the increase in positivechoice and action.

Clinically we know that sometimes this process isrelatively shallow, involving primarily a fresh re-orientation to an immediate problem, and in otherinstances so deep as to involve a complete reorienta-tion of personality. It is recognizably the sameprocess whether it involves a girl who is unhappyin a dormitory and is able in three interviews to seesomething of her childishness and dependence, andto take steps in a mature direction, or whether itinvolves a young man who is on the edge of a schizo-phrenic break, and who in thirty interviews worksout deep insights in relation to his desire for hisfather's death, and his possessive and incestuousimpulses toward his mother, and who not only takesnew steps but rebuilds his whole personality in theprocess. Whether shallow or deep, it is basicallythe same.

We are coming to recognize with assurance charac-teristic aspects of each phase of the process. Weknow that the catharsis involves a gradual and morecomplete expression of emotionalized attitudes.We know that characteristically the conversationgoes from superficial problems and attitudes todeeper problems and attitudes. We know that thisprocess of exploration gradually unearths relevantattitudes which have been denied to consciousness.

We recognize too that the process of achievinginsight is likely to involve more adequate facing ofreality as it exists within the self, as well as external

reality; that it involves the relating of problems toeach other, the perception of patterns of behavior;that it involves the acceptance of hitherto deniedelements of the self, and a reformulating of the self-concept; and that it involves the making of newplans.

In the final phase we know that the choice of newways of behaving will be in conformity with thenewly organized concept of the self; that first stepsin putting these plans into action will be small butsymbolic; that the individual will feel only a mini-mum degree of confidence that he can put his plansinto effect; thatjater steps implement more andmore completely the new concept of self, and thatthis process continues beyond the conclusion of thetherapeutic interviews.

If these statements seem to contain too muchassurance, to sound "too good to be true," I canonly say that for many of them we now have re-search backing, and that as rapidly as possible weare developing our research to bring all phases of theprocess under objective scrutiny. Those of usworking clinically with client-centered therapyregard this predictability as a settled characteristic,even though we recognize that additional researchwill be necessary to fill out the picture more com-pletely.

It is the implication of this predictability which isstartling. Whenever, in science, a predictable proc-ess has been discovered, it has been found possibleto use it as a starting point for a whole chain ofdiscoveries. We regard this as not only entirelypossible, but inevitable, with regard to this pre-dictable process in therapy. Hence, we regard thisorderly and predictable nature of nondirectivetherapy as one of its most distinctive and significantpoints of difference from other approaches. Itsimportance lies not only in the fact that it is a presentdifference, but in the fact that it points toward asharply different future, in which scientific explora-tion of this known chain of events should lead tomany new discoveries, developments, and applica-tions.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE CAPACITY OF THE CLIENT

Naturally the question is raised, what is the reasonfor this predictability in a type of therapeuticprocedure in which the therapist serves only a cata-lytic function? Basically the reason for the pre-

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dictability of the therapeutic process lies in thediscovery—and I use that word intentionally—that within the client reside constructive forceswhose strength and uniformity have been eitherentirely unrecognized or grossly underestimated.It is the clearcut and disciplined reliance by thetherapist upon those forces within the client, whichseems to account for the orderliness of the thera-peutic process, and its consistency from one clientto the next.

I mentioned that I regarded this as a discovery.I would like to amplify that statement. We haveknown for centuries that catharsis and emotionalrelease were helpful. Many new methods have beenand are being developed to bring about release,but the principle is not new. Likewise, we haveknown since Freud's time that insight, if it is ac-cepted and assimilated by the client, is therapeutic.The principle is not new. Likewise we have realizedthat revised action patterns, new ways of behaving,may come about as a result of insight. The principleis not new.

But we have not known or recognized that inmost if not all individuals there exist growth forces,tendencies toward self-actualization, which may actas the sole motivation for therapy. We have notrealized that under suitable psychological conditionsthese forces bring about emotional release in thoseareas and at those rates which are most beneficial tothe individual. These forces drive the individualto explore his own attitudes and his relationship toreality, and to explore these areas effectively. Wehave not realized that the individual is capable ofexploring his attitudes and feelings, including thosewhich have been denied to consciousness, at a ratewhich does not cause panic, and to the depth re-quired for comfortable adjustment. The individualis capable of discovering and perceiving, truly andspontaneously, the interrelationships between hisown attitudes, and the relationship of himself toreality. The individual has the capacity and thestrength to devise, quite unguided, the steps whichwill lead him to a more mature and more comfortablerelationship to his reality. It is the gradual andincreasing recognition of these capacities within theindividual by the client-centered therapist thatrates, I believe, the term discovery. All of thesecapacities I have described are released in the indi-

vidual if a suitable psychological atmosphere isprovided.

There has, of course, been lip service paid to thestrength of the client, and the need of utilizing theurge toward independence which exists in the client.Psychiatrists, analysts, and especially social caseworkers have stressed this point. Yet it is clearfrom what is said, and even more clear from thecase material cited, that this confidence is a verylimited confidence. It is a confidence that the clientcan take over, if guided by the expert, a confidencethat the client can assimilate insight if it is first givento him by the expert, can make choices providingguidance is given at crucial points. It is, in short,the same sort of attitude which the mother has to-ward the adolescent, that she believes in his capacityto make his own decisions and guide his own life,providing he takes the directions of which she ap-proves.

This is very evident in the latest book on psycho-analysis by Alexander and French. Although manyof the former views and practices of psychoanalysisare discarded, and the procedures are far morenearly in line with those of nondirective therapy,it is still the therapist who is definitely in control.He gives the insights, he is ready to guide at crucialpoints. Thus while the authors state that the aimof the therapist is to free the patient to develop hiscapacities, and to increase his ability to satisfy hisneeds in ways acceptable to himself and society;and while they speak of the basic conflict betweencompetition and cooperation as one which the indi-vidual must settle for himself; and speak of the in-tegration of new insight as a normal function of theego, it is clear when they speak of procedures thatthey have no confidence that the client has the ca-pacity to do any of these things. For in practice,"As soon as the therapist takes the more active rolewe advocate, systematic planning becomes imper-ative. In addition to the original decision as to theparticular sort of strategy to be employed in thetreatment of any case, we recommend the conscioususe of various techniques in a flexible manner, shift-ing tactics to fit the particular needs of the moment.Among these modifications of the standard tech-nique are; using not only the method of free as-sociation but interviews of a more direct character,manipulating the frequency of the interviews, giving;

SIGNIFICANT ASPECTS or CLIENT-CENTERED THERAPY 419

directives to the patient concerning his daily life,employing interruptions of long or short duration inpreparation for ending the treatment, regulating thetransference relationship to meet the specific needsof the case, and making use of real-life experiencesas-an integral part of therapy" (7). At least thisleaves no doubt as to whether it is the client's or thetherapist's hour; it is clearly the latter. Thecapacities which the client is to develop are clearlynot to be developed in the therapeutic sessions.

The client-centered therapist stands at an op-posite pole, both theoretically and practically. Hehas learned that the constructive forces in the indi-vidual can be trusted, and that the more deeplythey are relied upon, the more deeply they arereleased. He has come to build his proceduresupon these hypotheses, which are rapidly becomingestablished as facts; that the client knows the areasof concern which he is ready to explore; that theclient is the best judge as to the most desirablefrequency of interviews; that the client can lead theway more efficiently than the therapist into deeperconcerns; that the client will protect himself frompanic by ceasing to explore an area which is becom-ing too painful; that the client can and will uncoverall the repressed elements which it is necessary touncover in order to build a comfortable adjustment;that the client can achieve for himself far truer andmore sensitive and accurate insights than canpossibly be given to him; that the client is capableof translating these insights into constructivebehavior which weighs his own needs and desiresrealistically against the demands of society; thatthe client knows when therapy is completed and heis ready to cope with life independently. Only onecondition is necessary for all these forces to bereleased, and that is the proper psychological at-mosphere between client and therapist.

Our case records and increasingly our researchbear out these statements. One might supposethat there would be a generally favorable reactionto this discovery, since it amounts in effect to tap-ping great reservoirs of hitherto little-used energy.Quite the contrary is true, however, in professionalgroups. There is no other aspect of client-centeredtherapy which comes under such vigorous attack.It seems to be genuinely disturbing to many pro-fessional people to entertain the thought that this

client upon whom they have been exercising theirprofessional skill actually knows more about hisinner psychological self than they can possibly know,and that he possesses constructive strengths whichmake the constructive push by the therapist seempuny indeed by comparison. The willingness fullyto accept this strength of the client, with all the re-orientation of therapeutic procedure which it im-plies, is one of the ways in which client-centeredtherapy differs most sharply from other therapeuticapproaches.

THE CLIENT-CENTERED NATURE OF THE THERAPEUTIC

RELATIONSHIP

The third distinctive feature of this type of ther-apy is the character of the relationship betweentherapist and client. Unlike other therapies inwhich the skills of the therapist are to be exercisedupon the client, in this approach the skills of thetherapist are focussed upon creating a psychologicalatmosphere in which the client can work. If thecounselor can create a relationship permeated bywarmth, understanding, safety from any type ofattack, no matter how trivial, and basic acceptanceof the person as he is, then the client will drop hisnatural defensiveness and use the situation. As wehave puzzled over the characteristics of a successfultherapeutic relationship, we have come to feel thatthe sense of communication is very important. Ifthe client feels that he is actually communicatinghis present attitudes, superficial, confused, or con-flicted as they may be, and that his communicationis understood rather than evaluated in any way,then he is freed to communicate more deeply. Arelationship in which the client thus feels that he iscommunicating is almost certain to be fruitful.

All of this means a drastic reorganization in thecounselor's thinking, particularly if he has previouslyutilized other approaches. He gradually learnsthat the statement that the time is to be "the client'shour" means just that, and that his biggest task is tomake it more and more deeply true.

Perhaps something of the characteristics of therelationship may be suggested by excerpts from apaper written by a young minister who has spentseveral months learning client-centered counselingprocedures i.

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"Because the client-centered, nondirectivecounseling approach has been rather carefullydefined and clearly illustrated, it gives the"Illusion of Simpl city." The technique seemsdeceptively easy to master. Then you beginto practice. A word is wrong here and there.You don't quite reflect feeling, but reflect con-tent instead. It is difficult to handle questions;you are tempted to interpret. Nothing seemsso serious that further practice won't correct it.Perhaps you are having trouble playing tworoles—that of minister and that of counselor.Bring up the question in class and the matteris solved again with a deceptive ease. Butthese apparently minor errors and a certainwoodenness of response seem exceedingly per-sistent.

"Only gradually does it dawn that if thetechnique is true it demands a feeling of warmth.You begin to feel that the attitude is the thing.Every little word is not so important if youhave the correct accepting and permissiveattitude toward the client. So you bear downon the permissiveness and acceptance. Youwill permiss and accept and reflect the client,if it kills you!

'But you still have those troublesomequestions from the client. He simply doesn'tknow the next step. He asks you to give him ahint, some possibilities, after all you are expec-ted to know something, else why is he here?As a minjster, you ought to have some convic-tions about what people should believe, howthey should act. As a counselor, you shouldknow something about removing this obstacle—you ought to have the equivalent of the sur-geon's knife and use it. Then you begin towonder. The techinque is good, but. .. does itgo far' enough? does it really work on clients?is it right1 to leave a person helpless, when youmight show him the way out?

"Here it seems to me is the crucial point."Narrow is the gate" and hard the path fromhere on. No one else can give satisfyinganswers and even the instructors seem frustrat-ing because they appear not to be helpful in yourspecific case. For here is demanded of youwhat no other person can do or point out—andthat is to rigorously scrutinize yourself and

your attitudes towards others. Do you believethat all people truly have a creative potentialin them? That each person is a unique indi-vidual and that he alone can work out his ownindividuality? Or do you really believe thatsome persons are of "negative value" and othersare weak and must be led and taught by "wiser,""stronger" people.

"You begin to see that there is nothingcompartmentalized about this method of coun-seling. It is not just counseling, because itdemands the most exhaustive, penetrating, andcomprehensive consistency. In other methodsyou can shape tools, pick them up for use whenyou will. But when genuine acceptance andpermissiveness are your tools it requires nothingless than the whole complete personality.And to grow oneself is the most demanding ofall."He goes on to discuss the notion that the coun-selor must be restrained and "self-denying."He concludes that this is a mistaken notion.

"Instead of demanding less of the counselor'spersonality in the situation, client-centeredcounseling in some ways demands more. Itdemands discipline, not restraint. It callsfor the utmost in sensitivity, appreciative aware-ness, channeled and disciplined. It demandsthat the counselor put all he has of theseprecious qualities into the situation, but in adisciplined, refined manner. It is restraintonly in the sense that the counselor does notexpress himself in certain areas that he mayuse himself in others.

"Even this is deceptive, however. It is notso much restraint in any area as it is a focusing,sensitizing one's energies and personality in thedirection of an appreciative and understandingattitude."As time has gone by we have come to put in-

creasing stress upon the "client-centeredness" of therelationship, because it is more effective the morecompletely the counselor concentrates upon tryingto understand the client as the client seems to himself.As I look back upon some of our earlier publishedcases—the case of Herbert Bryan in my book, orSnyder's case of Mr. M.—-I realize that we havegradually dropped the vestiges of subtle directive-ness which are all too evident in those cases. We

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have come to recognize that if we can provide under-standing of the way the client seems to himself atthis moment, he can do the rest. The therapistmust lay aside his preoccupation with diagnosis andhis diagnostic shrewdness, must discard his tendencyto make professional evaluations, must cease hisendeavors to formulate an accurate prognosis, mustgive up the temptation subtly to guide the indi-vidual, and must concentrate on one purpose only;that of providing deep understanding and acceptanceof the attitudes consciously held at this moment bythe client as he explores step by step into the danger-ous areas which he has been 'denying to conscious-ness.

I trust it is evident from this description that thistype of relationship can exist only if the counselor isdeeply and genuinely able to adopt these attitudes.Client-centered counseling, if it is to be effective,cannot be a trick or a tool. It is not a subtle way ofguiding the client while pretending to let him guidehimself. To be effective, it must be genuine. It isthis sensitive and sincere "client-centeredness" in thetherapeutic relationship that I regard as the thirdcharacteristic of nondirective therapy which sets itdistinctively apart from other approaches.

SOME IMPLICATIONS

Although the client-centered approach had itsorigin purely within the limits of the psychologicalclinic, it is proving to have implications, often of astartling nature, for very diverse fields of effort. Ishould like to suggest a few of these present and po-tential implications.

In the field of psychotherapy itself, it leads toconclusions that seem distinctly heretical. Itappears evident that training and practice intherapy should probably precede training in thefield of diagnosis. Diagnostic knowledge and skillis not necessary for good therapy, a statementwhich sounds like blasphemy to many, and if theprofessional worker, whether psychiatrist, psycholo-gist or caseworker, received training in therapyfirst he would learn psychological dynamics in atruly dynamic fashion, and would acquire a pro-fessional humility and willingness to learn from hisclient which is today all too rare.

The viewpoint appears to have implications formedicine. It has fascinated me to observe thatwhen a prominent allergist began to use client-

centered therapy for the treatment of non-specificallergies, he found not only very good therapeuticresults, but the experience began to affect his wholemedical practice. It has gradually meant the reor-ganization of his office procedure. He has given hisnurses a new type of training in understanding thepatient. He has decided to have all medical his-tories taken by a nonmedical person trained in non-directive techniques, in order to get a true pictureof the client's feelings and attitudes toward himselfand his health, uncluttered by the bias and diagnos-tic evaluation which is almost inevitable when amedical person takes the history and unintentionallydistorts the material by his premature judgments.He has found these histories much more helpjul tothe physicians than those taken by physicians.

The client-centered viewpoint has already beenshown to have significant implications for the fieldof survey interviewing and public opinion study.Use of such techniques by Likert, Lazarsfeld, andothers has meant the elimination of much of thefactor of bias in such studies.

This approach has also, we believe, deep implica-tions for the handling of social and group conflicts,as I have pointed out in another paper (9). Ourwork in applying a client-centered viewpoint togroup therapy situations, while still in its earlystages, leads us to feel that a significant clue to theconstructive solution of interpersonal and inter-cultural frictions in the group may be in our hands.Application of these procedures to staff groups, tointer-racial groups, to groups with personal problemsand tensions, is under way.

In the field of .education, too, the client-centeredapproach is finding significant application. Thework of Cantor, a description of which will soon bepublished, is outstanding in this connection, but anumber of teachers are finding that these methods,designed for therapy, produce a new type of educa-tional process, an independent learning which ishighly desirable, and even a reorientation of indi-vidual direction which is very similar to the resultsof individual or group therapy.

Even in the realm of our philosophical orientation,the client-centered approach has its deep implica-tions. I should like to indicate this by quotingbriefly from a previous paper.

As we examine and try to evaluate our clinicalexperience with client-centered therapy, the

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phenomenon of the reorganization of attitudesand the redirection of behavior by the individualassumes greater and greater importance. Thisphenomenon seems to find inadequate explana-tion in terms of the determinism which is thepredominant philosophical background of mostpsychological work. The capacity of the indi-vidual to reorganize his attitudes and behaviorin ways not determined by external factors norby previous elements in his own experience, butdetermined by his own insight into those factors,is an impressive capacity. It involves a basicspontaneity which we have been loathe to admitinto our scientific thinking.

The clinical experience could be summarizedby saying that the behavior of the human organ-ism may be determined by the influences towhich it has been exposed, but it may also bedetermined by the creative and integratiiie insightoj the organism itself. This ability of the personto discover new meaning in the forces whichimpinge upon him and in the past experienceswhich have been controlling him, and the abilityto alter consciously his behavior in the light ofthis new meaning, has a profound significancefor our thinking which has not been fully real-ized. We need to revise the philosophical basisof our work to a point where it can admit thatforces exist within the individual which canexercise a spontaneous and significant influenceupon behavior which is not predictable throughknowledge of prior influences and conditionings.The forces released through a catalytic processof therapy are not adequately accounted for bya knowledge of the individual's previous condi-tionings, but only if we grant the presence of aspontaneous force within the organism whichhas the capacity of integration and redirection.This capacity for volitional control is a forcewhich we must take into account in anypsychological equation (9).

So we find an approach which began merely as a wayof dealing with problems of human maladjustmentforcing us into a revaluation of our basic philosophi-cal concepts.

SUMMARY

I hope that throughout this paper I have managedto convey what is my own conviction, that what we

now know or think we know about a client-centeredapproach is only a beginning, only the opening of adoor beyond which we are beginning to see somevery challenging roads, some fields rich with oppor-tunity. It is the facts of our clinical and researchexperience which keep pointing forward into newand exciting possibilities. Yet whatever the futuremay hold, it appears already clear that we are deal-ing with materials of a new and significant nature,which demand the most openminded and thoroughexploration. If our present formulations of thosefacts are correct, then we would say that some impor-tant elements already stand out; that certain basicattitudes and skills can create a psychologicalatmosphere which releases, frees, and utilizes deepstrengths in the client; that these strengths andcapacities are more sensitive and more rugged thanhitherto supposed; and that they are released in anorderly and predictable process which may prove assignificant a basic fact in social science as some of thelaws and predictable processes in the physicalsciences.

SELECTED REFERENCES

1. ALEXANDER, F. AND FRENCH, T. Psychoanalytic Therapy.New York: Ronald Press, 1946.

2. ALLEN, F. Psychotherapy with Children. New York:Norton, 1942.

3. CANTOR, N. Employee Counseling. New York: Mc-Graw-Hill Book Company.

4. CANTOR, N. The Dynamics of Learning, (unpublishedmss.) University of Buffalo, 1943.

5. CURRAN, C. A. Personality Factors in Counseling. NewYork: Grune and Stratton, 1945.

6. RANK, O. Will Therapy. New York: Alfred A. Knopf1936.

7. ROGERS, C. R. "Counseling", Review of Educational Re-search, April 1945 (Vol. 15), pp. 155-163.

8. ROGERS, C. R. Counseling and Psychotherapy. NewYork: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1942.

9. ROGERS, C. R. The implications of nondirective therapyfor the handling of social conflicts. Paper given to aseminar of the Bureau of Intercultural Education, NewYork City, Feb. 18, 1946.

10. ROGERS, C. R. AND WALLEN, J. L. Counseling with Re-turned Servicemen. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1946.

11. SNYDER, W. U. "An Investigation of the Nature of Non-Directive Psychotherapy." Journal of General Psychology. Vol.33,1945. pp. 193-223.

12. TAFT, J. The Dynamics of Therapy in a Controlled Rela-tionship. New York: Macmillan, 1933.