As one of the Founding Fathers of Humanism, Carl Rogers was very interested in an approach to psychology that dealt with clients' thoughts and feelings (note that the word patient is rarely used). His feelings about enterprising therapy were always centered on the client and how he wanted therapy to impact his life. In humanistic psychology, the main goal is to allow the client to decide how therapy will direct them about their life. Carl Rogers, like many other humanistic psychologists, believes in keeping clients' values and morals intact. They do not judge their clients and try to remain as positive as possible in their therapy sessions with their clients. Carl Rogers was born the fourth of six children in 1902 in Oak Park, Illinois. His mother was a Christian housewife and his father a civil engineer. Rogers was a very intelligent child growing up, knowing how to read before age 6 and starting school in second grade instead of kindergarten. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1924. While attending school in Wisconsin, he was chosen to be one of the students who went on a mission trip to China, where he stayed for six months and learned about religion and social philosophy ( Kirchenbaum, 2005). His master's and doctoral degrees were from Columbia University (Columbia, 2009). Teaching at such honorable schools as the University of Rochester (1935-1940) and the Ohio State University (1940-1044), his most notable stint as a professor was at the University of Chicago when he founded a therapeutic counseling center in 1945 (May et al., 1987). While living in Rochester, New York, he was appointed director of the Prevention of Cruelty to Children... halfway through... based on several very important concepts such as client-centered therapy and his infamous Nineteen Propositions. Being a humanist, for Carl Rogers, was very important because he cared about people's feelings. Rogers believed that his theories were necessary and sufficient for therapists seeking to learn from their mistakes and move forward in helping their clients. He wasn't a psychologist for money or social status, he was a psychologist because he sincerely felt that it was his duty to help the needs of the people around him. Overall, Rogers definitely made the world around him a better place. With his rigorous positivity and eternal concern for those around him, he was an artist of art in the field of psychology. “He believed that psychologists are born, not made.” Everything he did was to help others, and not many people can provide that.
tags