Client-Centered herapy David M. Erekson and Michael J. Lambert Brigham Young University, U.S.A. Developed in the 1940s by the American psychologist Carl Rogers (1902–87), client- centered psychotherapy (oten referred to as person-centered psychotherapy) repre- sented a stark departure from traditional psychoanalytic treatment, conceiving the role of therapist as less detached and formal, and instead as more genuine and empathic. According to client-centered principles, if the therapist is successful in creating an optimal client-centered therapy environment, the client learns to play an active role in his or her recov- ery, and to take responsibility for making the discoveries and decisions that will allow for the greatest degree of growth and progress. As the approach gained traction in the 1960s, client-centered therapy became associated with the human potential movement. his movement, dating back to the beginning of the 1900s, relected an altered perspective of human nature. Previous psychological theories viewed human beings as inherently selish (for example, Freud’s theory focused on sexual and aggressive tendencies as the primary forces driving human behavior), whereas the human potential movement deined human nature as inherently good. From its perspective, human behavior is motivated by an inherent drive to achieve one’s fullest potential. his combi- nation of an empathically engaged therapist and a client-directed therapeutic process rep- resented a radical change in psychotherapy and its surrounding theories of personality, psychopathology, and change. Personality Development Most well-deined psychotherapies are based on a clear conception of the structure and he Encyclopedia of Clinical Psychology, First Edition. Edited by Robin L. Cautin and Scott O. Lilienfeld. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. development of the human personality (as one must be clear on what one is changing before one can clearly describe the change itself). Rogers conceptualized the structure of the human personality through the concept of the “phenomenal ield,” or a uniication of conscious and unconscious processes that creates the unique experience of each individ- ual. he conscious portion of the phenomenal ield is composed of cognitions, judgments, consciousness, and sensation and perception. he unconscious portion is composed of feel- ings, expression of physiological and biological processes, and meanings of which individuals are not consciously aware (Rychlak, 1981). Of particular importance in Rogers’s framework is the unconscious portion of the phenomenal ield, or the organismic self. Although individuals are generally well acquainted with their conscious thoughts, they may be unfamiliar with bodily reactions and meanings as made manifest in emotion. hough these meanings are oten not in con- scious awareness, they contain important information about how we are interacting with our environment and who we essentially “are” (Rogers, 1980). In addition to simply experiencing emotions, individuals are con- stantly in a process of making sense of these emotions. Within client-centered theory emo- tions are seen as informing individuals of an important need, value, or goal that may be advanced or harmed in any given situa- tion. In client-centered theory the emphasis is clearly on emotions, which are seen as the foundation of the construction of the self and a determinant of self-organization. Overlaying this personality structure is the assumed tendency toward self-actualization. his term refers to the inclination of all human beings to move forward, grow, and reach their fullest potential. Rogers described the self-actualizing tendency as “the substratum of all motivation” and “a tendency toward fulill- DOI: 10.1002/9781118625392.wbecp073