He wanted to know what constituted positive mental health. Humanistic psychology gave rise to several different therapies, all guided by the idea that people possess the inner resources for growth and healing and that the point of therapy is to help remove obstacles to individuals' achieving this. The most famous of these was client-centered therapy developed by Carl Rogers. (Frager & Fadiman).
Client centered therapy is based on Carl Rogers premise that the therapist can trust the client's ability to move forward in a constructive manner if the appropriate conditions fostering growth are present is an offshoot of the Humanistic Theory (Corey, p.172). Because this is a rational and logical way of thinking it's hard to dispute the truth of the premise. He also believed that his therapy should be considered a set of principles of therapeutic development, rather than a dogma. This has significant appeal to me personally, since I believe that there are many ways to solve a problem and no one way is the only possible solution. .
"According to the person-centered approach, psychotherapy is only one example of a constructive personal relationship. People experience psychotherapeutic growth in and through a relationship with another person who is caring, understanding, and real" (Corey, p.173). The therapist however, must be congruent with the client. They must be authentic in their presence with the client. The therapist must also be supportive, accepting, present in the here and now, and empathic. When the therapist successfully integrates all of these components then the client is free to grow into their authentic self. Obviously, the therapist must first discover his or her own authentic self and have a solid core of self-awareness along with self-acceptance, in order to be able to be authentic with the client. This demands that they resolve any issues they may have before becoming arbiters of change for others.
