The degree to which I can create relationships, which facilitate the growth of others as separate persons, is a measure of the growth I have achieved in myself.
Carl RogersRead
The kind of caring that the client-centered therapist desires to achieve is a gullible caring, in which clients are accepted as they say they are, not with a lurking suspicion in the therapist's mind that they may, in fact, be otherwise. This attitude is not stupidity on the therapist's part; it is the kind of attitude that is most likely to lead to trust.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of genuine empathy from therapists to build trust with clients.
Carl Rogers highlights that a therapist's ability to unconditionally accept clients for who they claim to be, without doubt or judgment, fosters a trusting therapeutic relationship. This approach is not naive; rather, it is a deliberate method that encourages openness and honesty, enabling clients to explore their thoughts and feelings freely.
Themes
TrustEmpathyAcceptanceTherapyClient-Centered
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a training session for new therapists to highlight the importance of acceptance.
More from Carl Rogers
All quotes →I prize the privilege of being alone.
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Though modern Marriage is a tremendous laboratory, its members are often without preparation for the partnership function. How much agony and remorse and failure could have been avoided if there had been at least some rudimentary learning before they entered the partnership.
Carl RogersRead
I have come to think that one of the most satisfying experiences I know — and also one of the most growth-promoting experiences for the other person — is just fully to appreciate this individual in the same way that I appreciate a sunset.
Carl RogersRead
In my early professional years I was asking the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?
Carl RogersRead
In a person who is open to experience each stimulus is freely relayed through the nervous system, without being distorted by any process of defensiveness.
Carl RogersRead
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Listen to me. I’m shy. I’m not stupid. I can’t meet people’s eyes. I don’t know if you understand what that’s like. There’s a whole world going on around me, I’m aware of that. It’s not because I don’t want to look at you, Lucinda. It’s that I don’t want to be seen.
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I don't think there's anything they can say about me that I haven't said about myself already. And I would be an absolute total liar, and my fans would not respect me, if I said that my life and my marriage are perfect. But we absolutely love each other; we have fun together - it's great.
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