Presenting the non-directive and related points of view in counselling and therapy, Rogers gives a clear exposition of procedures by which individuals who are being counselled may be assisted in achieving for themselves new and more effective personality adjustments. The tone is totally different from the other two books and I've just been gobbling it up page after page after page.

His Client Centered theory was not a top-down theory of the mind, rather a bottom-up set of ideas abstracted out of countless experiences in the therapy office. I am glad that I persevered and finished it and I will be reading more of his work, but perhaps in smaller chunks at a time. My appreciation for Rogers is deeply magnified by the fact that he was a ruthless seeker of truth, wherever it may lead. An exploration of the elements human nature that people are naturally given to different points of view, even based upon the exact same stimuli.

For Rogers, a therapy room where the practitioner forbids himself to involve himself emotionally to the client sends a message: in this room it is unsafe to explore emotions. Carl Rogers theorized that this level of disintegration and reintegration of the self can only occur in the total absence of judgment, in an environment of positive acceptance. This is what eventually leads to the easing of tensions that grew from inconsistencies in experience and self-concept. It took me a while to get through, not because I found it difficult or boring, but because it was thought-provoking and challenging.

Although we have gathered a lot of evidence and practice since the publication of this book, the central questions remain the same. Equally admirable is Rogers' claim that the therapist must involve himself personally in the therapeutic process. This was back when Rogers was still used to writing academic papers, so parts of it are pretty heavy going, with a lot of transcriptions of counselling sessions. x,xi) This quotation is reminiscent of Socrates who once considered himself a midwife to men concerning their souls and self-knowledge. The former seems to be a structure of experiential and perceived experiential exposure of the "organism.He was cautious to submit his model of therapy to the scientific method and, when available, he defended his ideas with academic studies. This is not to assume that problems do not occur everywhere or that there aren't drawbacks inherent in allowing social guidelines to dictate your life, but that with such exaggerated freedom comes a press for individual responsibility and lack of clarity of where one might guide themselves. All in all I feel like this book helped me to grow as a counselor and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is seeking a better understanding of client-centered therapy. He came to reject the idea that the therapist ought to be a source of authority, a moral reference, a problem solver for the patient; rather, he saw the therapist as one who can assist the client in his exploration and resolution of his inner contradictions. I found the second half of the book more challenging since it provided examples of client-centered techniques in situations that did not apply to areas in which I work, but there were some chapters that I found completely engaging and helpful.