If Americans are “deeply religious people,” what does religious studies scholar, Stephen Prothero, mean when he claims that many Americans are also
“religious illiterates”?
Standard Essay Format Intro/body/conclusion
(S) World RELG4 Introduction to World Religions
Therapies that emerged during this period, including client-oriented, later became known as “humanistic” therapies. Despite the fact that many psychologists contributed to the development of the humanistic approach, Carl Rogers was the one who led the evolution in psychotherapy with his own unique approach. Rogers suggested that therapy may be simpler and more positive than those conducted by behavioral or psychodynamic psychologists (McLeod, 2013). Also, he claimed that «experience is, for me, the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my own experience. No other person’s ideas, and none of my own ideas, are as authoritative as my experience» (Rogers,1959). Thus, Carl Rogers formed his concept of therapy based on his own experience and beliefs. And in the center of this concept was the patient and his needs. It is also worth noticing that Rogers emphasized that the patient should not be considered as a client, since relations that are established between him and the therapist do not require the patient to be subordinated to his doctor and to follow all his instructions without any reservations (Rogers, 1959).
The client-centered approach provides for conducting a non-directive form of therapy in the form of a conversation. It allows the client to have a conversation, while his therapist does not try to manage the client in any way (McLeod, 2013). This approach is based on one very important quality: an unconditional positive regard. This means that the therapist refrains from judging the client, being a source of full acceptance and support (McLeod, 2013). So, the client has the opportunity to speak out, and the therapist only observes the process and draws conclusions regarding the current state of the client.
Rogers’s view is very different from the psychodynamic and behavioral approaches, since he suggested that clients can be more effectively helped if they are asked to focus on their current subjective understanding, and not on some unconscious motive or someone else’s interpretation of the situation. He strongly believed that in order for the client to receive the maximum help from the therapist, the t