Carl Rogers' Therapeutic Alliance Carl

Carl Rogers' Therapeutic Alliance Carl Roger's Therapeutic Alliance Carl Rogers developed what he referred to as client-centered therapy as an overall method of comprehensive therapy. Rogers emphasized the main role of the therapeutic alliance and its three prime components in effective psychotherapy. First of all, empathy is needed in order to understand the client's subjective phenomenological experience. Second for effective psychotherapy is unconditional positive regard, which aids in creating a completely safe, positive, warm, tolerant, and accepting environment in the treatment setting.

Third on the list, congruence requires that the therapist be genuine, open, and honest throughout the duration of all therapeutic interactions. According to Rogers, these three components were absolute necessary during therapy and, when all were used together, they would enable positive individual growth to occur during therapy (Overholser 2007). For Rogers, therapy must be grounded in a strong and continuous therapeutic relationship that remains strong throughout the duration of therapy. Rogers referred to the therapist's relationship to the patient as a "helping relationship" (Overholser 2007).

For Rogers, what works in therapy is rather simple: the therapeutic relationship. The therapeutic is simple in theory. It is a relationship that is genuine, strong, honest and helpful. The challenge for the therapist is to remain open-minded and encourage that the individual use more of his or her inner resources in life so as to become a better functioning human being.

In addition to Rogers' three therapeutic elements, which he deemed absolutely necessary for the therapeutic process, he also stressed the importance of the therapist or clinician being he or herself during the therapy process. The patient must know that the therapist is a real human being with real feelings and thus this will create a more well balanced feeling of trust between the two individuals. Unconditional positive regard is another element that Rogers believed was necessary in the relationship between therapist and patient.

This part of the relationship would involve the therapist being able to experience a warm acceptance of each element of the client's experience as being a part of whom the client is. There are no conditions put on the client being who they are. It is important for the therapist to care about the patient as an individual and they must focus on treating the individual as opposed to treating some label or diagnosis that he or she has come up with.

Diagnoses are not real unto themselves; it is the patient who is real and thus the patient must be treated as opposed to the diagnosis. Empathy is another one of Rogers's elements that must be understood when treating patients in a therapeutic setting. It is absolutely necessary that a therapist has some sort of empathic awareness of the client; this is crucial to helping the client. The therapist must be able to.