One of the key elements in Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy is the Rogerian practice of Unconditional Positive Regard. Basically, it’s a way for the therapist to be present to the client that physically and emotionally communicates the message “I am here and present to you. It’s perfectly OK for you to be yourself without the need to be any different, or to change or to fix anything right now.”
Since Rogers’ hey day back when the Gloria Tapes were published in 1963 his person centered therapy has been both widely acclaimed and yet sometimes criticized for its oversimplification of the therapeutic process.
Bottom line there is little argument about the amazing contribution he made to the healing process and this article excerpt from John Wellwood makes a great case for the high relevance of this kind of thinking not only in therapy but in dealing with the issues we now face in today’s world.
While studying Rogerian therapy in graduate school, I used to be intrigued, intimidated and puzzled by Carl Rogers’ term “unconditional positive regard.” Although it sounded appealing as an ideal therapeutic stance, I found it hard to put into practice. First of all, there was no specific training for it. Since Western psychology had not provided me with any understanding of heart, or the intrinsic goodness underlying psychopathology, I was unclear just where unconditional positive regard should be directed. It was only in turning to the meditative traditions that I came to appreciate the unconditional goodness at the core of being human, and this in turn helped me understand the possibility of unconditional love and its role in the healing process.
Read more of this article……. then please come back here and leave a comment. We’d love to hear your opinion on Rogers and his relevance today.
