Summary Of Carl Rogers Work With Gloria

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An Analysis of Carl Rogers’ work with Gloria:
An article review by XXXXX XXXXX
MSC-502: Counseling Theories and Techniques
Instructor: Dr. Michael Bundy
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“An Analysis of How Carl Rogers Enacted Client-centered Conversation with Gloria” carefully studies the recently re-analyzed and amended transcript from the classic training film
“Three Approaches to Psychotherapy” for evidence that Rogers’ conversational devices utilized during this famous exchange are ripe with enactments of the core conditions of his personcentered therapy: empathy, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness. Rogers posited that these three conditions are both necessary and sufficient in inducing therapeutic change
(Wickman & Campbell, 2003). In writing this article,
Besides genuineness, these invitations for Gloria to amend Rogers’ offerings and interpretations increased Rogers’ ability to demonstrate his core condition of empathy. The authors aver that Gloria generally concurred when Rogers offered empathy via the words he used in his invitations for repair.
The authors note that in everyday conversation, one’s instinctive response to requests for advice is the dispensing of advice. However, Rogers practiced the conversational device of withholding direct responses to requests for advice, thereby manifesting unconditional positive regard for Gloria in his deference to her as a person who was capable of arriving at her own decisions. An example of Rogers’ use of this conversational device can be seen in this statement:
“'I—I also feel that this is the kind of very private thing that I couldn’t possibly answer for you’”
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(Wickman & Campbell, 2003, p. 181). Though Rogers withheld from dispensing advice, he managed to convey his comprehension of Gloria’s situation by employing nonexpert
Wickman & Campbell (2003, citing Davis, 1984) explain that problem reformulation involves taking the initial descriptions of a problem presented by a client and organizing these descriptions into a form which can be managed within the constraints of talk therapy. Rogers made use of problem reformulation in his conversations with Gloria when he made statements such as: “'Sounds like you’re feeling a contradiction in yourself too?’” and “'So it’s quite clear it isn’t only her problem or the relationship with her it’s in you as well’” (Wickman & Campbell,
2003, p. 182). When Gloria brought to Rogers unclear, poorly defined topics for discussion,
Rogers was able to demonstrate empathy by drawing out of the presented material the essence of what Gloria was conveying. In this way, Rogers reformulated the ambiguity in what Gloria said into a more clearly-defined and surmountable problem. In allowing Gloria to both initiate the problem and manage its resolution, Rogers also exhibited another of his core conditions, unconditional positive regard, since doing so respected Gloria’s role as owner and controller of her own