Summary
Contents
Subject index
This book provides a key introduction to the theory, concepts and practice of the person-centred approach, through the lens of the practitioner's experience and personal development.
Writing as someone who has been through real life challenges and has developed and learned as a result, the author's strikingly personal style not only helps to contextualise complex and nuanced theory, but makes this a truly unique book about real person-centred practice and experience. From Roger's early philosophy through to the current developments and controversies in the field, the author uses personal testimonies, exercises and reflection points to make challenging concepts and practice issues accessible for the novice reader. What results is an informative and fascinating read for all those training and interested in the person-centred approach.
The Actualising Tendency
The Actualising Tendency
Within his theory of personality and behaviour Rogers proposed that an organism has one basic tendency and striving – to actualise, maintain and enhance its experience of self (Proposition 4, Rogers, 1951). Rogers named this organismic striving the actualising tendency; the natural and uncensored experiencing of the organism to realise itself.
Whilst its existence is hypothetical, I have come to understand and appreciate the actualising tendency as an inherent (Barrett-Lennard, 1998), powerful, ever-present characteristic of an individual's life force. This tendency toward actualisation positively urges the individual, as an organism, to attain its full potential whatever that potential may be, given the individual's innate capacity, the contemporary circumstances of the individual's life and their experiential perception of it.
As we develop throughout ...
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