CARL ROGERS’ NONDIRECTIVE INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUE
Carl Rogers’ interviewing technique is one in which the therapist takes a very definite back seat. It is less structured than free association and is underpinned by a philosophy that is scornful of all who would be presumptuous enough to brandish diagnostic tools. It is client or person-centred and like Freud’s and Sullivan’s its procedures are inextricably linked with Rogers’ own theory of personality.
For Rogers the self is the key concept. The self develops as a result of interaction with the environment. This interaction with the environment may be healthy and enriching or unhealthy and distorting. The self strives for consistency and when experiences challenge that consistency they are perceived as threats. The self does change with the maturation process and learning. The Rogerian
interview with its emphasis on self-exploration encourages and stimulates change. The important point is that change comes from within as a result of the client’s exploration of self. The therapist resists any interference with a natural process.
His/her rôle is to create the right climate for change. There must be no advice given, no information offered, no interpretations by the ‘expert therapist’. The therapist must concentrate on entering the client’s private world and remaining there in an empathic, non-judgemental way. Under such conditions personal growth will occur. The therapist is above all a listener, a reflector, a responder to
feelings. He/she offers the client total acceptance. Rogers believed that when the conditions were right, the client would be able to respond constructively and positively, moving in the direction of autonomy, social adjustment, independence
