2

Some Hypotheses Regarding

the Facilitation of
Personal Growth

he three chapters which constitute Part II span a period o f six

T years, from 1954 to 1960. C uriously, they span a large segment
o f the country in their points o f delivery — Oberlin, Ohio; St. Louis,
Missouri; and Pasadena, California. They also cover a period in
which much research w as accumulating,, so that statements made
tentatively in the first paper are rather solidly confirmed by the time
of the third.
In the follow ing talk given at Oberlin College in 1954 I was trying
to com press into the briefest possible time the fundam ental prin­
ciples of psychotherapy which had been expressed at greater length
in my books, (Counseling and P sychotherapy) (1942) and (Client-
Centered T h erapy ) (1951). It is o f interest to me that I present the
facilitating relationship, and the outcom es, with no description of,
or even comment on, the process by which change comes about.

X
o b e f a c e d b y a troubled, conflicted person who is seeking and
T expecting help, has always constituted a great challenge to me.
D o I have the knowledge, the resources, the psychological strength,
31
32 H o w C an I B e o f H e l p ?
the skill — do I have whatever it takes to be o f help to such an indi­
vidual?
F or more than twenty-five years I have been trying to meet this
kind o f challenge. It has caused me to draw upon every element o f
my professional background: the rigorous methods o f personality
measurement which I first learned at Teachers’ College, Columbia;
the Freudian psychoanalytic insights and methods o f the Institute
for Child G uidance where I w orked as interne; the continuing de­
velopments in the field o f clinical psychology, with which I have
been closely associated; the briefer exposure to the w ork o f Otto
Rank, to the methods o f psychiatric social work, and other resources
too numerous to mention. But m ost o f all it has meant a continual
learning from m y own experience and that o f m y colleagues at the
Counseling Center as we have endeavored to discover for ourselves
effective means o f w orking with people in distress. G radually I have
developed a w ay o f w orking which grow s out o f that experience,
and which can be tested, refined, and reshaped by further experience
and by research.
A G eneral H y p o t h e s is
One brief w ay o f describing the change which has taken place in
me is to say that in m y early professional years I was asking the
question, H ow can I treat, or cure, or change this person? N o w I
would phrase the question in this w ay: H ow can I provide a relation­
ship which this person m ay use fo r his own personal growth?
It is as I have come to put the question in this second way that I
realize that whatever I have learned is applicable to all o f m y human
relationships, not just to w orking with clients with problems. It is
for this reason that I feel it is possible that the learnings which have
had meaning fo r me in m y experience m ay have some meaning for
you in your experience, since all o f us are involved in human rela­
tionships.
Perhaps I should start with a negative learning. It has gradually
been driven home to me that I cannot be o f help to this troubled
person b y means o f any intellectual or training procedure. N o ap­
proach which relies upon know ledge, upon training, upon the ac­
ceptance o f something that is taught, is o f any use. These approaches
The Facilitation o f Personal G row th 33
seem so tempting and direct that I have, in the past, tried a great
many o f them. It is possible to explain a person to himself, to pre­
scribe steps which should lead him forw ard, to train him in knowl­
edge about a more satisfying inode o f life. But such methods are, in
m v experience, futile and inconsequential. T h e most they can ac­
complish is some tem porary change, which soon disappears, leaving
the individual more than ever convinced o f his inadequacy.
T h e failure o f any such approach through the intellect has forced
me to recognize that change appears to come about through experi­
ence in a relationship. So I am going to try to state very briefly and
informally, some of the essential hypotheses regarding a helping
relationship which have seemed to gain increasing confirmation both
from experience and research.
I can state the overall hypothesis in one sentence, as follows. If
I can provide a certain type o f relationship, the other person will
discover within himself the capacity to use that relationship for
grow th, and change and personal developm ent will occur.
T h e R e l a t io n s h ip
But what meaning do these terms have? L et me take separately
the three m ajor phrases in this sentence and indicate something o f the
meaning they have for me. W hat is this certain type o f relationship
I would like to provide?
I have found that the more that I can be genuine in the relation­
ship, the more helpful it will be. T h is means that I need to be aware
o f my own feelings, in so far as possible, rather than presenting an
ounvard fa9ade o f one attitude, while actually holding another atti­
tude at a deeper or unconscious level. Being genuine also involves
the willingness to be and to express, in m y w ords and m y behavior,
the various feelings and attitudes which exist in me. It is only in this
wav that the relationship can have reality, and reality seems deeply
important as a first condition. It is only by providing the genuine
reality w hich is in me, that the other person can successfully seek for
the reality in him. I have found this to be true even when the
attitudes I feel are not attitudes with which I am pleased, or atti­
tudes which seem conducive to a good relationship. It seems ex­
tremely important to be real.
34 H o w C an I B e o f H e l p ?
A s a second condition, I find that the more acceptance and liking
I feel toward this individual, the m ore I will be creating a relation­
ship which he can use. B y acceptance I mean a warm regard for him
as a person o f unconditional self-worth — o f value no matter what
his condition, his behavior, or his feelings. It means a respect and
liking fo r him as a separate person, a willingness for him to possess
his own feelings in his own w ay. It means an acceptance o f and re­
gard for his attitudes o f the moment, no m atter how negative or
positive, no matter how much they m ay contradict other attitudes
he has held in the past. This acceptance o f each fluctuating aspect
o f this other person makes it for him a relationship o f warmth and
safety, and the safety o f being liked and prized as a person seems a
highly important element in a helping relationship.
I also find that the relationship is significant to the extent that
I feel a continuing desire to understand — a sensitive empathy with
each o f the client’s feelings and com munications as they seem to him
at that moment. A cceptance does not mean much until it involves
understanding. It is only as I zm derstm d the feelings and thoughts
which seem so horrible to you, or so weak, or so sentimental, or so
bizarre — it is only as I see them as you see them, and accept them
and you, that you feel really free to explore all the hidden nooks and
frightening crannies o f your inner and often buried experience.
T h is freedom is an im portant condition o f the relationship. There
is implied here a freedom to explore oneself at both conscious and
unconscious levels, as rapidly as one can dare to embark on this
dangerous quest. Th ere is also a com plete freedom from any type
o f moral or diagnostic evaluation, since all such evaluations are, I
believe, always threatening.
T h us the relationship which I have found helpful is characterized
by a sort o f transparency on m y part, in which m y real feelings are
evident; b y an acceptance o f this other person as a separate person
with value in his own right; and b y a deep empathic understanding
which enables me to see his private world through his eyes. W hen
these conditions are achieved, I becom e a companion to m y client,
accom panying him in the frightening search for himself, which he
now feels free to undertake.
I am by no means always able to achieve this kind o f relationship
The Facilitation o f Personal G row th 35
with another, and sometimes, even when I feel I have achieved it in
myself, he m ay be too frightened to perccivc what is being offered
to him. But I would say that when I hold in m yself the kind o f at­
titudes I have described, and when the other person can to some
degree experience these attitudes, then I believe that change and con­
structive personal development will invariably occur — and I in­
clude the w ord “ invariably” only after long and careful considera­
tion.
T h e M o t iv a t io n f o r C h a n g e
S o much for the relationship. T h e second phrase in m y overall
hypothesis was that the individual will discover within himself the
capacity to use this relationship for growth. I will try to indicate
something of the meaning which that phrase has for me. G radually
m y experience has forced me to conclude that the individual has
within himself the capacity and the tendency, latent if not evident,
to move forw ard toward m aturity. In a suitable psychological cli­
mate this tendency is released, and becom es actual rather than poten­
tial. It is evident in the capacity o f the individual to understand those
aspects o f his life and o f himself which are causing him pain and
dissatisfaction, an understanding which probes beneath his con­
scious knowledge o f himself into those experiences which he has
hidden from himself because of their threatening nature. It shows
itself in the tendency to reorganize his personality and his relation­
ship to life in w ays which are regarded as more mature. W hether
one calls it a grow th tendency, a drive toward self-actualization, or
a forw ard-m o ving directional tendency, it is the m ainspring of life,
and is, in the last analysis, the tendency upon which all psycho­
therapy depends. It is the urge whiclTls~evidcnt in all organic and
human life — to expand, extend, becom e autonomous, develop, ma­
ture — the tendency to express and activate all the capacities o f the
organism, to the extent that such activation enhances the organism
or the self. This tendency m ay becom e deeply buried under layer
after layer o f encrusted psychological defenses; it m ay be hidden
behind elaborate fagades which deny its existence; but it is m y be­
lief that it exists in every individual, and awaits only the proper con­
ditions to be released and expressed.
36 H o w C an I B e of H e l p ?
Thk O utco m es
1 have attempted to describe the relationship which is basic to
constructive personality change. 1 have tried to put into words the
type o f capacity which the individual brings to such a relationship.
The third phrase o f m y general statement was that change and per­
sonal development would occur. It is m y hypothesis that in such a
relationship the individual will reorganize himself at both the con­
scious and deeper levels o f his personality in such a manner as to
cope with life more constructively, more intelligently, and in a
m ore socialized as well as a more satisfying way.
Here I can depart from speculation and bring in the steadily in­
creasing body o f solid research know ledge which is accumulating.
W e know now that individuals who live in such a relationship even
for a relatively limited number o f hours show profound and signifi­
cant changes in personality, attitudes, and behavior, changes that do
not occur in matched control groups. In such a relationship the in­
dividual becom es more integrated, more effective. H e shows fewer
o f the characteristics which are usually termed neurotic or psychotic,
and more o f the characteristics o f the healthy, well-functioning
person. H e changes his perception o f himself, becom ing more re­
alistic in his views o f self. H e becom es more like the person he
wishes to be. H e values himself more highly. H e is more self-con­
fident and self-directing. H e has a better understanding of himself,
bccomes more open to his experience, denies or represses less o f his
experience. He becomes more accepting in his attitudes toward
others, seeing others as more similar to himself.
In his behavior he shows similar changes. H e is less frustrated by
stress, and recovers from stress m ore quickly. H e becom es more ma­
ture in his everyday behavior as this is observed by friends. He is
less defensive, more adaptive, more able to meet situations creatively.
These are some o f the changes which we now know come about in
individuals who have com pleted a series of counseling interviews in
which the psychological atmosphere approximates the relationship I
described. Each o f the statements made is based upon objective evi­
dence. Much more research needs to be done, but there can no
longer be any doubt as to the effectiveness of such a relationship in
producing personality change.
The Facilitation of Personal G row th 37
A B road H y p o t h e s is o f H u m a n R e l a t io n s h ip s
T o me, the exciting thing about these research findings is not
simply the fact that they give evidence o f the efficacy o f one form
of psychotherapy, though that is by no means unimportant. T h e ex­
citement com es from the fact that these findings justify an even
broader hypothesis regarding all human relationships. There seems
every reason to suppose that the therapeutic relationship is only one
instance o f interpersonal relations, and that the same lawfulness
governs all such relationships. T h us it seems reasonable to hypo­
thesize that if the parent creates with his child a psychological cli­
mate such as we have described, then the child will becom e more
self-directing, socialized, and mature. T o the extent that the teacher
creates such a relationship with his class, the student will become a
self-initiated learner, more original, more self-disciplined, less anx­
ious and other-directed. If the adm inistrator, or military or in­
dustrial leader, creates such a climate within his organization, then
his staff will become more self-responsible, more creative, better
able to adapt to new problems, more basically cooperative. It ap­
pears possible to me that we are seeing the emergence o f a new field
of human relationships, in which we m ay specify that if certain
attitudinal conditions exist, then certain definable changes will oc­
cur.
C o n c l u s io n
L et me conclude by returning to a personal statement. I have
tried to share with you something o f what I have learned in trying
to be o f help to troubled, unhappy, maladjusted individuals. I have
formulated the hypothesis which has gradually come to have mean­
ing for me — not only in m y relationship to clients in distress, but
in all m y human relationships. I have indicated that such research
knowledge as we have supports this hypothesis, but that there is
much more investigation needed. I should like now to pull together
into one statement the conditions o f this general hypothesis, and the
effects which are specified.
If I can create a relationship characterized on m y part:
by a genuineness and transparency, in which I am m y real feel­
ings;
38 H o w C an I B e o f H elp?

by a warm acceptance of and prizing o f the other person as a

separate individual;
by a sensitive ability to see his w orld and himself as he sees them;
Then the other individual in the relationship:
will experience and understand aspects o f himself which pre­
viously he has repressed;
will find himself becom ing better integrated, more able to func­ The Characteristics of
tion effectively;
will becom e more similar to the person he w ould like to be;
a Helping Relationship
will be more self-directing and self-confident;
will become more o f a person, more unique and more self-ex­
pressive;
will be more understanding, m ore acceptant o f others;
will be able to cope with the problem s o f life more adequately
and more com fortably.
I believe that this statement holds whether I am speaking o f m y have long had the strong conviction — some m ight say it w as an
relationship with a client, with a group o f students or staff members,
with m y fam ily or children. It seems to me that we have here a gen­
I obsession — that the therapeutic relationship is only a special in­
stance of interpersonal relationships in general, and that the same
eral hypothesis which offers exciting possibilities for the develop­ lawfulness governs all such relationships. This was the theme I chose
ment o f creative, adaptive, autonom ous persons. to w ork out for m yself when I w as asked to give an address to the
convention o f the Am erican Perso?mel and Guidance Association at
St. Louis, in 1958.
Evident in this paper is the dichotom y between the objective and
the subjective which has been such an im portant part of my experi­
ence during recent years. I find it very difficult to give a paper
which is either wholly objective or wholly subjective. I like to
bring the two w orlds into close juxtaposition, even if I cannot fully
reconcile them.

%
y i n t e r e s t in p s y c h o t h e r a p y has brought about in me an inter­
M est in every kind of helping relationship. By this term I mean
a relationship in which at least one o f the parties has the intent of
39