What is it about?
This article discusses a significant change in how Carl Rogers worked as a white therapist in an interracial dyad. This change was evident in two filmed demonstration interviews with African American clients in 1977 and 1984. While Rogers had always been steadfast in his stance against racism, in 1977 he was not sufficiently aware that being a white therapist might affect his relationship with an African American client. Later, in 1984, Rogers empathically and acceptingly responded to a client’s concerns regarding the difficulty of discussing pervasive and systemic racism with a white therapist. Rogers’ shift in approach, which is discussed within the framework of the six core conditions of person-centered therapy, underscores an important issue for contemporary white psychotherapists and counselors – that issue being the need for an ongoing examination of one’s own racial/cultural self that I will discuss in terms of white privilege and white fragility.
Featured Image
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Racism is endemic in our western culture and poses a significant challenge for white psychologists/psychotherapists/ counsellors that is not easily resolved.
Perspectives
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Carl Rogers’ reset with an African American client: a discussion, Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies, January 2022, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/14779757.2022.2028658.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page