Carl Rogers on Counselling

What are the core conditions of counselling as defined by Carl Rogers?
by George Hartwell Christian counsellor Mississauga, Toronto, Oakville

What are the core conditions of counselling as defined by Carl Rogers? Carl Rogers focused on the characteristics of the therapist. The key is that the therapist must be a good listener.
What is a good listener?

1. A good listener sets aside their own agenda to provide space for you to express your thoughts and feelings.
2. A good listener focuses their first response on your statement and shows they are listening by catching something essential you said.
3. A good listener focuses their response on your statement and shows they are listening by putting in words what you are feeling. The counsellor may reflect what you said you are feeling or may make a good guess as tho what you are feeling and puts that in words. (But checks to see if is correct. A good counsellor needs this kind of humility.)

A good listener also has empathy. This is something that is felt by the client. The client feels that you are not just listening to words intellectually but also feeling what they mean and how you feel.
Not everyone has the capacity for empathy. It is deeply present in the emotionally mature. The Emotionally mature are those who felt loved in early childhood and grew up with solid parent-child attachment.
You do not learn empathy. You do not have more empathy because you went to graduate school. In fact, the opposite is true. Academic experience tends to reduce empathy.

How do you tell if a counsellor is empathic. By their eyes. Do they look at you in a cold way. That is often associated with a person with little empathy. Are their eyes warmer and can smile with a twinkle. There is the counsellor with empathy.
Carl Rogers believed the counsellor should be a human being - a real, genuine person who would be active and engaged in the therapeutic relationship because he or she cared.
With the ideal Rogerian therapist, the client can get their thoughts and feelings out. There is no judgement or interference in this process by the counsellor.