Watch Rogers in a Group
Five moments from one group. Each shows one of the five capacities.
In each you will see something an effective therapist needs, and how a person-centered group provides it. Sometimes it comes from the group lead, but more often from a group member. The footage is from 1968, when a film crew recorded one of Carl Rogers' groups. Most therapists have never seen it.
1. Doubting the work without doubting our worth
Rogers opens by saying he is uneasy. A facilitator who can say so shows the group that doubt and steadiness go together.
2. Understanding accurately
Rogers reflects one member's experience back to her. In a group we learn accurate empathy by receiving it.
3. Staying warm when the other cannot respond
One member stays with another who cannot speak. In a group the members practice these capacities on each other.
4. Repairing a rupture
A facilitator tells a member what he sees, and they stay with it. A group lets us live a rupture and its repair from the inside.
5. Keeping our own reactions from running the session
Someone names it: what shuts others away from us shuts us away from them. A group shows us our defenses as other people meet them.