A question of growth PCA is 'growth-oriented' and rests firmly on the hypothesis that all organisms have a growth potential. This potential, however, is distorted and blocked by how we react to our experiences and how this, in turn, shapes our self-concept. PCA seeks to enable the individual to come to terms with their conditional self and to develop in ways that free them from past conditioning, encouraging the individual to shed a fresh and more realistic light upon themselves. As a therapist in that moment I feel an expansion within my being. I am reaching out, indeed, I am reached out to the client, as if something more real in me is at work.
All barriers are down, a kind of unity ensues.
The client is freed up to move on, no longer held back by past conditioning. Such moments play a key role in the therapeutic process of becoming a person. For me, they have a truly spiritual tone. Rogers wrote of 'the fully functioning person' - a way of being that is open to experience, that exhibits behaviour appropriate to circumstances. The individual is sensitive to her or his whole organism and is able to trust its promptings.