ABSTRACT
Carl Rogers' was an important American psychologist whose name became synonymous with non-directive therapy and education. He developed a subjective, phenomenological approach to counselling that centred on the idea of the self-actualized individual. These ideas offered a significant alternative to the behaviourist and psychoanalytic models of therapy that were available at the time and they were also congruent with certain non- directive approaches to education. Rogers was born on 8 January 1902 in Oak Park, Illinois. He was the fourth child of a family of five boys and one girl. His parents were fundamentalist Christians who kept to themselves and taught their children strict rules of behaviour and the importance of hard work. Although Rogers' thinking was not as complex or rich as Rank's, his work clearly reflects Rank's ideas about a continually changing self that develops and grows toward individuality within the context of an empathic accepting relationship.
