ABSTRACT
It is axiomatic to counsellors that human beings are involved in a continuing process of development and change. As Rogers put it: ‘Whether one calls it a growth tendency, a drive towards self-actualisation, or a forward moving directional tendency, it is the mainspring of life, and is, in the last analysis, the tendency upon which all psychotherapy is based’ (1967:35). This need not be a naive or unduly optimistic hope, although at worst it can be converted into that, but rather should be grounded in the range of experiences we have throughout our lives. It can embrace the reality that at times we are concerned with how to find a way to accept events or changes in ourselves and our lives that we view in very negative terms. The losses, grief, frustrations and disappointments that we all face as our lives progress do provide opportunities for increasing maturity and wisdom. This is a very different form of growth to the exciting, sometimes euphoric experience of finding great joy in unlocking our hitherto unfulfilled potential. In my view a comprehensive understanding of development accommodates both these ends of the spectrum and the various shades between. Jung says something very similar to Rogers when he writes:
I must however pay attention to the psychological fact that, so far as we can make out, individuation is a natural phenomenon, and in a way an inescapable goal, that we have reason to call good for us, because it liberates us from the otherwise insoluble conflict of opposites (at least to a noticeable degree). It is not invented by man, but Nature herself produces its archetypal image.
