Carl Rogers, lovely man

I love Rogers' humanistic view that people are basically good or healthy, and that anything else is a distortion that can be put right. He believes that individuals have an innate urge to develop his or her potential, which is an optimistic but admirable stance in my opinion.

I agree that the counsellor should put their ego to bed in the counsellor/client relationship. We should attempt to achieve empathy when helping others. There is the issue however of the counsellor simply being a facilitator and non-directive. I underwent some free counselling sessions in my student past on the recommendation of a friend who had said that it made her feel good! So on that note I signed up for a gut-spilling session. I talked and talked and the lady would listen, and when she did not come up with any independent responses I was puzzled. I was so puzzled I kept going back repeating the same script in the hope that she might actually come up with a "solution". Half a dozen sessions further down the line I told her I did not have time to come back (because I had given up hope of getting a response from her). It was at this point that she gave me a hug (!!this is where the cuddly part of Carl comes in I suppose) and offered her one and only bit of advice, which I shall keep to myself because it's too revealing. Getting a hug from a stranger was weird, and had I recieved her wisdom in the first session I would not have gone back. This is what makes me sceptical of the Carl Rogers' approach. I cannot see where facilitating is effective in all cases.