Client-centered psychotherapy and change

In the book Psychotherapy and personality change Rogers et al. describes changes in clients during and after client-centered psychotherapy. Changes were measured in the convergence of the (current) self-image to the self-ideal. Research showed that at the beginning of therapy, the difference between the self-image and the ideal is significant. As therapy progresses, the difference diminishes. One conclusion was that therapy leads to an increase in self-esteem.

The researchers were unable to demonstrate whether increased self-esteem also leads to greater appreciation from others. They did, however, state that after therapy, clients tend to be less inclined to hold extreme views of themselves and others.

Clients with authoritarian and ethnocentric personality traits made less progress in therapy than clients with a more accepting and democratic disposition.