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Client Incongruence
Condition 2: Client incongruence
“Incongruence is a basic construct in the theory
we have been developing. It refers to a
discrepancy between the actual experience of
the organism and the self picture of the
individual insofar as it represents that
experience.”
Biermann-Ratjen defines incongruence as
being where “the tendency to defend the
self-concept runs counter to the tendency to
actualise the self” and goes on to describe
anxiety and depression as “the extremes of
felt incongruence between what an
experience means to the organism as a
whole and what it means to the selfconcept”.
~ Incongruence and Psychopathology, 1998
“This condition implies that a person is
experiencing sufficient psychological
discomfort to seek help, and is at some
level willing (however tentatively) to begin
the process of self-discovery.”
~Tony Merry, Learning and Being in Person-Centred Counselling
• Whilst there is often a focus on the “core
conditions”, Rogers identified six conditions
that must be present for change to occur.
• Two of the six conditions relate directly to the
client.
• The core conditions focus on the counsellor and
what he or she brings to the relationship, but it
is a relationship between two people; without
the client, there is no therapy.
• Client incongruence is at the heart of a personcentred understanding of “psychopathogy”.
The development of incongruence
- The development of the self structure
- Introjected values and Conditions of Worth
- Externalised locus of evaluation
- The actualising tendency and the need to
actualise the conditioned self
Client Incongruence
“If I let you caress my wings, however gently, will I
be able to fly again?”
~ from Buddhist writing