Page 28 - Here and Now June 2022
P. 28

The Process of Psychological Growth

               The  second  question  in  the  book  revolves  around  the  question---"  What  is  the  journey  of  personal
               growth? What is psychological maturity and what would be the process of moving in the direction of
               personal growth and psychological maturity?”
               According to Roger, motivation for personal growth and psychological maturity is inherent, but it is
               often obscured.

                Therapy  can  facilitate  and  releasee  a  tendency  to  psychological  maturity.    Just  as  organisms  grow
               physically, psychological growth is intrinsic to humans.  It was really intriguing to see therapy as a process
               of  personal  growth  by  the  author  unlike  the  negative  connotations  usually  associated  with  therapy.
               According  to  Rogers,  the  only  condition  required  for  this  growth  is  experiencing  oneself  fully  and
               completely.

               After  elucidating  the  meaning  and  conditions  of  psychological  growth,  the  author  describes  the
               “PROCESS” that will lead to this growth. The mystery around the process gets clarified in the way the
               author describes the transformation in seven stages across seven dimensions. For our understanding we
               prepared a visual flow of the process and divided it in broadly three phases as shown in Fig. 1.


                Stage                            I    II    III     IV           V         VI      VII


                                                                    acceptance        and
                                                 unaware/mildly                            experiencing  and
                Aspects                                             personal  responsibility
                                                 aware phase                               spiritual phase
                                                                    phase

                Recognition of feelings

                Expression of feelings


                Self------ownership/accepting
                personal responsibility


                experiencing  feelings  in  the  here
                and now


                Acceptance of feelings

                recognition  of  contradictions  and
                incongruent behaviour

                differentiation  between  feelings
                and personal constructs






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