The Practice of Therapist "Congruence"

Rogers defined congruence as the consistency between a person's lived experience as an organism and their symbolization of that experience. For example, if a person is angry about something and subjectively realizes they are angry, that is congruence; conversely, if a person does not feel fear in a situation but only realizes afterwards that they were afraid, then they were incongruent in that situation.

Congruence is not just about "not role-playing a therapist," but includes the continuous awareness of one's own internal experiences.

Specific manifestations include (but are not limited to):

• Having one's own views on the client's content and being aware of them.
• Sympathizing with the person with whom the client is arguing and realizing it.
• Feeling embarrassed and allowing oneself to feel embarrassed.
• Realizing when one does not understand and allowing oneself not to understand.
• Realizing when one's mind wanders and setting it aside.