Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Psychotherapy Networker magazine partnered with Columbia researchers to chart the recent trends in Clinical Psychology. They found that Carl Rogers is still the #1 most influential figure, just as he was when American Psychologist first did the study in 1982.
In other words, the therapist who became famous for his leisurely, nondirective, open-ended, soft-focus form of therapy 50 years ago remains a major role model today, even with the explosion of brief, “evidence-based” clinical models, a psychopharmacological revolution that often makes medications the intervention du jour, and a radically altered system of insurance reimbursement that simply won’t pay for the kind of therapy Rogers did.
As for methods, however, the top therapeutic approach of the past quarter-century is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Over two-thirds of the 2,598 survey respondents use it, compared to just under a third following a “Rogerian/client-centered/humanistic” approach.
The top ten list of figures is:
- Carl Rogers
- Aaron Beck
- Salvador Minuchin
- Irvin Yalom
- Virginia Satir
- Albert Ellis
- Murray Bowen
- Carl Jung
- Milton Erickson
- John Gottman
Details about each, from the magazine, can be found by clicking on their names.
By way of comparison, Rogers also ranks #6 on Haggbloom’s revised list of the most eminent psychologists of the 20th century.