Natalie Rogers

Natalie Rogers (1928–2015) was an early contributor to the field of humanistic psychology, person centered psychology, expressive arts therapy, and the founder of Person-Centered Expressive Arts. This combination of the arts with psychotherapy is sometimes referred to by Rogers as The Creative Connection.

Early life and education Natalie Rogers was born to psychologist Carl Rogers and Helen Elliot, a talented artist. She was raised alongside her brother David and describes growing up in a house that encouraged pursuits of creativity. She attended private schooling as a child, growing up mostly in New York and Ohio. At the age of twenty-one, she married scholar Lawrence Fuchs with whom she had three daughters. In 1970, she divorced Fuchs and moved to California to establish her own therapeutic practice. Her book Emerging Woman describes her journey through womanhood.

Career Rogers' Person-Centered Expressive Arts therapy involves incorporating multiple forms of expression beyond traditional art to include movement and psychodrama. She provided training for therapists in person-centered expressive arts therapy at multiple institutes, including her own, over the course of twenty years.

Person-centered expressive arts therapy Practitioners of Person-Centered Expressive Arts therapy describe using the expressive arts to help clients approach both their conscious and unconscious to promote healing and growth. The role of the therapist is to provide a caring and positive attitude toward the client and help the client work through negative feelings through the process. The person-centered aspect of the therapy refers to the role of the therapist in creating a safe environment for clients to engage in symbolic expression through the arts. The therapist listens without judgment or criticism and creates a space for further self-exploration and encourages the client to engage in stimulating or challenging experiences.

Encounter groups In the 1970s, Natalie Rogers, assisted her father in leading Person-Centered encounter groups. Encounter groups are described as large workshops of eighty (80) to one hundred and fifty (150) people These groups aimed to apply person-centered techniques beyond one-on-one therapeutic scenarios to large group settings. Person-Centered Approach (PCA) Encounter groups involved a great deal of pre-planning and facilitation by carefully selected staff. These workshops were conducted in several countries and sometimes sought to address larger social and political issues of the time. Emerging Woman: A Decade of Midlife Transitions (1980)