Questing Voices
Interviews with Person-Centered Practitioners

by William Stillwell 1998

Carl Rogers’ way of being in working with people has inspired many in the generations that he taught. Will Stillwell’s discussions of the ‘core conditions’ in dialogues with Ernest Meadows, Maria Bowen, and Bob Lee are meetings with three people carrying on this tradition: deepening to their own visions, centering to their own-persons.

“There’s no following in being…no beginning or ending. It’s never not moving, always in motion.”
Bob Lee

“A person can do it for herself. She directs inward Carl’s three conditions: She practices empathy to quiet her conscious thoughts, order her emotions, cultivate a relationship with her indwelling spirit; she practices unconditional positive regard toward her own dark side and her contradictory nature; she practices congruence in facing as-it-is-ness.”
Maria Bowen

“This is a big deal…once a critical mass uses [the core conditions] it really changes how people are with one another… People are not asked to give up what they are for the good of the group. They are prized for who they are, and then their gifts are of a higher order. They come as satisfied people…a very basic social change happens.”
Ernie Meadows