There were two years while I was at Chicago which were years of intense personal distress, which I can now look back upon coolly but which were very difficult to live through. There was a deeply disturbed client (she would be regarded as schizophrenic) with whom I had worked at Ohio State, who later moved to the Chicago area and renewed her therapeutic contacts with me. I see now that I handled her badly, vacillating between being warm and real with her, and then being more “professional” and aloof when the depth of her psychotic disturbance threatened me. This brought about the most intense hostility on her part (along with a dependence and love) which completely pierced my defenses.38
Rogers felt that he should be able to help this client and feel warm toward her, yet at times he genuinely felt threatened by her sychosis and his fear led to an aloofness that was not therapeutic. For a time he stubbornly persisted with the relationship although it was past the point of being helpful to the client. When she recognized his aloofness and responded with hostility, the relationship became destructive to him as well, and he suddenly felt
that he himself was on the verge of a mental breakdown. Feeling an urgent need to escape, he contacted one of his colleagues and asked if the colleague could take over as her therapist that very day. When the client came in for her appointment that day, Rogers introduced the two of them and then bolted without further explanation. Within moments the client burst into a full blown psychosis with florid delusions and hallucinations.
Taken from :PSYCHOLOGY’S GRAND THEORISTS How Personal Experiences Shaped Professional Ideas - Amy Demorest