Humanisitc psychotherapy and counseling

HUMANISTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSELING 1

Counseling in Health Psychology

“Humanistic Psychotherapies and Counseling”

Submitted By

Aamna Haneef

Roll No: 05

MS Health Psychology

Session: 2012 – 2014

Instructor’s Name

Dr. Amina Muazzam

Date of Submission

3th April, 2013

Department of Applied Psychology

Lahore College for Women University


Table of Contents

Humanistic Psychotherapies and Counseling

Origins

The phenomenological tradition

The existential tradition

Self-actualization

Social influence

Personal Construct Theory (PCT)

Eastern philosophy

Egalitarianism

Common assumptions of Humanistic Theories and Therapies

The Core Conditions-Conditions necessary for therapeutic change

Genuineness

Empathy

Unconditional Positive Regard

Variety of concepts

Experience

Reality

The Organism’s Actualizing Tendency

The Non-Directive Attitude

The internal frame of reference

The Self, Concept of Self, and Self-Structure


Symbolization

Psychological Adjustment or Maladjustment

The Fully Functioning Person

Theory of Dysfunction

Personality development

Function of Psyche

Inner conflict and anxiety

Client-centered Therapy and Counseling

The client

The client-centered counselor

The stages of Counseling

Person-centered Therapy and Postmodernism

Other Humanistic Therapies

Gestalt therapy

Transactional Analysis (TA)

Motivational Interviewing Theory

Body centered therapies

Expressive art therapies

Blends, integrations and in-betweeners

Does humanistic Psychotherapy work?

Strengths

Limitations

Critical Evaluation


References


Humanistic Psychotherapy and Counseling

In the late 1940s and 1950s and perhaps reaching a peak in the 1960s, a movement began

to psychology in the US that challenged the determinism and psychodynamic psychology and the

mechanism of behavioral psychology (Schaffer, 1978). This was what came to be known as the

‘third force’ in psychology-humanistic psychology.

Arguably, it is out of the humanistic school of psychology that many of the ‘alternative’

counseling and therapy styles have arisen. A number of reasons for this development may be

advanced. First the humanistic school is an intensely optimistic one: it offers the individual the

chance to take control of his or her life and does not posit the need to spend years of soul

searching in order to do that. Secondly, historically, the humanistic school has developed along

other changes in attitudes towards schooling and health care both in the US and UK. It seems

almost inevitable that the humanistic approach would gradually find more popular acceptance

amongst the ‘new age’ forms of therapy. Thirdly, the methods used in humanistic approach are

relatively easy to learn and to put into practice. There is not a huge body of knowledge to absorb

– as is the case with the psychodynamic approach, not are there very particular skills to be

learned – as in cognitive behavioral approach.

The humanistic approach to counseling is, essentially, an optimistic one. Humanistic

psychology (as opposed to, for instance, psychodynamic psychology – and many religions)

concentrates on the positive aspects of the human being. Whilst that it is sometimes refreshing, it

also has its own problems, especially when attempting to account for very disturbed behavior

and very serious mental illness (Burnard, 2005). McLeod (2007) demonstrated that Humanistic

psychology expanded its influence throughout the 1970s and the 1980s. Its impact can be

understood in terms of three major areas:


1. It offered a new set of values for approaching an understanding of human nature and the

human condition.

2. It offered an expanded horizon of methods of inquiry in the study of human behavior.

3. It offered a broader range of more effective methods in the professional practice of

psychotherapy

Origins

This begins to sound almost religious, and it is one of the characteristics of humanistic

psychology which distinguishes it very sharply from secular humanism that it has a place for the

spiritual. This is because its origins are complex. There are different origins of humanistic

psychology as it exists today (Rowan, 1998).

The phenomenological tradition

Coming from Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), this approach says that it is possible to

cleanse our perceptions and see things as they are. But we can only do this by a rigorous

examination of our assumption, first of all becoming aware of them and then learning how to set

them aside or bracket them 9Jennings, 1992). Hussrel took from Franz Brentano (1838-1917) the

notion of intentionality. This says that consciousness is always directed toward the real world in

order to interpret it in a meaningful manner. Consciousness is always consciousness of

something. So in humanistic psychology we do not talk about behavior, we talk about action.

The difference is that the action is always intentional. Simon du Plock tells us that Hussrel used

the word ‘intentionally’ to refer to the creativity in our acts, not a static directedness (du Plock

1996:42 as cited in Rowan, 1998).

The person-centered approach also leans heavily on phenomenology. Carl Rogers made

use of phenomenological notions of noema and noesis as ‘the primary means with which to


maintain unconditional positive regard’ (Spinalli 1990). Du Plock again makes the point that

Rogers found this set of concepts a very useful one (du Plock 1996 as cited in Rowan, 1998).

Gestalt therapy in particular, which is one of the humanistic disciplines, lays great stress on its

phenomenological roots. ‘Phenomenology . . . is the philosophical approach which is at the very

heart of Gestalt’ (Clarkson 1989 as cited in Rowan, 1998).

Ronald Laing (1965) pointed to the close connection between phenomenology and

existentialism, and so did Merleau-Ponty (1908-61), who said ‘the world is not what I think, but

that which I live’. This is one of the most characteristic beliefs of humanistic psychology

(Rowan, 1998).

The existential tradition

Coming from Soren Kierkegaard (1813-55), this tradition lays stress on the inescapable

dilemmas of human condition-death, the inner struggle over anxiety, the need for authentic

living. Rollo May (1909-94) is one of those with humanistic psychology who has written a great

deal about existentialism, and has claimed that William James (1842-1910) was an existential

thinker who in fact influenced Hussrel. Existential laid great stress on choice, and Jean-Paul

Sartre (1905-80) actually said that we are our choices. He made autonomy and authenticity

central, and regarded the individual as ‘free and alone, without assistance and without excuse’

(Sartre 1964:139). We are condemned to be free. This is a bare and bleak doctrine, which gives

little comfort or reassurance (Rowan, 1998).

From Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) comes the central idea of authenticity. If we deny

this, and try to erect fantastic stories about our existence, we become inauthentic and cannot take

responsibility for our own lives. One of the main things we have to accept about our existence is

that it will end. Our being-there is being-toward-death. To accept this is to enter into a relation of


care with oneself and the world. And to do this is to be authentic. So authenticity is a

combination of self-respect (we are not just part of an undifferentiated world) and self-

enactment-we express our care in the world in a visible way (Rowan, 1998).

Again in Gestalt therapy which has stayed more strictly close to this existential position.

Fritz Perls claimed that Gestalt therapy was one of three existential therapies, the other two being

Frankl’s logo therapy and Binwanger’s Dasien therapy (Perls, 1969 as cited in Rowan, 1998).

Martin Buber (1878-1965) is another representative of the existential position who has

had much influence upon humanistic psychology. He says, ‘there is genuine relation only

between genuine persons . . . Men need, and it is granted to them, to confirm one another in their

individual being by means of genuine meetings’. The encounter group, one of the innovations of

humanistic psychology, is founded on this idea of genuine meetings (Rowan, 1992).

Another humanistic psychotherapist strongly influenced by existentialism is James

Bugental, who actually calls his approach Existential-Humanistic Psychotherapy’. Much

influenced by existentialism is Alvin Mahrer, another theorist who reworked the whole

humanistic-existential connection in a very exciting way. He continually quotes Binswanger, and

to a lesser extent Boss, and also Lating and May. But he is not a slavish follower; he disagrees

with the standard existential position, for example , that one person can never really know

another. He shows that it is indeed possible for one person to get inside another person’s skin, to

know from the inside what it is like to be that other person (Mahrer, 1996).

Self-actualization

This refers to the theory of Abraham Maslow (1908-70) that there is a hierarchy of needs,

ranging from lower needs like food and security up to higher needs like self-esteem and self-

actualization. Ernesto Spinelli (1989) has said that ‘The notion of authenticity bears striking


similarity to Maslow’s ideas concerning self-actualization’. Self-actualization is all about being

that self which I truly am (Rowan, 1998). Self-actualization is not a static state. It is an ongoing

process in which one’s capacities are fully, creatively, and joyfully utilized. Most commonly,

self-actualizing people see life clearly. They are less emotional and more objective, less likely to

allow hopes, fears, or ego defenses to distort their observations. Maslow found that all self-

actualizing people are dedicated to a vocation or a cause.

Social influence

R.D. Laing proposed that psychiatric illness was largely the consequence of social

conditions, such as family dynamics, pathological communication, intolerable social pressures,

or failure to conform to the dominant model of social reality in force. He pioneered the running

of therapeutic communities where patients could "go with" their illness experience, without the

intervention of drugs, ECT, psychosurgery, etc. He was greatly influenced by Existential

philosophy and Phenomenology. The great store he placed on subjective experience, and the

special qualities of the "I -Thou" relationship in the therapeutic alliance, place him squarely

within any Humanistic-Existential approach to psychology.

Personal Construct Theory (PCT)

George Kelly was an American clinical psychologist, and founder of Personal Construct

Theory (PCT). PCT incorporates both a theory of personality and an approach to therapy. Kelly

defined a personal construct as the way in which an individual construes, interprets or gives

meaning to some aspect of the world. Constructs are bipolar, and they develop by being

validated and invalidated by experience, a point that can be exploited in therapy. Kelly's theory

has a cognitive orientation, but is humanistic by virtue of its ability to describe an individual's

personality ideographically, i.e. by using their own set of constructs, and not by some set of


normative types or traits. Some of the key concepts of PCT include: personal constructs,

repertory grid, fixed-role therapy, laddering, etc.

Eastern philosophy

The four Eastern philosophies which have had the most influence on humanistic

psychology have been: Zen Bhuddism, with its emphasis on letting go; Taoism, particularly in its

ideas of centering and the yin-yang polar unity of opposites; Sufism, particularly with its

emphasis on regaining one’s naturalness and acquiring creative vision; and Tantra, particularly in

its emphasis on the importance of the body as a spiritual energy system (Rowan, 1998).

Egalitarianism

As a corollary of their belief in the actualizing tendency, the humanistic therapies take an

egalitarian attitude towards their clients. This is evident straight away in the choice of the term

‘client; to describe those who take therapy; traditionally both psychoanalysis and psychiatry use

‘patient’, placing the work firmly within a medical model. A patient is by definition sick,

suffering or in a position of deficit. Client is borrowed from commercial transactions and

intended to indicate a fair exchange between peers of money for services; indeed, some

humanistic practitioners draw up a therapeutic contract outlining the expectations and

responsibilities of each party (Stewaart and Joines, 1987 as cited in Totton, n.d.).

Common assumptions of Humanistic Theories and Therapies

Sue and Sue (2012) have given the common assumptions of Humanistic Theories and

Therapies as following:

1. View of the person

People have an innate tendency toward self-actualization or developing to their fullest

potential. All humans are born with the natural inclination toward self-growth. Humanistic


therapies are optimistic in terms of the potential for individuals to make changes and to develop

their own resources. People strive to make sense of their experiences and must be viewed

holistically. People are social beings who are best understood in terms of their relationships with

others. It is through a social relationship, the therapist=client relationship, that constructive

change can occur.

2. Freedom to choose

Individuals can become more fully self-aware. This awareness allows for more freedom

in making choices about how to live their lives. Because of the potential for self-growth,

therapists do not direct or try to persuade the client, but instead provide an environment

conductive to clients finding their own direction. Humanistic therapists believe individuals have

the right and the capacity to decide what is best for them. Therefore, humanistic therapists adopt

a collaborative relationship in which clients are offered great freedom to make their own choices

about life

3. Focus on subjective reality

The emphasis is on the subjective experiences of the individual. Everyone interprets

events in an individual manner and it is the subjective experience that is the important focus for

therapy. It is the task of the therapists to understand the subjective world of the client.

4. Therapist qualities

Because clients have the potential for self-growth, therapists demonstrate qualities that

will enhance this process. These characteristics include being nonjudgmental and demonstrating

empathy, genuineness, and acceptance. These qualities furnish the environment in which client’s

self-exploration can occur. In addition, therapists monitor their own reactions to the client to

make sure that personal biases or beliefs are not interfering with the therapy.


5. Emotions

Emphasis is placed on emotion rather than cognition. The humanistic therapies focus on

the importance of emotional and experience dimensions of human functioning and attempt to

take clients to deeper levels of feeling and thinking.

6. Freedom-choice-Responsibility

These aspects are inevitably intertwined. If one makes a choice, there are consequences,

good or bad that follow. A specific choice often precludes other choices. Clients need to

understand that with all behaviors, they are making choices. It is within this framework that

client realize the importance of actively choosing rather than reacting to their experiences. Once

this realization occurs, other paths become available to them. Thus the existential questions of

“how are you living?” and “are you becoming the person you wish to be?” are addressed.

7. Meaning

Clients need to comprehend their behaviors and lives in terms of the larger meanings and

patterns of their lives. Only by doing so can they gain a greater sense of clarity and direction in

their lives.

The Core Conditions-Conditions necessary for therapeutic change

Rogers discussed therapeutic conditions that he regards as necessary and sufficient for

therapeutic change (Flasher & Fogle n.d.), which are outlined as,

Genuineness

The genuine therapist presents himself in an open manner. He behaves in a way that is

congruent (consistent and genuine) with real feelings. For example, if a client comments to the

therapist, “You look tired today”, the therapist may say, “Yes you’re right, I am a little tired

today”. In this response, the therapist validates the client’s (correct) perceptions.


Presenting a congruent response is challenging when how the therapist feel toward a

client is not congruent with how we think we should feel toward the client. For example, the

therapist may feel irritated with the client who has not followed through with exercises or comes

late to sessions. Yet the therapist strives to respond respectfully and therapeutically. If the

therapist is not careful, what the client may experience is a mixed message based upon the real

feelings, “leaking out”. The therapist’s behavior may be polite on the surface but contain

undertones of anger or resentment. Another example of incongruence may occur when the

therapist is not aware of how angry or annoyed s/he actually with the client (Flasher & Fogle

n.d.).

In either case above, the therapist focuses on presenting a positive and warm response to

the client. However, the client may perceive both levels of the therapist’s response: the polite

surface behaviors and the angry, irritated undertones. The incongruence between the two levels

of communication will likely cause discomfort in the client, and the client may respond

negatively. The therapist unaware of the client’s perceptions may view the client as

uncooperative, unappreciative, or difficult. In order to work with this challenging situation, the

therapist first needs to become aware of any tendency toward an incongruent response, and work

through the negative feelings toward the client rather than just trying to conceal them. The

therapist may also choose to express feelings to the client in a non-threatening manner using, “I

messages” (e.g. “When you do . . . I feel . . . “). Thus trying to conceal negative feelings often

does not work and can impair the therapist’s working relationship with the client.

Working through negative feelings toward a client involves trying to better understand

the client’s viewpoint (empathy). The therapist may want to ask himself/herself some questions,

such as “What stops the client from coming on time?” or “What is the client afraid of?”. Usually


if the therapist can better understands the client’s fears, behaviors and life circumstances, the

therapist will feel more emphatic and less annoyed with the client. The point is that the therapist

needs to reflect his/her own behavior toward the client and not simply blame the client. By

taking these steps the therapist will be better able to develop or return to a stance of

unconditional positive regard toward the client. It is important to note that Rogers’ (1957)

concept of therapist’s genuineness has sometimes been misunderstood as a license for therapists

to talk about themselves to engage in excessive self-disclosure. This was not Roger’s intention,

he was primarily concerned with the idea that therapists should not feign interest or caring at this

façade is likely to be detected by clients and damage the therapeutic relationship (Flasher &

Fogle n.d.).

Empathy

Empathy involves “being with” the person and his experiences on a moment-to-moment

basis. It involves a personal encounter, not simply an objective appraisal of the person’s

problems. For example, in order for the therapist to experience and how empathy, they must

understand not only the communication disorder (stuttering), but how the communication

disorder is affecting the person’s self-image and life. Although one can never truly feel what the

client is experiencing, he can only try to get a sense of what the client must cope with almost

every time he tries to talk (Flasher & Fogle n.d.).

In striving to be emphatic, therapists should take care not to go overboard. Sometimes

excessive efforts to appear friendly, caring and emphatic, especially in the early stages of the

working relationship, can appear phony and disingenuous to the client. This is different kind of

incongruence than discussed above in this case the therapist is trying to appear warmer am more

emphatic than s/he truly feels. The therapist may have good intentions, for instance, to help the


client feel understood and valued, but a saccharine (i.e. too sweet and overly caring) presentation

may be viewed negatively by clients.

Emphatic understanding responses are the observable responses which communicate

emphatic understanding to the client. they are responses intended to express and check the

therapist’s emphatic understanding experience of the client. Examples of common types

emphatic understanding responses could include; literal responses, restatements, summaries,

statements which point toward the felt experience toward the client but do not name or describe

the experience, interpretive or inferential guesses concerning what the client is attempting to

express, metaphors, questions that strive to express understandings of ambiguous experience of

the client, gestures of the therapist’s face, hands, body, vocal gestures etc (Michra, 2004).

Unconditional Positive Regard

Unconditional positive regard allows clients to experience a non-judgmental environment

in therapy, which may encourage them to be more honest with the therapists, such as when they

cannot (or will not) perform therapy tasks with maximum involvement or effort. In humanistic

therapy there is an emphasis on providing a positive relationship rather than on therapeutic

techniques. As the person expresses himself, however the therapist is alert for statements

pertaining to the self (e.g. “I haven’t felt like doing my exercise lately” or “I don’t understand

how these exercises will help”). The therapist also attends to the person’s nonverbal

communications that are incongruent with verbal communications (e.g. smiling while discussing

a negative feeling or personal loss).

In order to help both the client and therapist understand the client’s feelings, the therapist

may provide reflections that paraphrase the statements or, when needed, point out discrepancies

in the communications. To provide a simple reflection, the therapist should let the person know


she/he has been heard and that the therapist is interested in hearing more. The therapist’s

reflections, however, not simply mimic or parrot the client’s last words. For example, a patient

may mention symptoms that suggest penetration of food or liquid into the larynx (e.g. episodes

of coughing or choking), and they deny that they are a problem. The therapist may reflect on

both of these statements and then ask about the person’s feelings. The patient may be feeling

embarrassment or have fear around meal times. For example, the therapist might say, “you say

that you are doing some coughing and choking while eating but that it’s not really a problem for

you. Are you sometimes a little embarrassed about coughing choking, or are you a little afraid

that you won’t be able to continue eating regular food?” While it is important not to force a

particular interpretation on a client to assume what he is feeling, the therapist can ask questions

such as whish express empathy for the client’s probable experiences. Providing an environment

where all of the client’s feelings and experiences are respected and validated is central to

humanistic therapy and can maximize disclosure in therapy sessions (Flasher & Fogle n.d.).

Variety of concepts

Various terms and concepts appear in the presentation of Rogers’s theory of personality

and behavior that often have a unique and distinctive meaning in this orientation.

Experience

In Roger’s theory, the term experience refers to the private world of the individual. At

any moment, some experience is conscious; for example, we feel pressure of the keys against our

fingers as we type. Some experiences may be difficult to bring into awareness, such as the idea,

“I am an aggressive person”. People’s actual awareness of their total experiential field may be

limited, but each individual is the only one who can know it completely.


Reality

For psychological purposes, reality is basically the private world of individual’s

perceptions, although for social purposes, reality consists of those perceptions that have a high

degree of consensus among local communities of individuals. Two people will agree on reality

that a particular person is politician. One sees her as a good woman who wants to help people

and, on the basis of this reality, votes for her. The other person’s reality is that the politician

appropriates money to win favor, so this person votes against her. In therapy, changes in feelings

and perceptions will result changes in reality as perceived. This is particularly fundamental as the

client is more and more able to accept “the self that I am now”.

The Organism’s Actualizing Tendency

According to Rogers, humans have an instinctive need to grow and develop in a positive

direction. As the acorn follows its biological blueprint and develops into a mature tree, so do

humans follow their blueprints. However, before this natural tendency can operate, it must be

liberated by a loving and permissive environment. If the environment is nurturing, then the

organism will reach its full potential. The growth process of self-actualization is characterized by

increasing complexity, congruence and autonomy.

The Non-Directive Attitude

Non-directive refers to an attitude toward the client and toward therapeutic work with the

client. The belief in the actualizing tendency and the valuing of and respect for the client

stimulate feelings of sensitivity towards the client's directions, interests and self-maintaining

processes. But the non-directive attitude does not refer to an avoidance of giving specific

direction such as support, information, guidance, answers, etc., to clients. Rather, the

nondirective attitude is an inner experience of freedom from assuming what might be good or


helpful for clients. It also includes being free of impulses to express one's helping instinct in the

form of giving direction or interpretations. This involves an acceptance of the outsider's

ignorance and helplessness in finding and effecting solutions to other people's problems.

The internal frame of reference

This is the perceptual field of the individual. It is the way the world appears to us from

our own unique vantage point, given the whole continuum of learning and experiences we have

accumulated along with the meanings attached to experience and feelings. From the client-

centered point of view, apprehending this internal frame provides the fullest understanding of

why people behave as they do. It is to be distinguished from external judgments of behavior,

attitudes and personality.

The Self, Concept of Self, and Self-Structure

These terms refer to the organized, consistent, conceptual gestalt composed on

perceptions of the characteristics of the “I” or “me” and the perceptions of the relationships of

the “I” or “me” to others and to various aspects of life, together with the values attached to these

perceptions. It is a gestalt available to awareness although not necessarily in awareness. It is a

fluid and changing process, but in my given moment it……is at least partially definable in

operational terms (Meador and Rogers, 1984).

Symbolization

This is the process by which the individual becomes aware or conscious of an experience.

There is a tendency to deny symbolization to experience at variance with the concept of self; for

example, people who think of themselves as truthful will tend to resist the symbolization of an

act of lying. Ambiguous experiences tend to be symbolized in ways that are consistent with self-


concept. A speaker lacking in self-confidence may symbolize a silent audience as unimpressed,

whereas one who is confident may symbolize such a group as attentive and interested.

Psychological Adjustment or Maladjustment

Congruence, or its absence, between an individual’s sensory and visceral experiences and

his or her concept of self-defines whether a person is psychologically adjusted or maladjusted. A

self-concept that includes elements of weakness or imperfection facilitates the symbolization of

failure experiences. The need to deny or distort such experiences does not exist and therefore

fosters a condition of psychological adjustment. If a person who has always seen herself as

honest tells a white lie to her daughter, she may experience discomfort and vulnerability. For that

moment there is incongruence between her self-concept and her behavior - “I guess sometimes I

take the easy way out and tell a lie” – may restore the person to congruence and free the person

to consider whether she wants to change her behavior or her self-concept. A state of

psychological adjustment means that the organism is open to his or her organismic experiencing

as trustworthy and admissible to awareness.

The Fully Functioning Person

Rogers defined those who can readily assimilate organismic experiencing and who are

capable of symbolizing these ongoing experiences in awareness as “fully functioning” persons,

able to experience all of their feelings, afraid of none of them, allowing awareness to flow freely

in and through their experiences. Seeman (1984) has been involved in a long-term research

program to clarify and describe the qualities of such optimally functioning individuals. These

empirical studies highlight the possession of a positive self-concept, greater physiological

responsiveness, and an efficient use of the environment.


Theory of Dysfunction

According to Rogers (1959), dysfunction is caused by incongruence between self-concept

and experience. A state of incongruence exists when the self-concept differs from the actual

experience of the organism. When the organismic valuing process and externally imposed

conditions of worth are in agreement, organismic experiencing is accurately perceived and

assimilated. Therefore, these experiences are selectively perceived, distorted or simply denied in

order to make them consistent with self-worth. This leads to progressively greater estrangement

from oneself, so that the person can no longer live as an integrated whole, but is instead

internally divided

Personality Development

In ”A Theory of Therapy, Personality and Interpersonal Relationships as Developed in

the Clint-Centered Framework”, Rogers (1959) set forth his hypotheses about how people

develop and change. He “believed this was his most scholarly, complete and well-developed

theoretical formulation, was very proud of it, and was always puzzled that hardly anyone ever

seemed to know or care about its existence” (Kirschenbaum and Henderson, 1989).

Function of the Psyche

Rogers’ view of human nature was an expression of his view of the nature of the

universe. Although he acknowledged the universal tendency toward deterioration and chaos, he

tended to believe in a stronger creative force involving formation and evolution toward greater

complexity and order (Rogers, 1980). Rogers did not see the core of human motivation as

negative, that is hostile, antisocial, destructive or evil; nor as neutral, capable of being shaped

into any form; nor as perfected in itself and corrupted only by an evil society. Rogers considered

humans, at their most essential level, to be trustworthy.


Note Rogers’s choice of the word tendency rather than drive. However, although the tendency

can be thwarted, the only way to destroy it is to destroy the organism. To pursue the actualizing

tendency, the infant is equipped with the capacity to perceive and to symbolize accurately in

awareness moment-to-moment sensory experience of the phenomena in the environment and

visceral experience of the phenomena within oneself.

The infant’s actualizing tendency interacts with perception in the organismic valuing

process, whereby one immediately experiences each object of perception in terms of the degree

to which it is actualizing. In other words, through the organismic valuing process, a person

perceives each object of perception either of fulfilling a need, as being unrelated to fulfillment of

a need, or as thwarting fulfillment of a need.

The organismic valuing process is characterized by internal locus of evaluation in which

the infant’s preferences reflect the input of inner visceral and sensory perception and the

assignment of value based on one’s own innate actualizing tendency. This process involves

flexibility rather than rigidity. For example, a nipple in the infant’s mouth, valuing it as always

positive or always negative. Also innate in infants is the capacity of behavior.

The mechanism of feedback calls upon three innate conceptual capabilities of the self-

actualizing tendency. Feedback also relies on the innate conceptual tendency to organize

perceptions. Perhaps the most important application of these conceptual capabilities is the

formation of the self-concept because self-concept is the domain of self-awareness.As objects of

perception, the self-concept as a whole and each of its contents becomes subject to evaluation.

Once evaluation is made, it becomes part of self-conception.


Inner conflict and Anxiety

Inner conflicts results when individuals are torn between doing what comes naturally and

what others expect. When individuals accept the values of others in order to gain positive regard,

those values are internalized and become part of the personality. If the individual then behaves or

thinks in ways that are inconsistent with those introjected values, the self-concept is violated and

the person loses self-esteem and suffers anxiety. The mother who spanked man 30 years ago for

masturbatory activity has long been gone from this world and yet the adult-child gets nervous

when he thinks of sex.

Individuals defend against anxiety and threats to self-esteem by developing a more rigid

self-concept that will be less open to new and possibly disturbing experiences. They begin to

distort reality through the use of defense mechanisms, such as denial, projection, and reaction

formations. By putting, tight reins on emotions, they can live their lives in a stable but unfulfilled

state. In order for therapy to be effective, there must be a weakening of these defenses to the

point where the individual can sense the incongruity between the self-concept and the

experiencing self. It is this identity crisis and the ensuing anxiety that may motivate the person to

seek help and engage in the counseling process.


Client-centered Therapy and Counseling

First called nondirective therapy, later client-centered and currently person-centered

therapy, this therapeutic approach, developed by Carl Rogers, takes a positive view of

individuals, believing that they tend to move toward becoming fully functioning. Additionally,

Rogers’s views of humanity and therapy have been affected by existentialist’s writers. Both

existentialist and person-centered therapy stresses the importance of freedom, choice, individual

values and self-responsibility (Sharf, 2000).

Client-centered therapy is effective has been amply demonstrated by decades of research.

Furthermore, recent research has shown that the most significant variables in the effectiveness of

therapy are aspects of the therapeutic relationship and the therapist’s personal development- not

the discipline they practice nor what techniques they employ. The therapists focus more attention

to these variables in any discipline (Michra, 2004).

Practitioners of client centered therapy simply mirror and reflect back what the client or

patient expresses. The first part of this mistaken view is that it is ‘no’ simple matter to hold a

mirror so that the other sees and engages with him/herself in new and clearer ways. ‘Mirror’ used

metaphorically, is a tricky term. The good therapist is an artist whose portrait or part-sketch of

the other, via reflection, is a characterization not a photograph, at best a likeness powerfully

recognized by the client but going beyond his/her exact words and often beyond previous clear

or articulated perception. Reflection in this sense may have get force and value

Client-centered therapy is not inhibiting or restrictive to the natural personality of the

therapist. It is true that the person who has strong tendencies to control others or to

dominate others is not likely to take on client-centered therapy as this way of working.


Within the framework of client centered therapy there is great freedom for individual

personalities.

Individuality is also expressed in the extent of personal openness and the qualities

brought out in self-disclosure when they are in answer to personal questions by the client

or when they are an expression of congruence.

The natural personality of the therapist is enhanced and developed by the practice of

client-centered therapy itself. The development of attitudinal conditions in relation to

clients also develops those qualities to himself and is thereby, self-therapeutic and self-

fostering of his own individuality (Michra, 2004).

It is equally mistaken to take Rogers as the only person-centered theorist of note. The

development of person-centered theory did not stop with the death of Rogers in 1987 and even

before that time many other people had made significant contributions to it. Areas in which these

advances have been made include (Wilkins, 20003):

The classic client-centered approach which has been illuminated, refined, interpreted or

expanded upon by Schlien (1984), Bozarth (1990), Brodley (1990) and Mearns (1996).

Additions to the person-centered family of therapies (perhaps most importantly

‘experiential therapy’ growing from the work of Gendlin 1978).

Spiritual aspects and implications of person-centered counseling have been explored.

Cross cultural relevance has been queried (Holdstock 1990, 1993) and demonstrated

(Morotomi 1998).

Application to the arena of creative therapies has been explored and explained by Rogers

(1985), Silverstone (1994) and Wilkins (1994).


Relevance in the board area of gender and sexuality has been examined Natielo (1980,

1999), Galgut (1999) and Warner (1999).

Theoretical concepts have been re-argued and re-evaluated by practitioners belonging to

a variety of what Warner (1998, 1999) sees as the tribes which constitute the person-

centered nation.

The client

The client is expected to learn to deal with conflicts, to order and direct the forces of his

or her life, to come to grip with problems, and to “overbalance the regressive and self-destructive

forces” (Rogers, 1951) which are the source of difficulty. Most succinctly stated, the client’s job

to cure himself/herself through a constructive relationship with the counselor, from whom he or

she is able to gain support, encouragement and understanding (Belkin.1988).

The premise underlying this conception is that clients, in order to grow, must exercise

options for choice; they must exercise their conscious and intentional abilities to choose as

Rogers (1969), explained:

In the therapeutic relationship some of the most compelling subjective experiences are

those in which the client feels within himself the power of naked choice. He is free- to

become himself or to hide behind a façade; to move forward or to retrogress; to behave in

ways which are destructive of self and others, or in ways which are enhancing; quite

literally free to live or die, in both the physiological and psychological meaning of those

terms . . . . We could say that in the optimum of therapy the person rightfully experiences

the most complete and absolute freedom. He wills or chooses to follow the course of action

which is most economical in relation to all the internal and external stimuli, because it is

that behavior which will be most deeply satisfying.


What clients are actually engaged in as they undergo counseling is a process of self-

exploration, which leads to the eventual understanding of and coming to grips with one’s

essential freedom. The client’s task within the counseling context is to explore his/her feelings

and behavior, to discover, with a sense of wonder, new aspects of self, and to blend these new

aspects into the image of self that holds together the range of his/her perceptions.

The client may not, however, be immediately capable of this difficult task. Because of

previous experiences with a counselor or therapist, or because of erroneous preconceptions about

counseling, the client may regard the counseling experience as, “one where he will be labeled,

looked upon as abnormal, hurt, treated with little respect [or] look upon the counselor as an

extension of the authority which has referred him for help” (Rogers, 1951). He or she may feel

threatened by the counseling setting, self-conscious, ashamed. In such a case, it is the counselor’s

job to communicate to the client the non-judgmental, warm, an accepting reality of the situation.

This type of communication will help clients begin to help themselves (Belkin.1988).

The client-centered counselor

The primary job of the counselor is to develop a facilitative relationship with the client.

This is accomplished not by formal techniques and procedures, but rather by the counselor’s total

attitude toward the client and toward the counseling interaction (Belkin.1988).

The counselor must, an experience along with him or her manifold feelings and

perceptions. As Rogers described it, the counselor’s task is to assume “the internal frame of

reference of the client, to perceive the world as the client sees it, to perceive the client as he is

seen by himself, to lay aside all perceptions from the external frame of reference while doing so,

and to communicate something of the empathic understanding to the client” (Rogers, 1951). By

doing so, the counselor helps the client overcome his or her frightening or negative feelings


about the counseling situation, engenders a feeling of trust and rapport with the client, and helps

the client begin to reorganize and restructure his or her own subjective world wherever it is

incongruent (defined as the discrepancy between the individual’s experience and his or her

distorted perception of the experience).

Rogers emphasized above all else the need for open communication, for dialogue, as the

prerequisite for all counseling (and for all interpersonal relationships. Rogers establishes that the

counselor establishes communication not so much through what he or she is. It is the personal

qualities of the counselor that make him effective or ineffective. Three of the most important

qualities that Rogers considered essential for the client-centered counselor are genuineness,

empathy and unconditional positive regard. This trinity of traits has become the signature of the

Rogerian counselor, and the bulk of Roger’s research during the 1950s and 1960s was designed

to operationally define and evaluate these conditions and to test their validity as counseling

variables.

The stages of Counseling

Rogers (1958) examined the process of development by which personality changes take

place. He concluded that, in successful counseling, the client moves from fixity to

changeableness, from rigid structure to flow, from stasis to process (Rogers, 1958). At the first

stage internal communication is blocked, there is no communication of self or personal

meanings, no recognition of problem, and no individual desire to change. At this stage, the client

is closed, “and communicative relationships are construed as dangerous . . . there is no desire to

change” (Belkin.1988).


When the client feels himself to be fully accepted as he or she is (and for what he or she

is), the second stage follows naturally. The second stage is characterized by a number of factors,

both positive and negative.

Expression begins to flow in regard to nonself topics . . . problems are perceived as external

to self . . .there is no sense of personal responsibity in problems . . .feelings are described as

unowned, or sometimes as past objects . . .feelings may be exhibited, but are not recognized

as such or owned . . .experiencing is bound by the structure of the past . . .personal

constructs are rigid, and unrecognized as being constructs, but are thought of as facts . . .

differentiation of personal meanings and feelings are very limited . . . contradictions may

be expressed, but with little recognition of them as contradictions.

(Rogers, 1958)

The third and fourth stages involve further loosening of symbolic expressions in regard to

feelings, constructs and self. These stages constitute an important moving forward in the process.

In the fifth stage, feelings are expressed freely as being in the present and are very close to being

experienced.

The sixth stage continues the process of growth, self-discovery and a self-acceptance,

congruence and responsibility. This is a crucial stage, the client has become very close to organic

being that is always in the process of growth, he or she is in touch with the flow of feelings; his

or her construction of experiences is free flowing and repeatedly being tested against referents

and evidence within and without; experience is differentiated and thus internal communication is

exact.

The client often enters the seventh and the last stage without need of the counselor’s help.

He or she is now a continually changing person, experiencing with freshness and immediacy


each new situation, responding with real and accepted feelings, and showing “a growing and

continuing sense of acceptant ownership of these changing feelings, a basic trust in his own

process” (Rogers, 1958).

The seven-stage conceptualization represents Rogers’s clearest, most explicit description

of the stages of personal growth, although these stages are implicit throughout his writings

(Belkin.1988).

The process in the client is facilitated by the empathy, congruence and acceptance of the

counselor. For example, sensitive empathetic listening on the part of the counselor enables him

or her to reflect back to the client personal feelings and meanings implicit in stage 1 statements.

The acceptance and genuineness of counselor encourages the growth of trust in the client, and

increased risk taking regarding the expression of thoughts and feelings that would previously had

been censored and suppressed. Then, as this more frightening material is exposed, the fact that

the counselor is able to accept emotions that had long buried and denied helps the client to accept

them in turn. The willingness of the counselor to accept the existence of contradictions in the

way the client experiences the world gives the client permission to accept himself or herself as

both hostile and warm, or needy and powerful, and thus to move towards a more differentiated,

more complex sense of self (McLeod. 2009).

The main goal of client-centered counseling is congruence, the concordance between the

client’s perception of the experience and the reality of those experiences. In one respect,

congruence is the ability to accept reality. This requires a critical reorientation of the sense of

self in interaction with the environment. The client must come to understand herself or himself

and care about herself or himself in a different way than when counseling began (Belkin.1988).


Rogers (1959) described specifically some of the changes he expected successful counseling to

produce:

The person comes to see himself differently.

He accepts and his feelings more fully.

He becomes more self-confident and self-directing.

He becomes more the person he would like to be.

He becomes more flexible and less rigid in his perceptions.

He adopts more realistic goals for himself.

He behaves in a more mature fashion.

He changes his maladaptive behavior, even such a long established one as chronic

alcoholism.

He became more acceptant of others.

He becomes more open to the evidence, both to what is going on outside of himself, and

to what is going on inside himself.

He changes his basic personality characteristics in constructive ways.

Person-centered Therapy and Postmodernism

Humanistic psychology is seen to have its roots in a twentieth century, American view of

human nature, and phenomenology draws principally on the work of Hussel and Heidegger who

were products of nineteenth-century Europe. For some it leads to the assumption that the person-

centered approach is somehow ‘frozen’, a product of a time long gone and an outdated

philosophy. Leaving aside the absurdity of the underlying assumption that belief has a use-by

date (where would that leave the bulk of philosophical and metaphysical thought?), it is


nevertheless worth considering person-centered theory in the light of the major epistemological

trends of the later twentieth/early twenty first centuries, and specifically postmodernism.

Jones (pp. 19-20) places Rogers firmly in the modernist school in that ‘person-centered

theory asserts that it has discovered generalizable truths about our psychological make-up’.

O’Hara (1995: 47) on the other hand refers to Rogers as ’the unwitting postmodernist pioneer’,

with some of the most puzzling philosophical questions of this century’. It may be that, as in so

many other areas, it is not possible to squeeze Rogers and person-centerd theory into a camp. On

the one hand, Rogers was trained in the scientific method and was pioneering, even revolutionary

in applying that to understanding the psychotherapeutic process; on the other hand, he apparently

became dissatisfied with positivism as a way of achieving a comprehension of the human

condition. As O’Hara indicates, this is clearly so in the 1950 when Rogers (1959: 251) wrote:

There is a widespread feeling in our group that the logical positivism in which we were

professionally reared is not necessarily the final philosophical word in an area in which the

phenomenon of subjectivity plays such a vital and central part … is there some view,

possibly developing out of an existentialist orientation, which might … find more room for

the existing subjective person …?

In 1968, Rogers wrote ‘I like to create hypotheses and I like to test them against hard

reality’- surely the statement of a positivist and far from the postmodern position O’Hara

attributes to him. By 1985 (Krischenbaum and Handerson, 1990a: 281) Rogers is arguing ‘the

need for a new science’. He writes of his pleasant surprise at reading of new models of science

that are more appropriate to a human science, mentioning the work of Reason and Rowan

(1981), Douglass and Mouastakas (1985) and Mearns and McLeeod (1984) among others. The


latter paper he regarded as important because of its emphasis on the collaborative nature of

research.


Other Humanistic Therapies

Gestalt therapy

Like several humanistic approaches, Gestalt originated in a work of the disaffected

psychoanalyst, Fritz Perls (though recently more emphasis has been placed on the importance of

other early gestaltits, notably Fritz’ wife Laura Perls and his student Isadore From). It is from

Gestalt that the humanistic therapies take one of their most widely used slogans, ‘be in the here

and now’ (cf. Perls, Hefferline and Goodman, 1973). Gestalt seeks to enable a spontaneous,

contactful, responsive attitude to life, uninhibited by internalized commands or taboos or by rigid

defensive strategies.

The originators of Gestalt drew upon Gestalt psychology for their theoretical base, also

borrowing the name. Gestalt psychology (Goldstein, 1995) considers human perception and

action to be a series of meaningful organizations of sense data (in German ‘gestalt’ means ‘form

or shape’) and responses to this organization. Human beings make meaning out of their

environment, always and already an active perception: we pull out part of the perceptual field as

‘figure’ and allow the rest to sink back as ‘ground’. What is figure and what is ground is a matter

of what is more interesting to a particular person at a particular moment: for someone dying of

thirst, the glass of water in the bottom left corner will become the immediate center of attention.

Perls himself used taking in nourishment as his most consistent model of the relation between

organism and the environment (Perls, 1969); and metaphors of tasting, biting, chewing,

swallowing and digesting, and pushing out permeate Gestalt theory.

Gestalt therapy regards the lively, fluid creation, completion and replacement of gestalts

as the natural human state, and therefore pays attention to processes that take us out of contact

with what is immediately present what are called, ‘contact boundary disturbances’ (Latner,


1992). Whatever patterns are recognized in people’s process, there is continuous effort to avoid

creating the sort of hypostatize entities (‘the unconscious’, ‘character structures’, ‘ego states’)

which are so common in many forms of therapy, and to stick with the concrete and immediate.

The practice of Gestalt therapy is centered on bringing the client back into contact with their

here- and-now experience, using judo like techniques to interrupt their avoidance patterns.

Gestaltists invite their clients to enter into practical explorations of their own process: ‘gestalt

therapy brings self-realization through here-and-now experiment in directed awareness’ (Yontef,

1975).

Many of these experiments focus on bodily experience; Barry Stevens (1970)

characterizes this as ‘learning how to decontrol my body’. We can get a flavor of the gestalt

attitude from Stevens’ suggestions to the client experiencing bodily pain or tension:

See if you can explore it – gently, not pushing it around, like getting friendly with it – and

see if you can discover what wants to happen there and let it happen. See if some

movements grow out of the pain or tension. It may be some very small movement that you

can be aware of that is not visible to me. It may be a large movement that I can see. Let it

do whatever it wants to do.

(Stevens, 1977)

The style of gestalt therapy varies enormously between practitioners, with some working

in a confrontational and even abrasive way (following the tradition of Fritz Perls himself), and

others working much more gently and relationally. Several different emphases have of course

developed over the last half-century. Classical Gestalt focuses on exploring local experience

through a series of ‘experiment’ with one’s perceptions, awareness and impulses, for example:


Try for a few minutes to make up sentences stating what you are at this moment aware of.

Begin each sentence with the words ‘now’ or ‘at this moment’ or ‘here and now’.

(Perls Hefferline and Goodman, 1971)

This and the other experiments are of course intended for the reader/client; but working

as a therapist requires a similar state of being.

Alongside this sort of intrapersonal emphasis, there was always an intense awareness of

the importance of the interpersonal aspects of contact; and Gestalt as a ‘two body therapy’ was

developed more strongly in the 60s and 70s (Polster and Polster, 1974). Currently, there is a

tendency to stress the importance of field theory (Parlett, 1997, 2005), based on the

inseparability of figure and ground, organism and environment so that ‘the “somebody” that I am

being is a field event’ (Philippson, 2002). Each of these elements was already present in

Gestalt’s initial formulations; but different schools and theorists focus on different themes.

a) The empty chair

This technique allows a past or present problem with another individual to be dealt with

in the therapy session by having the client imagine that the other person is sitting in this other

chair. The client is asked to speak aloud, in the present tense, as if the other person is actually

there. After the client makes the statements, he or she is asked to switch the chairs, assume the

other person’s identity, and then give a response. In doing so, the client brings a problem with

another into the present and become more aware of their feelings and the feelings of the other

person. This technique is also used for processing internal conflict, where two sides of a different

perspective can be asked to interact with one another (Sue & Sue, 2012).


b) Use of language

Gestalt therapy focuses on how individuals may reduce responsibility or awareness

through the use of language. Clients may be asked to change their typical way of responding to

situations. Instead of showing, “You never know how others will react”, an individual might say,

“I don’t know how you will react” or by changing from “I can’t” to “I won’t” or from “I should”

to “I choose”. An awareness of how language can increase or decrease the perception of personal

responsibility can lead to more active involvement in life choices (Sue & Sue, 2012).

c) Exaggeration

In the classic training film, three approaches to psychotherapy, Fritz Perls, cofounder of

Gestalt therapy, asked the client, Gloria, to exaggerate nonverbal responses, including her sigh

and the movement of her leg. She was asked to repeat these. With her sigh, Gloria, became

aware of an emotional feeling. The request to repeat or exaggerate a behavior allows the client to

become aware of the unconscious emotions (Sue & Sue, 2012).

Other techniques are integration and loosening, stay with it, dream work, guided fantasy

and body awareness work (Guindon, 2011).

Transactional Analysis (TA)

While Gestalt tries to avoid structures and systems wherever possible, Transactional

Analysis finds them very useful, and indeed almost specializes in creating punchy and

memorable systematizations , starting out from Eric Berne’s famous description of the three ‘ego

states’ of parent, adult and child (Berne, 1968 , and Stewart and Joines, 1987). Like Perls, Berne

trained originally as a psychoanalyst; and the Parent / Adult / Child system (PAC) is in a sense –

though only in a sense – a version of Freud’s superego, ego and id (Totton, n.d.).


However typically of the TA approach, PAC is very much and operational tool rather

than a metapsychological entity. Berne defined an ego-state as ‘a system of feelings

accompanied by a related set of behavior patterns’ (Berne, 1968 he refers to ‘ego-states’, but the

contemporary usage is hyphenated); and TA is not hugely interested in the existential status of

ego-states, or in concepts like the unconsciousness, but rather in the usefulness of learning to

recognize different ego-states in oneself and in others.

When I am behaving, thinking and feeling as I did when I was a child, I am said to

be in my Child ego-state.

When I am behaving, thinking and feeling in ways I copied from parents or parent-

figures, I am said to be in my Parent ego-state.

When I am behaving, thinking and feeling in ways which are a direct here-and-now

response to events around me, using all the abilities I have as a grown-up, I am said to be in

my Adult ego-state.

(Stewart and Joines, 1987)

There are several difficulties one might raise here. A major part of the TA therapist’s job

to educate the client in recognizing their own shifts between ego-states, and the advantages and

drawbacks of each state in different situations. TA has also extensively explored what it calls

‘crossed transactions’, the interpersonal difficulties which arise when people are communicating

from different ego-states, for example parent to child and vice versa (Berne, 1968, Stewart and

Joines, 1987)

TA has coined a number of other interesting and useful concepts, perhaps most notably

the ‘life script’.


Script theory is based on the belief that people make conscious life plans in childhood or

early adolescence which influence and make predictable the rest of their lives. Persons

whose lives are based on such decisions are said to have scripts.

(Steiner, 1990)

Generally a life script is based on inadequate or outdated information, and the more rigidly it is

followed, the less good the results are likely to be. Situations like suicide, drug addiction and

psychosis all result from scripts, and hence, in TA’s view are all capable of being changed

(Totton, n.d.).

Like ‘script’, many TA terms have become part of the common currency of humanistic

therapies, often without much grasp of their precise technical meaning. Other examples include

‘strokes’ (defined as ‘units of recognition’-all the ways in which people acknowledge each

other’s existence verbally and non-verbally); the ‘rescue triangle’ or ‘drama triangle’ (Steiner,

1990); and, of course, the famous ‘game’. A game in TA is ‘a recurring set of transactions often

repetitious, superficially plausible, with a concealed motivation; or. More colloquially, a series of

moves with a snare or “gimmick”’ (Berne, 1968). The games that a person chooses to play derive

from life script. Berne (1968) and other TA theorists have identified many different games, often

with self-explanatory names like ‘Why Don’t You __ Yes But’, ‘Let’s You and Him Fight’ and

‘See What You Made Me Do’ (Totton, n.d.).

It is apparent from this outline that TA is inventive, imaginative, observant, eloquent an

fun. Many of its formulations are instantly recognizable and clearly relevant to the sorts of

difficulties that bring people to therapy. What is less apparent – and this may or may not be seen

as important – is how far TA theory is a valid set of general theorems, and how far it consists of

a series of spectacular improvisations (Totton, n.d.).


Motivational Interviewing Theory

Motivational Interviewing is best described as a direct client-centered approach.

Although this might seem to be a contradictory description, the key assumption of MET and

motivational interviewing clearly fit within the client-centered model. For example, the

responsibility and capacity for change is assumed to lie within the client: change can only occur

when the client decides to make a change. Given a strong belief that resources and motivation for

change reside within the individual, the therapist focuses on the client’s own perceptions, goals

and values throughout the therapy. The client is considered autonomous, with the capacity for

self-direction. These views along with the emphatic, non-judgmental attitude of the therapist fit

into the client-centered model. The directive aspect of the motivational interviewing involves the

therapist working to increase the client’s motivation to change. In contrast to the traditional

client-centered approach, the therapist uses empathy and other supportive responses to reinforce

self-motivational statements, rather than supportive, noncontingent techniques in a global,

noncontingent manner. Using questioning the therapist attempts to enhance motivation for

change by consideration of the discrepancy between client’s behavior (e.g. drug abuse) and more

adaptive goals. Another contrast with traditional client-centered approaches is that MET has a

specific direction for the treatment, using strategies that direct the client toward specific goals

rather than simply following the lead of the client. The therapist actively brings discrepancies to

client’s attention, thus creating motivation for behavior change (Sue & Sue, 2012).

Body centered therapies

The first body centered therapy was Wilhelm Reich’s orgonomy, developed to its furthest

point in USA in the 1950s. Although Reich was a psychoanalyst who, unlike Eric Berne or Fritz

Perls, never actually renounced his roots, Reichian therapy was largely assimilated to the


humanistic world after Reich was expelled from the International Psychoanalytic Association

and finally settled in the US after World War II (Sharaf, 1983). Reich continued to get in trouble

in America as he had with the analysts and with the authorities in Nazi Germany and

Scandinavia; he died in prison in 1956, having been goaled for contempt of court he was

forbidden to continue his work with subtle energy devices (Sharaf, 1983 as in cited Totton, n.d.).

Although orthodox Reichian orgonomy continues to be practiced, Reich’s work has also

given birth to a number of more widely known neo- or post-Reichian schools, most of them

functioning within a more or less humanistic framework of ideas and techniques. Aleander

Lowen’s Bioenergetics (Lowen, 1994) is a partial exception, in that it draws strongly on analytic

concepts; but simply working with the body, and in particular with touch, is enough to exclude

any therapy from participating in the analytic communion. Dance movement therapy (DMT) is a

distinct set of approaches to working with the body, which includes both psychoanalytic and

humanistic methodologies of various different kinds (Berstein, 1979).

There are now a number of approaches to body psychotherapy often under the rubric of

‘somatic therapy’) with roots in traditions other than Reichian work, all of them gererally

speaking part of the humanistic world. Gestalt therapy has a strong bodily focus; like all true

body psychotherapies, it integrates this into wholistic approach which utilizes verbal as well as

physical techniques, and psychological as well as somatic models (Totton, n.d.).

Expressive art therapies

Another tribe of humanistic therapies are those which use one form or another of art as

their central tool. DMT overlaps with this category; other members are humanistic forms of art

therapy proper, utilizing painting, drawing, clay and so on (Dalley and Case, 2006); those who

work with voice and with music (Bunt and Hoskyns, 2002), and some forms of drama therapy,


psychodrama and so on (Jones, 2007; Karp et al., 1998). Again some versions of these are

humanistic, others are not. Some, like the person-centered therapy of Carl Rogers’s daughter

Natalie Rogers (1993), are direct descendants of a specific humanistic school (Totton, n.d.).

Blends, integrations and in-betweeners

In keeping with the tendency to spontaneity of humanistic therapy, there are many groups

or individual practitioners working with a combination of some or all of the above approaches,

often also including a psychodynamic input and sometimes a cognitive behavioral one. When

there has been an attempt to order and synthesize these various elements, the approach is

generally termed ‘integrative’; when therapy is seen more as a matter of choosing the best tool

for a particular situation, the approach is often called ‘eclectic’ (Norcross, 2005;Lazarus,2005 a

in cited Totton, n.d.). The psychoanalyst Christopher Bollas argues eloquently for the value of an

eclectic approach, which he terms ‘pluralistic’:

If one has more ways of seeing mental life and human behavior then, in my view, it follows

logically that one is going to be more effective . . . If your preconscious stores multiple

models of the mind and behavior, to be activated by work with a particular patient in a

particular moment, then you will find that you are either consciously or unconsciously

envisioning the patient through one or another of these lenses.

(Bollas, 2007, p. 7)]


Does humanistic Psychotherapy work?

Humanistic therapies may not be included in reviews of psychotherapy research, or

considered in criteria for evidence-based practice. There are many reasons for this. This criterion

used for inclusion in reviews favor positivist or natural science research methods over human

science or qualitative methods that may be used for the purposes for exploring and understanding

clients’ subjective realities. Many studies use single group designs so are not usually included in

meta-analyses. Some of the research that as not originally incorporated into the literature in the

1950s when it came out is still overlooked. Literature has been published in German is not

included in the American literature, or in British publications such as the reviews by Roth and

Fonagy (1996). Some of the literature uses new labels (e.g. process-experiential therapy or

emotionally focused). As a result, humanistic therapies are sometimes dismissed as lacking in

empirical support. In order to counteract with some of these trends, Cian and Seeman (2001)

have collated the research on humanistic therapy in a handbook on humanistic research and

practice.

Robert Elliot (2001: 57-81) conducted the largest meta-analyses of humanistic therapy

outcome research to date. He analyzed 99 therapy conditions in 86 studies involving over 5000

clients. Studies reviewed covered client- centered therapy, ‘non-directive’ therapies, task focused

process-experiential therapies, emotionally focused therapy for couples, Gestalt therapy,

encounter sensitivity groups and other experiential/humanistic therapies. He concluded the

following:

1. Clients who participate in humanistic therapies show on average, large amounts of charge

over time.


2. Post-therapy gains in humanistic therapies are stable; they are maintained over early (<12

months) and late (12 months) follow ups.

3. In randomized clinical trials with untreated control clients, clients who participate in

humansistic therapies generally show substantially more change than comparable

untreated clients.

4. In randomized clinical trials with comparative treatment control clients, clients in

humanistic therapies generally show amounts of change equivalent to clients in non-

humanistic therapies, including CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy).

(Elliot, 2001)

The results are comparable with other findings listed that different types of

psychotherapy, including humanistic psychotherapy are effective. This summary does not

address the question of where humanistic therapies may be particularly effective, or the types of

questions that might be asked by humanistic therapist-researchers that would not be asked by

other modalities (Ford, 2007).

Strengths

Shifted the focus of behavior to the individual / whole person rather than the unconscious

mind, genes, observable behavior etc.

Humanistic psychology satisfies most people's idea of what being human means because it

values personal ideals and self-fulfillment.

Qualitative data gives genuine insight and more holistic information into behavior.

Highlights the value of more individualistic and idiographic methods of study (McLeod,

2007).


Limitations

Ignores biology (e.g. testosterone).

Unscientific – subjective concepts.

E.g. cannot objectively measure self-actualization.

Humanism ignores the unconscious mind.

Behaviorism – human and animal behavior can be compared.

Qualitative data is difficult to compare.

Ethnocentric (biased towards Western culture).

Their belief in free will is in opposition to the deterministic laws of science (McLeod, 2007).

Critical Evaluation

The humanistic approach has been applied to relatively few areas of psychology

compared to the other approaches. Therefore, its contributions are limited to areas such as

therapy, abnormality, motivation and personality.

A possible reason for this lack of impact on academic psychology perhaps lies with the

fact that humanism deliberately adopts a non-scientific approach to studying humans. For

example their belief in free-will is in direct opposition to the deterministic laws of science. Also,

the areas investigated by humanism, such as consciousness and emotion are very difficult to

scientifically study. The outcome of such scientific limitations means that there is a lack of

empirical evidence to support the key theories of the approach.

However, the flip side to this is that humanism can gain a better insight into an

individual’s behavior through the use of qualitative methods, such as unstructured interviews.

The approach also helped proved a more holistic view of human behavior, in contract to the

reductionist position of science (McLeod, 2007).

http://www.simplypsychology.org/qualitative-quantitative.html


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