6: Humanistic psychotherapy

Question 1

Phenomenology

Answer 1

• Imposition of scientific attitudes on the study of humans reduced the human experience
• Human beings make meaning from experiences in the objective world to create their own personal worlds
• The process of shaping consciousness results in a sense of self
• Human beings are both free and determined

Question 2

Humanism characteristics

Answer 2

• Holistic, empathetic description of the client’s experience
• Problems arise from meeting others needs
• Change results from actualizing inner growth potential
• Client is responsible for change
• Therapist is spontaneous
• Emotions motivate and indicate what is important

Question 3

Postulates

Answer 3

• Humans cannot be reduced to components
• They have their experience in a uniquely human context
• Consciousness always includes an awareness of oneself in the context of other people
• They have some choices and with that, responsibility
• Human beings are intentional, aim at goals, are aware that they cause future events and seek meaning, value and creativity

Question 4

Carl Rogers and the Person-centered approach

Answer 4

Originally it was Nondirective Therapy, but changed to person-centred because of Charles Traux, who found out that clients notice which experiences interest their therapists (and therefore explore those feelings in depth, as therapists do with them)

Question 5

Carl Rogers theory of personality

Based on?

Answer 5

• Based on Maslow’s studies of self-actualizing tendency
• This tendency serves to motivate the client to overcome his current problems and achieve mental well-being.
• The organismic valuing process involves evaluating subjective experiences in terms of their potential for helping the individual improve as a person

Question 6

Carl Rogers theory of personality

What happens when the self-actualization is reached

Answer 6

• If actualizing tendency leads to self-actualization, the person becomes a fully-functioning person
• To be this: unconditional positive regard, openness to experience, self acceptance and emotional understanding
• Conditional positive regard from others becomes conditional positive self-regard. We will accept only those parts that others accept

Question 7

Carl Rogers theory of psychopathology

Answer 7

The core of psychological maladjustment is the incongruence between the person’s experience and the self-concept

Question 8

Therapeutic process (person-centred therapy)

6 conditions that are necessary

Answer 8

1) A meaningful relationship to both the patient and therapist
2) Vulnerability: experience of anxiety-provoking incongruities motivates seeking help
3) Genuineness: empathy with the client’s experience
4) Unconditional positive regard: communicating acceptance in a warm and genuine way
5) Accurate empathy: therapist enters clients’ experiential world and has to communicate this awareness o the patient while maintaining clear boundaries and sense of self
6) Perceptions of genuineness: patients percieve the therapists understanding and acceptance as a genuine human response

By promoting self-awareness and self-reflection, clients learn to exercise choice

Question 9

Therapeutic content: Goals

Answer 9

• Achieve greater degree of independence and integration
• Assist patients in their growth process so can better cope with problems and identify them
• Provide a climate conductive to helping the individual strive toward self-actualization
• Encourage patients to have openness to experience, trust in themselves, an internal source of evaluation and willingness to grow.

Question 10

Therapeutic relationship

Answer 10

• Necessary conditions for the therapeutic personality change are on the quality of the relationship
  -Two persons are in psychological contact
  -Therapist experiences unconditional positive regard and empathetic understanding for the client
• Rejects the role of the therapist as the authority
• If the conditions exist over some time, constructive personality change will occur

Question 11

Limitations of humanistic therapies

Answer 11

• Methodological errors contained in some of these studies
• Non-manualized treatment
• Risk of tendency to be supportive without challenging
• Core conditions are necessary for the therapy to succeed, but are they sufficient?

Question 12

Strengths of humanistic therapies

Answer 12

• 1st approach that researches on processes
• personal growth
• focus on therapeutic relationship
• it is applicable to a wide range of problems
• Optimistic
• True self