Chance to Excel 2 Flashcards
Existential View of Human Nature
- capacity for self-awareness
- tension between freedom and responsibility
- the creation of an identity & establishing meaningful relationships
- accepting anxiety
- awareness of death and non-being
Capacity of Self-awareness
realizing that:
- we are finite
- we have the potential and the choice, to act or not to act
- meaning is not automatic, we must seek it
meaning
- like pleasure, it must be pursued indirectly
- it is a by-product of a commitment to creating, loving, and working
Yalom’s 4 givens of existence
death, freedom, isolation, meaninglessness
Goals of Existential Therapy
- help clients accept their freedom and responsibility to act
- assist people with coming to terms with crises
- encourage them to live authentic lives
- broaden clients’ awareness
- help them search for purpose and meaning in life
Person-centered Human Nature
Humans:
- are trustworthy and positive
- are capable of making changes and living productive, effective lives
- innately gravitate to self-actualization
congruence
- genuineness or realness in the therapy session
- therapist’s behaviors match his or her words
unconditional positive regard
- acceptance and genuine caring about the client, as a valuable
- accepting clients as they are presently
accurate empathic understanding
- the ability to deeply grasp the client’s subjective world
- helper attitudes are more important than knowledge; the therapist doesn’t need to experience the situation to develop and understanding from the clients perspective
six core conditions (person-centered)
- 2 persons are in psychological contact
- the first (client) is experiencing incongruence
- the second (therapist) is congruent or integrated in the relationship
- the therapist experiences unconditional positive regard or real caring for the client
- the therapist experiences empathy for the client’s internal frame of reference and endeavors to communicate this to the client
- the communication to the client is, to a minimal degree, achieved
Precontemplation
there’s no intention of changing a behavior pattern in the near future
contemplation
people are aware of a problem and are considering overcoming it, but they have not yet made a commitment to take action to bring about the change
preparation
individuals intend to take action immediately and report some small behavioral changes
action
individuals are taking steps to modify their behavior to solve their problems
maintenance
people work to consolidate their gains and prevent relapse
stages of change (person-centered)
precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance
emotion-focused therapy
- understanding the role of emotion in human functioning and psychotherapeutic change
- help clients access and process emotions to construct new ways of being
Gestalt Human Nature
- existential and phenomenological
- here and now
Holism
the full range of human functioning includes thoughts, feelings, behaviors, body, language, and dreams
Field theory
the field in the client’s environment which consists of therapist and client and all that goes on between them
contact
interacting with nature and with other people without losing one’s identity
boundary disturbances/resistance to contact
the defenses we develop to prevent us from experiencing the present fully
five channels of resistance
introjection, deflection, projection, confluence, retroflection
introjection
the tendency to uncritically accept others’ beliefs and standards without stimulating them to make them congruent with who we are
projection
- disown certain aspects of ourselves by assigning them to the environment
- these individuals tend to feel like they are victims of circumstances
retroflection
- turning back onto ourselves by assigning them to the environment
- ex. self-harming when angry at someone else so that you don’t hurt them
deflection
- the process of distraction or veering off, so that it is difficult to maintain a sustained sense of contact
- ex. beating around the bush, changing subject in the middle of an argument
confluence
- blurring the differentiation between the self and the environment
- ex. absence of conflicts, slowness to anger, feeling you aren’t able to give your opinion until you hear what everyone else thinks
boundary disturbance
characteristic styles people employ in their attempts to control their environment
“it” talk
“it” instead of “I”, use depersonalizing language
“you” talk
global and impersonal language tends to keep the person hidden
language that denies power
tendency to deny their personal power by adding qualifiers or disclaimers to their statements
- ex. perhaps, maybe, I guess
organismic regulation
a process by which equilibrium is “disturbed” by the emergence of a need, a sensation, or an interest
paradoxical theory of change
the more you try to actively change yourself to be something that you are not, the more you stay the same
empty chair
- role play; all parts played by the client
- promote a higher level of integration b/w the polarities and conflicts that exist in everyone
making the rounds
- involves asking a person in a group to go up to others in the group and either speak to or do something with each person
- purpose is to confront, risk, disclose the self, to experiment with new behavior, and grow and change
staying with the feeling
urge the client to stay with their feelings and encourage them to go deeper into the feeling or behavior they wish to avoid
freedom
we are responsible for our lives, for our actions, and for failures to take action
existential guilt
being aware of having evaded a commitment, or having chosen not to choose
existential vacuum
- meaninglessness in life can lead to emptiness and hollowness
- this condition is often experienced when people do not busy themselves with routine or with work
neurotic anxiety
- failure to move through anxiety results
- anxiety about concrete things that is out of proportion to the situation
logotherapy
human suffering (the tragic and negative aspects of life) can be turned into human achievement by the stand an individual takes when faced with it
inevitability of death
- the realization that death is an outcome for everyone
- the fear of non-existence can make life seem pointless
isolation
- we are ultimately alone
- everyone experiences feelings of alienation and loneliness
- lacking true connection with others
meaninglessness
- Only certainties in life are
birth and death. - Lack of meaning in life can
create a sense of hopelessness, despair and
emptiness.
freedom and responsibility
We have the freedom and responsibility to make choices to lead a more purposeful life with the limited time that we have.
