Existential / Humanistic Therapies Flashcards
Client-Centered Therapy
Carl Rogers – based on notion that we all have a self-actualizing tendency, or capacity for natural growth, constructive change, and self-understanding, that guides and motivates us
Self needs to be organized, unified, and whole for it to occur otherwise there is incongruence – conflict btwn self-concept and person’s experience (incongruencies lead to maladjustment, anxiety, threat, and disorganization)
Goals of therapy is to decrease incongruence btwn real self and ideal self and realize the capacity for self-actualization
Process of therapy – 3 facilitative conditions that helps client respond constructively and reach self-actualization: 1. Accurate empathic understanding (therapist views world the same), 2. Unconditional positive regard (therapist truly cares about the client, accepting w/o judgment), 3. Congruence/genuineness (genuine, honest, and consistent btwn words and actions)
Attempts to put focus on client’s interpersonal skills thus views dx and assmnt too rigid bc attn is paid to a specific disorder and not to the person in general. DON”T LIKE TO GIVE DIAGNOSIS
Existential Therapy
Personality is an outgrowth of the struggle btwn the individual and the “ultimate concerns” of existence (death, isolation, meaningfulness)
Theory of pathology – normal anxiety (“existential anxiety”) vs. neurotic anxiety.
Normal anxiety – proportionate to its cause, doesn’t require repression and can be used constructively.
Neurotic anxiety – result of not facing normal or existential anxiety, manifests as a loss of a subjective sense of free will and disability to take responsibility for one’s own life.
Goal of therapy – eliminate neurotic anxiety and help pt tolerate unavoidable existential anxiety of living
Techniques – identifying instances when avoid the responsibility of own life, helping pt consider options and make decisions, and pointing out how grief reactions and sadness about life milestones are related to underlying fears of isolation and death
Strive toward honest, open, and egalitarian relationship with pts
Logotherapy - Victor Frankl – primary motivational force in humans is the search for a meaning in life
life has meaning under all circumstances
main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life
we have freedom to find meaning in what we do, and what we experience
These three tenants are the cornerstones of existential analysis – analytical therapeutic process involved in addressing an individual spiritual and existential needs
Gestalt Therapy
Fritz Perls – focuses on the here and now, based on idea each person is capable of assuming responsibility and living fully as a whole, integrated person
Figure-ground – figure = what a person is paying attention to and ground = what a person is not noticing
Personality = consist of the “self” and the “self-image.” Self promotes actualization, growth, and awareness. Self-image imposes external stds on the self and impairs self-actualization and growth
A person’s interaction with the environment determines which part exerts the most control
Contact - interacting with nature and others without losing one’s individuality
Boundary disturbances – or resistances to contact, are defenses that one develops as a self-protective attempt to avoid the anxiety necessitated by change and prevents full experiencing of the present.
Types of defenses (more controlled by the self-image and less by the self):
Introjection – uncritically absorbing info without actually understanding or assimilating it
Projection – attribute one’s own unacceptable thgs, feelings, or bxs to someone else
Retroflection – chief mechanism underlying isolation, person does to himself what he wants to do to others
Deflection – avoidance of contact and/or awareness by being vague, indirect or overly polite
Confluence – too permeable of a boundary btwn self and environment, self is merged into beliefs, attitudes, and feelings of others
Isolation – boundary btwn self and environment completely lost
Defenses only pathological when they exist outside a person’s awareness. People fluctuate btwn connecting with and separating from the environment at appropriate times
Theory of pathology – awareness key, fully aware person can interpret the present situation and appropriately self-regulate the boundaries btwn self and environment
Goal – awareness of environment, the self, and the nature of the self-environment boundary
Encourages client to focus on the present reality
Instead of transference, therapist treats it as a fantasy getting in the way of the true self-awareness
Techniques – I-statements, dream analysis, and the empty chair tech
Reality Therapy
Glasser – based on choice theory – emphasizes personal responsibility and balance of 5 basic needs:
survival
to love and belong
power
freedom
fun
success identity – when individual can meet needs responsibly
failure identity – person meets needs in an irresponsible manner
in therapy, change occurs when failure identity is replaced by success identity
techniques – role-play, use of humor, confronting the client, and helping client formulate plans, as well as WDEP system (a questioning framework)
w = exploring clients wants and perceptions
d = direction or what client is doing to get what he wants
e = evaluate whether clients bx is getting him close or further from goal
p = planning or creating and implementing a workable plan to make positive change
SWF program for schools
Transactional Analysis
Eric Berne – model of people and relationships that is based on two notions: 1. We have functional ‘ego-states’ to our personality and 2. These internal models converse with one another in ‘transactions’ in our relationships as well as with ourselves internally
Ego states = 3 distinct ego states that people function within -> child, parent, and adult
Strokes = unit of interpersonal contact or recognition that takes place btwn ego states at 2 levels (social and covert), can be positive or negative
Scripts = person’s life plan, develops early thru interactions with parents and others, reflect person’s pattern of strokes
Life positions = view a person as of one self in relation to other people around him, primarily a result of experiences with parents during childhood
Transactions = communication exchanges btwn people – complementary, crossed and ulterior (basis of games)
Games = orderly series of ulterior transactions that is repeated over time and results in specific bad feelings for both players
Goal of therapy – alter maladaptive life positions and life scripts and to integrate the three ego states
