humanistic theories

Question 1

Client/Person-Centered Therapy
Key Concepts
•Unconditional Positive Regard

Answer 1

–Complete acceptance of the client, a nonjudgmental respect of client and his/her feelings allows clients to feel less anxious about their perceived weaknesses and taking risks.

Question 2

Client/Person-Centered Therapy

Role of the Therapist

Answer 2

–avoid diagnosing. •Therapist is non-directive.
•A facilitator (helper) who sets the stage and believes the client is able to do what is necessary for growth and change, self
-actualization. Client determines goals of therapy.

Question 3

Client/Person-Centered Therapy
Key Concepts
•Locus of Control:

Answer 3

–Through the therapeutic relationship, client is able to take control of their lives rather than follow the direction of others who were previously in control.

Question 4

Client/Person-Centered Therapy
Key Concepts
•Empathy:

Answer 4

–Therapist accurately senses the feelings and personal meanings
the client is experiencing and is able to communicate this understanding to the client

Question 5

Client/Person-Centered Therapy

Treatment Goals

Answer 5

–•Self-acceptance
•Congruence between client’s idealized and actual selves
•Increased self-understanding
•Decreased levels of defensiveness, insecurity, and guilt
•More positive relationships and increased comfort with others
•Increased ability to experience and express feelings in the here and now

Question 6

Client/Person-Centered Therapy
Key Concepts
•Non-Directive Therapy:

Answer 6

–Clients are allowed to lead the discussion.

Question 7

Client/Person-Centered Therapy
Key Concepts
•Congruence:

Answer 7

–Therapist’s genuineness with client, shares his/her feelings
honestly, does not hide behind professional facade—therapist is transparent with feelings, thoughts, and beliefs

Question 8

Client/Person-Centered Therapy

Theory of Change

Answer 8

–Change occurs by creating conditions for the client to grow through the therapeutic relationship with the presence of three essential components: congruence/genuineness, unconditional positive regard, and empathy.

Question 9

Client/Person-Centered Therapy
Key Concepts
•Self-Actualization:

Answer 9

–Innate tendency of all human beings to reach their fullest potential

Question 10

Gestalt

Treatment Goals

Answer 10

–The goal is for clients to become aware of what they are doing, how they are doing it, and how they can change themselves, and at the same time, learn to accept and value themselves.
Each person is a real person

Question 11

Gestalt - Intervention

Empty Chair Technique:

Answer 11

–Used to explore patients’ relationships with themselves or others in their lives. A form of role-playing, the client addresses
an empty chair as if another person was in it in order to act out two or more sides of a discussion.

Question 12

Gestalt - Key Concepts

•Phenomenological Method:

Answer 12

–Exploring experience by description and abstaining from interpretation; example therapist seeing client ear up in session and instead of saying you seem sad you would say I see that you are tearing up.

Question 13

Gestalt - Key Concepts

•Experiential:

Answer 13

Through experiments, the therapist supports the client’s direct experience of something new, instead of merely talking about the possibility of something new.

Question 14

Gestalt Theory of Change

Answer 14

–Change occurs through increased awareness of here-

and-now experience in a dialogic relationship. Both existential and humanistic.

Question 15

Gestalt - Intervention

Experiments:

Answer 15

–Encourages the client to experience a feeling rather than just talk about it. For example Therapist may perform an experiment by having the client repeat something they said with a different posturing or a different tone.
VERY SPECIFIC TO THIS THERAPY

Question 16

Gestalt - Intervention

Body Techniques

Answer 16

–Bring patients’ awareness to their body functioning or help them to be aware of how they can use their bodies to support excitement, awareness. LIKE TO TALK ABOUT WHAT’S GOING IN YOUR BODY DURING A SESSION

Question 17

Gestalt - Key Concepts

•Here-and-Now Focus:

Answer 17

–The past is discussed in terms of how the past affects the present. OPEN TO WHATEVER IS GOING ON IN THE MOMENT OF THERAPY

Question 18

Gestalt – Intervention

Answer 18

–Focuses on the process, what is actually happening, and the content, what is being talked about.

Question 19

Gestalt - Key Concepts

•Dialogical Relationship:

Answer 19

–Therapist’s presence allows for the client to

become fully present.

Question 20

Gestalt

Role of the Therapist

Answer 20

–•The therapist is an authentic, present other
•Non-directive and non-judgmental
•Increase the client’s awareness in the present moment

Question 21

Existential Therapy

Role of the Therapist

Answer 21

– •Provide an encounter with a “real” other
•Presence of the therapist is essential
•Help the client focus on personal
responsibility for making decisions

Question 22

Existential Therapy

Key Concepts

Answer 22

– All persons have the capacity for self-awareness.
•As free beings, everyone must accept the responsibility that comes with freedom.
•Each person has a unique identity that can only be known through relationships with others.
•Each person must continually recreate himself. The meaning of life and of existence is never fixed; rather, it constantly changes.
•Anxiety is part of the human condition.
•Death is a basic human condition that gives significance to life.

Question 23

Existential Therapy

Treatment Goals

Answer 23

– •Client discovers his own life meaning
•Client confronts anxiety inherent in living
•Client experiences agency and responsibility in the construction of their life

Question 24

Existential Therapy

Theory of Change

Answer 24

– Change occurs through finding philosophical meaning in the face of anxiety by choosing to think and act authentically and responsibly. The core question
addressed in existential therapy is “How do I exist?” in the face of uncertainty, conflict, or death.
CONTINUALLY RECREATE YOURSELF

Question 25

Existential Therapy

Interventions

Answer 25

–•Focus on moment-to-moment process than on explicit content
•Holding refers to a process of holding up the problem experience so it may be
seen, remembered, and re-experienced by the client.
•Empathic availability is a committed presence to the “other” and openness to
the pain and potentials of the other even when such openness is difficult and
unpleasant
•Telling, talking about, and naming emotional pain places the emotional
experience and pain into the world of mutual encounter, where
the relationship between client and practitioner can be used to process the
situation under circumstances of increased support

Question 26

Existential Therapy

Interventions

Answer 26

–•Mastering the emotional pain is a process of reflection and behavioral
experimentation that helps a client discover unique healing activities that are
useful in processing and defusing the problem situation
•Honoring the pain refers to the process of celebrating the meaning potentials
and opportunities in the problem situation that the client actualizes and makes
real. GIVE IT RESPECT AS SOMETHING YOU’VE SURVIVED

Question 27

Existential Therapy

Role of the Therapist

Answer 27

– •Provide an encounter with a “real” other
•Presence of the therapist is essential
•Help the client focus on personal
responsibility for making decisions

Question 28

Experiential/Symbolic Therapy - Key Concepts and Interventions
Battle for Structure

Answer 28

– Therapist establishes the rules and working

atmosphere of treatment. THIS THERAPY WOULD Include the need for entire family to be in therapy.

Question 29

Experiential/Symbolic Therapy

Role of the Therapist

Answer 29

– •Authentically being with client

•Playful, creative

Question 30

Experiential/Symbolic Therapy

Activating Constructive Anxiety

Answer 30

– Reframing anxiety as efforts toward competence (fear of failing to accomplish what one is capable of)

Question 31

Experiential/Symbolic Therapy

Battle for Initiative

Answer 31

– Motivation for change must come from family. Includes having family state agenda for each session, waiting silently for family to take initiative, allowing family to determine how change is going to happen

Question 32

Experiential/Symbolic Therapy

Trial of Labor

Answer 32

Understanding the roles, boundaries, beliefs, history and levels of conflict within the family

Question 33

Experiential/Symbolic Therapy

Play, Humor, “Craziness”

Answer 33

– Tapping into the irrational side. Finding solutions in creative interactions

Question 34

Experiential/Symbolic Therapy

Treatment Goals

Answer 34

– The goal is for growth and increased flexibility.

Question 35

Experiential/Symbolic Therapy

Phase of Treatment - End

Answer 35

– Highlight accomplishments and reflect on growth. Identify possible block to future growth. Role play future scenarios. Each member expresses feelings about their experience of therapy.

Question 36

Experiential/Symbolic Therapy

Phase of Treatment - Middle

Answer 36

– Develop sense of cohesion. Create alternative interactions. Highlight inappropriate boundaries. Role play situations. Use play and “craziness”. NOT AS RIGID AS STRUCTURAL THEAPY

Question 37

Experiential/Symbolic Therapy

Phase of Treatment - Beginning

Answer 37

– Engage family as authentic person. Battle for structure. Encourage all members to attend. Family wins battle of initiative. Gather information about
boundaries, coalitions, roles and level of conflict

Question 38

Experiential/Symbolic Therapy

Theory of Change

Answer 38

– Change happens through the existential encounter –
the authentic meeting of the therapist and the client in the present moment and by expanding the client’s range of experience.