Humanisitc psychotherapy and counseling

HUMANISTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSELING1
Counseling in Health Psychology
“Humanistic Psychotherapies and Counseling”
Submitted By
AamnaHaneef
Roll No: 05
MS Health Psychology
Session: 2012 – 2014
Instructor‟s Name
Dr. AminaMuazzam
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‟sDasien 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 &Foglen.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 &Foglen.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
&Foglen.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 &Foglen.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 &Foglen.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 tohimself 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‟.
(PerlsHefferline 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 Reichianorgonomy 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.
AleanderLowen‟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,2005a 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).

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