2. Pioneers and Introduction
• Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow
• The humanistic approach to understanding
people stood in opposition to the biologically
based, id-dominated, Freudian view that
prevailed at the time.
• Other names: Non directive, person-centred,
client-centred
3. Humanism
• Carl Rogers was a leading figure
– Abraham Maslow was another
• Humanism was a reaction against Freud’s
approach
• Assumed that human nature wasn’t so bad
(e.g., id-driven)
• Overlapping terms for humanism include
“nondirective,” “client-centered,” and
“person-centered”
4. Self - Actualisation
• Both Rogers and Maslow believed that every
person has an innate tendency to realise their
full potential, or self-actualise.
• This may be achieved in different ways by
different people. Some may achieve it through
religious devotion, others through cooking,
and others through writing poetry.
6. • As each need is satisfied, the person may go
up the hierarchy and attempt to satisfy the
next need. People who suffer extreme
poverty or privation may spend all their time
trying to satisfy the basic physiological and
safety needs, and may never achieve the
higher needs.
7. Hierarchy explained
• The first four needs are deficiency needs
(trying to make or achieve what is essential to
live), while the fifth need, self-actualisation, is
a growth need.
• Maslow said there are 3 main preconditions
for a person to be able to self actualise:
8. • No restraints imposed by others on what you
can do;
• Little or no distraction from deficiency
needs;
• An ability to know yourself very well.
9. Key characteristics of people who self-
actualise (Maslow 1970)
• Accurate perceptions of the world;
• Acceptance of other people;
• Creative;
• Good sense of humour;
• Detached and needing privacy.
10. • Maslow described the experience of self-
actualisation as having a ‘peak experience’.
• Some may regard self-actualisation as a
deeply religious experience or mythical
experience that is of great significance in
their life.
• Moments of self-actualisation do not often
occur in life and some people may never
achieve this.
11. Humanistic Concepts:
Clinical Implications
• People have an inborn tendency toward self-
actualization
• People also have a need for positive regard—
warmth, acceptance, “prizing”
• Sometimes, people are forced to sacrifice self-
actualization in order to obtain positive regard
from important others (e.g., parents)
12. Goal of Humanistic
Psychotherapy
• Primary goal of humanistic psychotherapy is to
foster self-actualization
• Problems stem from stifled self-actualization
or growth
• Therapist’s task is to create a climate in which
the client can resume their natural growth
toward psychological wellness
13. Goal of Humanistic Therapy
(cont.)
• In humanistic therapy, there are no conditions of
worth on the client
– Clients’ real selves can match their ideal selves
– This match is known as congruence, and is the
root of psychological wellness
– Mismatch between real and ideal selves is known
as incongruence, and is the root of
psychopathology
14. Three Essential Therapeutic
Conditions
• Empathy
– The therapist is able to sense the client’s emotions
just as the client would
– A deep, nonjudgmental, compassionate
understanding of the client’s experiences
• Unconditional Positive Regard
– Accepting or “prizing” the client “no matter what”
and without judgment
• Genuineness
– Honesty toward client, rather than playing a role
15. Necessary and Sufficient?
• Rogers boldly argued that empathy,
unconditional positive regard, and
genuineness were necessary and sufficient for
successful therapy with any client
– No other techniques needed for anyone
• A controversial claim
• Research is inconsistent; generally supports
necessary, but not sufficient
16. Therapist Attitudes, Not
Behaviors
• Rogers emphasized that empathy,
unconditional positive regard, and
genuineness are attitudes, not specific
behaviors
• Therapy should not be mechanical or
formulaic
– Attitudes, not specific techniques or skills, should
be emphasized
17. Reflection: An Important
Therapist Response
• Reflection of feeling is one therapist response
that humanists do emphasize
• Reflection takes place when a therapist
responds to a client by rephrasing or restating
the client’s statements in a way that highlights
the client’s feelings or emotions
• Communicates all three key ingredients
• Should be done with humility and not
mechanically
18. Alternatives to Humanism
• Historical alternatives
–Existential psychotherapy
• Rollo May, Victor Frankl, Irvin Yalom
• Address anxiety of inescapable solitude of life
–Gestalt therapy
• Fritz Perls
• Holistic approach to enhancing current
experience (“the now”); often uses role-plays
19. Motivational Interviewing
• Contemporary variation of humanistic therapy
• William Miller—leading figure
• Address clients’ ambivalence or uncertainty about
making major changes
• Help clients see the discrepancy between their
behavior and their own values
• Elicit motivation to change from client; don’t impose
it on client
• Much empirical data supporting its efficacy with
many problems
• Consistent with positive psychology movement
20. Motivational Interviewing
(cont.)
• Central principles of MI
–Expressing empathy
–Developing the discrepancy
–Avoiding argumentation
–Rolling with resistance
–Identifying “sustain talk” and “change talk”
–Supporting self-efficacy
21. Positive Interventions and
Strength-Based Counseling
• Positive psychology
–Emerged in 1990s
–Martin Seligman
–Emphasizes human strengths
–Bolster strengths to prevent and treat
psychological problems
–Therapies: positive interventions, strength-
based counseling
22. Other Contemporary
Alternatives
• How Clients Make Therapy Work: The
Process of Active Self-Healing
• Therapist’s role is a collaborator
• Goes against symptom-focused,
manualized approaches to therapy
23. How Well Does Humanism Work?
• Carl Rogers was a pioneer of psychotherapy outcome
research, despite inherent problems in defining and
measuring humanistic concepts
• However, in more recent years humanistic outcome
research has decreased
• Recent meta-analyses suggest it is beneficial, at
about the same rate as most other major therapies
• Extent to which empathy, positive regard, and
genuineness are present correlates significantly with
success of therapeutic relationship and ultimately
the therapy
Editor's Notes
A recent survey of over 2400 psychotherapists found that Carl Rogers was the single most prominent figure in terms of influence on the way they practiced psychotherapy (Cook, Biyanova, & Coyne, 2009).
Plant metaphor: Picture a small plant growing from the soil. Assume that the plant has an innate tendency to grow, given the proper environment. Assume that the plant’s growth depends on sunlight. Assume that if sunlight is only available from certain directions, the plant will bend toward the sunlight—it will not grow straight and tall. People are like the plant; they naturally want to “grow” or self-actualize. Positive regard is the “sunlight” for people. If positive regard is unconditional—it shines on them from all directions—the person will naturally grow to meet his potential. When sunlight shines from only some directions—conditional positive regard—the person may develop psychopathology because not all aspects of the person are being prized.
Self-actualization: inborn tendency to grow
Real self: the self the person actually is
Ideal self: the self the person could be if he fulfilled his own potential
Existential psychotherapy centers on the premise that each person is essentially alone in the world and that realization of this fact can overwhelm us with anxiety. This anxiety may take a number of forms and is the root of all psychopathology. Existential therapists place great emphasis on clients’ abilities to overcome meaninglessness by creating their own meaning through the decisions they make.
Gestalt therapy emphasizes a holistic approach to enhancing the client’s experience. This experience includes both mental and physical perceptions, and Gestalt therapists attend to both these aspects of client communication. In practice, Gestalt therapists encourage clients to reach their full potential, often through the use of role-play techniques.
The central principles of MI reveal its humanistic roots. It has been found to improve substance-related disorders, gambling, smoking, weight-loss efforts, anxiety disorders, depression, violence toward intimate partners, cholesterol levels, and blood pressure.
Expressing empathy: take clients’ points of view and honoring their feelings about their experiences
Developing the discrepancy: highlight how client’s behavior is inconsistent with his goals or values
Avoiding argumentation: do not directly confront clients, even if clients are engaging in self-destructive behaviors
Rolling with resistance: when clients express hesitancy to change, accept and reflect it rather than battle against it
Identifying “sustain talk” and “change talk”: sustain talk includes statements in favor of continuing the problem behavior; change talk inlcludes statements clients make in favor of changing the problem behavior
Supporting self-efficacy: make efforts to communicate to clients that they have the power to improve themselves
Positive psychology is a broad-based approach that emphasizes human strengths rather than pathology and the cultivation of happiness in addition to the reduction of symptoms in psychotherapy. It acknowledges the inherent potential of individuals to develop and maintain positive attributes based on such assets as hope, wisdom, creativity, courage, autonomy, optimism, responsibility, and growth. Moreover, it suggests that bolstering these strengths is an often overlooked way of preventing psychological problems such as depression and anxiety or improving the lives of those who already experience them.
Bohart and Tallman believe that therapists should mobilize clients to help themselves, rather than paternalistically presuming they cannot and applying prescribed techniques to them.
Research has shown that the extent to which empathy, positive regard, and genuineness are present correlates significantly with the success of the therapeutic relationship and ultimately the therapy itself.
Even if a therapists doesn’t identify as a humanist, he should consider empathy, positive regard, and genuineness as empirically supported components of therapy along with any technique he may also choose to incorporate.
