Humanistic ApproachPerson Centered, Gestalt &

Existential

ByAbhijit Pathak

R2014SWMH004

Humanistic Approach

Abraham Maslow (1943) proposed this theory on human motivation.

Concept • To optimize a person’s performance by

making him realize his inner instinct.• A person should focus on inner drives which

could lead to self actualization or full capacity of a person.

• “THIRD” force in psychology stresses on achieving needs which are hierarchical which leads to self actualization or true meaning of existence in this world.

Assumptions-• Human being best serve for themselves

when all body parts work equally together.• Human beings have significant position in

this universe.• Human beings are conscious to

themselves and to others.• Human beings full fill their desire through

their choices of work and with responsibility.

• Human beings are farsighted, they plan for their future decides their course of action through introspection and add values to it.

Carl Rogers , pioneer in bringing humanistic approach in counselling.

Humanistic Approach in counselling

• Carl Rogers introduced this approach to counseling in 1940.

• He coined the term creativity and self capability which lead to self development.

• Holistic concept, helps the individual to realize his potential and capability by connecting him with inner conscience.

• Philosophical in nature.• Phenomenological approach , focuses on individual

subjectivity of perceiving objective world.• Counselor takes a passive role guides him to find

solution to his problem.

Continued..• Unleashes the potential of human by

eliminating attitudes, behaviour and beliefs which promotes negative feelings.

• Developed from the ideas of Buddhism, Socrates Teaching and Renaissances.

• Effective in dealing with family issues, social issues, depression, anxiety, and substance abuse.

Criticism• Lack Scientific Rationalization and it is

more philosophy oriented.• Holistic concept lack intense study on

numerous variable thus, lack empirical evidence.

• It may not be applicable across different cultures.

• Sidelined the society role in shaping the personality of the person.

Client or Person Centered Approach

• The man is the maker of his own destiny by resolving the issue by help of inner sources to live in this objective world.

• Counselor passive role reflect the thoughts which gives clue to the inner sources.

• Person’s subjective understanding of the event.

• No standardized therapeutic process.

Principle followed by client centered approach

• Relationship between the client and the patient should rest on high degree of respect, equality and authenticity.

• An approach in which a person observe each passing events and the factors causing troubles so that he could mold or change to have desired results.

The emergence of Client Centered• The new concept in psychotherapy was introduced

by Carl Rogers in the 1940 for the first time and in front of the pupils of the University of Minnesota. (Barrett- Lennard 1979).

• Rogers was the first person who tried to do the research on the efficacy of directive and non directive approach of therapist by inclusion of transcriptions and recordings of the therapy sessions.

• World War 2 put immense pressure on psychoanalysis and behavioral therapies thus person centered took the leading role.

Continued…• The naming of Client-centered therapy

was coined due to shift in focus from therapist behaviour to the experiencing of the clients. The internalization process of helping the client to frame self concept of them push the naming of this therapy to client centered.

• Focuses on therapeutic relationship and rise of “core condition model”.

• Project of Wisconsin helped in proving core condition model to effective augmented therapy for schizophrenia.

Key Issues• In congruency.• Condition of worth.• Concept of full functioning person- “he is able to

experience all of his feelings, and is afraid of none of his feelings. He is own sitter of evidence, but is open to evidence from all sources, he is completely engaged in the process of being and becoming himself, and thus discovers that he is soundly and realistically social; he lives completely in this moment, but learns that this is the soundest living for all time. He is fully functioning organism, and because of the awareness of himself which flows freely in and through his experiences, he is fully functioning person”. (Carl Roger,1963:22)

Over ruling Psychodynamic and Behavioral Therapy

• There is no hierarchy of doctor and patient.• Attributes like equality, respect, empathy and

authenticity play a key role.• Patient word is replaced as “client”.• Focus on attitudinal change rather than behavioral

change.• Quality of therapeutic relationship matters the most. • Techniques used listening, accepting, understanding

and sharing.• Client comes with in congruency goes with congruency

realizes the objective world with his subjective knowledge.

The Core Condition Model• Unconditional Positive Regard-

Accept the client as it is. Gives affection and care. Show Positive attitude towards client.

• Empathy- counselor should remain sensitive to the emotion of the client and understand it.

Empathy Cycle ModelEmpathetic set by the counselor

Empathetic Resonation

Expressed Empathy

Received Empathy

Cycle Continues

Barrett and Lennard , 1981

Congruence• Authenticity, Real Person.• Significance lies in the fact that –• It helps to build Rapport.• When counselor admits his own

vulnerability and uncertainty, clients opens up and put up his misery.

• Congruent person has natural tone, speech and gesture which increases the efficacy of therapy.

• Leads to healthy therapeutic relationship.

Experimental Focusing

Experimental Focusing• Concept of “felt sense” an unsolved

puzzle.• Emotions are pieces.• When this pieces fits appropriately

person is able to realize and relate meaning to that event in which he felt such emotion thus he gets clear for those felt emotions.

Further development

• Pluralistic Self – there are two self “ideal self” and “real self” which has different facets, equilibrium is required between the two . These two aspects shapes personality of a person. Disequilibrium may lead to barrier in growth.

Real SelfIdeal

Self

Continued…• Relational Depth – Unsolved answer , what

would be the quality of therapeutic relationship.• Peter Schmid (2001, 2007a & 20007b) brings the

concept of “We” which is still under consideration.• Concept of Difficult Process- A. Fragile Process- A person will unable to

remember the problematic thoughts.B. Dissociated Process- Shifting the conversation

from one topic to another thus, making it meaningless. Strategy to skip those emotions which are painful.

Can the Client Centered Be Merged

• Few therapist reject the idea like Mearns and Thorne reject the idea of mergence. Rogers et al advocates the person centered with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

• Various Therapist have merged this approach with Play Therapy, Psychodrama etc. But core idea of humanistic approach get undermined by other approaches.

Gestalt Therapy

Founder- Fritz PearlsEstablished Therapy

in 1950.The idea comprises of

behavioral and psychoanalysis, the

Philosophical views of humanistic approach ,

the instincts ofExperimental and

Existential Therapy.

Gestalt Therapy

Laura Pearls is the co founder

of Gestalt Therapy

amalgamated dance and

drama in this therapeutically

approach.

The Evolution of Gestalt Therapy• Both Couple were psychoanalyst they laid attention

that people concept of self is truly unconscious and should be bought under the consciousness or awareness. They differ from psychoanalytic concept of unconscious from the fact that they widely concerned about unnoticed current events that people experience without noticing but psychoanalysis deal with the complexities that unconscious have made in any of the developmental stages through which a person goes.

• Gestalt means “pattern” in German and therapy has been developed from Gestalt psychology.

Continued…• It based on ‘Zeigarnik effect’ means to have

better memories of unfinished business rather than finished or completed tasks.

• Gestalt therapy emphasis the inter relation among all the things, the concept that human mind constructs meaning from any information available and sensitivity to the significance of boundaries, edges and points of contact between regions of experience.

The Theoretical Framework• The core idea talks about bring the client back

to experience the current happening or awareness of the surroundings by removing the blockades caused by unfinished business.

• The Fritz concern was to explore current awareness and facilitates the client to express those hidden feelings rather than coming up with new theoretical model.

• They are more focusing on the Dialogical approach which aware the client about how they are doing and what they are doing.

Techniques used

Two Chair Work

Two chair work means there will

be an empty chair in front of the person he will

assume that he is sitting on the

other and try to explore all

turbulent thoughts he will verbalize those thoughts , therapist will be observing the

expression thus, person will be able to know

about his present feelings, emotions and experience.

Strategies for facilitating awareness and change

• Self Concept – Varied emotional experiences with the other when they meet at the boundaries they are-

Concept of confluence which makes the boundary dusky where the person doesn’t identify the separation or distinction between self and other.

Isolation makes the boundary impermeable leading to loss of contact.

Retroflection means creating an internal boundaries by a person who want to do to other is now doing to self , what he was expecting others to do for him he is doing for self (Yontef 1995).

Introjections means a process where the thoughts, emotions of action from another person are grasped totally by the person.

Projection means thoughts; emotions of self are transferred to others.

Deflection means avoiding the other person.

Continued…• Embodiment where the client express of his current

state by his body movement, through voice, movement of body parts etc.

• The notion of Polarities, in this comes the famous technique of two chair work where the person is made aware of his self with other part of the self by asking the client to change the chair position and engage in dialogue kind of process.

• The promotion of authentic feeling which a person has denied early by asking them to express themselves in the first person. This promotes the sense of owning such experience.

Research on Gestalt Therapy

• There is no clear evidence on the efficacy of gestalt therapy as a whole package.

• Gestalt is effective with other therapies like (Beutler et al. 1991) has tried to find out the effectiveness of differing therapies with people having different coping styles and he found that Gestalt and Experimental therapy were quite competent for clients who have different coping style.

Existential Therapy

Soren Keirkegard Jean Paul Sartre Martin Heidegger

Existential Therapy • It is method of introspection and

identifying the emotional themes and then clustering it accordingly.

• The daily problems are centered to human life and are existential in nature and basically hurdles the personality growth of the individual.

Existential Theme • Developed by Soren Kierkegaard ,

Jean Paul Sartre , Martin Heidegger. They have observed the kinship, marriage and other societal elements and how this elements went superficial in the 21st century and why society lacks introspection and awareness of those feelings and how these feelings are necessary to be put under themes.

Continued…• Being alone/Being with others:

autonomy and relatedness.• Living in time• Agency.• Bodily Experience.• Truth and authenticity.

Ontological Insecurity • Developed by R.D. Laing.• an ontological person is that person who

will dare to face all the hazards of life related physical, social psychological, biological, emotional etc. In other words he will make his own identity and able to construct his sense of reality whereas the insecure will fail to establish sense of reality and identity.

The three ways of expressing insecurity

• Engulfment- In this person fears to enter into any relationship due to the fear of identity being covered by the relationship’s dominance.

• Implosion- A sense of complete emptiness.

• Petrification & Depersonalization- Here the person loses his instinct of right and wrong obeys as robot or turned into a living stone.

Core Idea • The core idea behind this theory is that a person

lies in the time frame and he should be able to live more freely when he accepts the ultimate reality i.e. death which could help in experiencing every moment in the timeline.

• The second most important idea of expression of emotion through body sign such as expression through face, gesture, body movements etc.

• The third idea which says that anxiety is not a psychiatric disorder or discomfort but the intense concern for the significant other and the world.

Goal of the TherapyAccording to Van Deurzen(1990:157) • To enable people to accept truth

about themselves.• To expand their perception on

themselves and the world around them.

• To make him live with the present, settle with the past and make him optimistic about the future.

Method of exploration of situationSpinelli (1989,1994) she says that method as three basic rules –• The rule of bracketing- where it has been asked

to keep aside the preoccupation on any event and should be put ears on the verbal of person who experienced.

• The rule of description- It is better to elaborate heard experiencing than relating it to a theory.

• The rule of horizontalization- Here it is being asked to the therapist to listen all the things and should avoid judging those experience and should state significance to any part in the end.

Yalom Missing Ingrediants• A therapist needs compassion, caring,

extending oneself and wisdom to deal with-• To accept the universal truth called Death.• The boundaries of freedom until and unless

hampers others by our own action.• The idea of accepting loneliness that a

person has came alone and will go alone.• What is the meaning of life despite having

the pre concepts and truth about the world?

ConclusionHumanistic approaches whether it is a “person centered approach”,

“gestalt therapy” or existential therapy” they all have one thing in common that is to work on inner sense or to make a person more aware of his self either by realizing him with the existential theme or by asking him to act in the presence or guiding him in becoming the “complete person” through self actualization, thus it has helped the client to be more practical and close to the person for fully scanning of the turbulent agendas which has obstructed him to realize his full functioning counselor avoids the objective knowledge, hierarchical structure and discloses his true self which concretes the counselling process and realizes the client to accept the counselor as true friend.