4. Learning objectives
1.Define and describe the central
concepts in Humanistic approach
2.Describe the core conditions
used in the client -therapist
relationship
3.Evaluate the strengths and
weaknesses of humanism
5.
6. 1. BACKGROUND TO THE
APPROACH
Carl Rogers was the driving
force
Phenomenology and
existentialism
Third force Psychology
Maslow hierarchy of needs
7. Carl Roger's was the
driving force
1. Rogers based the approach from a
psychological point of view
2. Used the scientific method for
object of measurement
3. Was a reaction against the
psychoanalytic and behaviourism
4. His aim was to study the effect on
the client of directive vs
nondirective behaviour
8. Question: 2 minutes
•What are the characteristics
of directive therapy?
•What are the
characteristics of non-
directive therapy?
9. Phenomenology and
existentialism
1. Philosophical movement that
emphasizes worth of the
individual and the centrality of
human values
2. Human capacity to overcome
hardship & despair
3. The subjective experience of
the person is central
10. Third force Psychology
1. Third force in psychology:
Humanism
2. Main players:
• Maslow-hierarchy of needs
• Allport- the psychology of the
demobbed
• Fritz Perls- Gestalt
psychology
11. The Humanistic Tradition:
The Motive to Self-Actualize
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Needs are hierarchically organized
Needs must be satisfied at the lower levels
before we proceed to satisfy the higher
needs
Lower needs are more powerful and
pressing
12. Maslow’s Theory
“We each have a hierarchy of
needs that ranges from
"lower" to "higher." As lower
needs are fulfilled there is a
tendency for other, higher
needs to emerge.”
13. Maslow’s Theory
Maslow’s theory maintains that a person does
not feel a higher need until the needs of the
current level have been satisfied.
Question: Reflect on how you have met your
own needs at each level. Write these down.
Maslow's basic needs are as follows:
22. Existential-Humanistic Tradition
Gestalt Theory
History: Founded by Fritz Perls
• Believed looking at the whole was more
important than looking at the parts.
• Motivated to perfect a theory as different
from Freud’s as possible.
Basic Tenets
• The Here and Now
• Personal Awareness
• Personal Responsibility
• Unfinished Business
• Becoming more fully alive
23. Gestalt Techniques
• The Here and Now: Everything important
happens in the present.
• Unfinished Business: Things from the past,
haunt us in the present.
• Channels of Resistance: Blocks people use to
prevent themselves from having contact with
others.
• Choices of Language: Client’s aren’t allow to
overgeneralize.
25. 3. ROGERS CORE CONCEPTS
The Actualising
Tendency
Self-concept: Sense of
self
Core conditions for
therapy
26.
27.
28. Video
• 13 elements (4 min)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=WWSm8FLid9c&feature=related
29. the notion of the actualising
tendency
• the tendency to develop more
complex organisations,
• to fulfil potential in being human
• to actualise the self
• Overall described as the formative
tendency: the capacity to grow and
develop.
30. Self-concept
• Innate process by which a person tends
to grow spiritually and realize potential
• Through self-exploration and integrating
various psychic forces to become a
“whole” person
• Feelings, thoughts and behaviours
accepted by significant others are
integrated into the self concept
• Conditions of worth: conditional and
unconditional positive regard
33. Question (3 minutes)
• Briefly reflect on an encounter with
another person where you felt deeply
understood and accepted by that
person.
• List some of the qualities that allowed
for that understanding to occur
• How did acceptance occur?
• How did it make you feel to be so
deeply understood?
34. Core conditions
Based on conditions of worth
1. Congruence - genuineness or realness, in
relationship between therapist & client -being
oneself in the therapeutic relationship with
client
2. Unconditional positive regard- acceptance
and caring, but not approval of all behaviour
3. Accurate empathic understanding –
understanding of client’s frame of reference,
ability to deeply grasp the client’s subjective
world & communicate this back to the client
35. Therapy Relationship
• Based on the actualising
tendency
• The client is the expert on
themselves
• In other words: The Client
Knows Best
• This influences all aspects of
therapy
36. “It is the client who knows
what hurts, what directions
to go, what problems are
crucial, what experiences
have been deeply buried"
Rogers 1961
37. Six conditions necessary and
sufficient for change
1. Two persons are in psychological contact
2. The first, the client, is experiencing incongruency, is
vulnerable and anxious
3. The second person, the therapist, is congruent or
integrated in the relationship
4. The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard
or real caring for the client
5. The therapist experiences empathy for the client’s
internal frame of reference and endeavors to
communicate this to the client
6. The client perceives, to a minimal degree, this
unconditional positive and imperfect understanding by the
therapist.
39. Therapeutic Process
1.The therapist does not attempt to
solve the problem
2.The therapist trusts the actualising
tendency of the client
3.Through a trusting relationship
where they are understood and
accepted, the actualising tendency
motivates the person towards health
40. Therapeutic Process
4. It is a collaborative relationship: the
therapist and client on a therapeutic
journey together
5. The therapist communicates empathy,
Checks understanding with the client, and
in the process discloses a non-judgemental
attitude.
43. Strengths
• The greatest strength has been
attention to the therapeutic relationship
• The relationship is the curative factor in
and of itself
• Diagnostic categories become a
description of dis-ease
• The introduction of concept of the client
rather than patient
44. Weaknesses
• Overly focused on the therapy relationship excludes
other factors that may cause psychological distress
• The theory separates and isolates individual from
society: the individual can heal himself?
• The assumption that disturbances are the result of
individual's personal history rather than their social
context: e.g. Poverty, oppression, racism etc
• "pitfall of reducing the political to the person"
Chantler
• It is dependent upon the ability and talent of
individual practitioner fufilling the core conditions.
There are no techniques or interventions to fall back
on.
46. Positive psychology
• Positive psychology is a recent branch of
psychology whose purpose was summed up
in 2000 by Martin Seligman
• "We believe that a psychology of positive human
functioning will arise that achieves a scientific
understanding and effective interventions to
build thriving in individuals, families, and
communities.“
• Positive psychologists seek "to find and nurture
genius and talent", and "to make normal life
more fulfilling", not simply to treat mental illness
47. 3 Areas of Positive
psychology
1. Pleasant Life, or the "life of enjoyment“:
how people optimally experience positive
feelings and emotions of normal and
healthy living (e.g. relationships, hobbies,
interests, entertainment, etc.).
2. The Good Life, or the "life of engagement“:
the beneficial affects of individuals feel
when optimally engaged with their primary
activities: when there is a positive match
between a person's strength and the task
they are doing
48. 3 Areas of Positive
psychology
3. The Meaningful Life, or "life of affiliation“: individuals
derive a positive sense of well-being, belonging,
meaning, and purpose from being part of and
contributing back to something larger and more
permanent than themselves (e.g. nature, social
groups, organizations, movements, traditions, belief
systems).
50. Readings & Resources
1. McLeod J. (2009) An Introduction to Counselling. Chap 6
2. Corey, G. (2009) Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy.
Chap 7
3. Colledge, R (2002) Mastering Counselling. Chap 5 & 9.
4. Dryden, W ( 2007) Dryden’s Handbook of Individual therapy (5th ed).
Chap 6
5. Cave, S (1999) Therapeutic Approaches in Psychology, chap 6
Advanced Reading
1. Rogers (1961) On Becoming a Person: A therapist’s view of
psychotherapy
2. Kirschenbaum & Hendersonn (1990) The Carl Rogers Reader.
3. Wilkins (2010) Person-centred Therapy: 100 key points
4. Feltham ( 2010) Chap 1 the pros and cons of UPR; chap 24 Limitations of
person centred approach; chap 43 is counselling non directive and value
free?
5.Dryden (2007) chap 6 , 9,
