Some Of The Arguments In Humanistic Psychology
are that human beings cannot be reduced to components, that human beings have a uniquely human context in which their behavior can be observed that consciousness for a human being involves being aware of oneself in the context of other human beings and also the fact that every human being has choices and some responsibilities that they do not desire. Finally, humans are beings who make an effort to find meaning and value and who are also creative . These postulates seem to appear in client-centered therapy, as is shown by some of the activities of the therapist using client-centered therapy.
According to Rogers, the activities of the therapist should occur in certain conditions. These conditions include: the counselor should operate with the knowledge that the client has responsibility for himself or herself and also has the willingness for maintaining that responsibility the client desires to be mature and socially well adjusted and will rely on this to achieve therapeutic change. The counselor should also create a climate where the client feels free to express their feelings and attitudes regardless of how absurd they are.
Benefits Of Client Centered Therapy
Self-concept and reality are sometimes in sync. In other circumstances, self-perceptions are unrealistic or out of touch with reality. While most people distort reality to some degree, incongruence can occur when ones self-concept clashes with reality.
Consider a young woman who considers herself uninteresting and a bad speaker, despite the fact that others find her fascinating and engaging. She may have low self-esteem as a result of her self-perceptions not matching reality.
You can learn to alter your self-concept in order to achieve congruence through the client-centered therapy approach. The client-centered approachs strategies are all aimed at assisting you in developing a more realistic picture of yourself and the environment.
The Importance Of Self
Another key feature of Carl Rogers person centered therapy is the notion of self, also known as the self-concept. Rogers defined this concept as the organized, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs one has about themselves.
The self-concept is important to your total life experience and influences the way you view yourself and the world around you. For instance, if you consider yourself to be smart, you may act in an assertive manner and see your actions as something done by a person whos smart.
However, the self-concept doesnt always match your reality, and you may see yourself a lot differently from the way other people see you. For instance, you might see yourself as uninteresting, while other people find you to be an exciting person to be around. This opinion of yourself may gradually start to reflect in your behavior, and make you develop a low self-esteem.
With person centered therapy, you can receive genuine support that will help you obtain a more positive view of yourself.
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Focus On The Conscience
Person-centered therapy was a major departure from the popular theories of the time, namely psychodynamic and behavior therapy. These therapies focused on human behavior that the client was not consciously aware of. Rogers, on the other hand, thought that people wanted to focus on the aspects of their life that were part of their self-awareness. In other words, the client knows what is bothering them and just needs the appropriate environment to process it.
The Unspoken Positionality Of Positive Psychology
One criticism that I have heard leveled against Rogers’ theory many times is that it is an ideological position. This argument implies however that there is a neutral position that one could take while waiting for that evidence. But as Burr wrote: âNo human can step outside their humanity and view the world from no position at all, and this is just as true of scientists as of everyone else.â All interventions in psychology represent ideological positions and this is one of the lessons to be learned for positive psychology as it moves forward. All forms of psychological practice and policy are grounded in a vision of the human being . But for positive psychology, if not the growth model, what model?
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How Effective Is Client Centered Therapy
Client centered therapy sessions are conducted in a safe and conducive environment. They focus particularly on the present, rather than dwelling solely on the past. This is an effective tool for managing difficult situations, especially traumatic events.
The non-directive nature of client centered therapy encourages clients to be less dependent on the therapist for answers. Instead, they become more self-aware and learn to understand themselves better. Theyre not seen as patients who are sick and in need of a cure, but as clients responsible for finding solutions and making changes in and for themselves.
The practice of client centered therapy has not been without criticism over the years, however. Skeptics of Carl Rogers theory have claimed that the principles of this type of therapy are vague, and have questioned its aversion to diagnosis. The idea of the clients self-evaluation in person centered therapy has also been questioned by critics, who claim that it may not bring favorable outcomes.
Although client centered therapists dont diagnose their clients with specific conditions, its important to note that this approach can still be helpful. Its effectiveness can be seen from its use in outpatient programs for issues such as substance use and eating disorders. Client centered therapy can also be a useful tool for crisis intervention, as it creates a safe and accepting space for clients to get support while dealing with the stress theyre going through.
What Does It Take To Have A Positive Outcome With Client
According to Rogers, client-centered treatment, also known as Rogerian therapy, requires six elements to be successful.
The first three are the previously indicated needed therapist attributes of empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive respect for the client.
The other three are as follows:
- A therapeutic relationship between the client and the therapist.
- A client who is emotionally distressed or in a condition of inconsistency in the outset.
- The client can tell that the counsellor has their best interests at heart and understands their current difficulties.
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Selected Works By Carl Rogers
- Rogers, Carl, and Carmichael, Leonard . The Clinical Treatment of the Problem Child. Boston New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
- Rogers, Carl. . Counseling and Psychotherapy: Newer Concepts in Practice. Boston New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
- Rogers, Carl. . Client-Centered Therapy: Its Current Practice, Implications and Theory. London: Constable.
The Rogerian Approach To Psychotherapy
Rogersâ approach to therapy was a simpler one than the earlier approaches in some ways. Instead of requiring a therapist to dig deep into their patientsâ unconscious mind, an inherently subjective process littered with room for error, he based his approach on the idea that perhaps the clientâs conscious mind was a better focus.
In Rogersâ own words:
âIt is the client who knows what hurts, what directions to go, what problems are crucial, what experiences have been deeply buried. It began to occur to me that unless I had a need to demonstrate my own cleverness and learning, I would do better to rely upon the client for the direction of movement in the process.â
Carl Rogers
This approach marked a significant shift from the distant, hierarchical relationship between psychiatrist and patient of psychoanalysis and other early forms of therapy. No longer was the standard model of therapy one expert and one layman â now, the model included one expert in the theories and techniques of therapy, and one expert in the experience of the client .
Rogers believed that every individual was unique and that a one-size-fits-all process would not, in fact, fit all . Instead of considering the clientâs own thoughts, wishes, and beliefs as secondary to the therapeutic process, Rogers saw the clientâs own experience as the most vital factor in the process.
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Specific Therapist Characteristics For Person
The therapeutic alliance is a particularly important aspect of client-centered therapy, so youll want to keep an eye out for the key client-centered characteristics in your prospective therapists:
- Empathy: the therapist understands how you feel and think and is able to show you this by accurately summarizing your thoughts back to you without judgment.
- Unconditional positive regard: the therapist shows you warmth and helps you to feel worthwhile and valued.
- Congruence: the therapist is genuine and honest about what they are thinking and feeling.
How Does Client Centered Therapy Work
Client centered therapy requires the therapist to focus on the clients needs. Rather than giving an in-depth analysis of the clients difficulties or blaming the clients present thoughts and behaviors on past experiences, the person-centered therapist listens to the client and provides a conducive environment for them to make decisions independently. It also means that the person-centered therapist avoids judging the client for any reason, and accepts them fully. This lack of judgment is a quality known in this field as unconditional positive regard.
The practice of client centered therapy requires the person-centered counseling therapist to understand how the world works from the clients point of view. Therefore, they may ask questions for clarification when in doubt about something their client shared.
According to the client centered theory, a negative and indirect approach makes a client more conscious of those parts of themselves that they were previously in denial about. When the therapist responds to the clients feelings and brings a level of empathy to each therapy session, it brings those parts into focus, but when theres little or no intrusion, the client is free to make decisions independently without making the therapist the center of their thoughts and feelings.
Therapists who practice Carl Rogers person centered therapy should exhibit three essential qualities: genuineness, unconditional positive regard, and empathetic understanding.
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What Is Person Centered Therapy
For some people, an ideal therapeutic approach doesnt necessarily mean consulting a professional, answering questions thatll help them determine whats wrong, and listening to another person advise them on how to work through their struggles. The therapeutic process can also involve a more humanistic approach, where your therapist merely guides your journey of self-discovery and supports you in finding the answers youve been seeking. After all, youre the expert on your own life.
This type of psychotherapy is known as client-centered therapy, and it focuses on maximizing your ability to find your own solutions with the right amount of support. If you are looking for an effective humanistic therapy method to help support your mental health, this type of person-centered approach is an excellent place to start.
Core Conditions For Therapeutic Change
The person-centered counseling approach was established in the 1940s by humanistic psychologist, Carl Rogers. The goal of a person-centered therapy is to create the necessary conditions for clients to engage in meaningful self-exploration of their feelings, beliefs, behavior, and worldview, and to assist clients in their growth process, enabling them to cope with current and future problems.
A major concept of this approach is that people are generally trustworthy, resourceful, capable of self-understanding and self-direction, able to make constructive changes, and able to live effective and productive lives. Another key concept is that the attitudes and characteristics of the therapist, and the quality of the client-therapist relationship are prime determinants of the outcome of the therapeutic process.
Rogers maintains that therapists must have three attributes to create a growth-promoting climate in which individuals can move forward and become capable of becoming their true self: congruence , unconditional positive regard , and accurate empathic understanding .
2. UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD and ACCEPTANCEUnconditional positive regard means the therapist genuinely cares for their clients and does not evaluate or judge their thoughts, feelings, or behaviors as good or bad. Each client is accepted and valued for who they are, as they are, without stipulation. Clients need not fear judgment or rejection from the therapist.
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The Development Of The Self In Childhood
- As infants gradually develop a more complex experiential field from widening social encounters, one part of their experience becomes differentiated from the rest.
- This separate part, defined by the words I, me, and myself, is the self or self-concept.
- However, the formation of the self-concept involves distinguishingwhat is directly and immediately a part of the self from the people, objects, and events that are external to the self.
- The self- concept is also our image of what we are, what we should be, and what we would like to be.
- For example, people who are disturbed about having aggressive feelings and choose to deny them dare not express any obvious aggressive behaviors. To do so would mean taking responsibility for actions that are inconsistent with their self-concept, because they believe they should not be aggressive.
The 6 Factors For Growth In Person
Rogers identifies six specific factors that must be present within an individual so that growth stimulation may occur. If the factors can be met, then the individual will work toward achieving their full potential.
1. Psychological Contact. There must be a relationship that develops between a therapist and a client. Without this relationship, the chance to achieve a positive personal change is greatly diminished.
2. Client Vulnerability. There must be a difference between the self-image that a client has of themselves and what their actual experiences happen to be. That gap between perception and reality must leave the client with anxiety or fear. There does not need to be a personal awareness of this vulnerability, but it does need to be present.
3. Therapist Genuineness. The therapist must be authentic for change to occur. That doesnt mean that a therapist must be perfect 100% of the time. To promote self-awareness in others, a therapist must be self-aware when building relationships with clients. If a therapist is unwilling to be true to themselves, then it is nearly impossible to help someone else create change.
4. Therapist Positive Regard. A client may have a wide variety of experiences that are affecting them. The therapist must accept what has been offered to them without judgement, either positive or negative. Any judgment offered by a therapist can make a client hesitate to share future experiences because it can create a fear of being judged.
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The Hidden Politics Of Positive Psychology
If we reflect on one reason for the demise of humanistic psychology being its clash with conservative ideologies , I believe we also learn about the success of positive psychology. One of the features of the conservative ideology is its focus on individualism, and it is a focus on individualism that has led to the rise of a culture in which positive psychology research has been used to promote mindfulness in school children, to deal with the stressors of failing educational systems, resilience training in workers to help them cope with punitive workloads, and well-being applications to help people manage the stresses of economic insecurity . The person-centered psychologist would see the challenges in such situations to be how to create more growth promoting climates in schools, and workplaces, and in everyday life, how to build more empathic, genuine, and unconditional relationships in which people can be autonomous and free from coercion and control, and thus able to express themselves in a more socially constructive way. This too could be the research agenda for positive psychology if it took seriously a model of growth as its paradigm.
What Three Features Are Central To Carl Rogers’s Client Centered Therapy
4.9/5centered counselingCarl Rogers3 Core Conditions for Therapeutic Change
- UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD and ACCEPTANCE.
- ACCURATE EMPATHIC UNDERSTANDING.
Client–centered therapy operates according to three basic principles that reflect the attitude of the therapist to the client: The therapist is congruent with the client. The therapist provides the client with unconditional positive regard. The therapist shows empathetic understanding to the client.
Also Know, what is the main goal of person centered therapy? In person–centered therapy, the focus is on the person, not the problem. The goal is for the client to achieve greater independence. This will allow the client to better cope with any current and future problems they may face.
Thereof, what is the client centered approach?
Definition. Client–centered therapy, which is also known as person-centered, non-directive, or Rogerian therapy, is a counseling approach that requires the client to take an active role in his or her treatment with the therapist being nondirective and supportive.
What is client centered therapy used to treat?
One effective therapy used to fight eating disorders in eating disorder residential programs and depression in depression treatment facilities is called client centered therapy.
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Positive Psychology In The Context Of Humanistic Psychology
Positive psychology was formally launched by Martin Seligman in his 1998 presidential address to the American Psychological Association , and in the special issue of the American Psychologist dedicated to the topic that soon followed . Seligman later said how the idea of positive psychology came to him following a moment of epiphany when gardening with his daughter, Nikki, who was then aged five, when she instructed him not to be such a grouch. âIn that moment, I acquired the mission of helping to build the scientific infrastructure of a field that would investigate what makes life worth living: positive emotion, positive character and positive institutions.â . But while such thinking was a refreshing change for many, these were not new ideas. The idea of focusing on the positive was an idea that was always core to humanistic psychology.
âTwo main branches of psychology â behaviorism and psychoanalysis- appear to have made great contributions to human knowledge, but neither singly nor together have they covered the almost limitless scope of human behavior, relationships, and possibilities. Perhaps their greatest limitation has been the inadequacy of their approach to positive human potentialities and the maximal realization of those potentialitiesâ .