PSY2016 L2 Humanistic Theories - PCT

PSY2016
Counselling & Psychological Therapies
Humanistic Theories & Therapies

PSY2016 Counselling and Psychological Therapies
Outline
A Selective Overview of Humanistic Theory
& Therapy:
– Basic Humanistic Concepts
– Person Centered Counselling/Therapy
– Motivational Interviewing
Humanistic Psychology
• Focus on Phenomenology: Humans are aware, and
also of being aware;
• Believe in Free Will: Humans have some choice and

therefore responsibility;
• Believe meaning is important: Humans are

intentional and goal-oriented. They are aware that
they cause future events and seek meaning, value &
creativity;
Humanistic Psychology
• Emphasise the uniqueness of each individual:

Humans supersede the sum of their parts, they can
not be reduced to isolated elements.
Humanistic Therapies
Humanistic Therapies:
• Person-Centred
• Gestalt
• Emotion-Focused Therapy
Humanistic Therapies
Also drawing on humanistic theory or practice:
• Transactional Analysis
• Some forms of Existential Therapy
• Motivational Interviewing
Person-Centered Therapy
• A reaction against medical, directive (e.g. CBT)
and psychoanalytic approaches
• Challenges:
– The assumption that “the counsellor knows

best”. Client is the “expert”.
– The validity of advice, suggestion, persuasion,

teaching, diagnosis, and interpretation
– The belief that clients cannot understand and

resolve their own problems without direct help
– The focus on problems over persons

Actualisation & “Self” Wisdom
• Actualising Tendency is present in all humans
– If facilitative conditions are present, then

people make decisions and employ
resources to function at their highest
possible level (or at least move in that
direction).
Actualisation & “Self” Wisdom
– Organismic Valuing Process – inherent

wisdom to make these decisions. This
required insight into the ‘real’ or actual self.
Person-Centered Theory
• People are basically good and will actualise
in the absence of external interference.
• Society leads people astray from actualising

tendencies by offering conditional positive
regard.
• People are experts about themselves. As a

result, therapy is generally insight-oriented
and nondirective.
PSY2016
PCT: Psychological Problems
• Related to degree of conditionality

– The extent to which others make their approval
conditional
• Distortion leads to INCONGRUENCE

– Discrepancy in Self vs. Experience
PSY2016
PCT: Psychological Problems
• Leads person to be more “fractured” than whole

and distorts what people see as a worthy avenue
of actualisation;
• ‘Symptoms’ manifest as people attempt to

prevent threatening experiences coming into
awareness
• Emphasises:
– Therapy as a journey shared by two fallible

people;
– The person’s innate striving for self-

actualisation;
– The personal characteristics of the counsellor

and the quality of the therapeutic relationship;
– The counsellor’s creation of a permissive,

“growth promoting” climate;
– People are capable of self-directed growth if

involved in a therapeutic relationship.
The Necessary & Sufficient

Conditions of Counselling/Therapy
• Seen as necessary for positive outcomes in
therapy
• Seen as all that is necessary for positive

outcomes in therapy
The Necessary & Sufficient

Conditions of Counselling/Therapy
• Now a foundation for many other therapies

– May be emphasised to greater or lesser degrees
– Other therapies build on these ideas or add other
techniques
PSY2016
6 Necessary & Sufficient Conditions

– Necessary & sufficient for personality changes
to occur:
1. Two persons are in psychological contact
2. The first, the client, is experiencing incongruency
3. The second person, the therapist, is congruent or

integrated in the relationship
PSY2016
6 Necessary & Sufficient Conditions
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 communication to the client is, to a minimal

degree, achieved
The ‘Core Conditions’

• Congruence/Genuineness:
– realness and openness; personally integrated and
self-aware
• Unconditional positive regard:

– valuing the client as a unique person
The ‘Core Conditions’

• Accurate Empathic Understanding
– an ability to deeply grasp the client’s subjective world
• Therapeutic Presence – A 4th Core Condition?

– bringing your whole self into the relationship with
another, in the moment, without any self-centred
purpose or goal.
Client Experience
• Therapeutic relationship helps client to

gain self-understanding;
• Exploration of feelings, thoughts and

beliefs;
Client Experience
• Discovery of hidden aspects of self;
• Empowerment of self to lead own life;
• Experience life in the ‘here & now’ (not past or

future).
VIDEO: PCT excerpt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wTVbzvBH0k
“The only person who is educated is the one who
has learned how to learn and change”
Carl Rogers
Responses used by Carl Rogers

• Providing Orientation • Confronting
• Affirming Attention • Direct Questioning
• Checking understanding • Turning requests for
• Restating guidance back to the
• Acknowledging unstated client
feelings (Displayed by • Maintaining and breaking
NVB) silences
• Providing reassurance • Self-disclosing
• Interpreting (rarely) • Accepting correction
Fundamentals of a Person
Centered Therapy Approach
• Listening
• Accepting
• Respecting
• Understanding
• Responding
• Focusing on the ‘Here & Now’
• Experiential Focusing
Experiential Focusing
1. Clearing a space. Taking an inventory of what is going
on inside the body.
2. Locating the inner felt sense of the problem. Letting

the felt sense come & allowing the body to “talk back”.
3. Finding a word or image (‘handle’) that matches the

felt sense.
Experiential Focusing
4. Checking the fit between the ‘handle’ & felt sense.
5. Experiencing movement of physical relief in the

problem.
6. Receiving or accepting what has emerged.
7. Stop or repeat.
Stages towards Therapeutic Change
1. Communication focused on external events. Feelings

are not ‘owned’. Lack of trust in close personal
relationships. Rigid thinking. Does not use first person
pronouns.
2. Free expression on topics outside the self. Feelings

described but not owned. Intellectualisation. Describes
behaviour rather than inner experiences. Some
interest in participation in therapy.
3. Describes personal reactions to external events.

Limited amount of self-description. Communication
about past feelings. Begins to recognise contradictions
in experience.
4. Describes feeling and personal experiences. Begins to

experience current feeling but experiences fear &
distrust of this when it happens. Inner world is
presented and described but not purposefully
explored.
PSY3019/PSY2016
5. Current feelings are expressed. Increasing ownership

of feelings. More precision in differentiating feelings
and meanings. Intentional exploration of problems in a
personal way, based on processing of feelings rather
than reasoning.
6. Flow of feeling that has a life of its own (Inner

Referent). Fluent, visceral and open expression of
feelings. Speaks in present tense or offers vivid
accounts of past.
7. A series of felt senses connecting different aspects of

an issue. Feeling experienced with immediacy and
richness of detail. Speaks fluently in the present tense.
VIDEO 2: Creation of climate and conditions >

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBkUqcqRChg
PCT: Strengths & Contributions

• Values and accepts the client as a unique
individual
• Has established core conditions for

therapeutic effectiveness that have become
standard across a range of caring practices
and professions.
• Has established a range of listening skills that

have become the foundation of basic
counselling practice and employed in diverse
professions.
PCT: Limitations & Weaknesses
• Client is not challenged?
• No tools for interventions
• Clients may not have the resources to find

their own answers
• Focus on conscious experience may neglect

unconscious bias and influence

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PSY2016

Counselling & Psychological Therapies

Humanistic Theories & Therapies

– Basic Humanistic Concepts

– Person Centered Counselling/Therapy

• Believe in Free Will: Humans have some choice and

• Believe meaning is important: Humans are

• Emphasise the uniqueness of each individual:

Also drawing on humanistic theory or practice:

• Some forms of Existential Therapy

– The assumption that “the counsellor knows

– The validity of advice, suggestion, persuasion,

– The belief that clients cannot understand and

– The focus on problems over persons

Actualisation & “Self” Wisdom

• Actualising Tendency is present in all humans

– If facilitative conditions are present, then

Actualisation & “Self” Wisdom

– Organismic Valuing Process – inherent

• Society leads people astray from actualising

• People are experts about themselves. As a

PCT: Psychological Problems

• Related to degree of conditionality

• Distortion leads to INCONGRUENCE

PCT: Psychological Problems

• Leads person to be more “fractured” than whole

• ‘Symptoms’ manifest as people attempt to

– Therapy as a journey shared by two fallible

– The person’s innate striving for self-

– The personal characteristics of the counsellor

– The counsellor’s creation of a permissive,

– People are capable of self-directed growth if

The Necessary & Sufficient

• Seen as all that is necessary for positive

The Necessary & Sufficient

• Now a foundation for many other therapies

6 Necessary & Sufficient Conditions

1. Two persons are in psychological contact

2. The first, the client, is experiencing incongruency

3. The second person, the therapist, is congruent or

6 Necessary & Sufficient Conditions

4. The therapist experiences unconditional positive

5. The therapist experiences empathy for the client’s

6. The communication to the client is, to a minimal

The ‘Core Conditions’

• Unconditional positive regard:

The ‘Core Conditions’

• Therapeutic Presence – A 4th Core Condition?

• Therapeutic relationship helps client to

• Exploration of feelings, thoughts and

• Empowerment of self to lead own life;

• Experience life in the ‘here & now’ (not past or

VIDEO: PCT excerpt:

Responses used by Carl Rogers

2. Locating the inner felt sense of the problem. Letting

3. Finding a word or image (‘handle’) that matches the

5. Experiencing movement of physical relief in the

6. Receiving or accepting what has emerged.