Humanistic Counselling
Humanistic approach to Counselling
Introduction
There are 3 main approaches to psychotherapy and counselling, and many variations on each approach:
Psychodynamic
Humanistic
Behavioural
The Psychodynamic approach, including psychoanalytic, is the oldest with an emphasis on bringing the unconscious into consciousness so gaining greater self-knowledge. It is usually long-term work , often over a number of years, and in the case of psychoanalysis with several sessions each week. It delves into the past to discover the origins of our behavioural patterns and belief systems. The therapists are relatively silent, and refer to their clients as patients.
Key names are Freud, Jung and Klein.
The Behavioural approach covers CBT (Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy) and REBT (Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy). These approaches are the youngest of the three and are different from the first two in that they focus on the here and now and do not investigate the causes.
It is brief therapy with the aim of helping clients unlearn their negative/unhelpful reactions to situations and learn new ways of reacting. Understanding how a client came by their belief system is not considered and consequently the longer-term effectiveness of CBT has yet to be examined. Research does show that CBT can produce very effective benefits in the short term.
Key names are Skinner, Beck, Ellis and Eysenk.
The humanistic approach
Humanistic therapies evolved in the USA during the 1950s. Carl Rogers proposed that therapy could be simpler, warmer and more optimistic than that carried out by behavioral or psychodynamic psychologists.
His view differs sharply from the psychodynamic and behavioral approaches in that he suggested that clients would be better helped if they were encouraged to focus on their current subjective understanding rather than on some unconscious motive or someone else's interpretation of the situation.
Rogers strongly believed that in order for a client's condition to
Introduction
There are 3 main approaches to psychotherapy and counselling, and many variations on each approach:
Psychodynamic
Humanistic
Behavioural
The Psychodynamic approach, including psychoanalytic, is the oldest with an emphasis on bringing the unconscious into consciousness so gaining greater self-knowledge. It is usually long-term work , often over a number of years, and in the case of psychoanalysis with several sessions each week. It delves into the past to discover the origins of our behavioural patterns and belief systems. The therapists are relatively silent, and refer to their clients as patients.
Key names are Freud, Jung and Klein.
The Behavioural approach covers CBT (Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy) and REBT (Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy). These approaches are the youngest of the three and are different from the first two in that they focus on the here and now and do not investigate the causes.
It is brief therapy with the aim of helping clients unlearn their negative/unhelpful reactions to situations and learn new ways of reacting. Understanding how a client came by their belief system is not considered and consequently the longer-term effectiveness of CBT has yet to be examined. Research does show that CBT can produce very effective benefits in the short term.
Key names are Skinner, Beck, Ellis and Eysenk.
The humanistic approach
Humanistic therapies evolved in the USA during the 1950s. Carl Rogers proposed that therapy could be simpler, warmer and more optimistic than that carried out by behavioral or psychodynamic psychologists.
His view differs sharply from the psychodynamic and behavioral approaches in that he suggested that clients would be better helped if they were encouraged to focus on their current subjective understanding rather than on some unconscious motive or someone else's interpretation of the situation.
Rogers strongly believed that in order for a client's condition to