```dataview list without id file.inlinks where file.name = this.file.name ``` --- creation date: 2024-10-10 18:42 modification date: Thursday 10th October 2024 18:42:29 --- # Humanistic Psychology - regarded as a movement, often referred to the “third force” - **first being psychoanalytic, second being behavioral** - As a reaction to postwar issues, the 1960s - 70s there was growing interest among counsellors in the “third force” in therapy as an alternative ***Stressing human choice, the ability for individuals to take charge of their life, make decisions, and determine our own destiny*** - Non-deterministic, free-will *For humanistic psychology, the locus of control and decisions lies within the individual, rather than in the past and environment determinants. ***Locus of control: A persons perception about the underlying main causes of events for his or her own life. Emphasizes relationship between client-counselor. # Carl Rogers Existential psychology has a lot of common elements with person-centered approach. Not a very popular approach in HK. ## Personal history - Born and raised in a farm in Illinois - 4th of 6 children - Parents were rigid fundamentalist Christians Described his parents as loving, but also controlling - parents discourage going out with friends - parents didn’t express a lot of affect - caused Rogers to be mostly by himself, and focus on academic subject - spent a lot of time helping out family and in nature (as a farmer) Originally wanted to study agriculture, but more study and campus life changed him, was selected to be 1 of 10 students to exchange to Beijing. Stayed in China for 6 months. Free from parental influence, he came back changed, and wanted to break away from parents fundamentalist views, and studied theology, and wanted to marry his childhood sweetheart. After studying theology in New York, he changed more, and moved to psychology. In those days, the clinical field was more dominated by Freudian, and the research/academic was dominanted by Behavioral. He then saw a lady in his practice who was much more able to connect with clients, and this curiousity as to how she was able to connect and provide genuine listening, moved him to develop towards person-centered humanistic approach, *thus creating the third force* *One of the founders of psychotherapy research. ## Evolution of Person-Centered Therapy ### Nondirective Counseling - Not focused on interventions, interpretations, type of proceedures - focused on creating, permissive, and non-directive environments for the clients to express in sessions - Trying to give back power to the client, rather than concentrated in the counselor Evolved to… ### Client-centered Therapy - Cannot be completely non-directive - Focusing more on client as a person, rather than non-directiveness as a method - Skills shifted from reflectional thinking - ***Phenomenological approach, understanding from the client’s frame of reference The counselors take a more active role compared to non-directive. Communication, understanding, and empathy. Evolved to ### Becoming a Person - Trying to help the client become the person who they truly are - ***concept of: fully functioning people - Honest to their own feelings, open to experience, able to trust themselves, guided by internalized locus of control, rather than efforts to please others. - continuous tense, lifelong journey, growth model Later on the concept became more and more popular, adopted to education, institutions, inter-racial issues, macro level groups etc. Thus renamed: ## ***Person-centered therapy*** Ie. for kids child-centered play therapy. **emotion-focused approach (also based on person centered concepts) ## Theoretical Principles ***Hallmark concept: Actualizing tendencies in humans - humans have the capacity to grow and blossom - to fulfill their potential - Rogers noticed the power of nature, the seed germinates and grow. Roots may be blocked by will find another route to bloom. - Clients have ability to find solutions to their problems - IF given the opportunity ## Self-Theory ***To Rogers: the self is not a fixed structure but a structure in process, capable of stability and change - Self-concept (real self/self image): How you see yourself? How do you experience yourself? - Ideal self: What you wish you were like? The more overlap there is, the more congruent a person will be. Vice-versa. Rogers: impossible to be 100% overlapping ***Congruence and Incongruence ## Conditions of Worth As children, we have two learned needs: 1. Self Regard: greater consciousness of self - It’s mine - I like it - I don’t like it - greater understanding of their own needs 2. Positive regard: to be prized and loved We want to be prized, loved, from our loved ones **Children distinguish between approved and disapproved feelings and actions and understand the conditions of worth in their lives. - Distinguishing between conditional love, ie. punching others causes mommy to love me less - learn how to not lie, should or should not. *I am only acceptable to my parents, when I do X | when I don’t do Y When these conditions of worth become too much, it can inhibit us from becoming who we truly are. ### Example Girl likes to play rough with others but parents don’t approve. Result: - Negative self regard: self judgement - Negative regard from parents/others: parents scold, disapprove - Denial of a pleasant overall experience in rough play: she will have to twist her real feeling and say maybe rough and tubmel play isnt good. its dangerous, I’ll dirty my clothes, self reason to rationalize, denying her organic experience. >If I can prvide a certain type of relationship the other person will discover within himself the capacity to use that relationship for growth, and change and personal development will occur. ## Person centered approach to psychotherapy - Two persons are in *psychological* contact - The client is in a state of *incongruence - The therapist is *congruent* (genuine and authentic), or integrated in the relationship - Therapist shows *unconditional positive regard* for the client - non judgmental, accepting attitude - shows *empathic understanding* of the client’s internal frame of reference and communicate this to the client - The communication to the client is achieve in a minimal degree - minimal = these conditions are the first steps to healing - in order to have lasting changes, these conditions need to maintained ## Therapeutic Goals ***Help client to be a fully functioning person - Open to experience - has a sense of meaning and purpose - Trust in self and others - Internal source of evaluation - moving and growing in positive direction - creative and adaptable More integration and independence of the individual resulting changes: - Clients can express their opinions and feelings - can accurately understand and express experiences - can have more congruence between self and their total experience ## Therapist Function and Role - Establish climate that helps the client grow - **Role is to be without roles - Has attitude of genuine caring, acceptance, respect, understanding, full and active participation in the counselling ***The therapist is a gardener, the client the seed. Let the seed grow. ### Core Therapeutic Conditions * - Congruence (Genuineness) - Unconditional Positive Regard (Acceptance) - Accurate Empathic Understanding **Roger: emphasized the balance of the tree *“If-then”* formula.** #### Congruence > It is only by providing the genuine reality which is in me, that the other person can successfully seek… the reality in him” > Carl Rogers #### Unconditional Positive Regard - Undo the client’s *condition of worth* - Is it possible to ever experience unconditional positive regard for another person? How to express UPR indirectly? - Keeping appointments, asking and remembering client’s preferred way to be addressed - Allowing clients freedom to discuss themselves in their natural manner - Demonstrate that you hear and remember specific parts of a client’s story It’s not all or nothing choice, but a continuum. So we can learn to be more unconditional. #### Empathic Understanding - Entering and becoming at home in the client’s private perceptual world - Being sensitive from moment to moment with the client’s changing meanings and emotions - Temporarily living in the client’s life - Sensing deep meanings, but not uncovering feelings that are too far out of awareness ***