Humanistic Therapy Essay

Psychotherapy develops impetuously during the last 50 years. New trends of this kind of therapy appear every year. Humanistic therapy, as one of the branches of psychotherapy, was developed comparatively recently but quickly became popular. The roots of this kind of treatment may be found in the 19th century in the works of famous philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard. The main goal of humanistic therapy is the investigation of immediate state and personal experience at the present moment. In this type of psychotherapy immediate feelings are of current importance and the focus is put on the present state, while past thoughts and behaviors are of little significance. Focusing on the present moment gives the patients the opportunity to get ready to further actions and change their focus from past.

The particular method that is used in humanistic therapy is the superior role of the therapist who shows different ways of self-discovery. The relations between the client and the therapist are friendly and warm, the client must feel relaxed because only then he’s able to expanse human energy and get deeper and greater knowledge of self. The therapist must not give orders, he must just set his client on the right track and try to preserve him from possible mistakes. Humanistic therapy is a mixture of behavioral and psychodynamic psychotherapies. It’s behavior therapy that is focused on present state of the client and the main aim of psychodynamic therapy is the search for self-awareness.

Humanistic therapists don’t try to follow this or that method of treatment, they call themselves eclectics in their practice and use their own methods of treatment, which are individual for every client. As a result, we can see the phenomenon of “psychotherapy integration” (Wolfe, Goldfried, 1988). Psychotherapy integration lets find the best individual approach and not follow the old fixed scheme. It helps to find new ways of solving the problem. This method is characterized by the equal rights for different theories and techniques, which are acceptable from the medical point of view, of course. It goes without saying that humanistic therapy as any other kind of psychotherapy should be adapted to the needs of ethnic and racial minorities.

Humanistic therapy differs from behavior and psychodynamic ones because it is aimed to recognize human capabilities in personal growth and creativity and helps to take the correct choice in life. It’s more an artistic approach than scientific one and that is why now it became very famous recently. For the client it’s very important to know the method his therapist uses because it will simplify the treatment. The main goal of humanistic therapy is to understand how the person realizes himself and his place in the world and then find out his responsibilities and self-direction.

The therapist shouldn’t be the problem solver. His main aim is to make the patient believe in his strength and his capability to cope with the problem. In such a way the person starts believing in his own strength and so can cope not only with this problem but with a lot of others. Only person knows what is the most important thing in the life and so therapist’s activity is only necessary to help to find this direction. This kind of therapy changes person’s life, makes it easier, brighter and more interesting.

Bibliography

1. J. Nevid, S.Rathus,B.Greene. Abnormal Psychology In a Changing World, 6th edition, 2006.
2. Goldfried, M. R. & Wolfe, B. E. (1996). Psychotherapy practice and research: Repairing a strained alliance. (American Psychologist, 51, 1007—1016.)