HUMANISTIC

EXISTENTIAL
APPROACHES
REPORT BY:
FATIN ANNE T. ROMA
JASMIN CYRILLE P. TECSON
 The humanistic- existential approaches mainly
focuses on individuals who are empowered to act on the
world and determine their own destiny. This view claims that
we are positive and forward-moving and searches humanity
for meaning.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMANISTIC-EXISTENTIAL
APPROACH
• The primacy of experience
- humanists seeks to understand personal experiences and its essence.
• Growth Orientation
- people have the tendency to grow and actualize their potential.
• Free Choice
- people can become almost whatever their choice.
 PERSON CENTERED (CARL ROGERS)

• Theory:
Carl Rogers viewed humanity as basically good. He believed that if given appropriate environment
of acceptance, warmth and empathy, the individual would move toward self-actualization. Rogers believed
that most people were provided conditional acceptance as children, which leads them to behave in ways
that would assure their acceptance. However, in their need for acceptance, the individual often behaves in
ways that were incongruent with the real self. Thus, the greater the incongruence between the real self and
the ideal self, the greater isolated and maladjusted the person became.
• Self-Actualization
- motivation that makes the individual move toward growth, meaning and purpose.
• Person-Centered
- a phenomenological psychology where an individual recognizes and accepts his/her perception
of reality.
 CLIENT-CENTERED THERAPY

The therapy for client-centered had changed thrice over a period of time:
1. Nondirective Period (1940-1950)
- the counselor only listens to the client. They do not provide interventions but communicated
acceptance.
2. Reflective Period (1950-1957)
- counselors are being non-judgmental of the client, while responding to the client’s feelings and
affect accurately.
3. Experiential Period (1957-1980)
– is the period of EWG (Empathy, Warmth and Genuineness).
 The counselor helps the client through accurate
reflection of feelings, keeping the client focused to the
concern, and clarification of feelings and information. The
counselor uses open-ended questions or phrases to help
the client gain insight into experiences and necessary
changes in their lives.
GOALS OF THERAPY TO THE CLIENT:

• Realistic Self Perception

• Greater self-confidence and direction
• Sense of positive worth
• Greater maturity and Adaptive Behavior
• Better stress coping
 TECHNIQUES
Relationship and confrontation are the techniques
used by humanists, they challenge their clients with their
own responsibility for their lives.
 GESTALT APPROACH (FRITZ PERLS)

• Theory:
Gestalt, means a whole, believes that an individual naturally seeks to become an
integrated whole. They also believe that thoughts, feelings, and reactions to past events or
situations can impede personal functioning and prevent awareness.
• Awareness
- a continuum with the healthiest person being most aware. These people are
aware of their needs, and deal with them on time. The individual recognizes his/her internal
needs and are able to suffice them through manipulation of the need and the environment.
 GESTALT THERAPY
• Gestalt Therapy is considered a here-and-now therapy.
• Gestalt therapy focuses on awareness with the belief that when one focuses on what
they are and not what they want to be, they become self-actualized. That through self-
acceptance one can be self-actualized.
• Gestalists creates an environment for the client explore his/her needs to grow.
• They are to use present tense for the now. The counselor makes the client use “I”
instead of using “you” or “it”.
• Focuses on awareness of “how” and “what” rather than “why”.
• The counselor converts questions into statements.
 GOALS IN THERAPY
• Emphasis is on here-and-now experiences.
• Encourage client to make choices to the now rather than the past
• Help client resolve the past
• Assist the client to become congruent.
• Help client reach intellectual maturity.
• Help client shed neuroses.
 TECHNIQUES
1. Two forms of techniques used:
•Exercise
- includes frustration actions, fantasy role playing, fantasy, psychodrama
•Experiments
- unplanned creative intervention that helps the here-and-now interaction of the client to the
counselor.
2. Dream work
- making the client focus on their awareness on the dream and to each character and elements in the
dream.
3. Empty Chair
- process where the client address parts of the personality, as if it were an entity sitting in an empty
chair.
 TECHNIQUES
4. Confrontation
- calls the attention of clients’ incongruence between what the client says and what the counselor observes.
5. Making the rounds
- a group exercise where the client is instructed to say the same sentence to each member of the group and add
something personal to each person.
6. I take responsibility
- phrase that the client should say every statement.
7. Exaggeration
- over dramatizing client’s gestures to help gain insight into their meaning.
8. May I feed you a sentence
- question that the counselor asks before giving the client a more specific question.
 EXISTENTIAL THEORY (ROLLO MAY AND VICTOR
FRANKL)
• Theory:
Existentialists believe that a person writes his/her own experiences by the choices
they make. According to Frankl, each person searches for meaning in life, and that while this
meaning may change, the meaning never ceases to be.
• Psychopathology
- neglecting to make meaningful choices and noticeable potential.
• Anxiety
- either paralyzing or motivational force that helps client prevent or reach his/her
full potential.
THREE WAYS TO DISCOVER LIFE MEANINGS
(VICTOR FRANKL):

1. By doing a deed
2. By experiencing a value
3. By suffering
 EXISTENTIAL COUNSELLING
• Each client is considered a unique relationship with the
counselor.
• Focuses on being authentic with the client entering into a deep
personal sharing relationship.
• The counselor models how to be authentic, and to realize
personal potential, and make decisions with emphasis on mutuality,
wholeness and growth.
 GOALS IN THE THERAPY:
• Make clients take responsibility for their life and life
decisions.
• Develop self-awareness to promote potential, freedom
and commitment for better life choices
• Develop internal frame of reference rather that outward
one.
 TECHNIQUES

• Relationship with the client

• Confrontation is also used.