Benefits of Humanistic Psychology - Term Paper Example

?[Your full December 8, Humanistic Psychology Introduction The three main approaches to counseling include the psychodynamic approach, the behavioral approach, and the humanistic approach. The psychodynamic approach is the kind of therapeutic approach in which the practitioner helps the patient in bringing out his true emotions, so that he may experience and appreciate them. This approach talks about the unconscious mind and the feelings held in it, and tells us that those feelings are very painful to face. The behavioral approach of psychotherapy focuses on the fact that learning arises from experience. The main objective of this therapy is to make the patient analyze his behavior and understand his problems while defining goals for himself. Humanistic approach, which is the main concern in this paper, has been in use in psychotherapy practice for more than fifty years. It has proved to be a very successful option for psychotherapists. This paper describes humanistic approach in detail. What is Humanistic Psychology? Humanistic psychology presents such a therapeutic approach in which the counselor helps the patient play with creativity while discovering the opportunities for personal growth and advancement (Cherry, para.2). The humanistic approach tends to enable the client to discover his real self and understand his feelings. The client becomes competent enough to create choices and make decisions about simple to complex situations. Humanistic psychology has many branches, of which the main ones are Gestalt counseling, depth therapy, and transpersonal psychology. All of these kinds ensure a strong and close relationship between the therapist and the client. Therapists, who had been working with psychoanalytic approach of counseling, badly felt the need for a more holistic approach which should focus on the individual himself. They wanted that the patient should be considered as an individual under holistic environment. Thus, humanistic approach was adopted. Humanistic approach rejects both psychodynamic and behaviorist approach, and regarded both as dehumanizing and deterministic. It also rejected the idea of experimenting on animals, since experiments on animals do not tell about human behavior and response. Humanistic approach comprises of three elements: phenomenology, existentialism, and humanism. Phenomenology means that the counselor helps the client analyze his problems and find solutions to them through the use of empathy. The counselor considers the patient’s problem as his own, and through sympathy and understanding, leads the patient toward recovery. Existentialism explains that the counselor helps the client achieve a high quality of life through providing him self-awareness and self-realization. The counselor helps the client recognize his hidden potential and talents. Humanism means that the clients are able to explore creativity which further helps in self-actualization and personal advancement. Here, the clients experiment with their own emotions and learn to live happy. So, it is the study of the person on the whole and not just one aspect of him. Humanists believe that a person is able to reason and judge independently, and thus, they strive to bring out this potential from within him through psychotherapy. Benefits of Humanistic Psychology There are lot of plus points with humanistic psychology, due to which it is the most popular approach in psychotherapy. Humanistic psychology highlights the individual’s unique competencies and potential so that he is able to explore his self through creativity and self-awareness, according to Crider (522). It is not based on scientific methodology like experiments. It uses qualitative research methods, which may include case studies, open-ended questionnaires, structured and unstructured interviews and observations. Qualitative research in humanistic psychology is helpful for learning at the individual level. It also offers the therapists a holistic approach which focuses on the individual himself. Drawbacks in Humanistic Psychology There are also some drawbacks with the humanistic approach which cannot be denied. For example, humanistic psychology is criticized as being unscientific based on subjective concept. It cannot objectively determine self-actualization. It also ignores the unconscious mind and is vague (Bentham 35). Also, the qualitative research methodology, that humanistic approach uses, is very hard to compare and evaluate. Examples to clarify Humanistic Approach Let’s discuss some examples to clarify how a humanistic psychologist would deal with different situations. Three case studies are shown below. 1. Sam, aged thirty-five, brags about himself and tries to impress the doctor with the account of his social connections. In such a case, the humanistic psychologist would treat Sam with sympathy because he knows that such people, who name-drop or try to impress others, are simply sick at mind and need treatment. Although the humanistic psychologist would feel very irritated with such a client who is constantly trying to mention popular people to show off his famous connections; yet, he would tell him to talk about his own personality rather than talking about other people, so that he may have a better idea about him. He would try to let him know that famous connections are not a part of him, but what he thinks and behaves like are an important part of his personality. Hence, the humanistic psychologist would make him feel the importance of his own self rather than others. 2. Jennifer, aged seventy-eight, is a feeble widow who feels forlorn and miserable, due to which she weeps a lot. A humanistic psychologist would feel sorry for Kate keeping in view her age and frail position. Loneliness is something that kills a person from inside no matter how strong he may pretend to be. And when the person is elderly, he is very weak at heart and emotions, and cannot hide his feelings for long. Depression is normally very common in older adults. Hence, a humanistic psychologist would not feel agitated or irritated at Kate’s state of mind, and will try to sympathize with her and give her relief through words. He would make her talk about her life when she was young, and would laugh with her at her happy memories to give her a feeling of belonging. He would also feel that he should contact her children, if she has any, and tell them to stay in touch with her. 3. Michael, aged twenty, is on probation after a series of shop-lifting offences. A humanistic psychologist would keep in mind the patient’s young age, and would understand the fact that youngsters normally do such acts at this age. He would listen to him about his problems that led him to commit such an act. He would make him talk about his past, his parents, and his relationship with siblings and friends, so that he may get an idea what is making him do shop-lifting at a continuous basis. If he belongs to low socio-economic background, he would suggest to him that he should work hard to earn good money instead of indulging in criminal offenses. Conclusion In short, the humanistic approach is the most attractive branch of psychology, because it tends to provide a more holistic approach to psychotherapy by ensuring that the clients experience personal growth, self-realization and creativity. The patient is able to recognize his weaknesses and strengths, and this self-actualization helps him bring the best out of him, and also helps in quick recovery. The three case-studies shown above demonstrate that a humanistic psychology would deal his patients with great care and understanding, focusing on why the patients behaved the way they did, and making them realize their potential. A humanistic psychologist is considerate and sympathetic, ignoring the way how the patients make him feel throughout the recovery process, and focusing on how he makes the patients feel. He focuses on the positive image of human beings, emphasizing the importance of the exposure of his inner self. Works Cited Bentham, Susan. Psychology and Education. USA: Routledge, 2002. Cherry, Kendra. “Humanistic Psychology.” About.com: Psychology. About.com, 2012. Web. 9 Dec 2012. . Crider, Andrew, 1993. Psychology. USA, UK: HarperCollins College Publishers. Read More