Humanistic Therapy: Basics and Benefits

Introduction:

Any depression, anxiety, or other psychotic conditions give us hopelessness more than symptoms and effects. In these cases, the person develops distorted thoughts and thus resulting in misleading lives. Even habit-related and interpersonal issues could make one disturbed. Therefore, humanistic-based therapies are employed just to take away those thoughts and drive at the ease of other treatments. Humanistic therapies differ in many ways from traditional means such as behavioral therapy and psychoanalysis. It concentrates on the current days of life, while other therapies address past experiences more than the present ones. Moreover, this humanistic-allied therapy helps the individual in overall aspects rather than treating the diagnosed condition.

What Is Humanistic Therapy?

Humanistic therapy is psychotherapy to treat mental health problems and other related conditions. It is an intervention related to talk therapy that focuses on individuals and their potential rather than looking for contradictoriness. The therapy emphasizes oneself and arouses a purposeful life. This approach to mental health enhances the significance of one’s true self more than cognitive ailments. The chief principle of humanistic therapy is that each one has a unique way of viewing the life and world. And, this view helps in amending one’s choices, words, and actions.

How Does Humanistic Therapy Work?

All therapies work based on the humanistic kind wholly making a person discover oneself. Psychotherapy says that our views and opinion matter more than the world. All those humanistic-centered approaches rely on these techniques;

Techniques of Humanistic Therapy:

• Empathy: The therapist does hear and feels what the person is conveying. Empathy is understanding and reacting appropriately so that one can sense the feelings the therapist has. This empathetic understanding would build a good therapeutic relationship.

• Revealing Through Empathy: The therapist will eventually reflect on what he listened to but on his terms. The illustration would give hope to the person that he is attending to the whole theme.

• Unconditional Positive Regard: The therapist considers the words and statements of an individual with thorough empathy but without any judgment. Such appreciation gives a flow to the person and offers positive regard. Finally, this technique enhances trust, awareness, and worth oneself. Through this, the person gets a direction for further positive moves.

• Congruence: Being congruent is a crucial part of a therapist to ease the patient. The therapist does not exhibit any superiority yet is genuinely open to suggestions.

What Are the Types of Humanistic Therapy?

Humanistic therapy chiefly highlights one’s ability to build rational choices essential for life. There are several therapies that all take humanistic approaches to respect self-esteem and self-judgment.

• Person-Centered Therapy: Often named client-centered therapy, it is the chief among all types. It was put forth by a clinical researcher and also called Rogerian therapy. It emphasizes the positive aspect of self sooner than the criticism from others. The therapist helps in enhancing oneself through empathy. Thus, the client and therapist relationship is much more robust in this particular curative.

• Existential Therapy: Humanistic psychotherapy focussing on the philosophy of life is existential therapy. As the name reveals, it answers the question, what is the cause of my existence? Hence, it showcases the purpose of the entity, leaving the past aside. Here, the therapist allows one to make the right decisions concerning life. Existential therapy paves the way for cancer patients, incarcerated people, and the aged.

• Gestalt Therapy: It is a person-centered form of therapy focussing on present issues and challenges. It improves one's awareness and direction. In addition, gestalt therapy helps sort out the issue's impact on family, partners, or peers. The therapist would ask one to imagine the specific partner and convey those feelings one has. Therefore, it demonstrates how to react reasonably to such circumstances.

• Logotherapy: This therapy is all about motivation. Logotherapy assists us in bearing hardship and challenges to shine in the future. Besides, it creates a great deal of awareness of the purpose of life.

• Constructivist Therapy: This therapy helps acquires more knowledge and turns out to be a meaning-maker. It lies in the matter of one constructing their own realities and situations, which thus makes sense.

• Transactional Analysis: This is the combination of examination and therapy. It observes a person’s socialization in the sense of one’s interactions and relationships. Transactional study works with the intention of making one understand values, personality, and beliefs.

• Narrative Therapy: It shows that skill and deeds are affiliated with one another. Problems are always distinct from oneself, to do with personal experiences. So, the issues must be faced externally and not internally.

• Feminist Therapy: The name reveals women's empowerment, observes the stressors and conflicts, and exceptionally provides relief. Feminist therapy focuses on assisting them in breaking stereotypes.

• Transpersonal Psychotherapy: Psychotherapy brings spiritual tools and traditional elements to deal with modern thinking. It involves meditation, hypnotherapy, music, art, and relaxation practices.

Where Is Humanistic Therapy Applied?

However, humanistic therapy is not indeed used as a prime solitary treatment in relieving the symptoms. Instead, it aids as a part of the below treatments and boosts self-esteem wherever required to fulfill the intervention. It also withdrew the negative thoughts and loss of life beliefs.

• Anxiety.

• Stress.

• Panic disorder or phobias.

• Depression.

• Chronic smoking.

• Alcohol addiction.

• Substance use.

• Personality disorders.

• People with low self-esteem.

• Psychotic illnesses.

• Obsessive compulsive disorder.

• Post-traumatic stress disorder.

• Trauma.

• Childhood trauma.

• Family and relationship problems.

How Effective Is Humanistic Therapy?

Analysis and research have proved the effectiveness of humanistic therapy in various conditions and diseases that rely on contrary and hopeless beliefs. Moreover, as it nurtures the counselor-client relationship, the treatment contributes to a positive change in people.

• Humanistic approaches proved to have long and more beneficial effects than those not undergoing treatment.

• Person-centered therapy is far better at treating depression, relationship issues, and trauma.

• It seems as efficient as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

• Humanistic counseling is proven to alleviate emotional symptoms among youths.

• It gives meaning and purpose to life in people with advanced cancer and age.

• Humanistic therapy allies with the treatment criteria for depression and psychosis and is an excellent factor to look at.

Conclusion:

Each individual has a distinct point of view as everyone see things in the contrary aspect. Humanistic therapy takes this aspect as the primary principle and works on this opinion. Humanistic therapy leads one to a discovery about self; provides decision-making skills; remits the negative thoughts and false beliefs that one has about life. It covers important aspects of life. Nevertheless, it is keen that it aids a meaningful life by sorting the issues a person faces in the current period.