Humanistic Approach in Counselling Psychology - Essay Example

Humanistic Approach in Counselling Psychology Introduction Counselling psychology as a professional branch of psychology was established to facilitate interpersonal and personal functions of persons across the lifespan. The personal or interpersonal functions constitute of organizational, developmental, vocational, emotional, social, and health-related concerns. Generally, counselling psychology constitutes of practices focused on improving the well-being of persons by improving their function abilities, crisis resolution, maladjustment, and stress alleviation to mention but a few. The sensitivity of personal and interpersonal issue makes the practice a complex one, since it mostly deals with individuals or groups faced with unique problems. In short, individual persons will require specific thus unique help from counselling psychology. In the light of these, counselling psychology requires guiding approaches in understanding every unique problem so as to solve it. In acquiring this understanding, counselling psychology relies on guidance provided by the key approaches of psychology. These approaches seek to explain the causal factors of occurrences such as human behaviour, and that makes it possible to solve them. This study will evaluate the Humanistic perspective and explain how this approach has influenced the development of counselling psychology in the last 100 years. Counselling psychologists seek to understand their clients so they can identify their problems and thereafter find the best approach to resolve their issues. One of the key approaches applied in doing so is the Humanistic perspective. This perspective is based on the assumption that every person is unique in their own way, and as such, they perceive of the world differently from others. Concisely, this approach seeks to understand people based on the query, “what is it like to be this person?” Once a psychologist understands the person, they can focus on the best means of helping their clients achieve their maximum potential and live better. Therefore, it is justified to state that the Humanistic Approach has largely contributed in helping counselling psychologists to help needy individuals to get over issues and difficulties in life by ensuring their well-being. This approach can be termed as the newest, or “third force” because it was the most recently created approach after the behaviourist and psychoanalytic approaches (Burger 2008, p.288). The correlation between the humanistic approach and counselling psychology first came into being during Epictetus’ time the first century AD. The stoic philosopher realized that people were affected largely by events and mostly because of the way they perceived of them. In short, an issue was likely to disturb one depending on their understanding of it. This definition perfectly maps onto the understanding of the humanistic approach which states that in the real world, people view things from different angles while they might be staring at the same thing. This occurrence is observed mainly due to a person’s belief. As such, Epictetus’ philosophy emerged as an important tool in relieving emotional issues or disturbance by assisting individuals to alter their maladaptive behaviours and beliefs and in it alter their troubled lives to be better. In its development, the humanistic approach views the human as composed of four elements which are in constant interaction: emotion, behaviour, cognition, and physiology. Collectively, these four elements go a long way in determining one’s beliefs, thus culture, and translation of events in the real world (Chan, Berven & Thomas 2004, p.75). Counselling psychology requires an understanding of an individual, and that is possibly through breaking up the person into these four elements. Thinking (cognition) directs how a person will react or act. For instance, one may state that they are going to make a good garden. That triggers their mind into trying its best in achieving “good” results. The physiology element affects the physical being of a person in. For instance, a person may feel happy about preparing to go for a trip. The third element, emotion, affects the feelings of one. An anxious person is always void of composure and very reactive towards minor things. The final aspect, behaviour, may be inspired by all these three elements. If someone is willing to do a good garden (cognition), they are likely to be happy (emotion) about it in addition to being anxious (physiology) in starting the garden, and that may in turn make them jumpy or friendly (behaviour) to people who may help him with the idea. All these are aspects of counselling inspired by the humanistic approach to psychology as defined by Epictetus that “Men are disturbed not by things, but their view of things” (Ingrams 2011, p.47). Although Epictetus’ discovery is rooted that deep in history, the humanistic approach was not applied in counselling psychology until after 1914. Other approaches had been in use such as the behavioural perspective which sums up as the most popular. The humanistic approach was emphasized on after it was evident that the existing approaches were not sufficient in addressing issues rooted in the human’s center for “potential”. The potential in this case refers to the aspect of man, which inspires their psychological health, growth, love, and creativity. This was implied after psychologists realized that there was a void in an approach that focused on a person’s self as an individual. The other approaches largely “forced” a person to fit into the existing theories. This resulted in counselling not be as effective as it was intended to be. The clients who depicted signs of requiring a different approach demanded a person-centered means which would them growth and fulfillment. The only way to achieve fulfillment was through removing “blocks” or obstacles that stood between a client and their expectations. That is where the humanistic approach which deals with uplifting a person’s inner being comes in. the approach acknowledges that an individual’s self-image is the most important factor which leads to self-fulfillment. As such, humanistic psychologists (counsellors) aim to help their clients by understanding where their problems lie (cognitive, emotional, physical, or behavioural). From this, they can learn what is “blocking” their clients from attaining fulfilment and therefore provide them with a clearer and less-cluttered sense of self. The humanistic perspective was developed by popular psychologists Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers to whom most of the guiding methods are attributed to. The Humanistic approach contributes to counselling psychology in that having realized that a person’s self-image largely influences their entire being; it means their clients have personal blockages. These blockages can only be lifted through inspiring some form of change. Change is the core principle applied by the Humanistic approach in developing counselling psychology. Change is important in counselling psychology as a symptom-reduction too. A counselling psychologist’s effectiveness is ensured by their success in reducing the intensity or number of stressors or symptoms affecting their patients. This in turn, is achievable due to the understanding of the person’s worldview which is facilitated by the humanistic approach to psychology. The first step that a humanistic approach influences counselling is through the counsellor understanding their client by analysing their symptoms (Russell & Jarvis 2003, P.47). For instance, if someone is suffering from depression, the counselling psychologist will seek to understand what leads to the depression, and what is preventing them from enjoying a fulfilled life. In short, the counsellor digs for the stressors. Depression, mostly results from having an issue that seems to have no solution, and has persisted for long that it interferes with a person’s psychological well-being. The counselling psychologist is able to understand the client because they understand their situation and fit into their world. From there, they can tell what the client is really experiencing. This is the first way through which the humanistic approach developed counselling: that understands that a client may suffer due to their perspective of looking at the world. As such, it informs the counsellor that they first need to understand their clients. The counselling therapy begins after this mutuality is created between the client and the counselling psychologist. The counsellor now understanding the suffering of their clients can understand the issue better than the client. This is because they have an understanding of the client’s suffering as well as a normal perspective or how things “should be”. The client is provided with an explanation regarding their problem (the blockages) in addition to how the counselling psychologists intend to solve it. The client therefore gets a clear picture of what they are undergoing, and also what is going to be implemented in effecting the much required remedy (change). Once the counselling psychologist has created an understanding with their clients, they are ready to start solving the problem. Since they have mutuality, them together provide potential solutions which may apply in resolving the existing problem. Again, since the psychologist understands the worldview being used by the client, they provide more potential suggestions to the client. These solutions are meant to bring change in the client’s world view and alter its negativity to positivity. Understanding the worldview of the client helps a counsellor know what type of problem exists; whether it is lack of coping skills, lack of problem-solving skills, cognitive breakdown, or negatively-constructed cognitive schemata. First, lack of coping skills means the client lacks the ability to manage certain situations in life. As such, the counsellor can devise or suggest the best means of solving the problem. For instance, if a person cannot overcome stress, the counsellor advices them on how to avoid and prevent it from based on the person’s nature. Second, problem solving is offered as another remedy in counselling since unsolved problems can cause psychological complications. In understanding a person’s weakness in solving problems, a counsellor through the Humanistic approach points out the weakness, and it is therefore solved (Dryden & Strawbrigde & Woolfe 2003, p. 169). This would pose as overly difficult while applying most of the other approaches since they do not understand how a person’s view of the world affects their well-being. This therefore is another way through which counselling psychology has been assisted by this approach. Thirdly, cognitive restructuring as a remedy in counselling deals mostly with the emotional context of a person. By understanding a person’s worldview again, a counselling psychologist can reveal negative issues such as awfulizing, damnation, or low frustration tolerance (Dryden & Strawbrigde & Woolfe 2003, p.170). Collectively, these issues are rooted within a person’s belief which in turn affect their interpretation of events and situations. Normally, such issues cause emotional distress because they tend to suggest to the affected person that they are unable to deal with situations. A counsellor finds out the causal factors (maladaptive interpretation) by collecting information from the client. Therapy in this case is provided in that the counsellor collaborates with the affected person in performing activities which improve the negative interpretations. By the time the client notices what the therapy is all about, they will have overcome the issues which cause their maladaptive interpretations. This too is aided by the Humanistic approach in that it understands the client’s perception of the things and as such, individual-specific therapy is devised. Finally, restructuring a person’s negative cognitive schemata is the other counselling therapy constructed with this approach’s guidance. Negative cognitive schemata occur due to the frustrations experienced for long periods. For example, problems during childhood may have long-term cognitive problems on an individual, such as mistreatment or sexual harassment (Russell & Jarvis 2003, P.50). In understanding this, a counselling psychologist will devise the best therapy for their clients having understood what the childhood occurrence caused to them. The idea in this case is still change: reversing the negative effect of the occurrence and therefore clearing the negative self-image or perception that hinders their clients from living fully. All these are made possible by the mediation of the Humanistic approach. Conclusion As this study shows, a counselling psychologist is able to offer their clients effective therapy because they understand what their clients perceive of situations or the world. It is from this understanding that a client can understand themselves, what problems they are undergoing, and the options that suffice as the best solutions in solving their specific problems. In short, the humanistic approach has enabled counselling to go an extra mile, which is in addition to the solutions offered by the behaviourist and psychoanalytic approaches. The three therefore come together in furthering the scope covered in counselling psychology. The humanistic approach stands out in that it provides a solution that is created as per an individual’s unique nature. In a nutshell, the approach has assisted counselling psychology by offering an extra distinct means of counselling which has been developed over the years in restoring people’s wellbeing and growth. Bibliography Burger, JM 2008, Personality, Australia, Thomson/Wadsworth. Chan, F, Berven, N, & Thomas, KR 2004), Counselling Theories And Techniques For Rehabilitation Health Professionals, New York: Springer. Dryden, W, Strawbridge, S, & Woolfe, R 2003, Handbook Of Counselling Psychology, London [U.A.], Sage. Ingrams, J 2011, Counselling? Me? : A Guide To The Talking Therapies, London: Karnac Books. Russell, J, & Jarvis, M 2003, Angles On Applied Psychology, Cheltenham: UK, Nelson Thornes. Read More