Professional Documents
Culture Documents
141
functioning: first, a phenomenological perspective with an emphasis on subjec-
tive experiencing; second, a belief in the actualizing or growth tendency; third,
a view of the person as an agent capable of self-awareness, self-determination
and choice; and fourth, a style of interpersonal relating that respects and val-
ues the other while struggling to fully understand the other’s experience.
One of the most important tenets of humanistic–experiential psycho-
therapies is the emphasis placed on humans’ phenomenological experience.
Phenomenology is the study of consciousness from a first-person perspective and
the ability to think about prereflective experience and bring it into conscious
awareness. It is the attempt to understand people’s subjective worldviews,
including their feelings, perceptions, values, and construals.
A second major assumption underlying humanistic approaches is a belief
in a growth tendency. Human beings are capable of evolving and striving
toward growth and development. They are not concerned with the mainte-
nance of stability only but dream and aspire to different ways of being. Accord-
ing to this view, human beings are forward-looking, influenced by their goals
for the future as well as the present moment and their past experiences. Carl
Rogers saw the actualizing tendency as a biological imperative, with all systems
moving toward greater and greater complexity. Others saw it as more than a
biological tendency operating within the individual’s consciousness and aware-
ness; they saw it as a directional tendency that places the self at the center in
a more or less intentional search for meaning (Tageson, 1982).
The third assumption sees human beings as self-reflective agents with
the capacity to symbolize and use language so that they can reflect on expe-
rience and choose between different courses of action. The capacity to be self-
reflective distinguishes humans from other sentient beings and provides them
with the capacity to grow and change. People are beings who symbolize expe-
riences and for whom things matter and have significance (Taylor, 1990).
People become alerted to the significance and importance of things by their
feelings and desires. Through their feelings, people come to understand the
impact of their experiences, gain an understanding of how they need to
respond, and communicate with others (Greenberg, Rice, & Elliott, 1993;
Rogers, 1959; Taylor, 1990; Watson & Greenberg, 1996). According to this
view, people are agents who have the capacity to choose among competing
wishes, desires, needs, and values. Taylor (1990) referred to this capacity to
choose as second-order valuing: a type of reflection that is more than just under-
standing and is based on making choices that are consistent with a person’s
deepest values and desires. The capacity for self-reflection is fostered in
humanistic psychotherapy as clients come to know their feelings, desires, val-
ues, and assumptions and develop their capacity to choose among these com-
peting experiences to live in ways that are more personally meaningful and
fulfilling (Watson & Greenberg, 1996).
CLIENT-CENTERED THERAPY
Carl Rogers was the developer and leading proponent of the person-
centered approach in the United States. He was born on January 8, 1902, in
Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago. His father was a civil engineer and his mother
a homemaker. Carl was the fourth of six children and received a strict reli-
gious education. Initially he thought he would study agriculture, but then he
changed to religion and spent 2 years at Union Theological Seminary in New
GESTALT THERAPY
EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPY
Client-Centered
Experiential Psychotherapy
Gestalt Therapy
Neuroscience
Qualitative Research
REFERENCES