Humanistic–existential theories.

Abstract

Carl Rogers was the leading proponent of the person-centered approach in the United States. He was born on January 8, 1902, in Oak Park, Illinois, 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 religious education. Initially, he intended to study agriculture but switched to theology and spent 2 years at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. When he was 20, after a trip to China, he began to question his faith and decided to pursue an alternative career. He transferred to Columbia Teachers College to pursue a degree in clinical psychology under the supervision of Goodwin Watson, an expert in group leadership training. He completed an internship at the Institute for Child Guidance, where he received training in psychological assessment and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The writings of John Dewey influenced his thinking and contributed to his strong commitment to the principles and methods of scientificCopyright American Psychological Association. Not for further distribution.

The Courage to Be: Using DBT Skills to Choose Who to Be in Uncertainty

“…May’s understanding of the courage inherent in being, though, points to the potential of human beings to break out of these patterns of behavior that they have created for protection in order to move past maintaining and toward fulfilling our purpose. In this way, challenging our patterns is not simply a call to do things differently but an invitation to shift efforts away from maintaining our lives and toward building the courage needed to grow to our full potential (May, 1985; Watson & Schneider, 2016).…”

“…Critical pedagogy affirms this respect for both shared and individual experience through its consideration of the ways in which people are connected to other individuals and to groups, while prioritizing the experiences of those members of society who are intentionally pushed to its margins by forces like poverty and discrimination (Kincheloe, 2008). Existential–humanistic theory builds on May’s consideration of the challenge of being, with the assertion that every person is unique and valuable and that sharing in the private worldview of another is a privilege to which we must resist bringing judgment in order to build relationships where both participants are viewed as equals (Hoffman et al, 2019; Watson & Schneider, 2016). The experience of every person—particularly those who have historically been oppressed—is different.…”

“…With this framework, we can move away from trying to find a “best” strategy as we reject the epistemology of positivism. In challenging the assumption that real knowledge is only that which can be proven through objectivist inquiry, we move toward an acceptance that objective truth does not exist and increase our ability to contend with the fact that human experience is always dependent on its context and, as such, marked by uncertainty (Cooper, 2016; Kincheloe, 2008; Watson & Schneider, 2016).…”

“…When it is assumed that we are already doing the best we can, we can free ourselves from the responsibility of maintaining our stability and begin to consider how we might best aspire to more powerful ways of being in our lives and in our relationships. This kind of self-reflection allows us to sit with and symbolize our own experience in order to bring it to our conscious awareness (Frick, 1987; Watson & Schneider, 2016). Once experience is part of conscious awareness then choices can be made about how we want to be within our contexts as they are (Watson & Schneider, 2016).…”

Comparison of the Effectiveness of Existential, Cognitive-Existential, and Humanistic-Existential Group Psychotherapy on Psychosomatic Complaints in Women With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

“…Humanistic-existential psychotherapy that developed when the humanistic psychology movement emerged in the 1950s is also derived from existential philosophy (18). It emphasizes existential certainties concerns and subjective experience (18).The humanistic-existential group psychotherapy method is a combination of concepts and applications based on existential values such as self-inquiry, struggle, and responsibility, and popular values such as spontaneity, optimism, and practicality. It is a kind of psychotherapy that, by emphasizing the current reality and by analyzing and replacing speci c patterns of response, is an encouragement to help people actuality their potential.…”