430 Chapter 12 Approaches to Treatment and Therapy
explore what is going on “here and now,” not past
issues of “why and how.”
In client-centered therapy, developed by Carl
Rogers (1902–1987), one of the most eminent
clinical psychologists of the twentieth century, the
therapist’s role is to listen to the client’s needs in an
accepting, nonjudgmental way and to offer what
Rogers called unconditional positive regard. Whatever
the client’s specific complaint is, the goal is to build
the client’s self-esteem and self-acceptance and
help the client find a more productive way of see-
ing his or her problems. A Rogerian might assume
that Murray’s procrastination masks his low self-
regard and that Murray is out of touch with his real
feelings and wishes. Perhaps he is not passing his
courses because he is trying to please his parents by
majoring in pre-law when he would secretly rather
become an artist.
Rogers (1951, 1961) believed that effective ther-
apists must be warm and genuine. For Rogerians,
empathy, the therapist’s ability to understand what
the client says and identify the client’s feelings, is the
crucial ingredient of successful therapy: “I under-
stand how frustrated you must be feeling, Murray,
because no matter how hard you try, you don’t
succeed.” The client will eventually internalize the
therapist’s support and become more self-accepting.
Watch the Video Classic Footage of Carl Rogers
on the Role of a Therapist at MyPsychLab
Existential therapy helps clients face the great
questions of existence, such as death, freedom,
loneliness, and meaninglessness. Existential thera-
pists, like humanist therapists, believe that our
lives are not inevitably determined by our pasts
or our circumstances; we have the free will to
choose our own destinies. As Irvin Yalom (1989)
explained, “The crucial first step in therapy is the
patient’s assumption of responsibility for his or
her life predicament. As long as one believes thatclient-centered
therapy A humanist ap-
proach, devised by Carl
Rogers, which empha-
sizes the therapist’s em-
pathy with the client and
the use of unconditional
positive regard.
existential therapy A
form of therapy designed
to help clients explore
the meaning of exis-
tence and face the great
questions of life, such
as death, freedom, and
loneliness.
thoughts. They argue that it is difficult to com-
pletely eliminate unwanted thoughts and feelings,
especially when people have been rehearsing them
for years. They therefore propose a form of CBT
based on “mindfulness” and “acceptance”: Clients
learn to explicitly identify and accept whatever
negative thoughts and feelings arise, without
trying to eradicate them or letting them derail
healthy behavior (Hayes, Follette, & Linehan,
2004). Instead of trying to persuade a client who is
afraid of making public speeches that her fear is ir-
rational, therapists who adopt this approach would
encourage her to accept the anxious thoughts and
feelings without judging them, or herself, harshly.
Then she can focus on coping techniques and
ways of giving speeches despite her anxiety.
Another version of mindfulness-based cogni-
tive therapy adds the Eastern tradition of “atten-
tional breathing,” which a client practices when
he or she is in a low mood or embarking on a
downward spiral of negative, depressive thoughts
(Coelho, Canter, & Ernst, 2007; Segal, Teasdale,
& Williams, 2004). By sitting quietly and focusing
attention on the present moment, especially on
awareness of one’s breath, a person can interrupt
the negative thinking before it goes too far.Humanist and Existential
Therapy LO 12.7
In the 1960s, humanist psychologists rejected the
two dominant psychological approaches of the
time, psychoanalysis and behaviorism. Humanists
regarded psychoanalysis, with its emphasis on
dangerous sexual and aggressive impulses, as too
pessimistic a view of human nature, one that
overlooked human resilience and the capacity for
joy. And humanists regarded behaviorism, with its
emphasis on observable acts, as too mechanistic
and “mindless” a view of human nature, one that
ignored what really matters to most people—their
hopes and aspirations. In the humanists’ view, hu-
man behavior is not completely determined by
either unconscious conflicts or the environment.
Because people have free will, they have the ability
to make more of themselves than either psycho-
analysts or behaviorists would predict. The goal
of humanist psychology was, and still is, to help
people express themselves creatively and achieve
their full potential.
Humanist therapy therefore starts from the as-
sumption that human nature is basically good and
that people behave badly or develop problems
when they have been warped by self- imposed
limits. Humanist therapists want to know how
clients subjectively see their own situations and
how they construe the world around them. Theyhumanist therapy A
form of psychotherapy
based on the philosophy
of humanism, which em-
phasizes the client’s free
will to change rather than
past conflicts.
Humanist therapists emphasize the importance of
warmth, concern, and empathy in listening to the client.