The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.
— Carl Rogers
What Is Humanistic Therapy?
One of the descriptors of my counseling practice is that it is Humanistic, but what, exactly, does that mean? Humanistic Therapy is based on Humanism, a philosophy that had its beginnings with Greek and Roman philosophers and became a movement during the Renaissance.
In the 1950s Humanistic Therapy emerged as a reaction to Freud’s Psychoanalysis (too focused on the unconscious) and B.F. Skinner’s Behaviorism (too mechanistic). Carl Rogers, one of the founders of the movement, was known for an approach he called client-centered therapy. For Rogers, the therapist should provide empathy and what he called, “unconditional positive regard.”
I have always seen Humanistic Therapy as one in which the client is the expert on themselves; they know themselves better than anyone else. They come with their problems and within those problems are the seeds of the solutions. I am merely their “guide on the side,” helping the client to see the answers already within them. That’s what we, together, will be doing, as we co-create a path forward.
