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Tabaquirao, Mary Cris

BS Psych-2C

Prof. Kristoffer Ryan, Gidaya

Theories of Personality

19 0ctober 2022

Reflection Paper 3 _ Humanistic/Existential Psychology

Humanistic Spirituality Reflection Paper God created everyone different and because of this,

everyone handles things in a different way. Whether it be mental or physical issues, every person

has a way of dealing and coping with these issues differently. When someone gets physically

injured, they may need to have physical therapy in order to strengthen their body and make it

well for them to function again. If someone has a mental injury, they will require psychotherapy

or counseling in order to overcome the mental barriers that have affected their lives. There are

many different types of psychotherapy, theories and approaches that a counselor must know and

understand in order to help each client, because everyone is programmed different. Existential

and Person-Centered (Rogerian) therapy are just a couple of examples of the different types of

psychotherapies. Existential therapy is what some consider a philosophical approach rather than

a certain set style of therapy (Corey, 2017). Existential therapy falls into the category of

experiential and relationship-oriented therapies. The main goal of it is to help the client find their

purpose in human existence and help them face the challenges of life knowing that they have free

will and accept personal responsibility for the path of their life. No matter what a person has

done in the past, that person has the power to change the life that they have been living and the
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therapist is more of a help mate to assist the client in finding and being honest with the

self-awareness of the client. With this therapy the counselor is to help the client face the “givens

of life” that empower them every day. These givens of life include death, freedom, isolation and

the meaningless feeling that the client feels (Good Therapy, 2019). Person-Centered therapy

(Rogerian Therapy) was brought about by Carl Rogers in the 1940’s, he challenged the idea that

other people had of the counselor knows best. When dealing with a client in person-centered

therapy, the roles are reversed, and the client is in control of the process. The therapist that is

dealing with a client in this category of therapy must have 3 basic characteristics, genuineness,

acceptance, and empathy (McLeod, 2019). The therapist in person centered therapy serves as

help mate to the client, offering guidance, support and structure to the client, this is almost the

same principle as existential therapy only the client is in the lead. Person-centered therapy allows

the client to recognize and find their true self and on to the path of recovery by being honest with

themselves and knowing that they are in control of their lives. This humanistic approach to

therapy lets the client see that they are not the person that they have become, and it is up to them

to take the responsibility in taking the new road to themselves. As I write this paper, I see

existential and person-centered therapy related to religion as the Trinity in a way. In the trinity

you have the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, as in these two therapies, there is still the

Father which is God that never leaves us or forsakes us. Then in a sense, the client is the Son,

and the therapist becomes the Holy Spirit or help mate to help guide the person back on to the

road that they are destined to be on. These two therapies are especially good when a person has

lost their self- identity, just as a Christian that has slipped back into the fallen world. Just as a

Christian must believe in Jesus Christ and keep faith in God, clients that are in these type
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therapies must also gain the strength and power to get their lives back from God, their inner self

and never lose faith. God gave us free will freedom to choose the lifestyle that we live, some just

get lost and need to be brought back to the realization of God and self, with the help of

existential or person-centered therapy they can find their way back out of the pit of hell they

have been living.

References

Corey, G. (2017). Theory and practice of counseling psychotherapy (10th ed.). Boston, MA:

Cengage Learning. ISBN-13: 978130526372. Retrieved from October 17 ,2022

https://viewer.gcu.edu/CGtxeq

Good Therapy. (2019). Existential psychotherapy. Retrieved from October 17 ,2022

https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/existential-psychotherapy McLeod, S.

(2019). Person centered therapy. Retrieved from October 17 ,2022

https://www.simplypsychology.org/client-centred-therapy.htm