Existential and Humanistic

Therapies

Lekshmi Priya.K.B
1st MSc Psychology
What is PSYCHOTHERAPY?
• Psychotherapy is a general term that is used to
describe the process of treating psychological
disorders and mental distress. 

• During this process, a trained psychotherapist

helps the client tackle a specific or general
problem such as a particular mental illness or a
source of life stress.

• Depending on the approach used by the therapist,

a wide range of techniques and strategies can be
used. 
 Some of the major approaches to
psychotherapy include:

• Psychoanalytic Approach
• Cognitive-behavioral Approach
• Humanistic Approach
• Psychoanalytic: An approach to therapy that
involved delving into a patients thoughts and past
experiences to seek out unconscious desires or
fantasies.
•
Cognitive-behavioral: A type of psychotherapy that
involves cognitive and behavioral techniques to
change negative thoughts and maladaptive
behaviors.
•
Humanistic: A form of therapy that focuses on
helping people maximize their potential.
What is Humanistic
Psychology??
Humanistic Psychology

Humanistic psychology focus on each

individual's potential and stressed the
importance of growth and self-
actualization
•Humanistic psychology emerged during the 1950s
as a reaction to psychoanalysis and behaviorism,
which dominated psychology at the time.

•Psychoanalysis was focused on understanding the

unconscious motivations that drive behavior

•while behaviorism studied the conditioning

processes that produce behavior.
• Humanist thinkers felt that both psychoanalysis
and behaviorism were too pessimistic, either
focusing on the most tragic of emotions or failing
to take into account the role of personal choice.

• In 1962, Abraham Maslow published ”Toward a

Psychology of Being”, in which he described
humanistic psychology as the "third force" in
psychology..
1943 - Abraham Maslow described his hierarchy
of needs in "A Theory of Human Motivation" 
 Focus of Humanist
• It emphasize the role of individual

• Each individuals have potentials and stressed

the importance of growth and self actualization.

• People are innately good and mental and social

problems results in deviations from the natural
tendency.
 Criticism on Humanism
• It if often seen as too subjective, importance
of individual experience make it difficult to
study and measure human phenomena.
• There is no accurate way to measure/quantify
these qualities
 Humanistic therapies

Humanistic therapies focus on self-

development, growth and responsibilities.
They seek to help individuals recognize their
strengths, creativity and choice in the 'here
and now'.
• Three types of humanistic therapy are especially
influential

1. Client-centered therapy rejects the idea of therapists as

authorities on their clients' inner experiences. Instead,
therapists help clients change by emphasizing their
concern, care and interest.
2. Gestalt therapy emphasizes what it calls "organismic
holism," the importance of being aware of the here and
now and accepting responsibility for yourself.
3. Existential therapy focuses on free will, self-
determination and the search for meaning.
Existential Psychotherapy
• Focuses on concerns rooted in existence
• From the Latin word “existere” meaning “to
stand out””o emerge”
 Existential Psychotherapy
 Is a philosophical method of therapy that
focuses on free will, self determination and
search for meaning.
The goals of existential therapy are to enable
people to:
• successfully negotiate and come to terms with past, present and
future crises;
• become more truthful with themselves;
• widen their perspective on themselves and the world around them;
• find clarity on what their purpose in life is and how they can learn
from the past to create some-thing valuable and meaningful to live
for;
• understand themselves and others better and find ways of
effectively communicating and being with others;
• make sense of the paradoxes conflicts and dilemmas of their,
existence.
• Therapeutic Goals:
To expand self-awareness.
To increase potential choices.
To help client accept the responsibility for
their choice.
To help the client experience authentic
existence.
• Key Figures
Rollo May.
Irvin Yalom.
Viktor Frankl.
• Rollo May:
Rollo May has been instrumental in translating
some concepts drawn from existential
philosophy and applying them to
psychotherapy.
Basic concept of Existential
Psychotherapy

Being-in-the-world
 Being-in-the-world

Humans can chose their own being.The

choices that they make about being are not
just concerned with whether or not to commit
suicide but are relevant to every instant of
their lives.
 3 Forms of being on the world
• Umwelt(World around)
• Mitwelt(With world)
• Eigenwelt(Own world)
Irvin Yalom:

According to Yalom, the concerns that make up

the core of existential psychodynamics are
1.death.
2.freedom.
3.isolation.
(interpersonal,intrapersomnal,existential)
4.meaninglessness.
• Viktor Frankl:
Viktor Frankl's approach to existential theory
is known as logotherapy.
 Logotherapy
• LOGOS is a Greek word connotes “Meaning”
“spirit”
• Main purpose of logo therapy is to assist
clients in their search of meaning
According to Franckl the original term
“Logotherapy” is derived from the Greek
word, “logos”, which is defined as “meaning”.
The word “therapy” deals with the treatment
for disorders and maladjustment. Frankl’s
concept is based on the premise that our
primary motivational force is to find a
meaning in our life.
 Logotherapy

• The core of this theory is the belief that man’s

primary motivational force is search for
meaning and the work of the logotherapist
centers on helping the patient find personal
meaning in life
 Assumptions about Logotherapy

• The human being is an entity consisting of body, mind, and

spirit
• Life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most
miserable
• People have a will to meaning
• People have freedom under all circumstances to activate the
will to find meaning
• Life has a demand quality to which people must respond if
decisions are to be meaningful.
• The individual is unique
 Specific Techniques

Victor Franckl used the following techniques

1. Empty chair techniques/Multi chair

technique
2. Existential vaccume
 Empty chair techniques/Multi chair
technique
• When the client expresses a conflict with
another person, through this technique, the
client is directed to talk to that another person
who is imagined to be sitting in an empty
chair beside or across the client. This helps
the client to experience and understand the
feeling more fully. Thus, it stimulates your
thinking, highlighting your emotions and
attitudes.
 Existential vacuum
The psychological condition in which a person
doubts that life has any meaning.This new
neurosis is characterized by loss of interest and
lack of initiative.According to Viktor Frankl, the
existential vacuum is apparently a concomitant
of industrialization. When neither instinct nor
social tradition direct man toward what he
ought to do, soon he will not even know what
he wants to do, and the existential vacuum
results.
 Techniques used in logotherapy

1. Paradoxical intention
2. Dereflection
 Paradoxical intention

The harder you try to get rid of some

thought or behavior, the stronger it
seems to become.
• Paradoxical intention assist the client to
ridicule the problem
• Paradoxical intention involves asking for the
thing we fear the most. For clients who
suffer anxiety or phobias, fear can paralyze
them. But by using humor and ridicule, they
can wish for the thing they fear the most, thus
removing the fear from their intention and
relieving the anxious symptoms associated
with it.
 Dereflection

•Dereflection assist the client to ignore the

problem
 Dereflection

• Dereflection is used when a person is overly

self-absorbed on an issue or attainment of a
goal. By redirecting the attention, or
dereflecting the attention away from the self,
the person can fully become whole by thinking
about others rather than themselves.
 Application of therapy
I. Empathically understand the unique personal
world-view and self concept of he patient
II. Foster full self-awareness by encouraging the
patient to experience all facets of himself
,including those previously denied
III. Encourage full acceptance of his unique self
and his freedom and responsibility in acting
on choices
IV. Thus actualizing his full potential as a person
 Outcome of therapy

• Cognitive change
• Behavioral change
• Affective change