The core belief in humanistic psychology is that people are intrinsically good. It focuses on moral issues and values. Humanism focuses on our intentionality, and it considers what the motivations or driving forces in human behavior are. Its also called person-centered therapy or Rogerian therapy, and one of the goals is self-actualization.

The movement of humanism happened in the late 1950s. It as a response to be behaviorist and psychoanalytic theory. Humanists believed that behavioral psychologists werent considering fundamental parts of human consciousness. A critical piece of humanistic psychology is that it starts by focusing on the person. The individual is responsible for their behavior, but can also help themselves with the assistance of a therapist. Humanistic psychologists saw that by focusing on action alone, we were missing a fundamental piece of human psychology and how to help people. In 1957, Abraham Maslow and Clark Moustakas did work that was instrumental in helping to form humanistic psychology. They met with other professionals and talked about self-actualization and individuality and the intrinsic human nature toward being good and well-intended. They received funding from Brandeis university and formed the Association for Humanistic Psychology. Some of the other notable famous contributors to the school of humanistic psychology were Carl Rogers, Charlotte Bueller, Henry Murray, Paul Wong, and Fritz Pearls.

Here are some of the key tenets and beliefs affiliated with humanistic psychology:

Humanistic psychologists use techniques that impact their patients ability to believe in and help themselves. They believe in fostering human nature and whats intrinsic to us. They implement Carl Rogerss ideas of person-centered therapy, where they encourage the client to feel that they have autonomy and the wisdom to solve their problems. Some of the things that humanistic psychology helps with is helping people understand that they have free will, the ability to do good, confidence, and self-actualization. The therapist has unconditional positive regard for their clients and is non-judgmental, which fosters many of these positive attributes.

Some people believe that humanistic psychology is too lenient and that its not structured enough to help the client; that it focuses too much on the client relying on themselves for help and that the therapist doesnt intervene enough. However, many people believe that empowering the client is a good thing that leads to the long-term sustained ability to help oneself in and outside of therapy. Therapy is a place to develop coping skills, learn to manage emotions, and learn to work through problems in a productive and healthy way, so despite potential criticisms of humanistic psychology, empowering individuals do have a positive effect on mental health treatment.

If youre looking for a humanistic psychologist or someone who will implement ideas from humanistic psychology in your care, you can find one either in your local area or online therapy. Both are excellent places to work through issues surrounding individuality, your identity, and feeling empowered to help yourself. It can be scary to seek out therapy, but meeting with a humanistic psychologist can help you learn that you are valuable and able to help yourself.

stock photo ID: 592980743

Original post:
Humanistic Psychologists Help Us Understand That Human Beings Are Trying to Do the Right Thing - The Good Men Project