Page 9 - Workbook - CLC Action

CREATING LASTING CHANGE ™

2. Humanistic: Humanistic therapy assists the patient in moving toward self-improvement.
This type of therapy represents a general approach to understanding human beings and
is not based on preconceived ideas about the present condition or past life of the patient.
It is based on an optimistic view of people and the assumption that patients can improve
through their own effort with some guidance from the therapist. The therapist gives aid and
some direction, but the patient holds the key to success in therapy. Therapists’ activities
vary among the different humanistic therapies. Emphasis is placed on the patient’s feelings;
the therapist works to redirect those feelings.

3 Main Types:

1) Client-Centered / Nondirective Psychotherapy: Carl Ransom Rogers (1902-1987)
Rogers believed that every person could achieve their goals, wishes and desires
in life, leading, if successful, to self-actualization.

2) Existential: Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
Maslow stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs and that some
needs take precedence over others.

3) Gestalt: Karl Lewin (1890-1947); Frederick “Fritz” Perls (1922-1990)
Gestalt therapy is an existential / experiential form of psychotherapy that
emphasizes personal responsibility and focuses upon the individual’s experience
in the present moment.

3. Behavioral: Behavioral therapy emphasizes changing specific maladaptive behaviors in
precise and measurable ways. These therapies were originally developed from “accidental”
discoveries in experimental psychology and physiology labs.
3 Main Contributors:

1) John B. Watson (1879-1958) Watson’s work was based on Pavlov's, which you
might be familiar with because of his dog experiments.
Both believed that everything from speech to emotional responses was simply a
pattern of stimulus and response, independent of the mind.

2) Burrhus F. Skinner (1904-1990)
B.F. Skinner’s work focused on the idea that behavior that is followed by pleasant
consequences is likely to be repeated, and behavior followed by unpleasant
consequences is less likely to be repeated.
3) John Wolpe (1915-1997)
Wolpe developed a conditioning therapy that curbed the fear response of a phobia
by gradually substituting a relaxation response to the conditional stimulus.

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