The Humanistic Therapies
Humanistic therapy emerged in the 1950's, and although behavioural therapy and psychoanalytic methods were available, a humanistic approach offered individuals another alternative. This approach focuses on recognising human capabilities in areas such as creativity, personal growth and choice. Two major theorists associated with this approach are Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. The main goals of humanistic psychology are to find out how individuals perceive themselves here and now and to recognise growth, self-direction and responsibilities. This method is optimistic and attempts to help individuals recognise their strengths by offering a non-judgemental, understanding experience.
Person-Centred Counselling
(also known as “Client-Centred” or "Rogerian” counselling)
This approach to counselling and psychotherapy sees human beings as having an innate tendency to develop towards their full potential. But this is inevitably blocked or distorted by our life experiences, in particular those who tell us we are only loved or valued if we behave in certain ways and not others, or have certain feelings and not others. As a result, because we have a deep need to feel valued, we tend to distort or deny to our awareness those of our inner experiences that we believe will not be acceptable. The counsellor or psychotherapist in this approach aims to provide an environment in which the client does not feel under threat or judgement. This enables the client to experience and accept more of who they are as a person, and reconnect with their own values and sense of self-worth. This reconnection with their inner resources enables them to find their own way to move forward. The counsellor or psychotherapist works to understand the client's experience from the client's point of view, and to positively value the client as a person in all aspects of their humanity, while aiming to be open and genuine as another human being. These attitudes of the therapist towards the client will only be helpful if the client experiences them as real within the relationship, and so the nature of the relationship that the counsellor and client create between themselves is crucial for the success of therapy.
Practitioners who use Person Centred Counselling at The Banbury Therapy Centre are:
Carole Mawle
Gestalt Therapy
Gestalt Therapy focuses on the whole of an individual's experience; their thoughts, feelings and actions, and concentrates on the 'here and now' - what is happening from one moment to the next. Roughly translated from German, Gestalt means 'whole' and was developed in the 1940's by Fritz Perls. The main goal of this approach is for the individual to become more self-aware, taking into account their mind, body and soul. A therapist will constantly promote the client's awareness of themselves and often uses experiments that are created by the therapist and client. These experiments can be anything from creating patterns with objects and writing to role-playing. Promoting self-awareness is the main objective of gestalt therapy but other areas such as improving the ability to support ones emotional feelings are also important. Gestalt therapy is influenced by psychoanalytic theory and therapists will concentrate on 'here and now' experiences to remove obstacles created by past experiences.
Rachel Young practices Gestalt Psychotherapy at The Banbury Therapy Centre
Transactional Analysis
Transactional Analysis is a theory that involves an individual's growth and development. It is also a theory related to communication and child development explaining the connections to our past and how this influences decisions we make. Transactional Analysis was developed during the late 1950's by psychiatrist Eric Berne. Berne recognised three key “ego-states” - Parent, Adult and Child. The Parent ego state is a set of thoughts, feelings and behaviours we leant from our parents and other important people. The Adult ego state relates to direct responses to the 'here and now' that are not influenced by our past. The Child ego state is a set of thoughts, feelings and behaviours learnt from our childhood. The ego-states are useful for analysing unconscious scripts and "games" people play. Transactional Analysis seeks to identify what goes wrong in communication and provide opportunities for individuals to change repetitive patterns that limit their potential. It encourages individuals to analyse previous decisions they have made to understand the direction and patterns of their life for themselves. It also helps clients to trust their decisions and think/act as an individual improving the way they feel about themselves. TA is a humanistic approach and like Person-Centred Counselling focuses on the here and now concept.
Existentialist Therapy
Existential psychotherapy is a way of looking at the human condition that elevates the potential of humanity. It is an optimistic theory that takes humanity very seriously. Nonetheless, it remains a realistic approach by recognizing the limitations of humans. Yalom, a much respected Existential psychotherapist cited four main givens of death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness. These are the fundamental areas that cause us anxiety and dread, as well as joy and growth. Existential psychotherapy is a philosophy similar to humanistic and psychodynamic theories. Humanistic existential psychotherapy is based on theories from Abraham Maslow’s studies of human needs and also combines with Carl Roger’s person-centered therapy.
Benn Kiley practices Existential Therapy at The Banbury Therapy Centre
Integrative Therapy
Integrative therapy aims to take all of these styles into account and arrive at a multi-dimensional model that is created uniquely for each individual client. A good way to understand this is to think of each different model as a story. If you imagine hearing many separate stories about the same event, it is inevitable that each one will express certain aspects with accuracy and style and ignore other, crucial details. Luckily, the important parts left out of one story are sure to be revealed in another, so it's a question of picking your stories wisely and combining them to arrive at the richest account. It is likely though that different stories will disagree, particularly if they are about something as complicated as an individual, and the skill for the therapist lies in managing this conflict and knowing when switching from one story to another might bring us closer to the truth.
Many of our therapists at The Banbury Therapy Centre use their understanding of the different models of psychotherapy and counselling in an integrative way.