Humanistic Therapy focuses on the individual as a whole, taking into account the body, mind, feelings, and spirit of the person. Individuals are viewed as being responsible for their own actions and capable of taking charge of their own lives.
Humanistic therapy focuses on a client’s current ability to grow and evolve through a multitude of creative methods, rather than on the client’s past history. Humanistic therapy seeks an holistic view of each client and works to help people integrate new experiences and challenges into a new sense of self. Some of the changes that humanistic therapy seeks to foster in clients include closer agreement between the client’s idealised and actual self; better self-understanding; lower levels of defensiveness, guilt and insecurity; more positive and comfortable relationships with others; and an increased capacity to experience and express feelings the moment they occur.
There are numerous approaches to humanistic therapy including person-centered therapy, Gestalt therapy and existential therapy, as well as numerous humanistic techniques including psychodrama, transactional analysis, body work, and dream work.