Comparing Humanistic-Existential Psychotherapy with Other Approaches (Research Paper Sample)

Comparing Humanistic-Existential Psychotherapy with Other Approaches
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Comparing Humanistic-Existential Psychotherapy with Other Approaches
Psychotherapy is a broad term for mental health treatment through verbal and psychological techniques. A trained mental health professional helps a client solve an existing problem by tackling general or specific maladaptive behavior. A therapist can utilize various techniques and strategies to modify behavior and reduce mental illness symptoms. However, almost all approaches involve the creation of a therapeutic approach, communication, and creating a dialogue to overcome disturbing thoughts or behavior. Some of the most common approaches include Humanistic-existential, interpersonal therapy, and cognitive behavior therapy. It is the therapist's role to understand the strengths of each approach and its appropriateness for the client. A comparison of Humanistic-existential therapy and cognitive behavior therapy can provide a succinct description of each approach to identify their efficacy on different mental health patient presentations.
Brief Description of the Two Approaches
Human and existential approaches to psychotherapy utilize a wide range of strategies in case conceptualization, therapeutic goals, interventions, and research methodologies. Nonetheless, they emphasize understanding human experience by focusing more on the client than the symptoms. The collective argument is that maladaptive behavior like substance abuse is a consequence of a patient's inability to make meaningful, self-directed, and veritable choices in life (Heidenreich et al., 2021). The humanistic approach focuses on acceptance and growth, while existential therapy is about responsibility and freedom. However, the two approaches come to this conclusion from different perspectives.
The humanistic approach maintains that humans are good, potentially for maintaining healthy and meaningful relationships. The therapist works to free clients from disabling assumptions and attitudes towards a more satisfying life by emphasizing growth and self-actualization instead of alleviating disease (Heidenreich et al., 2021). Alternatively, the existential approach helps the client to identify meaning in their mental health challenges by acting with a sense of authenticity and responsibility. The therapist helps clients solve these challenges with the view that human behavior results from biology, culture, and luck (Heidenreich et al., 2021). In general, humanistic-existential promotes recovery by providing an opportunity to make new existential choices by enabling the client to make informed choices from maladaptive behavior.
An alternative to Humanistic-existential therapy is Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. It seeks to identify and solve destructive or disturbing thought patterns that negatively impact behavior and emotions (Fernández-Álvarez et al., 2018). The therapist focuses on changing this behavior with a more objective and realistic perspective. Nevertheless, the process is often difficult for introspective people, but it can, ultimately, help towards self-discovery and provide insights that form a crucial link to the treatment process (Fernández-Álvarez et al., 2018). Doing so involves setting goals and making changes to improve one’s health and life. The mental health practitioner achieves this by identifying goals, differentiating between short and long-term goals, setting SMART objectives, and focusing on the process towards goal achievement. Self-monitoring is inevitable as a critical component of the CBT process to track behavior and symptoms while sharing them with the therapist.
Differences in Therapies
CBT and humanistic-existential therapy differ in concept and approach to therapy. As earlier mentioned, CBT seeks to understand the origin and maintaining factors of a client's actual thoughts, emotions, behavior, and stressors to solve behavioral challenges. Alternatively, humanistic-existential therapy is about finding meaning, purpose, and meaning in life by solving the fear of the unknown in the future (Rey, 2018). The client has the will and ability to determine their future by being less anxious and more realistic. In addition, unlike CBT, humanistic-existential therapy emphasizes conscious choice using concepts of human consciousness, freedom, reality, responsibility, and engagement.
Moreover, humanistic-existential therapy is optimistic and utilizes a positive approach focusing on a client’s potential. In contrast, CBT is about training a client on new thought processes toward behavior modification. It is all about changing existing thoughts and behavior rather than making one a better person.
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Joe complains that he is not feeling very alive even after attending therapy two years ago for some anger issues. He complains of feeling constricted and struggling to understand his current situation. Humanistic-existential therapy is appropriate for him because it helped him develop self-awareness and choice. By failing to identify where he is in life, the approach is a credible choice for creating meaningful relati