Humanistic Therapy

According to Simply Psychology, humanistic psychology rejects the behaviorist approach, which focuses on scientific and objective investigation methods, and the psychodynamic approach, which supports the idea that behavior and feelings are affected by unconscious motives. Instead, according to Simply Psychology, it offers:

In general, humanism uses a non-scientific approach to studying humans and human behavior. Some of the areas that humanism psychology explores are hard to study by scientific standards. Perhaps these are reasons they are not widely used in psychology when compared to other approaches, Simply Psychology reports.

Still, it does offer people in recovery an opportunity to go deep beyond the surface and understand themselves and their addiction or substance abuse problem in more meaningful ways.

If you or your loved one is looking for a humanistic therapist, make sure the person is a licensed and experienced mental health care professional who demonstrates they understand the psychotherapy and all that it entails.

Humanistic therapy encourages recovering substance users to take an active role in their recovery and come up with their own answers of how to live substance-free. They work to accomplish this in a safe, no-judgment zone along with an understanding therapist to help guide them on their personal paths.

The two widely practiced techniques in humanistic therapy are gestalt therapy and client-centered therapy, which also is known as person-centered therapy

Gestalt therapy is said to focus on thoughts and feelings here and now instead of the root causes while client-centered therapy provides a supportive environment in which clients can reestablish their true identity.

Here, we will look at each one and how they can help people who seek addiction treatment.

“When trying to make sense of the world around us, Gestalt psychology suggests that we do not simply focus on every small component.  Instead, our minds tend to perceive objects as part of a greater whole and as elements of more complex systems,” it writes.

Gestalt therapy was influenced by this psychology, the institute says, as it is a therapy that considers the whole person and the obstacles that affect the functioning of the whole in the context of the present.

According to thebook, Gestalt Therapy: Advances in Theory and Practice, healing and rehabilitation through growth are the therapy’s main goals.

If you want to become aware of your emotions in the present and gain insight into what is happening to you in your life right now, then gestalt therapy may be right for you. The client-centered therapy does not require a focus on the past nor does it encourage clients to perceive what is happening based on interpretations of their past experiences.  “Instead of simply talking about past situations, clients are encouraged to experience them, perhaps through re-enactment,” Psychology Todayexplains.

A client’s past is not ignored, however. Therapists help clients see how what they have been through shapes how they see themselves and their experiences in the present. People who want to improve their self-awareness but need help in seeing and understanding what role they play in their own unhappiness are good candidates for this psychotherapy, according to Psychology Today.

This space is also needed to encourage clients to open up and share their thoughts, feelings, and perceptions and be open to trying new behaviors.

Gestalt.org explains, “Patients can see, hear, and be told how they are experienced, what is seen, how the therapist feels, and what the therapist is like as a person. Growth occurs from real contact between real people. Patients learn how they are seen and how their awareness process is limited, not primarily by talking about their problems, but by how they and the therapist engage each other.”

Gestalt therapists should be genuine, warm, caring, authentic, and nonjudgmental as they are responsible for many tasks that are designed to help the client have a successful outcome. Some of those tasks include:

While therapists are there to be a sounding board and a source of encouragement as clients explore their personal issues and conflicts, it is the clients who are expected to do their own seeing, feeling, sensing, and interpreting during the therapy process. This allows them to take responsibility for their feelings, thoughts, and actions, and see and accept themselves as they truly are.

How Does Gestalt Therapy Work in Addiction Treatment?

Gestalt therapy has been used to treat substance use disorders, mental health disorders, eating disorders, traumatic experiences, and other conditions involving compulsive behavior. It is also is used to address life challenges, such as conflicts in family and couple relationships and grief and loss, among others.

Many people mistakenly believe that going to detox and then going right back out into the world is all that’s needed to adequately address substance addiction. That is not true. It is not enough to only treat the physical part of addiction; the mental and emotional and perhaps spiritual parts of the person must all be examined, too, if true recovery is to take place. Understanding the self is a key part in helping recovering substance users to feel empowered to put their lives back together. Gestalt therapy can help clients start this exploration into the factors and situations that led them to use and abuse addictive substances.

Gestalt therapy can be used as a part of addiction treatment that can be a short intervention or it can last for a longer time if needed. The length of therapy depends on the individual needs of the client and the severity of the person’s addiction or mental health disorder. A licensed psychologist who is experienced in gestalt therapy are ideal to steer clients through this process, which should lead them into a greater awareness about their own patterns of negative thinking and behaving that leave them feeling unhappy or unsatisfied.

Benefits of gestalt therapy in addiction treatment

Common Techniques that are Used in Gestalt Therapy

Client-Centered Therapy

Client-centered therapy was developed by renowned U.S. psychologist Carl Rogers in the 1940s. It goes by several names, including client-centered counseling, client-centered therapy, non-directive therapy, or Rogerian therapy. This counseling approach is humanistic and based on Rogers’ belief that all people are fundamentally good and has the ability to fulfill their potential.

What Is Client-Centered Therapy?

Client-centered therapy moves away from the traditional model of the therapist being the expert. Rather, in client-centered therapy, the client is regarded as the expert, and it is the therapist who listens to the client and is “there to encourage and support the client and to guide the therapeutic process without interrupting or interfering with the client’s process of self-discovery,” writes Psychology Today. Some say this approach promotes the client to feel empowered while discovering their emotions, decisions, and habits as they work toward the life they want.

Therapist’s Attitude Can Make a Difference

Client-centered therapy, also known as person-centered therapy, is different because it focuses on the humanistic approach, not therapeutic techniques, such as an emphasis on boundaries of time. “What’s most important in client-centered therapy is the quality of the relationship between the therapist and the client,” Study.com writes on its website. Client-centered counselors may practice differently and not use orthodox counseling approaches.

The therapist’s attitude is also important, and some say it matters more than mental health professional’s skill sets.The following three guiding principles that reflect the attitude of therapists help determine the success of the therapy:

Also, in this kind of therapy, the emphasis is on the client being in the driver’s seat. That person is solely responsible for taking the necessary steps to make changes that lead to a better life.

Finding a balance between who a person is and who a person wants to be is a key goal in this kind of therapy.

Client-centered therapy can help people in recovery in several ways. First, it takes the emphasis off the substance and the behavior and broadens the focus to include the whole person and that person’s perception of reality. Instead of only looking at the addiction, it requires them to examine how they have battled with an addiction to certain substances and why they engaged in certain behaviors when those substances were used.

This kind of therapy also helps people in recovery change how they see themselves as they work to improve their self-image and increase their self-esteem. They must be open to cope with their thoughts, feelings, and motivations that will reveal themselves as they face the causes of their addiction. This kind of therapy provides the safe setting needed for them to do that.

It will give them the tools to go deeper and take a look at themselves as a whole person and how they are connected to how they see themselves “within a complex web of personal, sociohistorical realities,” writes Wycliff Matanada, MA, for PsychCentral.com.

Client-centered therapy also forces people in recovery to face their truth without outside distractions but with the support of an understanding, compassionate therapist who remains open to what their perspective is as they find the best path to sobriety for them.

It is common for facilities to incorporate it into their residential programs or outpatient programs for people who are recovering from addiction, alcoholism, eating disorders, and other mental health disorders.

Benefits of client-centered therapy in addiction treatment

Get Addiction Treatment Today

There is no one-size-fits all approach to motivating people in recovery to get on the path to sobriety and stay the course after a battle with substance abuse. As with many other things, it takes different things for different people to commit.

For some people, a 12-step fellowship is the way to go while others may find the SMART Recovery approach starts the ball rolling in the right direction. Yet, for others in addiction recovery, participating in humanistic therapy may be just what they need to put addiction behind once and for all.

As one of the premier drug and alcohol treatment centers, Pathway to Hope has created treatment programs that give you the motivation you need to continue succeeding and thriving in your recovery, and they can be tailored to fit your current and future needs.