Humanistic and Existential (HE) psychotherapies were established as treatment approaches that understand individuals as a whole being and living within a socially interconnected and holistic world. These two approaches are based on understanding the human experience while focusing on the patient rather than the symptoms. Additionally, this treatment approach aims at increasing the individual’s self-understanding and self-awareness.
From the humanistic perspective, human nature is considered good, with great potential of maintaining meaningful relationships, a healthy lifestyle, and making individual choices that are of interest to oneself or others (Hanis, Sadeghi, & Gholamrezae, 2020 Humanistic-Existential Psychotherapy With Other Approaches).
In the same line, existential psychology emphasizes helping people find philosophical meaning when facing psychological problems by choosing to think and act responsibly and authentically. The two approaches both aim at helping individuals free themselves from negative attitudes and assumptions so that they can enjoy fulfilling lives.
From the provided case study, Gina can best benefit from Humanistic-Existential Psychotherapy rather than other approaches, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Her psychological problem is mainly inbuilt, as she believes that she is a perfectionist and does everything possible to make others happy, even at the expense of her own satisfaction. She even relates her failures, such as her divorce, to her being a perfectionist. However, as illustrated by HE psychology, these personal assumptions displayed by Gina can best be solved through enhanced self-understanding and self-awareness (Solobutina & Miyassarova, 2020 Humanistic-Existential Psychotherapy With Other Approaches).
Consequently, the HE psychotherapist’s acceptance and empathy, in addition to the insight gained by the patient, will contribute greatly towards Gina’s recovery by availing chances for her to make new existential choices, starting with informed decisions to concentrate on herself and learn how to say no when overwhelmed. With the utilization of this approach, the patient is expected to exhibit enhanced individual and social abilities, promoting a positive attitude towards life and self-flourishing.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), on the other hand, could not be utilized with Gina, as this approach focuses on actual thoughts, somatic relations, emotions, and behaviors of the patient that took place in the past and how to cope with them, unlike HE with emphasizes the overlap to the future. Additionally, with CBT, emphasis is put on the patient’s existing symptoms and how to make changes, which is ineffective for Gina, as she needs an approach aimed at understanding her personal experience as a whole human being, as displayed in HE psychotherapy.
Lastly, Gina needs to learn how to make good choices by herself, which can only be gained through HE psychotherapy, unlike CBT, which is based on the belief that the patient is not free to be able to shape their own destiny (Heidenreich Noyon, Worrell, & Menzies, 2021 Humanistic-Existential Psychotherapy With Other Approaches). If CBT would have been utilized, the patient would have been able to accept the fact that she is a perfectionist and acquire coping mechanisms for this thought and its effects on her life.
Generally, several psychotherapeutic approaches have been established to help in the promotion of individual psychological health. However, for the optimum outcome, clinicians are encouraged to choose the most appropriate therapeutic approach regarding evidence-based practice (Solobutina & Miyassarova, 2020). For instance, in the case of Gina, several scholarly sources were utilized to support the use of HE therapies rather than CBT, among other therapeutic approaches.
Three scholarly sources were reviewed as listed in the reference. These sources are considered scholarly as they were all written by experts in psychological health. All the sources are also peer-reviewed with citations proving that the author also utilized other materials in the publication.
References
● Nasiri Hanis, G., Sadeghi, M., & Gholamrezae, S. (2020). Comparison of the effectiveness of existential, cognitive-existential, and humanistic-existential group psychotherapy on behavioral self-regulation for effective relationships in women. Family Counseling and Psychotherapy, 9(2), 145-172. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-37410/v1
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