Humanistic Approach In Therapeutic Counselling

The humanistic approach has been used in the area of therapeutic counselling for over five decades. Even with the existence of various other forms of counselling, the humanistic methodology has proved to be exceedingly successful.
Humanistic counselling came about when psychologists and therapists desired a different insight into psychology and therapy than the ways of behavioural or psychoanalytic psychology and thus it became known as the ‘third force’ in psychology. The foundations of the humanistic approach places emphasis on human potential for creativity, love, growth and psychological health and looks at the client holistically It encourages self-awareness and self-realization. Humanistic counsellors desire to work with a person’s

He thought that there had to be more to humans than simply rewards, punishments, and subconscious urges according to behaviorists and psychoanalysts. Maslow introduced humanistic psychology as an area to focus on the potential of people to become all that they can be. Other psychologists helped develop different elements of humanistic psychology, but Maslow is largely considered to be the father of the humanist movement in psychology. He steadfastly believed that people are motivated to reach certain needs. When one need is accomplished, a person seeks to fulfill the next one, and so on. At the top of this hierarchy Maslow believed was the possibility of self-actualization; every person is capable and has the desire to move up the hierarchy toward a level of self-actualization. This was, however, seen as a rare achievement only reached by very few people since according to his theory; all lower-level needs had to be met before self-actualization could take place. Unfortunately, advancement is often disrupted by failure to meet the lower level needs. Life experiences may cause an individual to fluctuate between levels of the hierarchy. According to Maslow, only one in a hundred people achieve full self-actualization due to our society rewarding

The application of Maslow 's hierarchy of needs theory can make a major impact on guidance counselling and teaching in schools. All students have basic needs that need to be met in order for learning to take place. It can then be said that the more needs achieved then the more the students will learn. This is particularly important to students of exceptional needs, as many times, these students’ needs are more difficult to be met Instead of summing up behaviour as a response to the environment the theory provides a holistic approach to education and learning. Maslow looks at the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual qualities of an individual as a whole and how they impact on learning. Applications of Maslow 's hierarchy theory to the operations of the classroom and guidance counselling sessions would prove to be very