Joyce is a successful teacher and is liked by her colleagues. However, Joyce has always dreamed of becoming a ballroom dancer. She spends much of her free time with her partner practicing elaborate lifts and can often be seen twirling around the classroom during break times. Joyce is considering leaving teaching and becoming a professional dancer. Referring to features of humanistic psychology, explain how Joyce’s situation may affect her personal growth. [8 marks]. How Is Person Centered Therapy Different from Other Therapy Techniques?

Behavior is basically the goal-directed attempt of the organism to satisfy its needs as experienced, in the field as perceived. It has been criticized as potentially inauthentic, as it might require therapists to suppress their own feelings and judgments. All individuals (organisms) exist in a continually changing world of experience (phenomenal field) of which they are the center. As a result of interaction with the environment, and particularly as a result of evaluational interaction with others, the structure of the self is formed – an organized, fluid but consistent conceptual pattern of perceptions of characteristics and relationships of the “I” or the “me”, together with values attached to these concepts.

Stage 7

The person-centered counselor is thus careful to always maintain a positive attitude to the client, even when disgusted by the client’s actions. Empathy These conditions of worth can create a discrepancy between a person’s real self and ideal self, possibly leading to incongruence and psychological distress. For example For Rogers, fully functioning people are well-adjusted, well-balanced, and interesting to know. Often such people are high achievers in society. It is not, in my estimation, a state of virtue, or contentment, or nirvana, or happiness. It is not a condition in which the individual is adjusted or fulfilled or actualized. Carl Rogers applied his experiences with adult therapy to the education process and developed the concept of learner-centered teaching. He had the following five hypotheses regarding learner-centered education:

Self-worth may be seen as a continuum from very high to very low. To Carl Rogers (1959), a person with high self-worth, that is, has confidence and positive feelings about him or herself, faces challenges in life, accepts failure and unhappiness at times, and is open with people. Unconditional positive regard can be used by parents, teachers, mentors, and social workers in their relationships with children, to foster a positive sense of self-worth and lead to better outcomes in adulthood. For example This may hinder the development of their true self and could contribute to struggles with self-esteem and self-acceptance. The very essence of the creative is its novelty, and hence we have no standard by which to judge it. It’s not unusual for people who train in person-centred therapy to take those conditions of empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard into their own daily lives, using them in their interactions with people other than clients.We’re all human beings, and sometimes our ‘volume control’ on the core conditions can turn up and down. In many ways, Rogers regarded the fully functioning person as an ideal and one that people do not ultimately achieve. Rogers, C. (1975). Empathic: An unappreciated way of being. The counseling psychologist, 5(2), 2-10. A person’s ideal self may not be consistent with what actually happens in life and the experiences of the person. Hence, a difference may exist between a person’s ideal self and actual experience. This is called incongruence. This complete acceptance and valuing of the client facilitates a positive and trusting relationship between the client and therapist, enabling the client to share openly and honestly. Limitations