Clinical: Humanistic and Constructivist Psychotherapies

Clinical Psychology

The specialty concerned with the study, diagnosis, and treatment of psychological and behavioral disorders.

Inferiority Feelings

According to Adler, these develop in childhood as the result of real or perceived biological, psychological, or social weaknesses

Striving for Superiority

According to Adler, this is an inherent tendency toward “perfect completion”

Style of Life

According to Adler, this is the specific ways a person chooses to compensate for inferiority and achieve superiority. It unifies various aspects of personality and is affected by early experiences (e.g., being pampered or neglected), prior to age 4-5

Teleological Approach

A key feature of Adler’s Individual Psychology, which views behavior as motivated by a person’s future goals rather than past events.

Healthy Style of Life

According to Adler, this is characterized by optimism, confidence, and concern about the welfare of others

Mistaken Style of Life

According to Adler, this is characterized by self-centeredness, competition, and striving for personal power

Lifestyle Investigation

A technique in Adlerian therapy that involves exploring family constellation, fictional (hidden) goals, and “basic mistakes” (distorted beliefs and attitudes)

Basic Mistakes

According to Adler, these are distorted beliefs and attitudes

Systematic Training for Effective Teaching (STET)

This is based on Adlerian therapy; it assumes all of children’s behavior is goal-directed and purposeful for belonging, namely through attention, power, revenge, or to display deficiency

Humanistic Psychotherapies

A group of psychotherapies that 1) take a phenomenological approach, 2) focus on current behaviors, 3) believe in the individual’s inherent potential for self-determination and self-actualization, 4) emphasize an authentic, collaborative, and egalitarian relationship between therapist and client, and 5) reject traditional assessment techniques and diagnostic labels

Person-Centered Therapy

A type of therapy that originated with Carl Rogers

Unconditional Positive Regard, Genuineness (Congruence), and Accurate Empathic
Understanding

The three main techniques used in Person-Centered Therapy

Gestalt Therapy

This therapy originated with Fritz Perls

The self and the self-image

According to Fritz Perls, these are the two components of personality

Self-Image

According to Fritz Perls, this is the “darker side” of personality that hinders growth by imposing external standards

Self

According to Fritz Perls, this is the creative aspect of personality that promotes self-actualization (the ability to live as a fully integrated person)

Boundary Disturbances

According to Perls, these represent a disturbance between the self and the environment, interfering with a person’s ability to satisfy their needs and maintain homeostasis

Introjection

According to Perls, this boundary disturbance is characterized by a person psychologically swallowing whole concepts and struggling to understand “me” and “not me”; they may be overly compliant

Projection

According to Perls, this boundary disturbance is characterized by a person disowning aspects of the self by assigning them to others; paranoia is an extreme form of this

Retroflection

According to Perls, this boundary disturbance is characterized by a person doing to oneself what one wants to do to another

Confluence

According to Perls, this boundary disturbance is characterized by a person having no boundary between self and environment; may lead to intolerance of differences between oneself and others (creates guilt and resentment)

Logotherapy (An Existential Therapy)

This therapy originated with Viktor Frankl

Existential Therapies

This type of therapy has an emphasis on personal choice and responsibility for developing a meaningful life; it assumes we are in constant state of evolving and becoming

Ultimate Concerns of Existence

According to existential therapies, maladaptive behavior is the result of an inability to cope authentically with these (e.g., death, freedom, existential isolation, meaninglessness, etc.)

Existential Anxiety

According to existential therapies, this is normative and creates motivation to change and grow

Neurotic Anxiety

According to existential therapies, this is out of proportion to the context, can be out of conscious awareness and immobilizing, and is the result of trying to avoid existential realities

Paradoxical Intention

A technique in existential therapy that involves performing a feared outcome in a humorous and exaggerated way (e.g., stuttering as much as possible when speaking)

Reality Therapy

A type of therapy that originated with William Glasser

Choice Theory (Control Theory)

Assumes that people are responsible for the choices they make, emphasizes how choices affect the course of a person’s life; a key component of Reality Therapy

Survival, Love/ Belonging (most important), Power, Freedom, and Fun

According to Glasser (Reality Therapy), these are the five basic innate needs

Success Identity

According to Glasser (Reality Therapy), this occurs when a person fulfills their needs in a responsible way (realistic way that does not infringe on the rights of others)

Failure Identity

According to Glasser (Reality Therapy), this occurs when a person’s needs are not met or are met in irresponsible ways; this underlies mental and emotional disturbance

Total Behavior

According to Glasser (Reality Therapy), this is the sum of a person’s actions, thoughts, emotions, and physiology; however, emphasis is often placed on areas in which clients have the most control

Personal Construct Therapy

A type of therapy that originated with George Kelly

Construe

According to Kelly (Personal Construct Therapy), this is the process of perceiving, interpreting, and predicting events

Personal Constructs

According to Kelly, these are bipolar dimensions of meaning (e.g., happy/sad, competent/incompetent, etc.) that are unique to each person, may operate on an unconscious level, begin developing in infancy, and influence how a person perceives themselves and the world

Fixed Role Therapy

A technique used in Personal Construct Therapy (Kelly) that encourages clients to try on and adopt alternative personal constructs by acting as a character that is different from themselves

Adler’s Individual Psychology

This therapy views maladaptive behaviors as representative of a mistaken style of life (e.g., maladaptive attempts to compensate for feelings of inferiority, preoccupation with power, and lack of social interest)

Adler’s Individual Psychology

The goal of this therapy is to identify and understand a person’s style of life and its consequences, as well as reorient clients’ beliefs and goals to a healthier style of life

Adler’s Individual Psychology

Techniques of this therapy include “lifestyle investigation”

Person-Centered Therapy

The goal of this therapy is to help the client to achieve congruence between the self and their experience

Person-Centered Therapy

This therapy views maladaptive behavior as the result of incongruence between the self and experience, which can be caused by conditions of worth

Person-Centered Therapy

Techniques of this therapy include unconditional positive regard, genuineness (congruence), and accurate empathic understanding

Gestalt Therapy

This therapy views maladaptive behavior as a “growth disorder” that involves abandonment of the self for the self-image, with a resulting lack of integration; often results from boundary disturbances

Gestalt Therapy

The goal of this therapy is to help the client become a unified whole by integrating various aspects of the self

Gestalt Therapy

Techniques of this therapy include recognizing the difference between “transference fantasies” and reality; increasing awareness in the here-and-now; empty chair, role-plays, and other “ready-made” exercises to deal with “unfinished business”; dreamwork

Existential Therapy

This therapy views maladaptive behavior as the result of an inability to cope authentically with the ultimate concerns of existence (e.g., death, freedom, existential isolation, meaninglessness, etc.)

Existential Therapy

The goal of this therapy is to help clients live in more committed, self-aware, authentic, and meaningful ways

Existential Therapy

Techniques used in this therapy include the therapy relationship, helping clients recognize own freedom to choose and accept responsibility, and use of paradoxical intention

Reality Therapy

This therapy views maladaptive behavior, including mental illnesses like depression, as the result of choices

Reality Therapy

The goal of this therapy is to help clients identify responsible and effective ways to satisfy their needs and develop a successful identity

Reality Therapy

Techniques used in this therapy include questioning, encouragement, and committing to a realistic plan of action; focus is on “total behavior” (actions, thoughts, emotions, and physiology), with primary emphasis on what is most easily controlled by client

Personal Construct Therapy

This therapy views maladaptive behavior as the result of inadequate personal constructs (e.g., anxiety as the recognition that events lie outside of one’s construct system)

Personal Construct Therapy

The goal of this therapy is to identify, revise, and replace maladaptive personal constructs so that the client can “make sense” of their experiences

Personal Construct Therapy

Techniques used in this therapy include a repertory grid, self-characterization sketch, and fixed-role therapy (trying on and adopting alternative personal constructs)