Humanistic or Behavior Therapy
Description: My very basic and simple analysis on the two psychotherapy techniques: humanistic and behavior therapy. This was written as a weekly assignment for the class Abnormal Psychology.
Psychotherapy techniques have made a large difference in the lives of many people who suffer from some type of mental disability. Among the many psychotherapy techniques are two in specific, humanistic and behavior therapy, which individually can be extremely effect in aiding someone with a mental illness. Humanistic and behavior therapy are much preferred among a variety of therapists. These two therapy techniques are similar when it comes to developing a person’s internal strengths and wills. Therapists using these techniques put their focus on what their clients are feeling as of right now rather than focusing on traumas in their past. However neither therapist that is applying these techniques denotes the fact that past experiences may be influencing current behavior. The main focus of both humanistic and behavior is to make the client expand the way the think of themselves and the actions they think they have to make. In other words these therapies help their client start anew with him or herself – reshaping their current train of thought.
But just how these techniques are similar they also have a variety of differences. Behavior therapy teaches obviously how to change one’s behavior and not their actually personality. In contrast, humanistic therapy teaches a person to do more self-exploration and as such changes the way they perceive themselves. Behavior therapy is more of a hand on approach when compared to humanistic therapy. Modeling, a part of behavior therapy is just how it is named. In basic terms it requires the client to copy a person’s behavior and use a model as reinforcement for his or her own future behavior. This is one of the reasons that behavior therapy is perceived far less effective then humanistic therapy. It really lacks breaking through a person’s inner conflict and instead essentially teaches people to copy behavior. Just copying behavior or forcing oneself to learn new behavior does not erase the actual problem this person is having. Humanistic therapy, in contrast, is much more talking than actual doing like behavior therapy is. It tends to focus more on clients subjective and conscious experiences. With humanistic, a person builds a relationship with their therapist and as such develops more confidence. This type of therapy focuses more on emotions and feelings for oneself as well as the feelings and thoughts of those around the client.
Both techniques have their strengths and depending on a person’s mental state determines which one should be applied. Behavior therapy is great and excels in terms of helping a client overcome things such as phobias. Since it is a hand on approach type of therapy, it is better suited for those clients looking for quick therapeutic program. Humanistic is stronger when dealing with a client’s feelings and is overly person centered. The major strength that humanistic therapy has is that it connects with the client and as such makes the client more subjective to feelings they would otherwise shun.