Humanistic Psychotherapy

“The only way out is through”

Leslie Greenberg

Four Main Schools of Psychotherapy

The person-centered approach – also known as person-centered/experiential psychotherapy – is part of a wider family of humanistic psychotherapies. The humanistic approach is one of the four major schools of psychotherapy, next to psychodynamic psychotherapy, cognitive behavioural psychotherapy and systemic psychotherapy. All four approaches show similar effectiveness in treating mental health disorders. It is, however, very important that not only the psychotherapeutic approach is a right fit for clients, but also that the psychotherapist as a person is suitable match. I can be helpful to bear this in mind in the first appointment.

Scientific Recognition and Effectiveness of Person-centered Psychotherapy

The effectiveness of person-centered/experiential psychotherapy has been scientifically-empirically proven and is thus officially recognized by Austrian health insurances, the Scientific Council for Psychotherapy as well as the Austrian Health Ministry.

In Germany, the Scientific Council for Psychotherapy for the Federal Government of Germany, the Federal Physicians Association (BÄK) and the Federal Psychotherapists Association (BPtK) consider person-centered psychotherapy as empirically supported. The German Institute for Medical and Pharmaceutical Examination Questions for Psychotherapists (IMPP) includes person-centered psychotherapy in the national curricula and psychotherapy exams.

Person-centered psychotherapy fulfills all the efficacy criteria of relevant, multi-disciplinary psychotherapy research, especially those proven by large-scale studies by Klaus Grawe (1998) as well as Messer and Wampold (2002, 2018): therapeutic alliance and cooperation, resource activation, problem actualisation, orientation to change and the experience of clarification as well as the experience of coping.

Individual Goals

Humanistic-person-centered psychotherapy and counselling can help bring calm to where confusion and restlessness previously existed. The process is about getting closer to one’s own truth – without prejudice from the outside. There are times when certain feelings and thoughts are difficult to put into words. If suitable expression can be found together, then clients can succeed in experiencing and communicating what is going on inside of them – an extremely satisfactory process.

Reasons for psychotherapy vary among clients. Many people want change in their lives and need help achieving that. This is usually due to feeling blocked, feeling stuck and not knowing what to do. Negative feelings and thoughts, fears, social problems, crises or life-altering events are usually reasons for psychotherapy. Also, attachment problems are a recurring theme in many therapies.

What is person-centered psychotherapy?

It is often important for clients to become aware of what is important in one’s life and in one’s relationships – regardless of social norms and evaluation from the outside. A major goal in psychotherapy is often the wish to understand oneself better and leave the negative behind. Quite often clients come to therapy with the questions “What’s wrong with me?” or “What is going on (with me)?” – there is a desire for self-exploration. This is especially important when it comes to recurring negative patterns of behavior and emotions.

In this need for self-exploration, clients generally determine the topics of the sessions. They are supported in their self-reflection by the therapist in order to achieve individual therapy goals. Through the psychotherapeutic bond, it can be easier to allow inner experiences that seemed threatening before.

Every now and then, it is difficult for clients to make progress on their path to healing. In such cases, Focusing or body-focused methods can help to further explore physical reactions to psychological events. You will find some links for more information about these methods on this website.

Duration and costs

A psychotherapeutic process usually lasts at least half a year and includes at least 20 sessions. Counseling processes are usually shorter. At the beginning of psychotherapy, it is important that therapist and client get to know each other, which is why the first session is important. After three to five sessions, a decision should then be made as to whether psychotherapy makes sense for client and therapist. Therapy goals are discussed as well as the possible duration of therapy.