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Humanistic Integrative Counselling
Humanistic counselling (e.g. person-centred,
gestalt) is a holistic approach which believes in the ability of people to
reach their own potential. It facilitates growth of personal awareness through
the client’s experience within the counselling relationship. Importance is
given to a client’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours. It focuses on the
responsibility of the client, client choices and what is happening for the
client in the “Here and Now”.
It differs from other therapies in that it focuses
on the person as a whole, their personal or internal world, their
relationships with others, their environment, and their history etc. It
focuses on the client’s choices and that with the right environment a
person is capable of finding within themselves their own answers.
The integrative approach sees every individual as
unique therefore drawing from other approaches such as psychodynamic or
cognitive behavioural therapy enables the counsellor to adjust to the needs
of the client.
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LISTEN
When I ask you to listen
to me and you start giving advice you have not done what I asked.
When I ask you to listen
to me and you begin to tell me why I shouldn’t feel that way, you are
trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you t listen to
me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problem, and you have
failed me, strange as that may seem.
Listen, All I asked was
that you listen not talk or do – just hear me. Advice is cheap: 10 cents will get you
both Dear Abby and Billy Graham in the same newspaper. And I can do for myself: I’m not helpless
Maybe discouraged and faltering, but not helpless.
When you do something for
me that I can and need to do for myself, you contribute to my fear and
weakness.
But, when you accept as a
simple fact that I do feel what I feel, no matter how irrational, then I
can quit trying to convince you and can get about the business of
understanding what’s behind this irrational feeling. And when that’s clear, the answers are
obvious and I don’t need advice.
Irrational feelings make sense when we understand what’s behind
them..........
Anonymous
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