HUMANISTIC APPROACH

Humanistic approach to counseling is more directly related to the field of psychological counseling. Roger is acclaimed to be initiator of the movement . It is the practical application of the humanistic psychology made a great impact on the academic scene . According to Rogers, in any kind of psycho therapy the underlying basic theme is the helping relationship. In all human interactions such as mother-child, teacher-pupil, therapist-client etc. the helping relationship is fundamental. This relationship is one in which the counselor seeks to bring about a better appreciation and a clear expression of the clients latent inner resources. Thus the helping relationship is intended to facilitate the growth of the person receiving help. Such a growth in individuals is aimed at improving their functioning and accelerating their maturity. This is usually called psychological growth or psychological maturity. Counseling aims at bringing about psychological growth or maturity in the client. Rogers attached enormous importance to helping relationships. These may often be looked upon as nurturing and uplifting contacts among people. This can be understood by enumerating the basic characteristics of all helping relationship. These are : It is meaningful to the person involved , it implies mutual self-commitment. It has a marked tone of feeling that is ,the individuals who are involved experience certain emotional status. There is no compulsion. No individual can be compelled to be helpful and similarly no person can be compelled to receive help. It comes to existence or becomes necessary when one is in need of some kind of help which another can reasonably provide. It involves communication and interaction. It is sustained through mutual cooperation and collaboration. The helping person must have a sense of security. The goal or object of the helping relationship is to change the client positively. A helping relationship is essentially an attitude which exudes a feeling of acceptance and a democratic value of life. It implies that the helping relationship does not in any way make a person feel superior to the one he helps. It also implies that the helping individual does not impose his values upon the person being helped. ROGERS SELF THEORY: Rogers theory of personality , more popularly known as the self-theory of personality has evolved from his counseling practice. Rogers theory basically views man as a socialized, forward moving, rational and realistic individual. Human nature is positive, constructive and cooperative. The individual perceives experience as reality. He has an innate tendency towards actualizing his potentialities. The child bevariour is goal-directed and is aimed at satisfying the need for actualization

through interaction with his perceived reality(environment). The experiences are positive or negative in so far as they help or hinder his actualizing tendency. Self is the nuclear concept in Rogers theory. It is conceived as something that develops as a result of the interaction of the individual with his environment. It may subject to the values of the other people in either perceiving them correctly or in a distorted manner. The self strives for consistency. The individual acts largely in a way consistent with the self. Experiences which are not consistent with the self-structure are perceived as threats. The self is not a static, unchanging entity. It may change as a result of several factors, the most important of which are maturation and learning. Self concept therefore is the central construct of Rogers theory. The core concept of Rogers self-theory are: The organism, which is the total individual. The totality of experience which is the phenomenal field. The self which is a differentiated part of the phenomenal field which comprises the conscious perception of I and me along with the values attached to them The organism reacts as a whole to the totality of the situation or the phenomenal field to secure satisfaction for its needs. The overriding basic motive or need is to actualize, maintain and enhance itself. It symbolizes experiences which become conscious or it may ignore and deny symbolization of certain experiences and prevent them from becoming conscious. Such experiences thus remain unconscious, lack of congruence between experience and self-structure leads to maladjustment. Rogers postulated theory of personality is a series of 19 propositions in his book Client-Centered Therapy (1951) as: The individual exists in a constantly changing world of his own experiences of which he is a centre. The individual private world of experience(internal frame of reference) can only be sense to the individual himself. The individual reacts as a whole to the phenomenal field. The significance of this is that the organism is always a total organized system and change in any part affect the whole. The individual has the basic tendency to actualize, maintain and enhance himself. This is called the undifferentiated ongoing tendency which is the basic for self-actualization. The behavior is fundamentally goal-directed and it is the expression of the individual who strives to satisfy the needs as they are perceived. Feelings and emotions accompany goal-directed behavior and facilitate the expression of it. Feelings and emotions are significant for maintenance and enhancement of the organism. The best way of understanding the significance of any behavior is from the internal frame of reference of the individual himself. The self is differentiated from the total phenomenal field.

 The differentiation of the self is the result of interaction between the individual and the environment. The values attached to experiences and self-structure taken from others may be perceived in a distorted fashion. New experiences are encountered by the individual in his day to day life. They are perceived and organized to bear some relationship to the self. The modes of behaviour adopted by the individual are those which are consistent with the concept of the self. Behaviour is also caused by organic experiences and needs. Such behaviours may be consistent with the structure of the self are not accepted by the individual. Psychological maladjustment is essentially the result of the individuals refusal to become aware of significant experiences. The psychological adjustment obtains in a state in which the individual accepts all the experiences and integrates them into his self-structure. Any experience inconsistent with the structure of the self may be perceived as a threat. Under certain facilitating conditions experiences which are inconsistent with the individual self-structure and hence threat to it , it may be perceived and assimilated in to the self structure. When the individual is able to perceive and accept experiences which are distorted or denied cause for conflict. When the individual is able to accept experiences without any distortion , he is able to lead a healthy and integrated life. Essential Conditions for personality change: According to Rogers(1957), the conditions necessary for a personality change to take place are: The counselee and counselor are in psychological contract with each other. The counselee is in a state of incongruence and hence is vulnerable and anxious. The counselor is congruent and integrated, that is, he is free from anxiety and tension. His relationship with the counselee is genuine and does not cause any disharmony in him The counselor has unconditional positive regard for the counselee. The counselor experiences an empathic understanding of the counselees internal frame of reference and tries to communicate his experience to the counselee. The counselor exhibits empathy and warmth of acceptance of the counselee and he (counselee) appreciates and understands the counselors unconditional positive regard towards him to a reasonable extent. 4