Depression Learning

A Humanistic Approach to Treating Depression

Client centered therapy goes by several names: Rogerian therapy, person centered therapy and nondirective therapy. It is called nondirective therapy because the therapy takes a nondirective approach. Client centered therapy is based on the philosophy that the client innately knows better on how to heal themselves than anybody else. The purpose of this therapy is to boost self-esteem, and provide a greater openness to new experiences. This therapy works well with depressive disorders because the depressed individual gets to feel better about themselves, and understand the difference between an ideal self and their actual self. They learn not to expect more than they can handle (ideal self) and they learn to love themselves. In turn their depression symptoms of guilty feelings, feelings of failure, inadequacy, isolation, insecurity, and despair are reduced or completely disappear. People suffering from a depression disorder will learn to have better feelings about themselves and better relationships with others. Through client-centered therapy, clients learn to express themselves and live in the moment.

Carl Roger developed client centered therapy in the 1930’s as a reaction to the sterile role of the therapist in the psychodynamic therapies. Carl Rogers firmly believed that a therapist and a client should develop a strong rapport and be part of a supportive environment. Rogers was the psychologist who preferred the word client rather than patient. He viewed the client patient relationship as one of equality and not the standard doctor and patient hierarchy.

The older psychodynamic approaches purported that humans were inherently debased, flawed, and or bad in someway. Roger did not see humans that way he saw them as inherently good and wanting to be the best that they could be; similar to the self actualization concept of Abraham Maslow. However, Rogers felt that humans do become blocked and that is the reason they are not able to self-actualize. The self-actualization process became a popular concept in the 1960’s in client-centered therapy and other human potential therapies. Newer forms of client centered therapy has surfaced that being experiential therapy in 1979, and process-experiential therapy in 1993.

With Rogerian theory, the therapist’s attitude was the key essential external tool for helping depressed people help themselves. The therapist had to be congruent meaning open and genuine, however, therapists still had to keep their personal life out of the therapy session. His second therapeutic component was that therapists must show unconditional positive regard, there can be no judging, interrupting clients or given advise. This therapeutic tool is so vitally important for a depressed person who already feels that they are inadequate and judged by others. The nonjudgmental therapist fosters trust and healing as the process of therapy unravels. The depressed individual can speak from the heart without fear of recrimination. The third and very important component is empathy. The therapist understands the client’s issues from their prospective.

It is the client who decides they have healed and can go onto to cope with life on their own. Research has shown that depressed people who have gone through the client centered therapy are better able to cope with life and these changes remain stable over time.

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