Experience and Existence in Humanistic Psychotherapies

Abstract

One of the hallmarks of humanistic psychotherapies is its experiential character, so that it is often called “experiential psychotherapy”. Another feature of Humanistic Psychology and Psychotherapy is its “existential” character and also why they are referred to as existential-humanistic therapies. These two adjectives refer to the globality and immediacy in the acquisition of wisdom (therapeutic) and its significance from the overall life project. The presentation will address these issues, and questions such as: What does it require and how to give the “experiential” and/or “existential” connotation to what happens in the therapy room? Why have humanistic psychotherapies choosen this approach? Do these overestimated, in the therapeutic process of humanistic psychotherapies, any of the subsystems or levels that make up the experience in detriment or dissociating them from others? Do they take into account the context of the subject beyond the therapy room? Does it take into consideration the the evolutionary perspective of the person and the task to be done in the persons period of his life? Is there a back and forth between this experience “here and now” and the whole of the persons life project? The multiplicity of dimensions and intelligence that comes with being human need to be structured in a teleological and plastic thread that gives meaning to the process, so that each therapeutic session is a unique and meaningful moment, within a single life and full of meaning.