This research examines customs and practices of psychotherapy from the point of view of existential/humanistic psychotherapy theory. The research will set forth an analysis of a case study of a therapeutic session and then discuss that case study in connection with how it is possible to tell whether a person has grown or become more actualized in the way that humanistic/existential counseling theory anticipates.
What the case study of Michelle in therapy demonstrates about the practice of humanistic psychology above all is that the humanistic/existential psychotherapist is obliged to be alert to the vicissitudes of unfolding experience and client consciousness. As the case study shows, the client moves from subject to subject: her insecurities about returning to school as a mature student in a context of a potentially unsupportive spouse, her hints of regret about her marriage partner and he knowledge of what she perceives as a mother who is disappointed with her own life. She references Horney's despised image when she refers to her sense of no life accomplishment and to the idealized image when she cites her professional ambitions (Bugental, 1978, pp. 9, 11). The therapist is presented as being observant of Michelle's hesitant body language and reluctance to give herself permission to make an important life change. When the therapist finally does respond, she immediately zeroes in on the issue that turns out to be at the core of Michelle's apparent indecision and anxiety: her relationship with her husband Henry, the embodiment of the road taken about whom she seems ambivalent.
This is not to say that the case study means to demonize Henry. It does, however, suggest that the therapist has been actively listening and has identified a core concern. Challenging Michelle on her statements about Henry is an example of the therapist's attempt to raise the specter of Michelle's existential anxiety and at the same time disclose to Mich...