Humanistic Existential Therapy Essay Paper

NRNP WEEK 7 ASSGN

The Assignment
In a 2- to 3-page paper, address the following:
* Briefly describe humanistic-existential psychotherapy and the second approach you selected.Â
* Explain at least three differences between these therapies. Include how these differences might impact your practice as a PMHNP.
* Focusing on one video you viewed, explain why humanistic-existential psychotherapy was utilized with the patient in the video and why it was the treatment of choice. Describe the expected potential outcome if the second approach had been used with the patient.Â
Support your response with specific examples from this week’s media and at least three peer-reviewed, evidence-based sources. Explain why each of your supporting sources is considered scholarly. Attach the PDFs of your sources.
Note:Â The School of Nursing requires that all papers submitted include a title page, introduction, summary, and references. The Sample Paper provided at the Writing Center provides an example of those required elements (available at http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/templates ). All papers submitted must use this formatting. Humanistic Existential Therapy Essay Paper

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RESOURCES:
American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.). https://go.openathens.net/redirector/waldenu.edu?url=https://dsm.psychiatryonline.org/doi/book/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787
* “Culture and Psychiatric Diagnosis”
Nichols, M., & Davis, S. D. (2020). The essentials of family therapy (7th ed.). Pearson.
* Chapter 7, “Experiential Family Therapy”
Wheeler, K. (Ed.). (2020). Psychotherapy for the advanced practice psychiatric nurse: A how-to guide for evidence-based practice (3rd ed.). Springer Publishing.
* Chapter 6, “Humanistic-Existential and Solution-Focused Approaches to Psychotherapy”
Required Media (click to expand/reduce)
Grande, T.  (2019, January 9). Theories of counseling – Existential therapy [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvAvc2aWup0
PsychotherapyNet. (2009, June 29). James Bugental live case consultation psychotherapy video [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl8tVTjdocI
ThinkingallowedTV. (2010, September 20). James Bugental: Humanistic psychotherapy (excerpt) – A thinking allowed DVD w/ Jeffrey Mishlove [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjDNKGIvWPQ
Optional Media
Biophily2. (2016, October 4). Abraham Maslow, Rollo May, Carl Rogers – Existential psychology II (1962) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTTqKNI7wDo
Bugental, J. (2008). Existential-humanistic psychotherapy [Video].  https://waldenu.kanopy.com/video/existential-humanistic-psychotherapy
Optional Resource
The Psychology Podcast. (2021, Aug 30). Irvin Yalom- Existential psychotherapy. [Video]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2vef8W1a0k Humanistic Existential Therapy Essay Paper

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is treating mental distress and psychological disorders using talk therapy, various techniques, and strategies. Psychotherapy helps individuals control and eliminate troubling symptoms so that people function better and increase their well-being, functioning, and healing. Besides helping people with mental disorders such as depression and anxiety, psychotherapy is also useful to individuals with medical illnesses, significant losses, those facing trauma impacts, and people having difficulties coping in their daily lives (American Psychiatry Association (APA), 2019). Some notable benefits of psychotherapy include improving communication skills, stronger family bonds, better coping strategies, healthier thinking patterns, and improved ability to make healthier choices (Cherry, 2022b)Humanistic Existential Therapy Essay Paper. There are different approaches to psychotherapy, and some types work best with some conditions or situations. This paper compares the humanistic-existential psychotherapy approach to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Moreover, the paper discusses the differences between these two therapies and how they impact a Psychiatry and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner’s (PMHNP) practice. The paper culminates by viewing a video and explaining why the humanistic-existential therapy was utilized with the patient while looking at the possible outcomes for the client had cognitive behavioral therapy been utilized as the treatment approach.

Humanistic-Existential Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Humanistic-existential therapy is based on existential therapy. This therapy assists clients in discovering their uniqueness through acquiring a greater awareness of themselves and the world around them (Karabiyik, 2020). Yilmaz et al. (2019) assert that the concepts of mindfulness and acceptance are closely related to existential therapy. A therapist’s main focus is to assist clients in recognizing their resistance to having a more worthwhile and meaningful existence. The therapist also focuses more on self-searching and meaning, and clients are free to choose aspects of their lives that can be discarded and those that support their journey to live a more fulfilling existence (Heidenreich et al., 2021).

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The humanistic-existential therapy has various aspects. These include unconditional acceptance of the client’s subjective experience, reflective listening, encouragement of affect, and empathy. These are essential during therapies, help provide a ground for a meaningful experience, and establish rapport with the client. Humanistic-existence therapy aims at creating awareness of death and nonexistence, helping the individual accept anxiety as a natural living condition, search for the meaning, beliefs, values, and purpose of life, understand the ramifications of freedom of choice and develop a capacity for self-awareness, and to create a personal identity for quality relationships (Karabiyik, 2020)Humanistic Existential Therapy Essay Paper. These aims help clients develop a deeper understanding of authentic life goals and free themselves from self-imposed limitations.

On the other hand, cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is used widely in psychotherapy. CBT has been found effective for psychiatric disorders, including depression, personality disorders, substance abuse, anxiety, and eating disorders. CBT is also an effective adjunctive therapy to medications for serious disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (Chand et al., 2022). Neufeld et al. (2020) state that the focus of CBT is to change the focus on one’s behavioral and cognitive falsifications, enabling an individual to enhance the regulation of their emotions. CBT is based on several principles. These include psychological problems partly based on learned unhelpful behaviors, unhelpful or faulty ways of thinking, and people suffering from psychological problems can learn better-coping methods (Cherry, 2022a). The effectiveness of CBT has been studied and adapted for individuals, couples, adults, children, and families across various settings. CBT successfully addresses individual thoughts, feelings, and attitudes, allowing a patient to change their unhealthy behaviors.

Differences Between the Therapies

Human-existential therapy and CBT have some salient differences. While existential therapy focuses on the overlap to the future, CBT focuses on actual somatic reactions, thoughts, and emotions and how these were learned in the past and maintained in the present. Human-existential therapy emphasizes conscious choices, including engagement, responsibility, freedom, intentionality, and authenticity. On the other hand, CBT does not focus so much on authenticity, engagement, and responsibility, as these stem from conscious choice (Heidenreich et al., 2021). The principal focus of existential therapies is to clarify, explore, describe, and comprehend rather than explain, analyze or cure a person’s subjective suffering (New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling (NSPC), 2018)Humanistic Existential Therapy Essay Paper. On the other hand, CBT focuses on changing one’s behavioral and cognitive falsifications, enabling an individual to enhance the regulation of their emotions. The differences in the two therapies affect PMHNP practice since they must explore the client’s needs and determine the best approach. For instance, clients seeking to become more aware of themselves and the world around them are best suited for humanistic-existential therapy. On the other hand, clients seeking to modify their thinking patterns to enhance positive behavior are best suited for CBT.

Humanistic-Existential Psychotherapy Utilization for the Client in the Video

The client, “Joe,” presents with complaints of not feeling very alive. Two years ago, he attended therapy sessions for anger sessions. He currently feels constricted and has difficulty understanding where he is. Humanistic-existential psychotherapy was appropriate for this client as it would assist him in developing a capacity for choice, self-awareness, and personal identity, enabling him to have quality relationships. It would also enable him to search the beliefs, purpose, values, and meaning of life for a more meaningful existence. Had CBT been used for this client, the focus would have been to analyze his learned unhelpful behaviors and faulty ways of thinking to enhance positive thinking and outlook in life.

Conclusion

Human-existential psychotherapy focuses on a person as a whole, aiming to help them recognize their uniqueness to help them acquire a greater understanding of themselves and the world around them. CBT focuses on changing cognitive and behavioral falsifications. The therapist must critically analyze a client’s needs to decide the best approach to use.

References

American Psychiatry Association (APA). (2019, January). Psychiatry.org – What is Psychotherapy? Psychiatry.org. https://psychiatry.org/patients-families/psychotherapy

Chand, S. P., Kuckel, D. P., & Huecker, M. R. (2022). Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). Nih.gov; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470241/

Cherry, K. (2022a, May 16). Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-cognitive-behavior-therapy-2795747

Cherry, K. (2022b, May 16). What to Know About Psychotherapy. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/psychotherapy-4157172

Heidenreich, T., Noyon, A., Worrell, M., & Menzies, R. (2021). Existential Approaches and Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Challenges and Potential. International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41811-020-00096-1

Karabiyik, A. (2020, September 22). Using existential-humanistic psychotherapy in the treatment of COVID-19 survivors. Counseling Today. https://ct.counseling.org/2020/09/using-existential-humanistic-psychotherapy-in-the-treatment-of-covid-19-survivors/#:~:text=Existential%2Dhumanistic%20psychotherapy%20helps%20clients Humanistic Existential Therapy Essay Paper

Neufeld, C. B., Palma, P. C., Caetano, K. A. S., Brust-Renck, P. G., Curtiss, J., & Hofmann, S. G. (2020). A randomized clinical trial of group and individual Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy approaches for Social Anxiety Disorder. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 20(1), 29–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijchp.2019.11.004

New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling (NSPC). (2018). The Existential Approach | The NSPC. Nspc.org.uk. https://nspc.org.uk/about-the-school/the-existential-approach/

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PsychotherapyNet. (2009). James Bugental Live Case Consultation Psychotherapy Video. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl8tVTjdocI

Yılmaz, O., Mırçık, A. B., Kunduz, M., Çombaş, M., Öztürk, A., Deveci, E., & Kırpınar, İ. (2019). Effects of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Existential Psychotherapy and Supportive Counselling on Facial Emotion Recognition Among Patients with Mild or Moderate Depression. Psychiatry Investigation, 16(7), 491–503. https://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2019.03.14 Humanistic Existential Therapy Essay Paper