What is Humanistic-Experiential Therapy?

1. “Humanistic” is a fancy way of emphasizing the unique experiences of every person, our inherent potential to grow and heal, our ability to reason and to behave ethically. It is a secular (non-religious) philosophical view of our nature. The word “experiential” is used to describe the sense of being aware and conscious that goes beyond (or contains within it) words, analyses or categories.
2. Your therapy is not about figuring out the psychological or physiological “machinery” of your problems but instead emphasizes the messy, complicated, lived experience of your life as a whole.
3. The focus is on you as an entire person and not on particular symptoms.
4. You will benefit from acceptance and opportunities for self-actualization (the ability to realize your full potential).
5. This approach includes many specific types of therapies: Client-Centred (Rogerian), Emotion-Focused, Existential, Gestalt, Narrative, Transpersonal … and many others.