Page 2 - LN 4_Therapuetic Approaches

• Logotherapy means treatment for the soul.
• Frankl calls this process of finding meaning even in life-threatening circumstances
as the process of meaning making.
• The basis of meaning making is a person’s quest for finding the spiritual truth of
one’s existence.
• There is a spiritual unconscious, which is the storehouse of love, aesthetic
awareness, and values of life.

• Frankl emphasised the role of spiritual anxieties in leading to meaninglessness and
hence it may be called an existential anxiety, i.e. neurotic anxiety of spiritual
origin.
• The goal of logotherapy is to help the patients to find meaning and responsibility
in their life irrespective of their life circumstances.
• In Logotherapy,
✓ The therapist is open and shares her/his feelings, values and his/her own
existence with the client.
✓ The emphasis is on here and now.
✓ Transference is actively discouraged.
✓ The therapist reminds the client about the immediacy of the present.
✓ The goal is to facilitate the client to find the meaning of her/his being.

Client-centred Therapy

• Client-centred therapy was given by Carl Rogers.
• Rogers brought into psychotherapy the concept of self, with freedom and choice
as the core of one’s being.
• The therapy provides a warm relationship in which the client can reconnect with
her/his disintegrated feelings.
• The therapist shows empathy, is warm and has unconditional positive regard.
• This unique unconditional warmth ensures that the client feels secure and can trust
the therapist.
• The client feels secure enough to explore her/his feelings.
• The therapist reflects the feelings of the client in a non-judgmental manner.
• The reflection is achieved by rephrasing the statements of the client, i.e. seeking
simple clarifications to enhance the meaning of the client’s statements.
• This process of reflection helps the client to become integrated.

Gestalt Therapy

• This therapy was given by Freiderick (Fritz) Perls together with his wife Laura
Perls.
• The goal of gestalt therapy is to increase an individual’s self-awareness and self-
acceptance.

• The client is taught to recognise the bodily processes and the emotions that are
being blocked out from awareness.