Humanistic Family Therapy

Humanistic family therapy is a strengths-based model of family therapy resulting from the work of Virginia Satir beginning in the 1950s. Additional prominent family counselors who are associated with the evolution of this theory include Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, Karen Horney, and Victor Frankl. Humanism, in the field of psychology, was a reaction to the predominance of behaviorism with its focus on what can be observed and was also a reaction to the roots of psychology, which emphasized the past. Humanism focuses on the here-and-now and the inner experience of people. The humanistic counselor approaches families from a philosophy that assumes people are basically good, capable, and worthy of respect. The aim is to clarify communication discrepancies between family members with a humanistic, experiential orientation ...