From person-centered to humanistic-phenomenological psychotherapy: The contribution of Merleau-Ponty to Carl Rogers's thought

Abstract

This article describes a clinical practice, humanistic-phenomenological psychotherapy, that can be understood as a continuation of Carl Rogers's experiential phase (1957–1970), in which he drew closer to phenomenology. Although arising from Carl Rogers's theory, humanistic phenomenological psychotherapy, in line with developments in other experiential psychotherapies, is based on Merleau-Ponty's definition of humanism: a philosophy that focuses on the human being in his or her relationships with other human beings and the mutual constitution of a common history.

Keywords:

• person-centered psychotherapy
• humanistic-phenomenological psychotherapy
• Carl Rogers
• Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Notes

The original version of this article with first presented in the XI International Forum for Person-Centered Approach, in Ershovo, Russia, May 4–10, 2010. Part of it was later presented at the conference of the Romanian Association of Person-Centered Psychotherapy, titled The Therapeutic Process – Intersection between the client's and therapist's lived world, Bucharest, Romania, May 6–8, 2011. I would like to thank all the contributors at these two conferences, who helped me to further develop my ideas. I also want to thank Sandy Green for her patience concerning the difficulties of translation of this article.