Counseling Theory

Existential therapy, person-centered therapy, and gestalt therapy all fall under the rubric of humanistic psychology. They share a considerable amount of theory, philosophy, and practice. Yet each of these practices is stemmed in its own theoretical framework; therefore, existential, person-centered, and gestalt therapies differ in key ways. Recent scholarship on existential, person-centered, and gestalt therapies builds on the rich canon of literature in these three core humanistic traditions, but is more than just summative. The following review of literature shows how existential therapy, person-centered therapy, and gestalt therapy are practiced in the 21st century, and in so doing, reveals the similarities and differences between these three humanistic psychological frameworks.

Existential Therapy

Existential therapy has been called "a way of thinking rather than…a particular style of practicing," (Corey, 2008, p. 216). Corey (2008) claims that existential therapy is "not a separate school or a neatly defined, systematic model with...
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