Journal of Humanistic Counseling最新文献

This paper introduces the innovative practice of Dynamic Aesthetic Emancipation. It aims to enhance trauma care by emphasizing how the transformative potential of integrated arts and nature-based modalities leads to emancipatory changes for individuals that surpass conventional care and counseling methods. The practice utilizes the aesthetic and experiential aspects of creative and natural modalities to bridge the gap between personal healing and social dynamics. We highlight the necessity of approaches that empower clients to actively engage with art and nature, thereby challenging conventional therapeutic roles.

This narrative inquiry examines the humanistic experiences of three Black, same-gender-loving (SGL) male couples to understand what contributes to their resiliency and longevity. Through quare theory as an analytical frame for thematic analysis, findings highlighted storytellers’ eras of assimilation, respect, and wisdom as tools for fostering relationship resiliency and longevity. Counseling practitioners, educators, and researchers are encouraged to broach and avoid reductionist viewpoints when cultivating belongingness and improving and maintaining connections with this population.

Gestalt therapy is a humanistic approach that emphasizes awareness of one's inner experiences and recognition of resistance processes. However, research exploring the relationship between interoceptive awareness—awareness of internal bodily sensations—and Gestalt resistance processes remains limited. Addressing this gap, our study used a cross-sectional design to examine how interoceptive awareness correlates with resistance processes among 112 counseling students. Our analysis revealed that higher interoceptive awareness is associated with lower resistance processes such as confluence, introjection, projection, retroflection, deflection, and egotism, with no significant association found with desensitization. The results suggest that improved body awareness could potentially impact resistance levels. This highlights the need to include interoceptive training in counseling programs to enhance therapeutic presence and self-regulation among trainees. This study offers evidence supporting the influence of interoceptive awareness on resistance processes and suggests that future research should explore ways to integrate these findings into training programs and broader Gestalt therapy practices.

The global impact of COVID-19 heightened existential awareness particularly among parents. This period provided a unique opportunity to implement the circle of security program, equipping parents to address parental stress, anxiety, and depression. Conducted with mothers in Saudi Arabia ranging in age from 19 to 30 years, this quasi-experimental intervention study demonstrated a notable reduction in negative emotions, coupled with enhanced parent–child relationships and a strengthened sense of purpose in parenting. A total of 70 (55%) mothers attended at least 6 of 8 sessions, the criteria for completer status. After the intervention, there was a significant improvement in mental health, as the majority of participants fell within the normal ranges for anxiety (91.4%), depression (95.7%), and stress (95.7%). Furthermore, statistical evaluations provided strong evidence of the intervention's success, demonstrating a significant reduction in mean anxiety scores from 4.44 ± 3.88 to 2.8 ± 2.01 (p = 0.08), depression scores from 6.2 ± 5.0 to 3.54 ± 2.5 (p < 0.001), and stress scores from 9.29 ± 4.45 to 4.9 ± 4.5 (p < 0.001). These findings underscore the importance of interventions supporting parents during challenging times, such as a global pandemic.

The coronavirus and anti-Black racial violence dual pandemics of the early 2020s brought multiple existential concerns that aligned with the four existential givens of human experience, namely, life and death anxiety, community and isolation, meaning-making and absurdity, freedom of choice and responsibility compared to determinism, and existential guilt and shattering. These themes are examined through an analysis and summary of the seven articles included in this special issue. These seven articles substantiate a need for further research and widely implemented interventions that emphasize culturally affirming and sustaining humanistic and existential counseling practices paired with advocacy for systemic change that enhances community solidarity alongside meaning-making and identity preservation. This approach aims to support people from marginalized communities in navigating compounded challenges during dual crises such as the early 2020s syndemic polycrisis.