Rogers also developed a range of techniques for evaluating the effectiveness of therapy thereby providing a research basis for clinical practice. (McLeod, J. 2008) The humanistic approach has had a considerable influence on the practice of counselling and promotes the idea that humans have free will to choose how they act and behave and also recognises a person as having their own needs as an individual. Roger's person centred therapy is used in clinical and counselling psychology and humanistic psychology's emphasis on the counsellor helped develop the profession of counselling. (Source : Self – own paper, 2014).
Sigmund Freud developed an approach to psychology referred to as psychoanalysis although other psychologists refer to his theories as psychodynamics of the mind. Freud believed that different mental forces operate in the mind and expanded his idea to state that conflicting mental forces can cause inner conflict in that a large amount of the processes that occur in the mind happen on an unconscious level and that many people were unaware of the thoughts and processes of the mind. Freud based his theory on the concept that unconscious mind is insight driven and explores what influences the thoughts and behaviours of the unconscious mind and would be used to uncover unconscious conflict i.e.
• how we experience and enjoy life (which is strongly affected and determined by other people); and.
• how we think about ourselves and how others think and react to us (which are important determinants of both how we feel and behave).
Through his work, Freud discovered that the mind consists of three interrelated systems, which for Freud, was a useful way of thinking about how personalities develop. These three systems are; the id (a mass of powerful pleasure-seeking instincts), the ego (which acts according to the reality principle and has to find safe and acceptable ways to satisfy the id's basic demands), and the super ego (which is like our conscious is concerned with right and wrong, and it incorporates the moral values which a person learns initially from their parents).
