Which counseling approach focuses on the individual's personal experience?

The humanistic counseling approach emphasizes the individual's personal experience as a central focus of therapy. This approach values the uniqueness of each person's experience and encourages self-exploration and self-actualization. Humanistic counselors create a supportive environment that fosters open communication, understanding, and empathy, which allows clients to identify their feelings, thoughts, and motivations in a safe space.

In contrast to behavioral counseling, which focuses on observable behaviors and the modification of those behaviors through conditioning, and cognitive counseling, which centers on identifying and changing distorted thinking patterns, humanistic counseling is more holistic. It seeks to understand the person's subjective experience and feelings. The eclectic approach involves integrating various therapeutic techniques and theories, but it does not prioritize personal experience in the way humanistic counseling does. Therefore, the focus on the individual's personal experience is a hallmark of the humanistic approach.