Blossom Your Awesome Episode #46 - Striving Towards Growth With Elvira Maria Medus

Blossom Your Awesome Episode #46 - Striving Towards Growth With Elvira MedusOn this latest episode of the Blossom Your Awesome Podcast I'm talking to psychotherapist Elvira Medus. Medus is trained under the Rogerian model. She uses the Person-Centered Approach  originated by Carl Rogers, arguably the most influential American mental health practitioner of the 20th Century. The Person-Centered Approach can be understood as a branch of the Humanistic School of Psychology. The Humanistic School of Psychology is also known as the 3rd force, meaning it grew out of a reaction to the opposing schools of Psychoanalysis and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). In contrast to Psychoanalysis, which attempts to understand and work with unconscious motives, and Behaviorism, which attempts to generate change through learned behavior, Humanistic Psychology attempts to help individuals increase their innate healing capacities and thereby allow self-directed growth to occur.Humanistic practitioners, believe in something called the "actualizing tendency". The actualizing tendency can be understood as the innate force within all living things that strives towards growth. In other words, if you are alive, you are growing. Unlike the psychoanalysts, your growth does not need to be interpreted and, unlike the behaviorists, your growth does not need to be directed. Humanists, believe it is their job to aid in the process of strengthening this innate force. The natural growth process of the individual is promoted when the therapist can embody certain attitudinal qualities: the therapist strives to be congruent and experiences unconditional positive regard and empathic understanding toward the client. In other words, the therapist embodies the PCA "core conditions."To get in touch with Elvira you can go to her website Elviramedus.comTo see more of my work go to Blossom Your Awesome. Or you can see some of my other work at suesblues.com Or follow me on instagram where I post fairly regularly and ask an inquisitive question or two weekly in hopes of getting you thinking about your life and going deeper with it. My Instagram - i_go_by_skd