An Interview with Dr. Juergen Kriz on Self-Actualization and Person Centered Psychotherapy

In this edition of the Wise Counsel Podcast, Dr. Van Nuys interviews Jurgen Kriz on the topic of Self-Actualization, a concept central to the humanistic school of psychotherapy, and central to the work of Dr. Carl Rogers who was (and remains) arguably the most important psychologist of that school. Dr. Kriz has recently written a book about self-actualization in which he attempts to bring Rogers' ideas up-to-date by integrating them with modern insights from systems theory (e.g., the basis for the family systems psychotherapy). Self-actualization is not really about self-improvement but instead about the self-organizing principle, which is the idea that people are first and foremost intrinsically (internally) motivated, according to their desires, but that they adapt themselves according to social (external) demands. Accordingly, there is no therapist-set goal in person centered psychotherapy, Instead, Rogerian therapists work to provide their clients with the support and understanding they need to recognize and act upon their own intrinsically present goals. As Kriz says, "You do not need to impose order. You can just help people to facilitate their inherent possibilities".