Compare and Contrast the Person-Centred and Mindfulness Approaches to Understanding and Working with Fear and Sadness. Which of These Two Approaches Do You Feel More Drawn to and Why?

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Compare and contrast the person-centred and mindfulness approaches to understanding and working with fear and sadness. Which of these two approaches do you feel more drawn to and why? This essay will look at the key features of person-centred and mindfulness counselling approaches in regards to working with fear and sadness. The essay will follow on by looking at the similarities and differences between the two approaches, closing on my own inclinations towards the person centred approach before concluding. The purpose of person-centred approach during counselling is to increase ones self –esteem, whilst being open about new experiences allowing one to find out where they belong and to be contented with life. Where as the mindfulness approach is to gradually build a foundation of equanimity and clarity on a day-to-day basis. Both the person centred and mindfulness approaches to counselling are designed to help individuals who are suffering with problems such as fear and sadness. They both work around the concept of dealing with feelings whilst in the here and now instead of dwelling on them at a later date. Person-centred approach The person centred approach to counselling falls under the category of humanistic psychology, which was founded by American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908 – 1970) (cited Dykes 2010). Maslow (1958) worked on the basis that human beings have a hierarchy of needs. This hierarchy proposes that there are a range of needs that humans require, such as physiological, safety, belonging and esteem. Maslow proposed that that the needs at the higher levels of the hierarchy would only be achieved when the lower level needs had been satisfied, self-actualisation was at the top of Maslow’s pyramid (Dykes, 2010 cited in Barker et al, 2010). Several therapies have emerged from Maslow’s work all of which revolve around the concept that
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