The social self in humanistic counseling: A dialogical alternative for the practice of wellness and social justice

Abstract

Classical humanistic philosophy and psychology both infer the persistence of a stable, authentic, and volitional self, which neither fully coheres with the values implicit to professional counseling nor offers sufficient relevance to culturally diverse client groups. As an alternative, the authors suggest that humanistic counseling can emerge as a distinct discipline of practice independent of its early influences. Further, the authors offer a dialogical alternative for humanistic counseling practice that might better support contemporary clients and their various social determinants of experience.