The Power of Humanistic TherapyWith the ever-increasing expansion of modern culture around which our American society has wrapped our time and our hearts, we have lost some of the most fundamental and most enriching about what it means to be human and how we can live our lives to our highest potential. In some ways, part of this is because we have created for ourselves a very different environment than the one in which we evolved. Currently, in modern society, some elements of our culture have been exaggerated and others diminished, in order to emphasize the qualities that appeal to the modern individual at that particular time. For example, children learn to dress in a certain way, to behave in a certain way, to perform well in school, to assume certain values, to be sporty, to be happy, etc. Such social influence has not only created a stark contrast between "the way it is used to be" and what America is today, but it has also forced us to bend in directions that may deviate from our individual desires and characteristics. So, we struggle to find a harmonious balance between who we should be according to today's society and who our "true self" is. As a result, we have adapted to a lifestyle of “chaos” or disharmony that has become an accepted or “normal” way of being. Naturally, it may become apparent that a new perspective is needed, a way of seeing the world and ourselves in a new light, in order to break away from negative ideas about human nature, improve our mental health, and ultimately , to realize ourselves. The goal of humanistic psychology is to tackle these mental struggles and become an alliance for the solution, through techniques such as empowerment and positive regard. The theory begins with the hypothesis...... middle of paper...... al sourcebook. Westport: Greenwood. O’Hara, M. (2013). Historical review of humanistic psychology. The Association for Humanistic Psychology. Retrieved March 10, 2014, from http://www.ahpweb.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&layout=item&id=14&Itemid=24Rogers, CR (1961). Becoming a person: A therapist's perspective on psychotherapy. (pp. 300-450). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Rogers, C.R. (1980). A way of being. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Company. Rogers, C.R. (1981). Reflection of feelings and transference. Person-Centered Review, 1, 375-377. Vasconcellos, J. (2001). Foreword. In KJ Schneider, JFT Bugental, & JF Pierson (Eds.), The handbook of humanistic psychology. (pp. xiii-xiv). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=jtO7czidPeYC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.