Using the Hierarchy of Needs in Therapy

Based on the Fount model, the Hierarchy of Needs can tell us some very handy information. It is the first step to us making sense of how our clients’ unique history could be impacting them today. Our job starts with exploring which tier of needs were lacking in our client’s key developmental stages. And what learned emotions or core beliefs resulted from that lack. If in their childhood, the most basic needs were lacking, for example, they were faced with poverty, homelessness or hunger, or if they experienced a basic lack of safety, such as a child who experienced war or consistent family violence, all higher needs are likely to have been ignored also. In the context of therapy, we first need to attend to the basic need in question before we can make progress towards any of the higher needs. Ignoring this principle is likely to delay client progress. Similarly, if a client had poor attachment with their primary caregivers and were deprived of a sense of connection and love, therapy needs to focus on this area before they are ready to progress to any of the higher needs. And so on.

Once you determine which was the lowest need lacking in your client’s childhood, you should expect that all higher needs were also more or less lacking. However, this does not mean that a deficit in a higher need would not have ramifications on the needs below it. For example, we know that children who have had poor attachment to their primary caregivers are more likely to suffer from anxiety and fear. So it could be said that a feeling of not being safe can result from poor attachment. In this case, a deficit in a higher need may appear to have lead to a deficit in a lower need. Another example is that individuals with poor self image may feel like they don’t belong and are not loved. Again, a deficit in a higher need appears to have lead to a deficit in a lower need. The principle which we learned earlier was that we need to find the lowest tier in the triangle and make that the focus of our therapy work. How do we rectify what we just explored against that earlier principle? And how do we figure out the main tier of the triangle which we need to be focusing on?