Existential Therapy
View of Human Nature:
people..

Have capacity for self-awareness

Have freedom, responsibility, and choice

Strive for identity

Establish meaningful relationships

Search for meaning of life

View anxiety as a condition of living

Are Aware of death
The Capacity for Self-Awareness

We can reflect and make choices because
we are capable of self-awareness.

Expanding our awareness by realizing that:
–
–
–
–
Time is limited
We have the choice to act or not to act
We must search for meanings in our life
We are alone
Freedom, Responsibility, & Choice

We are
– free to choose among alternatives
– responsible for our choices, lives,
actions…

Responsibility is not to blame others for our
problems
Striving for Identity

Identity is “the courage to be”
– We must trust ourselves to find our own answers
– Our greatest fear is that there is no self

Struggling with our identity:
– Challenging clients---in what ways have they lost
touch with their identity and instead let others to
run their life.
Relationship to others

Aloneness
– We are alone---So, we must give meaning to life,
decide how we will live, have a relationship with
ourselves, and learn to listen to ourselves.

Relatedness
– We need to create a close relationship with others
– Challenging clients----What do they get from their
relationships? How do they avoid close
relationships?
The Search for Meaning

Therapists’ trust is important in teaching clients
to trust their own capacity to find their way of
being.

Meaninglessness in life leads to emptiness

Human beings need a sense of meaningfulness
in their lives.
Anxiety – A Condition of Living
Anxiety arises from one’s strivings to
survive.
 Existential anxiety is normal

Awareness of Death

Death provides the motivation for us
– to live our lives fully
– to take advantage of each opportunity
to do something meaningful
– to live in the present
Therapeutic Goals

To help clients become authentic

To expand self-awareness

To increase potential choices

To help clients accept responsibility for
their choice
Therapist’s Function and Role

Understand the client’s subjective world

Encourage clients to accept personal
responsibility

When clients blame others, therapist will ask
them what they have done to contribute to
their situation.
Client’s Experience in Therapy

They are challenged to take responsibility for
their decision and to take actions to change.

Major themes in therapy sessions are anxiety,
freedom and responsibility, isolation, death,
and the search for meaning.

Assist client in facing life with courage, hope,
and a willingness to find meaning in life.
Therapeutic Relationship

Truly caring for the clients

An authentic love for the clients (is nonreciprocal)

Trusting clients’ potential to cope with their problems
»

Therapists have an authentic with themselves and
are authentically open to the client

Therapists share their reactions with the clients by
showing genuine concern and empathy as one way
of deepening the therapeutic relationship.
Therapeutic techniques & procedures

It is not technique-oriented

The interventions are based on philosophical
views about the nature of human existence

Free for draw techniques from other orientations

The use of therapist self is the core of therapy
Research on existential therapy

More studies are related to existential themes such
as death and anxiety, or meaninglessness.
– Purpose-in Life (PIL) Test (Crumbaugh & Henrios
(1988): measuring meaninglessness.

Yalom and colleagues conducted a series of
research on existential group therapy

Comparing with a waiting list control or no treatment
group, participants in the existential group therapy
showed increase in psychological functioning,
increase in existential awareness, and improvements
in immune functioning.
From a multicultural perspective:
contribution

Is applicable to diverse clients who are searching
for meaning of life

Many similarities between Eastern thought and
existential psychotherapy

Existential therapy is particularly relevant for
working with cross-cultural issue (Van DeurzenSmith,1988)
From a multicultural perspective
limitations

Ignore social factors that cause human problems

Even if clients change internally, they see little hope
that the external realities of racism will change

For many cultures, it is not possible to talk about
self outside the context of the social network

Many clients expect a structured and problemoriented approach instead of a discussion on
philosophical questions.