Existential

TherapyReported by:

Arleth T. FolleroJessica M. CastellioteIsabella Marie Yasis

II-9 BS Psychology

Existential Therapy

- philosophical approach

- a process of searching for the value and meaning of life

Introduction

Existential Therapy

- emphasizes that we are free to choose and are responsible for these choices

- man is not a victim of circumstances but the architect of his own life

Basic Principles/Philosophy

Existential Therapy

- arose spontaneously in 1940s and 1950s

- resolve the dilemmas of contemporary life such as isolation, alienation and meaninglessness

Historical Background

Encourage clients to reflect on life

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Existential Therapy

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Recognize their range of alternatives

Encourage clients to reflect on life

Existential Therapy

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Recognize their range of alternatives

Encourage clients to reflect on life

Decide among those alternatives with responsibility

Existential Therapy

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Viktor Frankl

He began his career with psychoanalytic orientation but was later influenced by existential philosophers and writers.

• means therapy through meaning

• “will to meaning”

• existential vacuum

3 Different Ways actions and deeds

experiencing a value

suffering

Rollo May

It takes courage to “be”, and our choices determine the kind of person we become.

There is a constant struggle within us.

James Bugantel

- help the clients examine how they have answered life existential questions and to challenge them to revise their answers

Other Significant Existential Therapists

Other Significant Existential Therapists

Irvin Yalom

- death, freedom, existential isolation & meaninglessness have enormous relevance to clinical work

BASIC DIMENSIONS OF HUMAN CONDITION

Existentialists believe that our human capacity for self-awareness gives us possibilities for freedom - as we will realize that we are finite and time is limited, we have the potential and the choice to act or not to act, meaning is not automatic and we must seek it, we are subject to loneliness, meaninglessness, guilt and isolation.

Proposition 1: The Capacity for Self-

Awareness

Basic Dimensions of the Human Condition

Presented by: Castelliote, Jessica M.III-9 BS Psychology

PROPOSITION 2:

Freedom and Responsibility

People are free to choose among alternatives and therefore have a large

role in shaping their destinies.

The existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul

Sartre (1971) refers “bad faith” to the inauthenticity of not accepting personal

responsibility.

Sartre said, “We are our choices.”

For existentialists, being free and being human are identical. Freedom and responsibility go hand in hand.

Frankl (1978) also links freedom with responsibility.

His basic premise is that freedom is bound by certain

limitations, because we are not free from conditions.

Existential therapists continually focus on clients’

responsibility for their situation.

PROPOSITION 3:

Striving for Identity and Relationship to others

Each of us would like to discover a self - that is, to find (or create) our personal identity.

As relational beings we also strive for a connectedness with others.

TROUBLE/ PROBLEM?

We live in the EXPECTATIONS OF OTHERS.

THE COURAGE TO BE. Learn how to live from inside (Tillich, 1952)

Greatest fears: discover no core, no self, no substance and that they are merely reflections of everyone’s expectations of them.

Existential therapists: How do you feel now? Are you condemned to stay this way

forever? Is there a way out? Can you create a self if you find that

you are without one? Where can you begin?

EXPERIENCE ALONENESS.Part of human condition is

the experience of aloneness.“KNOW YOURSELF FIRST.”“We have to be able

to stand alone before we can truly stand beside another.”

THE EXPERIENCE OF RELATEDNESS.We humans depend on relationship

with others. “No man is an island.”Function of therapy: help clients distinguish between a neurotically dependent attachment to another and a life-affirming relationship in which both persons are enhanced.

STRUGGLING WITH OUR IDENTITY.

Farha (1994) writes that some of us become trapped in a DOING mode to avoid the experience of BEING.

Part of the therapeutic journey: SELF-REFLECT of the client.

PROPOSITION 4:

The Search for Meaning

Existential therapy provide the conceptual framework for helping the client challenge the meaning in his or her life.

Discarding of values.Meaninglessness.Create NEW MEANING.

Logotherapy is designed to help the person find a meaning in life.

Therapist’s function: to point out that they can discover meaning even in suffering (Frankl, 1978)

PROPOSITION 5:

Anxiety as a Condition of Living.

Anxiety is an inevitable part of human condition.

Existential therapists differentiate between normal and neurotic anxiety as a potential source of growth.

Van Deurzen-Smith (1991)Aim of existential therapy is not

to make life easier and safer but to encourage clients to recognize and deal with the sources of their insecurity and anxiety.

Anxiety can be transformed into the energy needed for enduring the risks of experimenting with new behavior.

PROPOSITION 6:Awareness of Death and Nonbeing

The existentialist does not view death negatively but holds that awareness of death as a basic human condition gives significance of living.

“I fear death because I have never really lived.”

Application: Therapeutic Techniques and Procedures

INITIAL PHASE- counselors assist clients in identifying and clarifying their assumptions about the world

- clients are invited to define and question the ways in which they perceive and make sense of their existence

Application: Therapeutic Techniques and Procedures

MIDDLE PHASE

- clients are encouraged to more fully examine the source and authority of their present value system

Application: Therapeutic Techniques and Procedures

FINAL PHASE

- focuses on helping clients take what they are learning about themselves and put it into action

CONTRIBUTIONS

• Individual as central focus

• New view of death as a positive force

• New dimension to the understanding of anxiety, guilt, frustration, loneliness, and alienation.

LIMITATIONS

• Lack of systematic approach

• Excessively individualistic and ignores social factors

• Intellectually complex