Existential therapy is a philosophical approach aimed at helping individuals find meaning in life and cope with existential angst rather than diagnosing illness. It emphasizes personal responsibility, freedom to make choices, and understanding the human condition's inherent dilemmas such as isolation, meaninglessness, and the awareness of death. Key figures like Viktor Frankl and Irvin Yalom have contributed to its development by focusing on the importance of meaning, identity, and confronting existential anxiety.

1. Introduction to
Existential Therapy
Existential therapy, a philosophical approach,
focuses on finding meaning in life and coping with
existential angst.
JUDY MAY M. FERNANDO

2. • a way of thinking than any particular style of
practicing psychotherapy (Russell, 2007)
• It is neither an independent nor separate school
of therapy, nor is it a neatly defined model with
specific techniques.
• grounded on the assumption that we are free
and therefore responsible for our choices and
actions.
Existential Therapy

3. “Once individuals recognize their role in creating
their own life predicament, they also realize that
they, and only they, have the power to change
that situation”
YALOM 2003 (p. 141).

4. • not designed to “cure” people of illness in the
tradition of the medical model.
• clients as are not sick but as “sick of life or
clumsy at living” (p. 18) and unable to live a
productive life. (Van Deurzen 2002a)
Existential Therapy

5. We can begin by recognizing that we do not have
to remain passive victims of our circumstances
but instead can consciously become the
architects of our lives.

6. Historical
Backgrou
nd

7. • Existential therapy movement arose spontaneously in
different parts of Europe and various schools of psychology
and psychiatry during the 1940s and 1950s.
• Developed as a response to contemporary life dilemmas like
isolation, alienation, and meaninglessness.
• Early writers focused on the individual's experience of being
alone in the world and the associated anxiety.
• European existential perspective emphasized human
limitations and the tragic dimensions of life.

8. • Existential psychologists and psychiatrists in the
19th century were influenced by philosophers and
writers including Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger,
Sartre, and Buber.
• Philosophical underpinnings of modern existential
psychotherapy are rooted in the cultural,
philosophical, and religious writings of these
existentialist figures.
• Ludwig Binswanger and Medard Boss, early
existential psychoanalysts, also made significant
contributions to existential psychotherapy.

9. Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855)
• Emphasized existential anxiety and
uncertainty in life.
• Advocated for a willingness to risk a
leap of faith in making choices.
• Stressed that becoming human is a
project, requiring the creation of
oneself.

10. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–
1900):
• Presented a revolutionary
approach to self, ethics, and
society.
• Focused on the importance of
subjectivity.
• Emphasized the individual's "will
to power" as a source of value and
creativity.

11. Martin Heidegger (1889–1976)
• Developed phenomenological
existentialism, emphasizing the
subjective experience of being
human.
• Urged individuals not to consider
themselves apart from the world but
to exist "in the world."
• Introduced the concept of authentic
living and the examination of moods
and feelings for authenticity.

12. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980):
• Asserted that humans are even
more free than previously believed.
• Emphasized the existence of a space
(nothingness) between the past and
present, granting freedom to
choose.
• Failure to acknowledge freedom and
choices results in emotional
problems, termed "bad faith."

13. Martin Buber (1878–1965)
• Emphasized the importance of
"betweenness" in human
relationships.
• Distinguished between I/Thou and
I/It relationships, stressing the
significance of treating others as
Thou.
• Stressed the concept of presence for
meaningful relationships, existence
of meaning, and responsibility in the
present.

14. Medard Boss (1903–1991)
• Early existential psychoanalyst,
referenced "being-in-the-world"
(dasein) in understanding life
events.
• Emphasized entering the client's
subjective world without
presuppositions.
• Integrated Freudian psychoanalysis
with Heidegger's concepts in his
therapeutic practice

15. Key Figures in
Contemporary
Existential
Psychotherapy

16. Viktor Frankl
• Developed existential therapy in
Europe and brought it to the United
States.
• Influenced by Freud, Adler, and
existential philosophers.
• Developed logotherapy, focusing on
therapy through meaning.
• Emphasized the centrality of finding
meaning in all circumstances.
Key Figures in Contemporary Existential Psychotherapy

17. Rollo May
• Influenced by existential
philosophers, Freudian psychology,
and Adler's Individual Psychology.
• Key figure in introducing existential
therapy to the United States.
• Emphasized the courage to "be" and
the constant struggle between
dependence and the pains of
growth.
Key Figures in Contemporary Existential Psycho

18. Irvin Yalom
• Acknowledged contributions from
European and American
psychologists in developing
existential thinking.
• Focused on four "givens of
existence": death, freedom and
responsibility, existential isolation,
and meaninglessness.
• Influenced by Kierkegaard,
Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, and
Buber.
Key Figures in Contemporary Existential Psycho

19. Existential Approach in Britain
• Significant developments due to
Laing and Cooper, who reconsidered
mental illness and treatment.
• Emmy van Deurzen played a key role
in further developing the existential
approach in Britain.
• Existential therapy became an
alternative to traditional methods in
Britain, with rapid spread and
academic development.
Key Figures in Contemporary Existential Psycho

20. Key
Concepts

21. • Bases of the therapeutic practice on the
understanding of what it means to be human.
• existential tradition seeks a balance between
recognizing the limits and tragic dimensions of
human existence on one hand and the
possibilities and opportunities of human life on
the other hand.
View of Human
Nature

22. • grew out of a desire to help people engage the
dilemmas of contemporary life
• focus is on the individual’s experience of being
in the world alone and facing the anxiety of this
isolation.
View of Human Nature

23. • The basic dimensions of the human condition,
according to the existential approach, include
1. the capacity for self-awareness;
2. freedom and responsibility;
3. creating one’s identity and establishing meaningful
relationships with others;
4. the search for meaning, purpose, values, and goals;
5. anxiety as a condition of living; and
6. awareness of death and nonbeing.
View of Human Nature

24. Proposition 1: The Capacity
for Self-Awareness
• Life is finite, time-limited.
• Action or inaction is a choice; inaction is a decision.
• We shape our destiny through our choices.
• Meaning arises from understanding our situation and living
creatively.
• Awareness of choices increases responsibility for consequences.
• We face loneliness, meaninglessness, guilt, and isolation.
• Despite being alone, there is an opportunity to connect with
others.

25. Proposition 1: The Capacity for Self-Awareness
• Trading security for independence brings anxieties.
• Identity tied to others' approval, not self-affirmation.
• Recognizing the power to make new decisions and break free.
• Changing perspectives and reactions to events is within their
control.
• Learning from the past shapes a different, non-condemned
future.
• Preoccupation with suffering hinders appreciation for living.
• Accepting imperfections, understanding worthiness doesn't
require perfection.
• Failure to live in the present due to past preoccupation, future
planning, or multitasking.

26. Proposition 2: Freedom and
Responsibility
• people are free to choose among alternatives and therefore
have a large role in shaping their destinies.
• we have no choice about being thrust into the world, the
manner in which we live and what we become are the result of
our choices.
• "Bad faith" is avoiding personal responsibility with
excuses (Jean-Paul Sartre 1971)

27. Proposition 2: Freedom and Responsibility
• Here are two statements that reveal bad faith:
“Since that’s the way I’m made, I couldn’t help what I did”
“Naturally I’m this way, because I grew up in a dysfunctional
family.”
Sartre claims we are constantly confronted with the choice of
what kind of person we are becoming, and to exist is never to be
finished with this kind of choosing.

28. Proposition 2: Freedom and Responsibility
• Freedom implies that we are responsible for our lives, for our
actions, and for our failures to take action.
• Existential guilt is being aware of having evaded a commitment,
or having chosen not to choose.
• Guilt may be a sign that we have failed to rise to the challenge
of our anxiety and that we have tried to evade it by not doing
what we know is possible for us to do (van Deurzen, 2002a).
• Authenticity implies that we are living by being true to our own
evaluation of what is a valuable existence for ourselves; it is the
courage to be who we are.

29. Proposition 2: Freedom and Responsibility
• Clients who refuse to accept responsibility by persistently
blaming others for their problems will not profit from
therapy.
• We are not free from conditions, but we are free to take a
stand against these restrictions. These conditions are
subject to our decisions, which means we are
responsible.
• Therapist assists clients in discovering how they are
avoiding freedom and encourages them to learn to risk
using it.

30. Proposition 2: Freedom and Responsibility
“We resent it when we don’t have
choices, but we get anxious when we do!
Existentialism is all about broadening the
vision of our choices.”
Russell, 2007 (p. 111).

31. Proposition 3: Striving for
Identity and Relationship to
Others
• Rather than trusting ourselves to search
within and find our own answers to the
conflicts in our life, we sell out by becoming
what others expect of us.

32. Proposition 3: Striving for Identity and Relationship
THE COURAGE TO BE
• Paul Tillich (1886–1965), emphasizes
the importance of acknowledging our
finite nature to appreciate ultimate
concerns and discover the true
"ground of our being.“
• Courage, according to Tillich, involves
facing anxiety-inducing situations and
using the power of our core to
transcend nonbeing elements that
could potentially destroy us.

33. Proposition 3: Striving for Identity and Relationship
THE COURAGE TO BE
• Clients often fear discovering that they lack a
core or self and are mere reflections of
others' expectations. Existential therapists
encourage clients to confront these fears,
intensify feelings of being shaped by
external expectations, and explore the
possibility of creating a self.

34. Proposition 3: Striving for Identity and Relationship
THE COURAGE TO BE
• By acknowledging and expressing
these fears, clients may develop a
greater tolerance for life's
uncertainties, embracing challenges
without knowing precisely what lies
beyond.
• The therapeutic process involves
accepting ways in which clients have
lived outside themselves and
exploring ways they are out of contact
with their true selves.

35. THE EXPERIENCE OF ALONENESS
• Existentialists assert that the human
condition involves experiencing
aloneness.
• Strength can be derived from
acknowledging and embracing this
aloneness.
• Isolation arises when we realize we
must independently give meaning to
our lives and make decisions.
• Tolerating oneself in solitude is crucial
for meaningful relationships with
others.
Proposition 3: Striving for Identity and Relationship to Others

36. THE EXPERIENCE OF ALONENESS
• Developing a relationship with oneself
is a prerequisite for establishing solid
connections with others.
• The paradox of the human condition is
the coexistence of individual
aloneness and relational connections.
• Attempting to cure or eliminate this
condition is considered erroneous, as
ultimate aloneness is inherent to
human existence.
Proposition 3: Striving for Identity and Relationship to Others

37. THE EXPERIENCE OF RELATEDNESS
• Humans seek significance in
relationships and value the
importance of another's presence.
• The ability to stand alone and draw
strength from within is crucial for
fostering fulfilling relationships.
• Deprivation may lead to clingy and
symbiotic relationships.
Proposition 3: Striving for Identity and Relationship t

38. THE EXPERIENCE OF RELATEDNESS
• Therapy helps clients distinguish
between neurotically dependent
attachments and life-affirming
relationships.
• Therapists encourage clients to
examine what they gain from
relationships, address intimacy
issues, and cultivate healthy, mature
connections.
Proposition 3: Striving for Identity and Relationship t

39. Proposition 3: Striving for Identity and Relationship
STRUGGLING WITH OUR IDENTITY
• the awareness of ultimate aloneness can be
frightening, leading some individuals to
avoid accepting their isolation.
• Fear of dealing with aloneness may drive
individuals to adopt ritualistic behavior
patterns that anchor them to an acquired
childhood identity.
• Some individuals become trapped in a
"doing mode" to evade the experience of
simply "being."

40. Proposition 3: Striving for Identity and Relationship
STRUGGLING WITH OUR IDENTITY
• Therapeutic intervention involves challenging clients
to examine how they've lost touch with their
identity, especially by allowing others to design their
lives.
• The therapy process can be unsettling as clients
realize they have surrendered their freedom to
others and must reclaim it within the therapeutic
relationship.
• Existential therapists refrain from providing easy
solutions, compelling clients to confront the reality
that they alone must find their own answers.

41. Proposition 4: The Search for Meaning
• The underlying conflicts that bring people into counseling and
therapy are centered in these existential questions: “Why am I
here? What do I want from life? What gives my life purpose?
Where is the source of meaning for me in life?”
• therapy can provide the conceptual framework for helping
clients challenge the meaning in their lives.

42. THE PROBLEM OF DISCARDING OLD VALUES
• Clients experience a vacuum after discarding
traditional and imposed values.
• The task of the therapeutic process is to create a
value system based on a way of living that is
consistent with their way of being.
• The therapist should trust the capacity of their
clients to discover their own value system.
Proposition 4: The Search for Meaning

43. MEANINGLESSNESS
• When the world they live in seems meaningless,
clients may wonder whether it is worth it to
continue struggling or even living. Such a feeling of
meaninglessness is the major existential neurosis
of modern life.
• Meaninglessness in life can lead to emptiness and
hollowness, or a condition that Frankl calls the
existential vacuum.
• Experiencing meaninglessness and establishing
values that are part of a meaningful life are issues
that become the heart of counseling.
Proposition 4: The Search for Meaning

44. CREATING NEW MEANING
• Logotherapy is designed to help clients find a meaning
in life. The therapist’s function is to point out that they
can discover meaning even in suffering (Frankl, 1978).
• Frankl also contends that people who confront pain,
guilt, despair, and death can challenge their despair
and thus triumph.
• Yalom (2003) and Frankl (1978) agree that meaning
must be pursued obliquely.
• Meaning is created out of an individual’s engagement
with what is valued, and this commitment provides
the purpose that makes life worthwhile (van Deurzen,
2002a).
Proposition 4: The Search for Meaning

45. Proposition 5: Anxiety as a Condition of
Living
• Existential anxiety is rooted in the human striving for survival
and maintaining one's being, arising from confronting the
"givens of existence" such as death, freedom, choice, isolation,
and meaninglessness.
• It is considered an inevitable aspect of the human condition and
can serve as a stimulus for personal growth.
• Existential therapists distinguish between normal and neurotic
anxiety, with normal anxiety being a healthy response to events
and neurotic anxiety being excessive and potentially
immobilizing.

46. Proposition 5: Anxiety as a Condition of
• The therapeutic goal is not to eliminate all anxiety but to
differentiate between normal and neurotic anxiety, encouraging
individuals to face and embrace existential anxiety.
• Real personal growth involves confronting existential anxiety.
• Courage to face oneself is highlighted, and those willing to
tolerate anxiety during therapy are believed to profit from
lasting positive changes.

47. Proposition 5: Anxiety as a Condition of
• The therapeutic goal is not to eliminate all anxiety but to
differentiate between normal and neurotic anxiety,
encouraging individuals to face and embrace existential
anxiety.
• Real personal growth involves confronting existential
anxiety.
• Courage to face oneself is frightening but necessary.
Those willing to tolerate anxiety during therapy are
believed to profit from lasting positive changes.

48. Proposition 5: Anxiety as a Condition of
• Existential therapy aims to help clients recognize and deal with
the sources of their insecurity and anxiety, viewing life as an
adventure rather than relying on false securities.
• Tolerating ambiguity and uncertainty, breaking away from
limiting patterns, and building new lifestyles are considered
essential phases in the journey from dependence to autonomy.
• As clients become more self-confident and satisfied with newer
ways of being, the expectation is that anxiety levels will
decrease.
• Emphasis is given on the importance of recognizing the realities
of pain, suffering, and basic fallibility in order to confront and
navigate existential anxiety.

49. • Existentialists posit that awareness of death
is not negative but adds significance to life.
• Human uniqueness lies in the ability to
understand the reality of the future and the
inevitability of death.
• Frankl suggests that death should motivate
individuals to live fully and engage in
meaningful actions.
• Death, rather than freezing individuals with
fear, can be viewed as a positive force that
encourages a full and meaningful life.
Proposition 6: Awareness of
Death and Nonbeing

50. • Yalom recommends therapists address the
reality of death directly with clients, as
ignoring it may convey an overwhelming
message.
• Confronting the fear of death in therapy can
facilitate a transformation toward a more
authentic way of living.
• Existential therapy focuses on evaluating
whether clients align their actions with their
values and use a healthy awareness of death
for self-reflection.
• Embracing the reality of eventual death
enhances the understanding that actions
have significance, choices matter, and
individuals bear ultimate responsibility for
Proposition 6: Awareness of Death and Nonbeing

51. The
Therapeutic
Process

52. The Therapeutic Process (Bugental 1990)
• Support clients in
confronting the
anxieties that they
have so long
sought to avoid.
• Help clients
redefine
themselves and
their world in ways
that foster greater
genuineness of
contact with life.
• Assist clients in
recognizing that
they are not fully
present in the
therapy process
itself and in seeing
how this pattern
may limit them
outside of therapy.

53. The Therapists Role and
Function
• primarily concerned with understanding
the subjective world of clients to help
them come to new understandings and
options.
• RESTRICTED EXISTENCE - clients with
limited awareness of themselves and are
often vague about the nature of their
problems.
• assist clients in seeing the ways in which
they constrict their awareness and the
cost of such constrictions.

54. “There is no one right way to do therapy, and
certainly no rigid doctrine for existentially rooted
techniques. What is crucial is that you create
your own authentic way of being attuned to your
clients”
(Russell 2007)

55. Clients in Existential
Therapy
• encouraged to take seriously their own
subjective experience of their world.
• take responsibility for how they now
choose to be in their world.
• they must decide what fears, guilt
feelings, and anxieties they will
explore.

56. “Embarking on our existential journey requires us to be
prepared to be touched and shaken by what we fi nd on
the way and to not be afraid to discover our own
limitations and weaknesses, uncertainties and doubts. It
is only with such an attitude of openness and wonder
that we can encounter the impenetrable everyday
mysteries, which take us beyond our own
preoccupations and sorrows and which by confronting
us with death, make us rediscover life.”
van Deurzen (1997):

57. Clients in Existential
Therapy
• existential therapy is confronting
ultimate concerns rather than coping
with immediate problems.
• Some major themes of therapy
sessions are anxiety, freedom and
responsibility, search for identity,
living authentically, isolation,
alienation, death and its implications
for living, and the continual search for
meaning.

58. Relationship Between
Therapist and Client
• Existential therapists give central prominence to their relationship with
the client.
• Vontress, Johnson, and Epp (1999) state that existential counseling is a
voyage into self-discovery for both client and therapist.
• Rather than prizing therapeutic objectivity and professional distance,
existential therapists strive to create caring and intimate relationships
with clients.
• If therapists keep themselves hidden during the therapeutic session or if
they engage in inauthentic behavior, clients will also remain guarded and
persist in their inauthentic ways.

59. “The therapeutic alliance is the powerful joining of
forces which energizes and supports the long, difficult,
and frequently painful work of lifechanging
psychotherapy. The conception of the therapist here is
not of a disinterested observer-technician but of a fully
alive human companion for the client.”
Bugental (p. 49).

60. Therapeutic
Techniques and
Procedures
• existential therapists are free to draw
from techniques that flow from many
other orientations. However, they do
not employ an array of unintegrated
techniques; they have a set of
assumptions and attitudes that guide
their interventions with clients.

61. • therapists need to adapt their
interventions to their own personality
and style, as well as being sensitive to
what each client requires. Van Deurzen
(1997)
• main guideline is interventions should be
responsive to the uniqueness of each
client (van Deurzen, 1997; Walsh &
McElwain, 2002).

62. Phases of Counseling
• initial phase - therapists assist clients in identifying and clarifying
their assumptions about the world.
• middle phase - clients are encouraged to more fully examine the
source and authority of their present value system.
• final phase - focuses on helping people take what they are
learning about themselves and put it into action.

63. Clients Appropriate for
Existential Counseling
• people who are coping with developmental crises.
• clients who are committed to dealing with their problems about
living. Van Deurzen (2002b)
• work well with people who are at a crossroads and who question
the state of affairs in the world and are willing to challenge the
status quo.
• people who are on the edge of existence.

64. Application to Brief
Therapy
• focus clients on significant areas such
as assuming personal responsibility,
making a commitment to deciding and
acting, and expanding their awareness
of their current situation.
• mirrors the time-limited reality of
human existence. Strasser and Strasser
(1997)

65. Application to Group
Counseling
• An existential group can be described as people making a
commitment to a lifelong journey of self-exploration with these
goals:
1. enabling members to become honest with themselves;
2. widening their perspectives on themselves and the world
around them;
3. clarifying what gives meaning to their present and future
life. (van Deurzen, 2002b)

66. Application to Group Counseling
• members come to terms with the paradoxes of existence:
1. that life can be undone by death;
2. that success is precarious;
3. that we are determined to be free;
4. that we are responsible for a world we did not choose;
5. that we must make choices in the face of doubt and
uncertainty.
• there are no ultimate answers for ultimate concerns.

67. Shortcomings
• Existential perspective criticized by systemic thinkers
for being overly individualistic and overlooking social
factors influencing human problems.
• Some clients, facing environmental constraints like
racism, discrimination, and oppression, may feel
limited in their ability to influence their lives.
• Feminist therapists argue for social action alongside
therapeutic practice to address systemic issues
creating clients' problems.

68. Shortcomings
• Existential theory's focus on self-determination
may not consider the complex factors faced by
oppressed individuals in various cultures.
• Real-life concerns, such as survival issues for
marginalized communities, need cultural
sensitivity and attention in counseling.

69. Shortcomings
• Existential therapy lacks a structured, problem-
oriented approach, which contrasts with client
expectations for counselors to actively bring about
changes.
• Balancing the existential emphasis on client
responsibility with providing concrete direction
poses a challenge for therapists within this
approach.

70. Summary and Evaluation
• Existentialist view emphasizes human capacity for self-
awareness, enabling reflection and decision-making.
• Self-awareness leads to freedom, responsibility, and
existential anxiety, especially when facing the reality of
mortality.
• Existential therapy prioritizes person-to-person
relationships, asserting that genuine encounters foster
client growth.

71. Contributions of the Existential
Approach
• Existential approach focuses on self-consciousness and
freedom in human existence.
• Provides a positive perspective on death, attributing
meaning to life.
• Contributes insights into anxiety, guilt, frustration,
loneliness, and alienation.
• Views the existential practitioner as a mentor, assisting
individuals in reflecting on life challenges.
• Encourages people to live by their own values, aiming
for authentic self-development.

72. Contributions of the Existential
Approach
• Emphasizes the human quality of the therapeutic
relationship, rejecting therapeutic objectivity.
• Values being caring human beings in an insensitive
world.
• Stresses freedom, responsibility, and the capacity to
redesign one's life with awareness.
• Key postulates for integration include focusing on client
subjectivity, full presence, and commitment.
• Integration examples involve creative approaches like
combining cognitive behavioral techniques with

73. Limitations and
Criticisms of the
Existential Approach
• Lack of a systematic statement of principles and
practices in psychotherapy.
• Perceived mystical language and concepts leading
to confusion and difficulty in conducting research.
• Concepts are considered lofty and elusive,
challenging for practitioners without a
philosophical orientation.
• Primary emphasis on subjective understanding,
with limited generation of specific techniques.

74. Limitations and Criticisms of the Existential Approach
• Challenges for practitioners who prefer a research-based
counseling practice.
• Rejection of manualized therapy and criticism from
evidence-based practice perspective.
• Limited empirical studies evaluating the effectiveness of
existential therapy.
• Requirement of a high level of maturity, life experience, and
intensive training for practitioners.
• Emphasis on authenticity as a key characteristic, involving
profound understanding and responsibility for creating a
unique therapeutic approach.

75. "Man is condemned to be free;
because once thrown into the world,
he is responsible for everything he
does. It is up to you to give a
meaning.“
~ Jean-Paul Sartre