Existential
Therapy
I.
Key
figures:
Viktor Frankl, Rollo May, and Irving Yalom.
Existential therapy is more a way of thinking, or an
attitude about psychotherapy than a particular style of practice. This therapy can also be described as
philosophical approach that influences a counselor’s therapeutic practice. It focuses on exploring themes such as
mortality, meaning, freedom, responsibility, anxiety, and aloneness as these
relate to a person’s current struggle.
II.
Key
Concepts:
View
of Human Nature: It reacts against the tendency to identify therapy with a
set of techniques. Instead, it bases
therapeutic practice on an understanding of what it means to be human. It stands for respect for the person, for
exploring new aspects of human behavior, and divergent methods of understanding
people. The existential tradition seeks
to 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. There are 6 basic
dimensions of the human condition, according to this approach.
1. Proposition
1: The Capacity for Self-Awareness – The greater our awareness, the greater our
possibilities for freedom. The core existential position is that we are both
free and limited, and we increase our capacity to live fully as we expand our
awareness in the following areas:
a. We
are finite and do not have unlimited time to do what we want in life.
b. We
have the potential to take action or not to act; inaction is a decision.
c. We
choose our actions, and therefore we can partially create our own destiny.
d. Meaning
is the product of discovering how we are thrown or situated in the work and
then, through commitment, living creatively.
e. As
we increase our awareness of the choices available to us, we also increase our
sense of responsibility for the consequences of these choices.
f.
We are subject to loneliness,
meaninglessness, emptiness, guilt, and isolation.
g. We
are basically alone, yet we have an opportunity to relate to other beings.
Here are some areas of
emerging awareness that individuals may experience in the counseling process.
a. They
see how they are trading the security of dependence for the anxieties that
accompany choosing for themselves.
b. They
begin to see that their identity is anchored in someone else’s definition of them;
they are seeking approval and confirmation of their being in others instead of
looking to themselves for affirmation.
c. They
learn that in many ways they are keeping themselves prisoner by some of their
past decisions, and they realize that they can make new decisions.
d. They
learn that although they cannot change certain events in their lives they can
change the way they view and react to these events.
e. They
learn that they are not condemned to a future similar to the past, and they can
change from their past and thereby reshape their future.
f.
They realize that they are so
preoccupied with suffering, death, and dying that they are not approaching the
living.
g. They
are able to accept their limitations yet still feel worthwhile, for they
understand that they do not need to be perfect to feel worthy.
h. They
come to realize that they are failing to live in the present moment because of
their preoccupation with the past, planning for the future, or trying to do too
many things at once.
2. Proposition
2: Freedom and Responsibility
a. Inauthenticity
is referred by Jean-Paul Sartre as not accepting personal responsibility.
b. Freedom
implies that we are responsible for our lives, actions and failures.
c. Existential
guilt is being aware of having evaded a commitment, or having chosen not to
choose.
d. Authenticity
implies that we are living by being true to our own evaluation of what is a
valuable existence for ourselves or the courage to be who we are.
3. Proposition
3: Striving for Identity and Relationship to Others: Loneliness, up rootedness,
and alienation, can be seen as the failure to develop ties with others and with
nature. 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.
a. The
Courage to Be: By assisting clients in
facing their fear that their lives or selves are empty and meaningless,
therapists can help clients to create a self that has meaning and substance
that they have chosen.
b. The
Experience of Aloneness: The sense of
isolation comes when we recognize that we cannot depend on anyone else for our
own confirmation, we alone must give a sense of meaning to life, and we alone
must decide how we will live.
c. The
Experience of Relatedness: When we are
able to stand alone and tap into our own strength, our relationships with
others are based on our fulfillment, not our deprivations. When we feel deprived however, we can expect
little but a clinging and symbiotic relationship with someone else.
d. Struggling
With Our Identity: We are afraid of
dealing with our aloneness, some of us get caught up in ritualistic behavior
patterns that cement us to an image or identity we acquired in early childhood.
4. Proposition
4: The Search for Meaning: A distinctly
human characteristic is the struggle for a sense of significance and purpose in
life.
a. The
Problem of Discarding Old Values: Often clients may discard traditional and
imposed values without creating other, suitable ones to replacements.
b. Meaninglessness: Faced with the prospect of our mortality we
might ask is there any point to what I do now since I will eventually die, will
I be forgotten when I am gone?
c. Creating
New Meaning: Human suffering can be
turned into human achievement by the stand an individual takes when faced with
it. Frankl contends that people who
confront pain, guilt, despair, and death can effectively deal with their
despair and thus triumph.
5. Proposition
5: Anxiety as a Condition of Living:
a. Existential
anxiety arises as we recognize the realities of our own mortality, our
confrontation with pain and suffering, or need to struggle for survival.
b. Normal
anxiety is an appropriate response to an event being faced and can be a great
motivation for change.
c. Neurotic
anxiety is anxiety about concrete things that is out of proportion to the
situation.
6. Proposition
6: Awareness of Death and Nonbeing: death is a basic human condition that gives
significance to living. A distinguishing human characteristic is the ability to
grasp the reality of the future and the inevitability of death. It is necessary
to think about death if we are to think of significantly about life.
III.
Therapeutic
Goals: Existential therapy is best considered as an
invitation to clients to recognize the ways in which they are not living fully
authentic lives and to make choices that will lead to their becoming what they
are capable of being. Existential
therapy holds that there is no escape from freedom as we will always be held
responsible and aims at helping clients face anxiety and engage in action that
is based on the authentic purpose of creating a worthy existence.
IV.
Therapeutic
Techniques: Is unlike most other therapies in that it is not
technique-oriented. Therapists prefer description, understanding, and
exploration of the client’s subjective reality as opposed to diagnosis,
treatment and prognosis.
Reference: Corey, Gerald (2013). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (9th
ed.). Belmont, CA:Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.
Person
Centered Therapy
Founder:
Carl
Rogers (1902-1987) Known as a “quiet revolutionary”
Key
Figure: Natalie
Rogers (Carl Rogers daughter) – Used Expressive Art Therapy
This approach was developed in the 1940’s as a
nondirective reaction against psychoanalysis.
It is based on a subjective view of human experiencing, and it places
faith in and gives responsibility to the client in dealing with problems and
concerns.
Key
Concepts:
·
Rogers maintained that people are
trustworthy, resourceful, capable of self-understanding and self-direction,
able to make constructive changes and able to live effective and productive
lives. When therapists are able to
experience and communicate their realness, support, caring, and nonjudgmental,
understanding, significant changes in the client.
·
3 therapist attributes create a growth-promoting
climate in which clients can move forward and be what they are capable of
becoming.
o
Congruence – genuiness or realness
o
Unconditional positive regard –
acceptance and caring
o
Acute empathetic understanding – an ability
to deeply grasp the subjective world of another person
·
Actualizing tendency – a direct process
of striving toward realization, fulfillment, autonomy, and self-determination.
·
Maslow taught us earlier that individuals’
becoming self-actualizing is an ongoing process rather than a final
destination.
Therapeutic
Concepts and Techniques:
·
Focus is on the person, not on the
persons presenting problems. Rather, the
goal is to assist clients in their growth process so clients can better cope
with problems as they identify them.
·
When facades are put aside during
therapy, Rogers described people who are becoming more actualized as having:
o
Openness to experience
o
A trust in themselves
o
An internal source of evaluation
o
Willingness to continue growth
·
Encouraging these characteristics is the
basic goal of person-centered therapy.
·
Stages of change
o
Precontemplation – no intention of
changing behavior in the near future
o
Contemplation – people are aware of the
problem and are considering changing it
o
Preparation stage – intend to take
immediate action
o
Action stage – actually taking steps to
modify their behavior to solve their problems
o
Maintenance Stage – work to consolidate
their gains and prevent relapse
Reference: Corey, Gerald (2013). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (9th
ed.). Belmont, CA:Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.
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