Transpersonal Therapy...o Existential Therapy help clients develop a healthy relationship with...

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SOCP121

Session 7

Existential Therapy

Department of Social Sciences


Session Aim:

This session introduces students to existential

philosophy which balances accepting common

human events against the freedom to create our

circumstances.

Existential Therapy


Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, you should:

o Be able to identify the key components of existential therapies.

o Understand how emphasizing control and utilisingacceptance can result in positive wellbeing for both clients and practitioners.

Existential Therapy


Existential

Psychotherapy

“Between stimulus & response there is a space.

In that space is our power to choose our response.

In our response lies our growth & our freedom”

(Viktor Frankl)

“The opposite of courage in our society

is not cowardice, it is conformity”

(Rollo May)

"Live your life to the fullest; & then, & only then, die.

Don't leave any unlived life behind“

(Irvin Yalom)


Key Figures in Existential Therapy

VIKTOR FRANKL (1905-1997)

• Born and educated in Vienna

• Medical Doctor (1930) & PhD in Philosophy (1949)

• From 1942-1945: Prisoner in the Nazi concentration camps of

Auschwitz & Dachau where his parents, wife and children died

• Used these terrible experiences in a constructive way

• Wrote a number of books. Bestseller: “Man’s search for meaning” (1963)

• Developed Logotherapy: Therapy through meaning. Central themes:

• Life has meaning under all circumstances;

• The central motivation for living is the will to meaning;

• We have the freedom to find meaning in all that we think;

• We must integrate body, mind & spirit to be fully alive.

• Individuals can find meaning & purpose through suffering, work & love


Existential Philosophy

• Existential psychologists & psychiatrists were influenced by

various philosophers & writers during the 19th C.

• A number of counselling frameworks have their roots in

existential philosophy.

• “Humanistic existentialism” embraces the following three

values:

1. Freedom (e.g. to know oneself)

2. Experiential reflection (e.g. to discover what one is becoming)

3. Responsibility (e.g. to act on or respond to what one is

becoming) [p.149]


Existential view on Personality

o Personality:

• The characteristics or dispositions that influence their

thoughts, behaviours, and motivations.

• Is not as relevant to Existential-Humanistic therapy as

people are considered to be dynamic creatures who

change with experience

o Human actions are viewed in the context of freedom,

reflection, and responsibility

• Freedom to behave within or outside of social norms

• Responsibility to decide how to behave

• Reflection can moderate this process


Existential Wellbeing

o Refers to freedom, reflection, and responsibility

o Lack of freedom can be due to failure to accept

responsibility and choose, or due to lack

of awareness of choice

o Awareness of freedom is important

for wellbeing

Freedom

Experiential Reflection

Responsibility


Key Concepts

1. Capacity for Self-Awareness- Reflection and self-knowledge

2. Freedom and Responsibility- Making choices; Controlling our life; Being accountable for our choices

3. Striving for Identity and Relationship to Others- Not just doing, but being; Being alone; Being together

4. The Search for Meaning- Finding meaning and living a valued life

5. Anxiety as a Condition of Living- Anxiety as inevitable; Courage to face anxiety

6. Awareness of Death and Nonbeing- Death as inevitable; Death as a reminder to live our lives fully and meaningfully


The Capacity for Self-Awareness

o Freedom, choice & responsibility constitute the

foundation for self-awareness.

o The greater our awareness, the greater our

possibilities for freedom

o Awareness is realizing that:

• We are finite - time is limited

• We have the potential & the choice, to act or not to act;

inaction is a decision

• Meaning is not automatic - we must seek it

• We are subject to loneliness, meaninglessness,

emptiness, guilt, & isolation


The Capacity for Self-Awareness (cont.)

Emerging Awareness:

o Although we cannot change certain events in our lives we

can make new decisions, change the way we perceive

& react to events.

o Acceptance of limitations, we do not need to be perfect to

feel worthy.

o Appreciation of living in the present rather than a

preoccupation with the past, or planning for the future

o Look for affirmation within ourselves, rather than

seeking external approval.


The Capacity for Self-Awareness (cont.)

Increasing Self-Awareness:

o Increasing awareness of alternatives, motivations,

contextual factors & personal goals

o With greater awareness we realise the consequences

of our choices & the price to pay for this increased

awareness.

o Awareness can bring more turmoil but more potential

for fulfilment in the long term.


Freedom & Responsibility

o We don’t choose to enter the world, but we are free to choose

how we live it, therefore shaping our own destiny.

o Assuming responsibility is a basic condition for change.

Psychotherapy helps clients to accept this responsibility for

directing our lives.

o “Bad faith” (Sartre): Refers to the excuses we make to avoid

accepting responsibility for directing our own lives, e.g. “I am

this way because my parents did not love me”.

o Inauthentic mode of existence: Limited awareness of personal

responsibility for our lives & passively assuming that our

existence is mostly influenced by external forces.


Striving for Identity & Relationship to Others

o Identity is “the courage to be”. We must trust ourselves to

search within & find our own answers.

– Our great fear is that we will discover that there is no

core, no self.

– Being existentially “alone” helps us to discover our

authentic self

o To BE more than the sum or reflection of others’ expectations.


Striving for Identity & Relationship to Others

o The experience of relatedness: When we are able to

stand alone, our relationships with others are based on

our fulfillment, not our deprivation. If we feel personally

deprived, relationship with others will be clinging,

parasitic or symbiotic.

o The experience of aloneness as part of the human

condition

o Struggling with identity: We may have lost touch

with our own identity, goals & ability to find our own

answers. Some of us become trapped in a doing

mode to avoid the experience of being.


The Search for Meaning

o Human struggle for a sense of meaning & purpose in life.

o Existentialists assert that the underlying conflicts that bring people into

therapy are centered around the 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?

o Existential therapy can provide the conceptual framework for helping

clients challenge the meaning in their lives. Questions therapists might

ask are:

• How do you feel about the direction of your life?

• What is it that you really want to do with your life?


Class Activity

Personal Reflection on Meaning

o Consider the following quote:

• “Boredom does not mean we have nothing to do; it means

we cannot find meaning in what we are doing.”

o Think about your life over the past five years.

• How have you coped with boredom?

– For example, did you distract yourself (alcohol, partying,

television, etc)?

• How has your life changed? Have you grown?

• Where do you want your life to be in five years?

• How do you find meaning? What really matters to you?


Anxiety as a Condition for Living.

Normal anxiety is an appropriate response to an event &

is necessary to survive.

Existential anxiety is normal: life cannot be lived, nor can death be

faced, without anxiety. Anxiety follows freedom.

o Existential Therapy help clients develop a healthy relationship with

anxiety:

• Anxiety can be a stimulus for growth as we become aware of &

accept our freedom

• It can be a catalyst for living authentically & fully in the present

• If we have the courage to face ourselves & life, we may be

frightened… but we will be able to change

• Individuals can tolerate ambiguity & uncertainty. Anxiety will

diminish as clients experience more satisfaction, self-confidence,

self-acceptance & more ways of being.


Class activity

Anxiety

o Break into two groups and debate the following:

• One group must defend the statement “anxiety is good”

• One group must defend the statement “anxiety is bad”

o After the debate you should take a few minutes to reflect

on what makes you anxious.

• Does anxiety help you realise what’s important? Does it

help you to grow?

• How do you like to handle anxiety? Do you like to

confront it? Or avoid it?

• How will the way you deal with anxiety affect your

effectiveness as a practitioner? How will you deal with

anxious clients?


Awareness of Death.

o Existential Psychotherapy seeks to help the client to grasp

reality of the future and to think about death

o This awareness is the zest for life and creativity. It helps to

transform life into a fully engage mode of living.

Present moment of life counts.

- We start asking ourselves –

Am I doing the things I value ?

Living in the present will help us not become pre-occupied with

the ever present of not being.

View death as a positive force that gives life its meaning and

purpose.


Victor Frankl on Choice

“We who lived in the concentration camps can

remember the men who walked through the huts

comforting others, giving away their last piece of

bread. They may have been few in number, but they

offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken

from a man but one thing: the last of the human

freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given

set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way”

(Viktor Frankl)


Victor Frankl

The following video clips provide an overview of a

number of existential therapy concepts:

Interview with Dr. Viktor Frankl

Part 1 (8 minutes 41 seconds)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EIxGrIc_6g&t=324s


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnWETfCaBmo


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSSftFde5vo








Existential Therapy

Focuses on:

• Health rather than sickness

• Growth

• The client’s immediate experience

• Helping clients to examine their values and

assumptions

• Helping clients reconstruct values, and develop

meaning & purpose in their life

• Bringing out the “aliveness” in a client (singing,

dancing, painting, etc.)


Existential Therapy (cont.)

o Is considered as a collaborative journey (client/therapist)

• The relationship/bond with the client is crucial

• This relationship demands the therapists to be aware and

in contact with their own phenomenological world

o Key aspects of the therapeutic relationship:

• Respect and faith in the client’s potential

• Sharing honest reactions with genuine concern and

empathy

o The client needs to accept there is no escape from freedom


Existential Therapy (cont.)

o Helps clients face the anxiety of the responsibility when

considering their options and take decisions based on

authenticity.

o It does not seek to “cure” clients but to help them become

aware of what they are doing and get out of the victim role.

Its seeks to teach them to listen what they already know

about themselves.

o Assists them to remain fully aware in the present and do not

focus on past of future.

o Supports them in confronting their own anxieties.

o Helps clients to “rewrite” who they want to be in the world.


Existential Therapeutic Approach

o No set of pre-determined techniques. The relationship is at the

core of the process, more relevant than set methods.

o To confront clients and to help them see where/how they are stuck or

living a restricted existence.

o The therapist does not tell clients what their life meaning is, but points

out that meaning can be found, even in the midst of suffering.

o Focus on current life situations.

o Therapists provide a “psychological mirror” to the client so they can

see how they contributed to limited awareness and avoided

responsibility.


Goals of Existential Therapy

• To help clients:

- Expand self-awareness

- Increase choice potentials

- accept the responsibility of choosing

- experience authentic existence

- recognize factors that block freedom

- Accept the freedom and responsibility that

go along with action


Existential Therapy - Contributions

o Emphasis on the human quality of the therapeutic relationship.

The therapist is seen as a mentor.

o The approach can be integrated into most counselling

approaches. There is no set of techniques to follow.

o Clients are encouraged to find their own direction.

o Challenges in life can be dealt with equanimity, determination,

curiosity & wonder rather than self-deception. Optimistic view.

o Focus on the positive aspects of being alive. Human

resilience.


Existential Therapy

Limitations & Criticisms

o Individualistic focus: it may be difficult to be accepted by a

collectivistic culture.

o Self-determination value: not fully applicable to some real-life

limitations of those who are oppressed and have limited choices.

o Clients may prefer a more directive therapeutic approach

o The approach does not focus on specific techniques, making

treatments difficult to standardize.

o Limited empirical support and evidence base research.

Clients may get a lack of direction from therapist.

o Existentialism is not a problem-oriented therapy.


Revision Questions

o What did Victor Frankl discover about human choice?

o How much control do you and the client have over the

therapeutic process, each other, or therapeutic

outcomes?

o What is the relationship between human needs and

wellbeing?

o How do I recognize areas of competence I need to

improve?


References

Bugental, J. (1987). The art of the psychotherapist. New York: Norton

Corey, G. (2015). Theory and practice of counselling and psychotherapy (10th ed.).

Boston, MA: Brooks Cole Cengage Learning.

Deurzen, E van (2002). (2nd Ed.) Existential counselling & psychotherapy in practice.

London: Sage Publications

Frankl, V. (1963). Man’s search for meaning. Boston: Beacon Press

May, R, (1970). Love and will. London: Souvenir Press

Schneider, K.J. (2005). Existential-Humanistic Psychotherapies. . In A.S. Gurman &

S.B. Messer (Eds.), Essential Psychotherapies. New York: Guilford Press.

Yalom, I, (1980). Existential psychotherapy. New York: Basic books


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