Category Archives: Existential-Therapy.com Original Blog

Why Become an Existential Therapist?

As an existential therapist, I’ve frequently heard colleagues and students comment, “I’ve always liked existential theory, but I don’t know what to do with it in the therapy room.” Students considering taking a course on existential therapy have also asked questions such as, “Am I going to be able to understand this theory?,” “Are we going to have to read Kierkegaard and Sartre?,” and “Will this class be relevant to what I do in therapy?”

Existential psychotherapy seems to draw both intrigue and hesitation from students and professionals in the mental health field. This is not a surprise from a therapy approach embracing paradox and priding itself in being largely technique-less. However, the fear of existentialism is largely due to a lack of understanding. In this overview, I hope to demonstrate that existential therapy is less threatening than it first appears, but also much more exciting and powerful than is often realized.

Flexibility with Foundation

It is important to continually re-evaluate where you are at as a therapist, including where you are at in your theoretical development. For many years now I’ve considered myself an existential therapist, but continued to read broadly into other approaches to therapy. Through this process I’ve become heavily influenced by contemporary/relational psychoanalysis, humanistic therapy, and constructivist approaches. At times, I’ve wondered whether one of these approaches to therapy would be a better label for what I do on a day to day basis. However, as I’ve assessed this process I continue to realize existential is the best title from how I approach therapy.

One of the advantages of the existential approach is that it provides a framework from which other approaches can be integrated. Kirk Schneider and Rollo May (1995), two of the most influential existential therapists, outlined an existential integrative approach. This places existential therapy as the foundation, but allows for an integration of other theories. However, because of the emphasis on authenticity, genuineness, and critical thought, it also demands that approaches or aspects of approaches which are integrated remain consistent with the foundation.

The flexibility of existentialism comes from many sources. By its nature, existential therapy does not fit with the fundamentalism that develops within many other approaches. The most successful therapies adapt to the strengths of the individual therapist, but also to each client. As Yalom (2002) states, a new therapy is created with each client.

Existential psychotherapy also avoids the opposite problem of too much flexibility incurred in eclectic approaches. A weakness of many eclectic approaches is that they loose their foundation through their attempts to be adaptive and pragmatic. Pragmaticism often seeks to accomplish goals without taking into account the consequence of the process to or result of attaining the goals.

Central Tenets of Existential Thought

Yalom (1980) identified the four major themes of existential thought as death, freedom/responsibility, isolation/loneliness, and meaninglessness. While Yalom’s organization is generally agreed upon, it also reflects a significant point of distinction. Yalom states these themes in a manner which emphasizes their finality. Yalom does not believe there are ultimate answers to these questions. Rather, they are viewed as existential terrors with which we all much cope. Other existential thinkers disagree. May, Tillich, and many others state that while there may be ultimate answers to these issues, we are not able to fully attain these answers and the questions remain difficult.

The issue of death refers to the reality of a physical death, but is also symbolic of all human limitation. These two prongs of finiteness are difficult realities for many people to accept. Ernest Becker’s (1973) The Denial of Death, is often considered a classic in this discussion. Becker makes a penetrating analysis of our attempts to deny our finiteness. In Becker’s (1975) follow up, Escape from Evil, this argument is extended to the concept of evil. Becker purports the basis of evil is the denial of our finiteness.

Freedom is the next existential reality Yalom (1980) discusses. It is essential to connect freedom with responsibility. You cannot have one without the other. Yet, this is what many people seek and also can contribute to the problem which bring many individuals into therapy.

Isolation is the third existential reality (Yalom, 1980). Here, we are pushed to deal with the reality that everyone experiences isolation and loneliness. Yet, the desire for love, connection, and intimacy is arguably the strongest and most central human drive. Don’t let the odd placement of relationship as the third existential issue trick you. Many, maybe most, existential therapists place relationship is the primary issue of human existence.

Meaning, the final of the central existential issues, unites the three other theories. Humans are meaning seeking creatures. The attainment of meaning requires the facing of the three previous existential issues. This also returns us to relationship; many existentialists believe authentic relationship is the most powerful form of meaning a person can achieve.

How Therapy Heals

The common adage “it is the relationship that heals” is consistent with existential therapy. While it would be a mistake to claim any one theory on how change occurs according to existential theorists, the general tendency is toward a phenomenological, experiential, and relational perspective.

While the focus is on the relationship, there are many other aspects of therapy which contribute to the healing and growth process. First, insight is extremely important. Existential therapists may interpret aspects of the unconscious differently, but they still believe in the importance of the unconscious. Existential therapy also helps people make changes in their attitudes, decisions, behaviors, and thoughts through the awareness process. While the approach to accomplishing these changes is very different than brief therapy, existentialists agree they are part of healing.

A third component of healing is experience. Experience can be thought of in terms of experiencing a genuine relationship, but also is conducive to the idea of a corrective emotional experience talked about within many psychodynamic approaches to therapy.

As should be evident, healing occurs through a variety of processes in existential therapy. However, the therapy relationship remains a central component in all the various aspects of healing.

The Experience of the Therapist

The therapist takes a unique role in existential therapy. We are co-participants in a deeply rewarding, but sometimes painful process. While therapist and client sit facing each other, the process of therapy focuses their vision in the same direction. Existential therapy is, at its heart, a very collaborative approach.

Because of the focus on genuineness, authenticity, and awareness, it requires the therapist to be emotionally present and available. Additionally, it is vital that the existential therapist continue to keep their vision as clear as possible by doing their own work, continuing in the self-reflective process, and seeking out their own continued journey.

While it is often thought that depth therapists are passive in their way of relating with clients, this is a misnomer. Existential therapists are very actively engaged in the therapy process. However, their engagement is not in a directive manner. Rather, it’s an engagement in the relationship process as it unfolds and develops. Being passive is not genuine.

Advice for those Considering Becoming an Existential Therapist

If you are considering the pursuit of becoming an existential therapist, I would recommend beginning by reading three authors which will give you differing perspectives. Yalom is a good place to start because his reading is the most accessible. I recommend beginning with Love’s Executioner (1980) and Existential Psychotherapy (1989). The former begins with a brief overview of existential theory before offering 10 tales or case histories of existential therapy. The latter is the most comprehensive overview of existential therapy written to date.

Yalom was heavily influenced by Rollo May, who is generally considered the father of American Existential Psychotherapy. May, like Yalom, is an excellent writer who has an ability to make existentialism accessible. Love and Will (1969) and The Cry for Myth (1991) are two excellent places to start with Rollo May. The former has more clinical utility, while the latter is more abstract but an immensely important book.

Frankl provides a much different approach than May and Yalom. His book, Man’s Search for Meaning (1984), is a classic far beyond the realms of existential thought and psychotherapy. It begins with Frankl’s experience in the concentration camps during World War II and follows this with an overview of logotherapy (Frankl’s approach to existential therapy). However, for a better summary of Frankl’s approach to therapy, Man’s Search for UltimateMeaning (2000) is recommended.

Two other resources may help get a vision of the existential approach and deserve mentioning. First, are the many videos of James Bugental. Bugental was one of the early existential therapists strongly influenced by Rollo May and many humanistic psychologists. His legacy includes many brilliant therapy demonstration videos which do an excellent job of illustrating existential therapy. A second resource is Kirk Schneider’s Rediscovery of Awe. Using an existentially informed depth psychotherapy approach, Schneider gives a vision of how existential thought and depth psychotherapy can have an impact beyond the therapy room.

There are a growing number of other training opportunities in existential psychotherapy. If you remain interested after some initial reading on existential therapy, it may be beneficial to seek out one of these training opportunities and/or contact an experienced existential therapist to talk with them in more detail about what it like to be an existential therapist.

Conclusion

Being an existential therapist is an extremely exciting career. The experience of working with suffering people to help them find healing, new insight, and authentic relationship in itself is rewarding. An added benefit is the colleagues you will meet. It is a wonderful group of people that is drawn toward existential therapy and we are always happy to welcome new colleagues.

Existential-Humanistic Therapy & the Middle Path

Existential psychology represents a middle path in psychology. In many ways, this becomes one of the defining strengths of existential thought. What is curious, though, is that this middle path is often seen as radical in the world of Western psychology which too often is focused on extremes. This brief essay will explore the value and changes of this middle path reflected in existentialism.

Where Existentialism Deviates from Humanism, Positive Psychology, and Transpersonal Psychology

As argued elsewhere on this web site, existential therapy shares a great deal with humanistic psychology, positive psychology, and transpersonal psychology. However, it also stands strongly against many of the trends seen with these fields of thought.

Each of these three similar traditions brings ideas that strengthen existential thought. Existentialists generally share with the humanists the valuing of people and being human. It also shares the quest for what it means to be human or to exist. Existentialists share with positive psychology concerns about the field of psychology’s excessive focus on diagnosing what is wrong and focusing on the problems with human existence. Many existentialists share with the transpersonalists interest in the spiritual and metaphysical realms, though some existential thinkers about the metaphysical references.

Humanistic psychology, positive psychology, and transpersonal psychology share with the existentialists a desire to bring these neglected aspects of existence into the light and forefront of psychological thought and inquiry. However, the existentialists often voice concern about the extremes in these trends. For example, the focus on the good in humans can bring with it neglect of the potential for evil. The focus on the positive aspects of being human can potentially involve the neglect of suffering, particularly the value of suffering. The focus on the spiritual and metaphysical aspects can lead to the neglect of the material and what it means to being-in-the-world.

Existentialism brings balance to each of these three fields. If they offered more attention to the existential realms, each theory would become stronger. One example of this can be seen in Daniels (2005) critique of transpersonal psychology’s lack of discussion about evil. As a transpersonal psychologist, Daniels sees this as an important weakness requiring urgent attention. While Daniels does not cite existential thought as the impetus for his critique, the homage to existential themes is evident. A more intentional dialogue about differences would beneficial.

Buddhism and the Middle Path

The choice of including “the middle path” in this essay was very intentional in its reference to Buddhism. It is not to suggest that existentialism is a Buddhist psychology. However, it is not a coincidence that frequently students taking existential courses comment, “That sounds a lot like Buddhism.” Nor is it a coincidence that existentialists such as Nietzsche and Kierkegaard are commonly referenced in Buddhist-Western dialogues (see Abe 1990; Altizer, 1990).

The similarities beg the question: “Is existential thought Eastern or Western?” The answer to this question deserves much more time and debate than will be allotted in this essay. However, allow me to point to important questions and historical context relevant to this question.

Postmodern thought has helped contemporary thinkers to recognize that even constructions such as Eastern Thought and Western Thought are social constructions largely dependent upon culture. While there is evidence that influences from India may have influenced some philosophical and religious thought in the West as early as the late common era (B.C.E.), it is not likely that these are a primary cause of the similarities of existentialism with some Eastern and Buddhist ideas.

Kierkegaard, who is generally acknowledged as the father of existential thought, shares some similarities with Buddhism particularly in the valuing of the subjective experience. However, Kierkegaard was certainly more Western than Eastern. As existential thought continued to develop in the writing of Nietzsche, Tillich, Sartre, and others, it became fiercely individualistic at times. The individualistic tone of much of existential thought does not fit well with the more collectivist approach common in Eastern thought.

It was not until existentialism because a psychology that it began to address the problems with the strong individualistic tone of many existential writers. Rollo May, the father of American existential psychology, began to address this issue indirectly, but really the writings of Bugental and Schneider bring it to more completion. While these writers still focus on the individual, their valuing of the relational process and understanding of systems move existential thought away from being excessively individualistic. It could be maintained that contemporary existential thought provides a middle road between individualism and collectivism.

The influences of a pluralistic world make it highly likely that these developments in existential thought have included influences from Buddhism and other Eastern approaches to thought. The values and positions of existential thought fashioned it to be an ideal Western theory to be in dialogue with Buddhism. However, I think it is also evident that existential thought took a different path to get to its current similarities with Buddhism.

Existentialism’s Extremism

Arguing that existentialism is simply a middle road or some type of compromise would ignore the radicalness that is apparent in existential thought. Two ideas can reconcile this apparent contradiction between existentialism’s middle path and this radical side of existentialism.

First, existentialism often emphasizes paradox. In this sense, it is not a compromise, but a balancing of tensions. A compromise symbolizes a letting go while paradox symbolizes a balance of tensions.

A weakness of the paradox analogy is that it frequently will illicit a polar or dualistic conception. However, given the postmodern critique, it may be better to think of this paradox in multidimensional terms. Let me build this analogy in two stages. First, imagine expanding the polar conception of paradox into a spider web. The spider web illustrates the importance of tension pulling in different directions. A break in any line ob the web threatens the stability of the whole spider web.

Next, take this analogy one step further and imagine a three-dimensional spider web. When the spider web looses the quality of flatness, the tensions now come from many more directions creating a spherical-shaped web. This three-dimensional quality does not diminish the necessity of each tension, but does increase the number of tensions involved in the paradox.

Passion becomes the second part of the radical side of existentialism. As discussed elsewhere on this web site, existential thought is known for its passion as a distinguishing factor. This passion is one thing that still draws many people to existential thought. It is driven by the tensions identified above along with the strong commitment to character and integrity seen in existential thinkers (Note: this is often more lived than written or talked about). Finally, the boldness that emerges from this character creates the freedom and ability to be radical. In summary, passion emerges from paradox, character, and boldness giving existentialism its radical feel.

Conclusion

A strength of existential thought is its adaptability and openness. As Yalom (1980) points out, existentialism is often not a stand alone psychology. It is at its best when it is being integrated with other theories as long as the values remain internally consistent. In the more extremist views in psychology, it provides temperance while offering opportunities for growth. However, existential thought remains radical in its own way through the passionate challenging of the status quo and the easy answers about human existence.

In the end, it is the middle road of existential thought that provides some of the great opportunities for this theory to shape and fashion the future of psychology. Psychologists and philosophers alike do not have to agree with the whole of existential thought to be challenged and grow from this powerful theory. It is this middle path that opens so many doors for these transformative conversations.

Additional References

Abe, M. (1990). Kenotic God and Dynamic Sunyata. In J. Cobb & C. Ives (Eds.), The emptying God: A Buddhist-Christian conversation (pp. 3-65). Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock.

Altizer, T. J. J. (1990). Buddhist emptiness and the crucifixion of God. In J. Cobb & C. Ives (Eds.), The emptying God: A Buddhist-Christian conversation (pp. 69-78). Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock.

Originally added May, 2006; Never been updated.