Existential Therapy

C6436 Individual Counseling

Theory and Practice
James J. Messina, Ph.D.
Victor Frankl 1905-1997
 Born & educated in Vienna, Austria
 Prisoner, Nazi Concentration Camps-Auschwitz
& Dachau 1942-45-lost parents, brother, wife &
children
 Love is the highest goat to which humans can
aspire-our salvation come through love
 We have choices in every situation in our lives
 Spiritual freedom & independence of mind can
be had in the worst situations
 Essence of humans lies in searching for
meaning & purpose
 Logotherapy: Therapy through Meaning
Frankl’s Perspective
 “He who has a WHY to live for can bear with
almost any HOW” –Nietzsche quoted by Frankl,
1963
 “That which does not kill me, makes me
stronger”-Nietzsche quoted by Frankl, 1963
 Modern person has means to live but often has
no meaning to live for-malady of our times is
meaninglessness or “existential vacuum”
 Purpose of therapy-challenge people to find
meaning and purpose through suffering, work &
love
Rollo May 1909-1994
 Born in Ohio, moved to Michigan-five brothers
and one sister-unhappy homelife
 He had two failed marriages
 Studied with Alfred Adler in Vienna
 Had TB in sanitarium 2 years
 Anxiety-The Meaning of Anxiety, 1950
 Love and Will, 1969- love & intimacy
 Help people discover meaning of lives
 Be concerned with problems of being rather than
with problem solving-sex, intimacy, growing old,
facing death-coping with being alone & dying-
work at ways to better society in therapy
May’s Perspective
 It takes courage to BE-our choices
determine kind of person you become
 Constant struggle in people:
 Want to grow toward maturity &
independence
 But realize expansion & growth is often
painful process
 So struggle between security of dependence
and delights & pain of growth
Existentialism
 Area of philosophy concerned with the
meaning of human existence
 Asking questions about issues of love,
death and the meaning of life
 How one deals with the sense of value
and meaning of one’s life
Being-in-the-World
 Martin Heidegger (1962)
 Nothing would exist in the world if people
were not here to see it vs laws govern all
behaviors and the behaviors & their laws
exist no matter if there people there at
the time
 If a tree fell in a forest, and there was no
one to hear it, would the tree make
noise?
Existentialists Believe:
 The world changes as people’s ideas
about it change.
 Ideas of world = human construction
 “Beings-in-the-World” = Self cannot exist
without a world and the world cannot
exist without a person (a being) to
perceive it
 Must study human beings in their worlds
Existentialists: Don’t ask why-
Just accept what is
 Do not consider why questions but
 They consider that statements
 They do not ignore or explain away the
issues of man such as ethics or morals
 They do not concern themselves with the
conflict of choosing ethics or morals but
rather accept that it is essential part of
humans to do so
Phenomenological
 People’s perceptions or subjective
realities are considered to be valid data for
investigation
 Phenomenological discrepancy = two
people perceiving save situation differently
Nondeterministic
 Existentialist argue that it is an
oversimplification to view people as
controlled by fixed physical laws
 People cannot be viewed simply as “cogs
in a vast machine”
 Encouragement of theories that consider
individual initiative, creativity, & self-
fulfillment
 Focus on active, positive aspects of
human growth and achievement
Dialectical Tension
 People having contradictory traits which
produce this tension
 Dialectic = process by which two
contradictory forces or tendencies lead to
a resolution or synthesis
 E.g.: masculine & feminine inclinations,
extroverted & introverted etc.
I-Thou dialogue vs I-It dialogue
 Our relationship comes from our relationships
with others (Martin Buber, 1937)
 I-thou = human confirms the other person as
being of unique value-direct mutual relationships
 I-it = person uses others but does not value
them for themselves-utilitarian
 Self-disclosing of therapist emotional response
to client’s demonstration of valuing of client’s
feelings and perspective
Existential Therapy
Philosophical/Intellectual Approach to Therapy

 BASIC DIMENSIONS ~ OF THE HUMAN

CONDITION
 The capacity for self-awareness

 The tension between freedom & responsibility

 The creation of an identity & establishing

meaningful relationships
 The search for meaning

 Accepting anxiety as a condition of living

 The awareness of death and nonbeing

The Capacity for Self-Awareness
 The greater our awareness, the greater our
possibilities for freedom
 Awareness is realizing that:
 We are finite - time is limited

 We have the potential, the choice, to act or

not to act
 Meaning is not automatic - we must seek it

 We are subject to loneliness,

meaninglessness, emptiness, guilt, and
isolation
Freedom and Responsibility
 People are free to choose among
alternatives and have a large role in
shaping personal destinies
 Manner in which we live and what we
become are result of our choices
 People must accept responsibility for
directing their own lives
Identity and Relationship
 Identity is “the courage to be” ~ We must trust
ourselves to search within and find our own
answers
 Our great fear is that we will discover that
there is no core, no self
 Aloneness ~ we must tolerate being alone with
self-must have a relationship with self
 Struggling with identity-trapped in doing mode to
avoid experience of being
 Relatedness ~ At their best our relationships are
based on our desire for fulfillment, not our
deprivation
 Relationships that spring from our sense of
deprivation are clinging, parasitic, and
The Search for Meaning
 Meaning ~ like pleasure, meaning must be
pursued obliquely
 Finding meaning in life is a by-product of a
commitment to creating, loving, and working
 “The will to meaning” is our primary striving
 Life is not meaningful in itself; the individual
must create and discover meaning
 Goals deal with
 Discarding old values

 Coping with Meaninglessness

 Creating new meaning

Anxiety – A Condition of Living
 Anxiety-arises from strivings to survive &
maintain own being
 Existential anxiety is normal - life cannot be
lived, nor can death be faced, without anxiety
 Anxiety can be a stimulus for growth as we
become aware of and accept our freedom
 We can blunt our anxiety by creating the
illusion that there is security in life
 If we have the courage to face ourselves and
life we may be frightened, but we will be able
to change
Awareness of Death & Nonbeing
 Awareness of death is a basic human
condition which gives significance to living
 We must think about death if we are to
thing significantly about life
 If we defend against death our lives can
become insipid & meaningless
 We learn to live in the “now,” one day at a
time-results in zest for life & creativity
Aim of Existential Therapy
 Rejects deterministic outlook on mankind
 People are free & responsible for their choices &
actions
 People are the authors of their lives
 Existential Therapy encourages clients to reflect
on life, recognize range of alternatives, & decide
among them
 Goal: recognize ways they passively accepted
circumstances & surrendered control-so to start
consciously shaping own lives by exploring
options for creating a meaningful existence
Two Central Tasks of Existential
Therapists
 Inviting clients to recognize how they have
allowed others to decide for them
 Encouraging clients to take to take steps
toward autonomy
 “Although you have lived in a certain
pattern, now that your recognize the price
of some of your ways, are you willing to
consider creating new patterns?”
Relationship Between Therapist
and Client
 Therapy is a journey taken by therapist and
client
 The person-to-person relationship is key

 The relationship demands that therapists be

in contact with their own phenomenological

world
 The core of the therapeutic relationship
 Respect, & faith in the clients’ potential to

cope
 Sharing reactions with genuine concern &

empathy