Sarah Young

Existential therapy is an approach to counselling and psychotherapy that is based on a philosophical understanding of what it is to be a human being, what it means to exist. This understanding draws on the work of many philosophers , and therapist vary in the emphasis they give to particular philosophers. The existential approach does not involve simply learning a way of thinking about existence and applying it to others in a detached manner. Instead the therapist’s involvement with this philosophy becomes meaningful in a highly personal way - in short it becomes a way of being. Counsellors who espouse this approach draw on their own experience of life an living as well as on centuries of philosophical thought. Essentially we are talking about an attitude, a ‘world view’ that informs both the counselling work and the way the counsellor lives his or her life. Since every individual’s philosophy of life is unique to them it is misleading to discuss the existential approach in very general terms. Any informed discussion of this approach will always be personal and will reveal the particular life experiences brought to it by the therapist. Nevertheless, in this chapter I will attempt to provide an outline of the approach that will, I hope, meet with the approval of most of those who practise existential counselling.

Further information about this therapeutic approach written by the authors, can be found in "Introduction to Counselling and Psychotherapy: The Essential Guide", edited by Professor Stephen Palmer and published by Sage, London.  Price £18.99.

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