Existential Therapy
As a clinician, I employ an eclectic range of theories and techniques aimed at helping clients gain a healthier and more fulfilling life. One of the approaches I find most helpful and work from most often is referred to as Existential Therapy.
Very often, clients state their concerns in some version of the following manner:
"I'm getting older and I'm not happy with some of the choices I've made. I'm realizing that in the years I have left, I need to figure out how to live with those choices or make new choices so that I can live the remainder of my life in a more meaningful and fulfilling way"
To paraphrase Irvin Yalom, Existential Therapy's leading theorist, an existential therapist is a clinician who views mental and emotional disturbances as being related to the "givens of existence", that all humans share. Some of these "givens" include:
The idea that we have free will
The idea that we are responsible for our choices and therefore, in a major way, responsible for the way our lives look
The fact that we are finite
The thought that we are alone (meaning that no one can truly understand what it is like to be ourselves but ourselves)
The thought that meaning in life is not given to us, rather it is our responsibility to create it
An existential therapist then, is a clinician who assists clients in:
accepting some of these givens
developing and embracing free will and responsibility for one's own life
creating meaning in ones life
accepting the inevitability of death as a way to lead a more fulfilling life in the present.
In our therapeutic work, this approach along with other relevant strategies, will be used to help you progress in your therapeutic goals.
