Existential Theory

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Existential Theory
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Existential Thoughts

• He who has a why to live for can bear almost any
  how
• (Nietzsche)

• That which does not kill me, makes me stronger
  
• (Frankl)

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EXISTENTIAL

• Rather than a coherent theory, this is really a
  philosophical approach to helping people that
  examines issues of personal meaning (Kottler,
  p. 73).

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Existential Theory (Kottler)

• Existential theory is one of the humanistic
  theories.
• Other humanistic theories include Gestalt and
  Person Centered.

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Humanistic Approaches

• Client Centered, Gestalt, and Existential Theories

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HUMANISTIC APPROACHES

• What is a humanistic orientation?
• .. .a strong belief in the power of people to
  heal themselves, especially in the context of a
  genuine, authentic type of relationship
  (Kottler, 2002, p. 69).

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Comparing to Psychoanalytic

• ...rather than aloofness and detachment common
  to psychoanalytic, the humanistic practitioner
  seeks to create a relationship with clients that
  is warm, caring, genuine, and engaging.
• The therapist is not only allowed to be
  authentic and real in the relationship but also
  is encouraged to do so (Kottler).

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Humanism

• Humanism was spawned in the 1960s in the US.
• At that time there were 2 other forces
  behaviorism and psychoanalytic.

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Humanist Views

• View people as good and growth oriented
• With problems, people have wandered away from
  their basic nature
• Given a caring relationship, with acceptance,
  warmth and respect, they can regain strength
  (Kottler, 69-70).

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Basic Assumptions of the Humanistic Approach

• Kottler (Gestalt, Client Centered and
  Existential)
• 1. The Primacy of Experience Rather than
  measuring behavior, the humanist seeks to
  understand personal experience in its essence.
  Every individual is unique. Human experience is
  irreducible. Subjective, inner states should be
  honored and respected. (p. 70).

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Basic Assumptions

• 2. Growth orientation - People have the
  tendency to grow and actualize their potential.
  Greater self awareness and self-acceptance
  greater fulfillment and productivity
• 3. Free choice - Humans can become what they
  choose to be

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The Healing Relationship

• (Kottler)
• 3 Areas are Needed
• 1. Being in having empathy, knowing what a
  person is feeling, responding to that feeling,
  entering the world of another person

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The Helping Relationship

• 2. Being for you are an advocate for your
  clients. You have acceptance and respect for
  them, they can count on you for support and
  encouragement
• 3. Being with - As individuals, we have our own
  perceptions, beliefs, and feelings that are
  separate from our clients. You listen, hear the
  clients thoughts, feelings, but you offer your
  own perceptions and views (Kottler 71).

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Existential
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Existential Quotes

• Existential therapy emphasize(s) our freedom to
  choose what to make of our circumstances (Corey,
  143)

• Existential therapy is a process of searching
  for the value and meaning in life. We can become
  the architect of our life (Corey, p. 143)

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Background and History of Existential

• Heritage in writings of philosophers of Europe
  (Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger , Sartre,
  Buber, Jaspers)
• Very difficult bedtime reading - Kottler

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Existentials Roots in US

• Rollo May adapted existential ideals for therapy
  in the US. He had significant influence.
• Others influenced Bugental, Mahrer, Yalom
• Irvin Yalom - 4 ultimate human concerns death,
  freedom, existential isolation, and
  meaninglessness

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Existential

• Kottlers one minute existentialist viewpoint,
  They were all basically concerned with the
  meaning of human existence. (p. 73)
• (Similar to Coreys basic dimensions of the human
  condition p. 145)

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6 Basic Dimensions of Existential Therapy

• To be Existentialist Means the Following Are in
  Your Sessions
• 1. Self-awareness live in the present, future
  and past are not available, if you are there,
  you are dead, not fully alive - We are subject
  to such things as guilt, loneliness, isolation,
  emptiness
• 5.Anxiety we all have and live with anxiety.
  We will always have anxiety. Kottler, you can
  try to ignore it, medicate it, or distract
  yourself as much as possible. But it is a
  lifelong companion (p.76)

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Basic Dimensions

• 2. Isolation - we are born and die alone. We try
  to connect with others, but we essentially must
  deal with our on aloneness. Before we can have
  a relationship with others, we must have a
  relationship with ourself. (Corey 149)

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Basic Dimensions

• 3. Personal meaning we have to find our purpose
  for living. This is often changed or redefined
  with new events and experiences
• Meaninglessness in life leads to emptiness and
  hollowness, or what Frankl called the
  existential vacuum (Corey)

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Basic Dimensions

• 4. Freedom we all have daily choices, if you
  ask us we want lots of freedom, yet its scary.
  We are afraid of making poor decisions, like
  others to make them for us
• We are responsible for our lives, our actions,
  and failing to take action (Corey)

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Basic Dimensions

• Existential guilt incompleteness - being aware
  of having evaded a commitment or having chosen
  not to choose. This is the guilt when we do not
  live authentically (Corey, 147)

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Basic Dimensions

• 5. Anxiety - we all have and live with anxiety.
  We will always have anxiety.
• Kottler said, You can try to ignore it,
  medicate it, or distract yourself as much as
  possible but it is a lifelong companion
• (2002, p. 76).

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Basic Dimensions

• Types of Anxiety
• Normal anxiety and Neurotic anxiety
• Existential anxiety a constructive form of
  normal anxiety and can be used as a stimulus for
  growth. We experience this anxiety as we become
  increasingly aware of our freedom and the
  consequences of accepting or rejecting that
  freedom (Corey, p. 152).

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Basic Dimensions

• 6. Responsibility - we are responsible for the
  decisions we make or do not make. Many people
  are trapped for not taking responsibility for
  their own life. Freedom and responsibility go
  hand in hand Assuming responsibility is a basic
  condition for change. We are responsible for
  ourselves, counselors may help client work
  toward autonomy.

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Basic Dimensions

• 7. Death this is the one people fear the most.
• Death is what kills us, but ultimately it is
  also what makes us most alive (p. Kottler, 76).

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The Therapeutic Process -

• 4 Sequential Steps (Mahrer, 1996)
• 1. Being in the moment
• 2. Integrating the felt experience into primary
  relationships
• 3. Making connections to the past
• 4. Integrating what was learned -

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Existential Theory

• Very little techniques
• Methods must have an underlying existential
  values.
• Existential bases practice on the understanding
  of what it means to be human. The existential
  movement stands for respect for the person, for
  exploring

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• new aspects of human behavior, and for divergent
  methods of understanding people (Corey, p. 145).
• The current focus - facing the anxiety of being
  alone/ facing isolation (Corey, p. 145)

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Clients Experience

• Challenged to take responsibility for how they
  now choose to be in their world. Challenged to
  think about how to live differently. They have
  to choose what fears, guilts, anxieties they will
  deal with.. must take small steps must deal with
  ultimate concerns of life (anxiety, freedom,
  responsibility, isolation, alienation, death,
  meaning in life) (Corey, 155-156)

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Relationship Between Client and Therapist

• Great importance to the existential therapist.
• Very professional but personal relationship.
• Wants to be a participant in the relationship,
  rather than someone who is on the outside.
• A voyage into self-discovery for both the client
  and the therapist (Corey, 156)

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Thoughts (CorsinI Wedding)

• Existential psychotherapy is not a specific
  technical approach that presents a new set of
  rules for therapy. It asks deep questions about
  the nature of the human being and the nature of
  anxiety, despair, grief, loneliness, isolation,
  and anomie. It also deals centrally with
  questions of creativity and love (p. 273).

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Thoughts from Rollo May(Corsini Wedding)

• On Person-Centered, May said when the therapist
  only reflects the patients words, there
  transpires only an amorphous kind if identity
  rather than two subjects interacting in a world
  in which both participate, and in which love and
  hate, trust and doubt, conflicts and dependence,
  come out and can be understood and
  assimilated(p. 280

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Relationship with Client -(Corsini Wedding)

• The existential therapist strives for an
  understanding of the patients current life
  situation and current enveloping unconscious
  fears. The existential therapist believes.
  that the nature of the therapist-client
  relationship is fundamental in good
  psychotherapeutic work. However, the accent is
  not upon transference but instead upon the
  relationship as fundamentally important in
  itself (p. 289).

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Thoughts

• Most peoples problems are now loneliness,
  isolation, and alienation.

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How Does an Existential Psychotherapist View a
Person?

• Drives
• Freud
• ARCHETYPES
• Jung
• Conditioning
• Behavior
• SELF-ACTUALIZED

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The Existentialist

• Sees the client as an existing, immediate
  person, not as a composite of drives, archetypes
  or conditioning.
• They look for the full human presence
• (Corsini Wedding, p. 300).