Contributed to Existential Therapy:
Viktor Frankl:
*calls his treatment approach logotherapy
*believed that even under extreme circumstances, people have choices and ways to find meaning in life
*he feels that the task of the clinician is to help people and the main ingredient in treatment is the use of the treatment relationship to
accomplish these goals. (discover and notice where they possess freedom and the potential for meaning, actualize those potentials to
transform and make meaning of their lives, honor meanings, realized in past).
Rollo May:
*believed that people avoid difficult conflicts and confrontations leading us to neglect the potentials for meaning in our lives
Irvin Yalom:
*wrote a book that greatly contributed to understanding the existential approach, Existential Psychotherapy
*he believed the goal is to help clients be authentic and face their limitations and challenges with courage
*Existential therapists believe that confronting fear of death will allow us to live life in a richer, fuller, more compassionate and meaningful
way
Theoretical Concepts:
Ultimate concerns of the human condition: the four ultimate concerns of the human condition are typically at the root of emotional difficulties:
Inevitability of death, Isolation, Meaninglessness, Freedom and responsibility
Existential anxiety, which is basically a consciousness of our own freedom, is an essential part of living; as we increase our awareness of the choices available to us, we also increase our awareness of the consequences of these choices.
Existential guilt is an anxiety one is aware of when having evaded a commitment. In one's personal strivings to survive, anxiety must be confronted as an inevitable part of the living.
Existential therapists differentiate between normal and neurotic anxiety and they see anxiety as a potential source of growth. Normal anxiety is an appropriate response to an event being faced. Neurotic anxiety is out of proportion to the situation.
Dasein: acknowledges that human beings exist, have consciousness, and are responsible for their own existence
A basic goal of existential therapy is enabling individuals to accept their personal freedom. Clients are encouraged to take seriously their own subjective experience in their world.
Viktor Frankl:
*calls his treatment approach logotherapy
*believed that even under extreme circumstances, people have choices and ways to find meaning in life
*he feels that the task of the clinician is to help people and the main ingredient in treatment is the use of the treatment relationship to
accomplish these goals. (discover and notice where they possess freedom and the potential for meaning, actualize those potentials to
transform and make meaning of their lives, honor meanings, realized in past).
Rollo May:
*believed that people avoid difficult conflicts and confrontations leading us to neglect the potentials for meaning in our lives
Irvin Yalom:
*wrote a book that greatly contributed to understanding the existential approach, Existential Psychotherapy
*he believed the goal is to help clients be authentic and face their limitations and challenges with courage
*Existential therapists believe that confronting fear of death will allow us to live life in a richer, fuller, more compassionate and meaningful
way
Theoretical Concepts:
Ultimate concerns of the human condition: the four ultimate concerns of the human condition are typically at the root of emotional difficulties:
Inevitability of death, Isolation, Meaninglessness, Freedom and responsibility
Existential anxiety, which is basically a consciousness of our own freedom, is an essential part of living; as we increase our awareness of the choices available to us, we also increase our awareness of the consequences of these choices.
Existential guilt is an anxiety one is aware of when having evaded a commitment. In one's personal strivings to survive, anxiety must be confronted as an inevitable part of the living.
Existential therapists differentiate between normal and neurotic anxiety and they see anxiety as a potential source of growth. Normal anxiety is an appropriate response to an event being faced. Neurotic anxiety is out of proportion to the situation.
Dasein: acknowledges that human beings exist, have consciousness, and are responsible for their own existence
A basic goal of existential therapy is enabling individuals to accept their personal freedom. Clients are encouraged to take seriously their own subjective experience in their world.