existential therapy

  • Prop 1: Capacity for self-awareness

    • Everyone has freedom (we chose out actions)

    •   Meaning is not automatic – we must seek it

    •    Anxiety of choosing = lose freedom

    •    Consequences of dependence = identity is defined by others (need for approval)

  • Prop  2: search for freedom/responsibility

    • We have different paths to shape destiny

    • Assumes responsibility

    •    Inauthenticity (Sartre) – not taking control of our lives, doomed to be controlled by external sources

    •    freedom - responsible for our lives

    • Existential guilt - knowing we have chosen not to choose and contributes to a sense of incompleteness

    • Authenticity – the courage to be who we want to be

  • Prop 3: striving for identity and relationship w others

    • tension between being an individual and being in a relationship.

    • Courage to Be

      • Our greatest challenge is to confront our fear that there is no core, no self, but merely a reflection of others

    • The Experience of Aloneness

      •   We alone must define meaning to life/how we want to live

    •    The Experience of Relatedness

      •   Being able to stand alone leads to fulfilling and not deprived relationship

      • Distinguish between neurotic dependence and life-affirming relationship

    •    Struggling with our identity

      •   Not in the “being” mode, but the “doing” mode.

        •    “We’re not human Beings, we’re human Doings.”

  •   Prop 4: search for meaning

    • Problem od discarding old values

      •   Anxiety created as result of discarding old values and not creating new

    •    Meaninglessness

      •   existential vacuum = Emptiness and hollowness.

    •    Create new meaning

      •   Meaning/happiness is created from engagement with that is valued

  • Prop 5: Anxiety as Condition of Living

    •   Existential anxiety arises as a result of confronting our own death

    •    Opening up to life means opening up to suffering and anxiety

    •   Confronting death and freedom

    •    Anxiety stops us from doing what we want

      • Knowing we have freedom but not choosing

    • Illusion of own security

  •   Prop 6: awareness of death and nonbeing

    •    Death can be the source of creativity

      •   Base your life on your own definition of meanings so then life becomes fulfilling.

  •   Goals: be more present w self, live more enriched life, move client away from being in ‘restricted existence’