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Existential Therapy

Existential Therapy. Each of us is responsible for who we are and what we become People have an equal degree of freedom (possibility of changing) and responsibility We often desire freedom but run away from it as well We all search for meaning and significance

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Existential Therapy

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  1. Existential Therapy

  2. Each of us is responsible for who we are and what we become • People have an equal degree of freedom (possibility of changing) and responsibility • We often desire freedom but run away from it as well • We all search for meaning and significance • Authenticity: the courage to be who we are • Authentic experience takes precedent over artificial explanations • Phenomenology (subjective experience) • Theories dehumanize people Themes

  3. Dasein (being-in-the-world) • The basic unity of a person and their environment (world) • Daseinanalysis: the analysis of our immediate experience • Includes: • Umwelt: • One’s relationship with the natural world or environment around us • Mitwelt: • Our relationship with other people and the meanings given to those relationships • Eigenwelt • One’s relationship with one self and how we interpret things based on self • Alientation from these is the “illness of our times” Themes

  4. Anxiety: • Two types: • Normal anxiety • Due to choices and the growth and changes that occur around them • Part of the normal growth process • Includes facing death and the possibility of non-being (nothingness) • Neurotic anxiety • Attempts to escape normal anxiety • Guilt: • Arises when we: • deny our potentiality • fail to accurately perceive the needs of fellow humans • remain oblivious to our dependence on the natural world Themes

  5. Therapist is genuine and transparent • Promotes I/THOU relationship (instead of I/IT). • Promote self awareness. Hold up a mirror for client to see themselves and self-confront • Often use more self-disclosure than other theories • Confront anxiety that client feels. • Help client take responsibility for thoughts and behaviors • Instead of looking at what’s been happening to me toward look at what I’ve been doing • Help clients redefine themselves and their world in ways that foster greater genuineness of contact with life. Process

  6. In what ways are you not living as fully as you might? How are you limiting yourself? • To what degree are you living a life outlined by others? • What choices have you made so far, and how have these choices affected you? • What are some of the choices you are faced with now? How do you deal with the anxiety that is part of making choices for yourself and accepting personal freedom? • What changes do you most want to make, and what is preventing you from making them? Process

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