Existential Therapy

Existential Tradition

Seeking a balance between recognizing the limits and tragic dimensions of human existence against the possibilities and opportunities of human life.

Important Figures in Philosophy and Existentialism:

• Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
• Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
• Martin Buber (1878-1965)
• Ludwig Binswanger(1881-1966)
• Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)

Important Figures in Existential Psychotherapy:

• Viktor Frankl (1905-1997)
• Rollo May (1909-1994)
• James Bugental (1915-2008)
• Irvin Yalom (1931 - )

"The existential view of human nature is captured, in part by the notion that the significance of our existence is never fixed once and for all; rather, we continually recreate ourselves through our projects. Humans are in a constant state of transition, emerging, evolving, and becoming in response to the tensions, contradictions, and conflicts in  our lives." (Corey, 2011).

BASIC DIMENSIONS OF THE HUMAN CONDITION:

The Capacity for Self-Awareness - The greater our awareness, the greater our possibilities for freedom.

Freedom and Responsibility - Avoiding inauthenticity and choosing to be responsible for our lives, our actions, and our failures to take action.

Striving for Identity and Relationship to Others - When we are able to stand alone and tap into our own strength, our relationships with others are based on our fulfillment, not our deprivation.

The Search for Meaning - Finding satisfaction and meaning in life is a by-product of engagement, which is a commitment to creating, loving, working, and building.

Anxiety as a Condition of Living - Facing existential anxiety involves viewing life as an adventure rather than hiding behind imagined securities that seem to offer protection.

Awareness of Death and Nonbeing - Those who fear death also fear life. Instead of being frozen by the fear of death, death can be viewed as a positive force than enables us to live as fully as possible. 

Therapeutic Goals

• To help clients become more present to both themselves and others
• To assist clients in identifying ways they block themselves from fuller presence
• To challenge clients to assume responsibility for designing their present lives
• To encourage clients to choose more expanded ways of being in their daily lives 

 (Schneider & Krug, 2010)   

The central focus of existentialism and it therapeutic approach is "increased awareness". Our existence is never fixed once and for all as we continue to recreate ourselves through our projects. We are encouraged to assume responsibility for how we choose to be in this world and to create a life that has meaning and purpose. 

References:

Corey, Gerald (2012). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. 9th ed. 

      Belmont,California: Brooks/Cole. (pp. 137-167).

Schneider, K. J., & Krug, O. T. (2010). Existential-humanistic therapy. Washington, DC:
     American Psychological Association.

Person Centered Therapy

Carl Rogers (1902-1987)

  Philosophy of Person-Centered Therapy

We shall assume that clients have the resourcefulness for positive movement in therapy without the counselor assuming an active, directive, or problem solving role.

Important Goals for Therapist:

• Congruence - genuineness and realness in the therapeutic relationship
• Unconditional Positive Regard - acceptance of and caring for the client
• Accurate Empathetic Understanding - the ability to deeply grasp the subjective world of another person without becoming lost in it
• Focus on the client/therapist relationship as the prime determinant of the therapeutic outcome 

Important Goals for Client:

• An openness to experience
• A trust in themselves
• An internal source of evaluation
• A willingness to continue growing
• Striving for an actualizing tendency toward realization, fulfillment, autonomy, and self determination.

Carl Rogers placed great emphasis on the quality and equality of the relationship between the therapist and client and formulated his hypothesis on the following therapeutic core conditions (Cain, 2002):

1. Two persons are in psychological contact
2. The first, whom we shall term the client, is in a state of incongruence, being vulnerable or anxious.
3. The second person, whom we term the therapist, is congruent (real or genuine) in the relationship.
4. The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard for the client.
5. The therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the client's internal frame of reference and endeavors to communicate this experience to the client.
6. The communication to the client of the therapist's empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard is to a minimal degree achieved. 

If these core conditions are met and exist over a period of time, constructive personality change will occur. The conditions are both necessary and sufficient for this change to take place.

Contributions to the Evolution of Person-Centered Therapy

Natalie Rogers - Person Centered Expressive Arts Therapy

http://www.nrogers.com/PCExArtsArticle.pdf  

 William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick

Motivational Interviewing

http://www.motivationalinterview.org/Documents/1%20A%20MI%20Definition%20Principles%20&%20Approach%20V4%20012911.pdf 

    

References:

Corey, Gerald (2012). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. 9th ed. 

      Belmont,California: Brooks/Cole. (pp. 173-203).

 

Cain, D. J. (2002). Defining characteristics, history, and evolution of humanistic psychotherapies. In D. J. Cain & J. Seeman (Eds.), Humanistic psychotherapies: Handbook of research and practice (pp. 3-54). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

 

 

Adlerian Theory

 Alfred Adler (1870-1937)

 

Goal

"To help clients identify and change their mistaken beliefs about self, others, and life and thus to participate more fully in a social world." (Corey, 2012)



Key Concepts:

• Approach to life is formed in the first six years of life
• Motivation is based on social relationships rather than sexual urges
• Behavior is purposeful and goal directed
• Consciousness is the focus of therapy rather than unconsciosness
• Emphasis on choice, life meaning, and the striving for completion, perfection, and success
• Individual Psychology - understanding of the person as a whole with a holistic concept on the entire being including our social relationships with family and all aspects of the outside world and our interactions with it.
• Social Interest and Community Feeling
• Mastery of three universal life tasks: Social, Love-Marriage, and Occupational
• Birth order and relationships with siblings

Goals of Adlerian Therapy:

• A shared arrangement between the therapist and the client with the goal of working toward a relationship based on mutual respect for one another.  
• A holistic or "whole person" examination of the clients lifestyle, goals, and assumptions whether correct or faulty
• Reeducation and/or reorientation of the client towards a more useful style of living
• Building of self-confidence and development of courage with emphasis on improving society and one's position in society.
• Encouragement in restructuring a person's beliefs to build self-confidence
• Developing a clients sense of belonging and being needed by society and others
• Changing faulty motivations
• Focus on four central objectives or phases of the therapeutic process
• An integrative approach of perspectives based on cognitive, psychodynamic, existential, constructivist, and systems perspectives. 

  

The Four Phases of the Adlerian Therapeutic Process:

Phase 1 - Establish The Relationship with a person-to-person contact with the client with clearly defined goals between the client and therapist.

Phase 2 - Explore the Individual's Psychological Dynamics by obtaining a thorough understanding of the clients individual lifestyle in a social and cultural context as well as the client's family constellation.

Phase 3 - Encourage Self-Understanding and Insight by understanding the clients life motivations and understanding goals of behavior and hidden purposes through interpretation of one's logic and behaviors.

Phase 4 - Reorientation and Reeducation by encouraging and challenging the client to make changes, develop courage, and use this courage to take risks and develop a new style of life.

Interesting Links:

http://www.psychcomp.com/alfred-adler-adlerian-therapy/

http://www.alfredadler.edu/

 

 References:

Corey, Gerald (2012). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. 9th ed. 

      Belmont,California: Brooks/Cole. (pp. 102-129).

 

Psychoanalytic Theory

Founder: Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Key Concepts: 

• Making the unconscious motives conscious so that one can exercise choice.
• Life and death instincts and their relationship to the purpose of survival.
• Three main structures of personality: ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO
• Understanding behaviors and problematic behaviors by study of the unconscious and conscious mind.
• Anxiety motivations
• Ego defense mechanisms
• Transference and Countertransference 
• Psychosexual stages of personality development - Freud
• Psychosocial stages of personality development - Erikson
•  Each stage of development is related to the next stage of development
• Strong focus on childhood and experiences during that time

Psychoanalytic Techniques:

• Free Association
• Dream Analysis
• Interpretation of behaviors
• Resistance analysis and interpretation
• Transference analysis and interpretation

           

Goals of Psychoanalytic Theory in Therapy:

Freud believed in exploring the unconscious mind in an attempt to join the unconscious with the conscious and to analyze those contents. Strong focus is placed on the experiences from childhood and the past in an attempt to bring those experiences forward and explore ways to understand those behaviors and gain a better understanding of ourselves and change our character.

References:

Corey, Gerald (2012). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. 9th ed. 

      Belmont,California: Brooks/Cole. (pp. 63-98).

Crazydocal. (2007, July 22). Freud, Dreams & Therapy [Video file]. Retrieved from 

       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yT337GXoVc