ExisteNTial Counselling
QUOTES
from
Dr. Viktor Frankl
the founder of Logotherapy
“For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment.”
“Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”
“Meaning is the most valuable possibility against the
backdrop of reality.”
QUOTES
from
Dr. Alfried Längle
the founder of modern Existential Analysis
“Existence means having a chance to change things
for the better, to experience
what is of value and avoid
or eliminate what could
damage or harm.
These possibilities provide
us with direction to which
we can orient ourselves.
“An existential life is more than what I want…my intentions, desires, wishes. It is also about
what is needed from me in this situation…from the world, because I am in relation with it.”
“The essential task of existence
is to find this correspondence between our potential for participation (for creativity, action, and encounter)
and what is possible, needed
and undone, and what we see, feel, and understand to be waiting for us despite the
possibility of risk and error.”
LINKS
Existential Analysis Society
of Canada www.existentialanalysis.ca
International Society of Logotherapy and
Existential Analysis - Vienna www.existential-analysis.org
Existential Analysis...
Definition: Existential Analysis can be defined as a phenomenological, person oriented psychotherapy with the aim of leading the person to mentally and emotionally free experiences, to facilitate authentic decisions and to bring about a truly responsible way of dealing with life and the world.
In Therapy: Existential Analysis means an analysis of the conditions necessary for a life in which values have their place and that is self-shaped and dignified. The aim of existential analysis is to help develop the clients’ perceptiveness and individual activity in the four areas that every human being depends upon and is challenged by.
These four areas are:
~ The World - with its limits, possibilities and its facticity
~ Life - with its network of relationships and feelings
~ Being Oneself - in our uniqueness and autonomy
~ Future and Meaning - the wider context in which we act and find meaning
Existential Counselling is where I offer forward the concepts of
Existential Analysis to aid in the therapeutic process. This is what
I call the “Inside Work”. It can include providing you with a safe
space and empathic support to experience your emotions more deeply, philosophical exploration together, education of specific frameworks
from which to understand yourself better, take home questions to ponder, and most importantly an intention to really “hear and see” you.
Common themes that emerge in counselling where an existential
lens is helpful are struggles with self-worth, motivation, grief,
value clashes, boundaries, stress, depression, and anxiety.
Familiar existential questions may have to do with life situations of development, change, transition, crisis, or many types of losses.
Circumstances can leave one feeling lost or ambivalent,
wondering what “you” really want in life, or a lack of the sense of belonging...like you have not yet found your place in this world.
There may be an experience of being overwhelmed, or of prolonged indecisiveness, hopelessness, or meaninglessness. You may be
having trouble accepting something difficult that has happened in
your life, held back from living due to fears, or suffering from a
lack of trust in yourself or others or in the greater picture of life.
Therapy from an existential orientation is meant to deeply understand
the human experience with great compassion whilst also looking at the the conditions of one’s life. This is where our personal freedom
lies...in the possibilities in the spaces between the realities...where
there is space, one has room to move...they are free to change direction.
