The Existential Approach - what does it mean?

The existential approach is primarily a philosophical, as opposed to psychological, way of working as a therapist.  It is rooted in the ideas of several European philosophers, notably Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Buber and Merleau-Ponty, as well writers such as Camus and Dostoevsky, and practitioners such as Frankl, Boss and Binswanger. Whilst their opinions varied, they were all concerned at a fundamental level with what it meant to be human and how we could understand our own existence.

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An existential approach will follow a specific philosophical method of enquiry involving description, understanding and exploration of the client's reality, known as phenomenology. Challenges are confronted and perceived possibilities and limitations are explored. Through dialogue, a client’s “world view” is revealed, and their coping mechanisms and assumptions about their dilemmas re-examined.

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Leading a more meaningful life is the intention of this approach. It is about accepting that life and work involves both pleasure and pain, sadness and joy, success and failure, good and bad. We all live in the tension of these paradoxes everyday but at times our ways of coping with them can break down or seriously falter. Its at those times that we need to stand back, take a good look at ourselves, and work out what would be a more authentic and real way of living and how we might learn to live better with what confronts us.

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‘Happiness and unhappiness are twins that grow up together’ - Nietzsche