Existential counselling
Encyclopedia
Existential counselling is a philosophical
form of counselling which addresses the situation of a person's life and situates the person firmly within the predictable challenges of the human condition. Existential counselling considers human living to take place within four dimensions: physical, social, psychological and spiritual. It shows each of these dimensions to be constituted like a force field, within which predictable paradoxes, tensions and dilemmas play out. Human beings can learn to deal with these tensions and conflicts more effectively by facing up to the negatives as well as the positives of their lives, including the tensions of life and death, love and hate, strength and weakness and meaning and absurdity.
Best known authors on existential counselling are Irvin Yalom in the USA through his book Existential Psychotherapy (1981) New York: Basic Books and Emmy van Deurzen
, who created the British School and who published her book Existential Counselling and Psychotherapy in 1988 (London: Sage Publications; second edition 2002, third edition 2011).
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
form of counselling which addresses the situation of a person's life and situates the person firmly within the predictable challenges of the human condition. Existential counselling considers human living to take place within four dimensions: physical, social, psychological and spiritual. It shows each of these dimensions to be constituted like a force field, within which predictable paradoxes, tensions and dilemmas play out. Human beings can learn to deal with these tensions and conflicts more effectively by facing up to the negatives as well as the positives of their lives, including the tensions of life and death, love and hate, strength and weakness and meaning and absurdity.
Best known authors on existential counselling are Irvin Yalom in the USA through his book Existential Psychotherapy (1981) New York: Basic Books and Emmy van Deurzen
Emmy van Deurzen
Emmy van Deurzen is an existential therapist and honorary Professor at the University of Sheffield...
, who created the British School and who published her book Existential Counselling and Psychotherapy in 1988 (London: Sage Publications; second edition 2002, third edition 2011).