Existential Theory - Outline

Existential Theory

1: Names

• Viktor Frankl – Holocaust survivor.
• Rollo May – brought to America.

2: Basic Assumptions

• We are free to choose our actions and are responsible for those choices.
• We are not victims of circumstance – we are who we choose to be. We need to discover our own path.
• The therapist helps the client discover his options and create a better life.
• Very little research, but rather philosophical.

3: Dimensions of Human Nature

• The capacity for self-awareness. The greater the awareness, the greater possibilities and, struggle, but more fulfillment.
• Freedom and responsibility. Freedoms are forced on us – we must choose or feel guilty for not doing so.
• Creating personal identity and establishing relationships. We are by nature social, but also need to work do discover ourselves.
• Searching for meaning, values, goals, etc. The client needs a set of values to give meaning to life.
• Anxiety is a condition of living. It is a source of growth, and will diminish as the client grows.
• Awareness of death. Give significance to living.

4: Therapeutic Process

• There is no escape from the responsibility of freedom – alternate possibilities exist. In exploring this freedom, anxiety will result, as we will be on an unknown path, so that must too be overcome.
• The focus is on the current – not overcoming the past.
• There is no specific set of techniques. An established client/therapist relationship is most important. This relationship is intimate and caring. The therapist does not give easy answers, but lets the client discover them within himself.

Filed under: EDC 543 Theories and Techniques of Counseling
Copyright: May, 2002 - David Profitt