Existential psychotherapy: its characteristics and philosophy.

A type of psychotherapy based on the philosophical current of existentialism.

Going to a psychologist for treatment can be an arduous process, which can lead to the fear of emotional nudity. And it is not a trivial step: it implies that we open ourselves to another person who, at least at the beginning, is a total stranger.

Existential psychotherapy starts from a humanistic baseIt is sensitive to this insecurity and proposes an intervention that seeks to avoid labels and provides the patient with the perfect scenario for designing a life full of meaning.

In the following pages we will deepen in this question; detailing in what consists the intervention, what objectives it proposes and what methodology it conceives to achieve them.

What is existential psychotherapy?

Existential psychotherapy is based on an eponymous current of philosophy whose cardinal concern is oriented towards the way in which every human being constructs his or her way of being and being in the world. Søren Aabye Kierkegaard is considered to be the founder of this way of understanding suffering, although its theoretical roots also lie in the contributions of thinkers such as Karl Jaspers, Edmund Husserl, Simone de Beavour or Jean-Paul Sartre.

While "conventional" psychology has devoted its most important efforts to the understanding of thought and behavior, and often only with regard to their psychopathological dimensions, this branch has been interested in the understanding of the psychopathological dimensions of thought and behavior. has been interested in the meaning that existence has for each one of us.. Thus, it seeks a profound analysis of the great universal questions: death, freedom, guilt, time and meaning.

The founding fathers of the discipline were psychiatrists generally disappointed with the traditional biomedical models, such as Medard Boss or Ludwig Binswanger, who sought in the phenomenological or constructivist currents the epistemological space with which to express the way they understood their work. In this way, they transcended beyond Pain and the negative, to fully enter into the identification of potential and positive aspects that contribute to a happy life. that contribute to a happy life.

1. Human nature

From the existentialist perspective, each human being is a project under construction, and therefore can never be understood as finished or concluded. It is also a flexible reality open to experience, which harbors within itself the potential to live and feel a virtually infinite range of emotions and ideas. It is also not an isolated being, but a being that makes sense as he immerses himself in a canvas of social relations on which he can draw the strokes on which he can trace the brushstrokes that draw his subjectivity.

Existentialism does not focus only on the human being as a biopsychosocial reality, but also contemplates it at the intersection of the following dimensions It contemplates it at the intersection of the following dimensionsumwelt (involving the body and its basic needs), mitwelt (connections with others embedded in the framework of culture and society), eigenwelt (identity of oneself in the relationship one builds with one's own self and with the affects or thoughts that shape it) and überwelt (spiritual/transcendental beliefs about life and its purpose).

These four dimensions are the basis on which the exploration of the client is carried out (this is the term used to describe the person requesting help from the point of view of humanistic currents), in such a way that the balance of its totality shall be ensured. The disturbance in one of them (or in several) will be raised as a therapeutic objective, within a program that can be extended as long as the person wants or needs.

2. Health and illness

From the existential perspective, health and illness are perceived as the extremes of a continuum in which any person can be placed, depending on the concrete way in which he/she relates to him/herself and to others. Another important criterion is adherence to one's own values and principles as guides for life. It is therefore not a conservative vision, but rather one that flees from mere survival and It flees from mere survival and seeks an existence through which to find ultimate meaning..

From this perspective, health (adequate functioning) would be understood as the result of living an authentic life, guided by our genuine will and open to both the positive and the negative that may arise. Implicit in such a way of existing would be the tendency towards self-knowledge, with the aim of discriminating our virtues or limitations and wielding an attitude of full awareness when we have to make important decisions. Finally, it also implies it also implies a strenuous search for wisdom..

Illness, on the other hand, implies above all the opposites of what concerns health. From freedom, one would pass to the questioning of one's own will and to the distrust in assuming the reins of one's own destiny. One would lead a life lacking in authenticity, distanced from reality as it presents itself, in which others would be the ones to decide the paths to follow. As can be seen, health transcends the corporal limit and reaches the spiritual and social spheres.

Intervention from this type of therapy

We will now proceed to describe the objectives pursued by this form of psychotherapy, and the phases of which it consists (whose purpose is to satisfy these fundamental goals). We will conclude this section by showing the commonly used techniques, which in reality are philosophical positions. are philosophical positions on one's own life..

1. Aims

Existential therapy pursues three basic purposes, namely: to restore confidence in those who may have lost it, to expand the way in which the person perceives his or her own life or the world around him or her, and to determine a goal that is personally meaningful.

It is the search for a position in life and a direction to take.A sort of map and compass that stimulates the ability to explore the limits of one's own way of being and being. In short, to determine what makes us authentic.

2. Stages

The intervention process, aimed at mobilizing changes based on the objectives outlined above, is also divided into three stages: the initial contact, the work phase and the finalization. Each of these stages is described below.

The initial contact with the client aims to forge the rapport, that is, the therapeutic bond on which the intervention will be built from this moment onwards. This alliance must be based on active listening and acceptance of the other's experience, as well as on the search for a consensus on how the intervention will evolve. and the search for a consensus on how the sessions will evolve (periodicity, meaningful goals, etc.). (periodicity, significant objectives, etc.). It is assumed that the answer lies within the client, so the therapist will limit himself to accompanying the client, probing into issues anchored in the present through a horizontal and symmetrical relationship.

In the work phase, the therapist begins to delve more deeply into the client's history, into everything that worries him or her. The exploration is carried out following the four spheres of the human, which define the complexity of his reality (already explored in a previous section). It is at this point that the main objectives of the model are addressed: detection of strengths and weaknesses, definition of values, examination of the link that binds us to each other and to the organization.The final part of the treatment is an exemplary example of a life project.

The final part of the treatment exemplifies one of the tasks that the client will have to accept regarding his own life: that everything that is undertaken has a beginning and a conclusion. This point will be reached after a variable time of joint work, most of which will depend on the way in which the person's internal experience evolves. The aim is to return to everyday life, but assuming a new vision of the role played in the daily scenario.

3. Techniques

The therapeutic techniques used in the context of existentialist therapy are based on its original philosophical roots, which are based on phenomenology and constructivism and are diametrically opposed to the traditional way in which the process of health and illness is understood. It is for this reason that flees from everything related to diagnoses or stereotypes, since they would beThis is why it avoids anything related to diagnoses or stereotypes, since they would go against the essential goal of finding one's own meaning for life and identity. The following are the three main methods.

The first of these is epoché, a concept that comes from existential philosophy and summarizes one of the fundamentals of therapy: approaching every moment of life as if it were new, assuming a learning attitude capable of marveling at the present.The therapy is based on the idea of approaching every moment of life as if it were new, assuming the attitude of an apprentice capable of marveling at the present that unfolds. Additionally, the inhibition of judgment and the dilution of expectations is pursued, a naked look at the risk and fortune that destiny holds within, which facilitates decision-making and the ability to risk being what one wishes to be.

Description is the second technique. In this case, the aim is to make an exploratory analysis, and not an explanatory one, which allows knowledge about things without falling into categorization. This is intended to encourage curiosity about oneself and social relationships, both of which are the essence of who one really is from an existentialist perspective. This is why the therapist does not rely on immovable objectives at the beginning of the intervention, but these are changing and adapting to the client as he/sheThese objectives change and adapt to the client as time goes by.

The third and last procedure is based on horizontalization, which avoids reproducing the hierarchy of power held by the psychiatrist in the doctor-patient dyad of the historical moment in which the intervention proposal was born.

Relationships based on this position (peer-to-peer) allow the client to quickly identify with the figure and role of the clinician, encouraging him/her to express his/her truth in a therapy context that deliberately avoids judgment and criticism.

Thus, through a psychologist-patient relationship that emphasizes honesty and the need to open up when communicating what one feels and the problem for which one is going for consultation, existential therapy has the subjectivity of the individual as the aspect on which the therapeutic process should have an impact. existential therapy has the subjectivity of the individual as the aspect on which the therapeutic process should focus.

Bibliographical references:

• Mendelowitz, E. and Schneider, K.J. (2007). Current Psychotherapies. Brooks/Cole (Pub.) and Corsini, R.J. and Wedding, D., 295 - 327.
• Richard Sharf (1 January 2015). Theories of Psychotherapy & Counseling: Concepts and Cases. Cengage Learning. pp. 171 - 172.
• Spinelli, E. (2006). Existential psychotherapy: An introductory overview. Análise Psicológica, 3(24): pp. 311 - 321.
• Iacovou, S. (2015). Existential therapy: 100 key points and techniques. London: Dual First.
• Thomas, J.C. & Segal, D.L.. (2005). Comprehensive handbook of personality and psychopathology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
• Vos, J.; Craig, M.; Cooper, M. (2015). Existential therapies: A meta-analysis of their effects on psychological outcomes. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 83(1): pp. 115 - 128.