Existential Therapy
Jake is a depressed client.
An existential therapist would try to understand Jake’s world while fostering an interpersonal relationship between Jake and himself. The existential therapist believes that conflict arises as the persons tries to resolve confrontations with the givens of the human condition which are death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness (Bauman & Waldo, 1998).
The therapist would help Jake find meaning in common everyday endeavors and pain and help him face anxieties of daily living and the fear of death. At the same time the therapist would enable Jake to accept the burden of freedom of choice, the responsibility for living, and living authentically. Other interventions would include working with dreams and learning to put closure on relationships. The goal of counseling will be to gain an understanding of Jake’s current condition. It will be important to discuss Jake’s cultural background and any feelings he has about the counseling experience, as well as cultural differences or similarities between him and his therapist, his issues with living in a predominantly White culture, and his relationships (Capuzzi & Gross, 2007). Developing a therapeutic relationship will be paramount.
The person-centered therapist will also place great importance on developing the therapeutic relationship by providing the core conditions of genuineness, acceptance and caring, and empathic understanding. The therapist would provides unconditional positive regard in respect to Jake and view his psychological difficulties as a result of the degree to which his view of the world does not match his true positive nature (incongruence). Empathic understanding of Jake’s world would help Jake find a more congruent match between the experience of his world and his actions, feelings, thoughts, and responses from others. Change would take place as Jake begins to explore and test new thoughts and behaviors that are more in line with his positive, growth-oriented nature. As such, Jake will begin to trust himself and his ability to handle a variety of circumstances (Capuzzi & Gross, 2007).
The Gestalt therapist would try to facilitate Jake’s awareness and insight into himself using creative experiments such as the empty chair strategy or dreamwork. The goal would be to make Jake aware of his subjective experience. This should result in Jake becoming more authentic, shedding his false self and the “shoulds” in his life. Other results to strive for are making better choices in life situations, developing the ability for growth and becoming more integrated with self, others, and the environment. This lead to gain of self acceptance, taking responsibility for choices and being in charge of one’s destiny. The client-therapist relationship is of paramount importance (Capuzzi & Gross, 2007).
All three theories place great importance on the client – therapist relationship. All three see the client as possessing positive and growth oriented nature. All three approaches believe that one must live authentically and true to one’s self. The existential approach concentrates on finding meaning in everyday existence. Both the Gestalt approach and the Person-centered approach stress the person’s subjective experience and the exploration thereof.
References:
Capuzzi, D., Gross, R.,(2007); Counseling and Psychotherapy Theories and Interventions; 4th Edition, Pearson Education, Inc.
Bauman, S., Waldo, M. (1998) Existential theory and mental health counseling: If it were a snake, it would have bitten! Journal of Mental Health Counseling; Vol. 20 Issue 1, p13, 15p
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Valuable comparisons being made here. I have a few thoughts on the existential perspective. It might be more accurate to consider ‘creating meaning’ rather than finding it – subtle words but profound in that the notion that ‘it exists out there but is as yet illusive’ is very different than living with the total co-construction of our reality i.e. that nothing is fixed. The Existential-Phenomenological perspective questions the assumption of fixed identity, instead, seeing Self as a focal point in relation, i.e. the self-in-relation (to others, to itself) rather than a fixed or separate entity. (Heidegger 1962, Spinelli 1994).
‘Understanding Jake’s condition’ might possibly be understood as ‘it is measurable and identifiable’. Subtle words again but the key is to ‘help Jake understand his predicament’ – care must be taken by the therapist not to ‘fix’ the condition by applying existential concepts as items – instead by using their relationship the client came bring into awareness his worldviews i.e. personal, social, physical and worldviews – which are ever changing and intersubjective.
‘Gaining closure’ is an interesting notion. A client can be assisted to confront ‘their’ meanings of endings. ‘Closure’ is, as with each of our experiences, a highly subjective process – there is no point at which something is ended – it is merely re-oriented within our ‘meaning making’ existence.