The Existential Approach Flashcards
Group Leaders: Liz & Ashley
Definition of Existential:
- Of, relating to, or affirming existence
- Grounded in existence or the experience of existence:empirical
- Having being in time and space
Existential Therapy
“The existential approach rejects the views of traditional psychoanalysis and behaviorism and emphasizes our freedom to choose what to make of our circumstances.”
Key Concepts:
Death
Freedom
Existential Isolation
Meaninglessness
Basic Assumptions
We are free and therefore responsible for our choices and actions.
We are not the victims of circumstances because, we are what we choose to be.
Self Awareness
Self-awareness separates us and enables us to make free choices
We are subject to society’s influence and genetic endowment, but we are still able to choose based on our awareness of these limiting factors
Freedom to choose and to act
Help discover their “being-in-the-world.”
“To what degree am I aware of who I am and where I am going?”
“How do I experience my world?”
“What meanings do I attach to the events I experience?”
“How can I increase my self-awareness?”
Implications for Group Work
- Here-and-now focus: members are encouraged to observe how they are creating a victim like stance for themselves
- Stripping away of defenses
- Come to terms of underlying conditions of being human
- Group leader recognizes existential anxiety and guides group members in finding ways to explore it constructively
- Once group members face and fully accept their anxieties, the next step is to encourage them to make a commitment to action
Quality of life questions
How do you feel about the quality of your life now?
How do you feel about the quality of your life if you knew that you were about to die?
How do the two answers differ?
Purpose of Existential Group
- Enables members to become truthful with themselves
- Widens their perspectives on themselves and the world around them
- Clarifies what gives meaning to their present and future life
- Successfully negotiating and coming to terms with past, present, and future crises.
- Understanding themselves and others better and learning better ways of communicating with others.
Self Determination and Personal Responsibility
Goal is not to attain peace of mind, but to experience meaning in a healthy, striving way
We are capable of actively influencing our thoughts, feelings, and actions
Death & Nonbeing
Many of us are afraid of facing the reality of death and the anxiety that goes along with it so we might avoid this reality.
Make clear that we are all mortal beings who will all eventually die.
Existential thinkers view the acceptance of death as essential to discovering meaning and purpose in life.
The Search for Meaning
“Who am I? Where am I going and why? Why am I here” What gives my life purpose and meaning?”
Life does not have positive meaning in itself; it is up to us to create meaning.
Help clients create meaning in their lives by encouraging them to develop meaning for themselves
Existential Anxiety
A basic unease that we experience when we realize our own vulnerability and our inevitable death
Anxiety is viewed as an invitation to freedom and not just a symptom to be eliminated or cured.
The Search for Authenticity
Constantly becoming the person we are capable of becoming and accepting our limits.
Greater pressure felt from members potential the more they are willing to grow
Some questions that you can use are:
Do you like the direction of your life? If not, what are you doing about it?
What are the aspects of your life that satisfy you most?
What is preventing you from doing what you really want to do?
Aloneness & Relatedness
We are ultimately alone-it is we who give a sense of meaning to our lives and decides how we will live and who we will be.
We must stand alone before we can truly stand with another.
We must find our own strength within ourselves, who we are, before we can have a nourishing relationship.
Therapeutic Techniques & Procedures
Emphasis on experiencing the client in the present moment with dialogue -not technique
Understand to clients subjective world
Openness to individual creativity of client & leader
Role & Function of the Group Leader
Therapy is a shared venture between the therapist and the client
Be subjective
Form a therapeutic alliance – change comes from the relationship
Increase the range and depth of the clients awareness
Foster meaningful relationships between group members – focus on key existential concerns
Several kinds of interventions
Silence
Questions
Interpretations
Challenges by the group leader foster personality changes
Phases of an Existential Group
Initial Phase – participants identify and clarify their assumptions about the world
Middle Phase – members are encourages to more fully examine the source and authority of their present value system
Final Phase – Helping members put what they are learning about themselves into action
Explore options to help members create a meaningful life
Logotherapy (logo=thinking)
Meaning in life cannot be dictated but can only be discovered by searching in our own existential situation.
