Edited by
Emmy van Deurzen (editor in chief)
Erik Craig
Alfried Längle
Kirk J. Schneider
Digby Tantam
Simon du Plock
This edition first published 2019
© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
The right of Prof Emmy van Deurzen, Dr Erik Craig, Prof Alfried Längle, Dr Kirk J. Schneider, Prof Digby Tantam, and Prof Simon du Plock to be identified as the authors of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
Registered Office(s)
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA
John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK
Editorial Office
111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA
For details of our global editorial offices, customer services, and more information about Wiley products visit us at www.wiley.com.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats and by print‐on‐demand. Some content that appears in standard print versions of this book may not be available in other formats.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty
While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this work, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives, written sales materials or promotional statements for this work. The fact that an organization, website, or product is referred to in this work as a citation and/or potential source of further information does not mean that the publisher and authors endorse the information or services the organization, website, or product may provide or recommendations it may make. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a specialist where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication data is available
9781119167150 (paperback), 9781119167181 (epdf), 9781119167174 (epub)
Cover design by Wiley
Cover image: © Metropolitan Museum of Art / Wikimedia Commons
To all existential therapists worldwide, past, present, and future.
In celebration of what it is to be human,
In appreciation of the thinkers who came before us,
and with gratitude to those who will take up the challenges after us.
Emmy van Deurzen is a philosopher, psychologist, and psychotherapist who has worked as an existential therapist since 1973, both in France and the United Kingdom and has lectured on existential therapy around the world since the 1980s. She has been a professor with five universities and has contributed 17 books and hundreds of papers and chapters to the literature with her work being translated into many languages. She founded the Society for Existential Analysis, the School of Psychology and Psychotherapy at Regent’s and also the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling at the Existential Academy in London, where she is Principal. Her best sellers include Everyday Mysteries (Routledge), Paradox and Passion in Psychotherapy (Wiley), and Existential Counselling and Psychotherapy in Practice (Sage).
Erik Craig is an existential psychologist, author, and independent scholar and practitioner. He has published over 60 articles and edited two ground‐breaking journal issues on Daseinsanalysis and existential depth psychotherapy. Having practiced for years in New England he now lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is most interested in the intricacies of therapeutic relating, the analysis of dreams, and human affect and attachment. Having served on the full‐time faculties of several graduate psychology programs, he now lectures and trains internationally. A past president of several psychological societies, he is currently president of the New Mexico Psychoanalytic Society.
Alfried Längle, born in 1951 in Austria, has a private practice in psychotherapy, general medicine and clinical psychology in Vienna (since 1982). He had a close collaboration with Viktor Frankl from 1981 to 1991. Alfied was a founder (1983) of the International Society for Logotherapy and Existential Analysis (Vienna). He is also a faculty member and professor of Applied Psychology at the Moscow’s HSE‐university (since 2004), at Vienna’s Sigmund Freud university (2011), and Docent at the psychological department of the university of Klagenfurt, Austria. He is a founder of the state‐approved training school of Existential‐Analytical Psychotherapy, Vice President of the International Federation of Psychotherapy (2002–2010), and was, until 2017, President of the International Society for Logotherapy and Existential Analysis.
Kirk J. Schneider is a psychologist and leading spokesperson for contemporary existential‐humanistic psychology. A protégé of Rollo May and James Bugental, Kirk is past president of the Society for Humanistic Psychology of the American Psychological Association, recent past editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, president of the Existential‐Humanistic Institute, and adjunct faculty at Saybrook University and Teachers College, Columbia University. Kirk is also a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and has authored or edited 12 books, including Existential‐Integrative Psychotherapy and (with Orah Krug) Existential‐Humanistic Therapy.
Digby Tantam is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Sheffield and Visiting Professor at Middlesex University and the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling. He has trained in family therapy, group analysis, cognitive behavioral therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and more recently in existential therapy. He has practiced and supervised other therapists in one or other of these modalities since 1977. He is a Consultant Psychotherapist and Psychiatrist, Dilemma Consultancy Ltd. He is the author of several hundred scientific papers and a dozen books, most recently The Interbrain published in 2018, (Jessica Kingsley).
Simon du Plock is Head of the Faculty of Post‐Qualification and Professional Doctorates at the Metanoia Institute, London, UK, where he leads joint PhD, DPsych, and DCPsych research programs with Middlesex University, with whom he is a professor. He lectures internationally and has authored over 80 texts and journal papers. He has edited Existential Analysis, the journal of the British Society for Existential Analysis, since 1993. In 2006 he became the first Western therapist to be made an Honorary Member of the East European Association for Existential Therapy in recognition of his contribution to the development of collaboration between East and West European existential psychotherapy.
Erik Craig and Emmy van Deurzen
Mick Cooper is Professor of Counselling Psychology at the University of Roehampton, where he is Director of the Centre for Research in Social and Psychological Transformation (CREST). A chartered psychologist, a UKCP‐registered psychotherapist, and a Fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), he is the author and editor of a range of texts on existential and relational approaches to therapy, including Existential Therapies (2e, Sage, 2017), Existential Counselling and Psychotherapy: Contributions to a Pluralistic Practice (Sage, 2015), Existential Counselling Primer (PCCS, 2012), and Working at Relational Depth in Counselling and Psychotherapy (2e, Sage, 2018, with Dave Mearns).
Erik Craig, EdD is an existential psychologist, author, and independent scholar and practitioner. Erik has studied and collaborated intensively with the Daseinsanalysts Medard Boss and Paul Stern and currently practices in Santa Fe, NM.
Loray Daws, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalytic psychotherapist in British Columbia, Canada. She is a senior faculty member at the International Masterson Institute, NY and editor and author of various books and articles in psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
Thanasis Georgas, MD, is a psychiatrist, Daseinsanalyst, President of The Greek Society of Daseinsanalysis and IFDA board member. He has published and translated a number of important Daseinsanalytic texts and is co‐editor of the Greek journal, Eποχή/Epoché: Phenomenology‐Psychotherapy‐Hermeneutics.
Alice Holzhey‐Kunz, PhD, is a Swiss Daseinsanalyst, president of the Society for Hermeneutic Anthropology and Daseinsanalysis and co‐president of the Daseinsanalytic Seminar in Zurich. She has published three books and numerous articles on a new approach to Daseinsanalytic thought and practice.
Perikles Kastrinidis, MD, is a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist in private practice, teaching and supervising Daseinsanalysts. He was trained in Daseinsanalysis under Medard Boss and also studied short‐term dynamic psychotherapy with Habib Davanloo and integrates aspects of these approaches.
Robert D. Stolorow, PhD, is a psychoanalyst, philosopher, and author of World, Affectivity, Trauma: Heidegger and Post‐Cartesian Psychoanalysis (2011) and Trauma and Human Existence (2007). Has been absorbed for a half‐century rethinking psychoanalysis as a form of phenomenological inquiry.
Emmy van Deurzen, PhD, MPsych, MPhil, CPsychol, Fellow of BPS, UKCP, and BACP, is an existential therapist with Dilemma Consultancy Ltd, a Visiting Professor at Middlesex University, and Principal at the Existential Academy, London.
Martin Adams, BSc, MA, ADEP, BACP (reg.), and UKCP (reg.) is an existential psychotherapist, supervisor, and writer whose most recent book is An Existential Approach to Human Development. He is a lecturer at the New School for Psychotherapy and Counselling and is also a sculptor.
Claire Arnold‐Baker, BSc(Hons), MA, DCPsych, UKCP, and HCPC (reg.) is DCPsych Course Leader at NSPC, where she is also a lecturer, and a clinical and research supervisor. Claire is a counselling psychologist and existential psychotherapist who specialises in perinatal therapy in her private practice.
Laura Barnett, MA(Oxon), MA, MBACP (Sen. Accred.), UKCP (reg.), is an existential psychotherapist; for almost 20 years, she has two specialist services that she set up in the National Health Service (UK). She is editor of two books for Routledge on the dialogue between existential thought and therapeutic practice.
Chris Blackmore, BSc, MA, DipCoun, PhD, is a Senior University Teacher at the University of Sheffield. He has developed online psychotherapy training resources and has a special interest in the role of emotions in e‐learning.
Edgar Correia, PhD, AdvD, Post‐MA, MA, PgD, is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, a founding member of Portuguese Society for Existential Psychotherapy, and researcher at the Applied Psychology Research Center.
Helen Hayes, MA, UKCP Reg., BACP (Sen. Accred.), is an existential psychotherapist, lecturer, and clinical supervisor at the NSPC. She works in several voluntary sector and National Health Service (UK) services, and in private practice.
Ann Lagerström is a senior leadership consultant, certified existential coach, and writer. She studied existential philosophy and psychology at Södertörn University and at the Society for Existential Psychotherapy at an advanced level. She introduced existential coaching in Sweden.
Neil Lamont, DCPsych, CPsychol, BA (Hons), is a chartered psychologist and existential psychotherapist based in London, UK. Neil is a practitioner, tutor, and doctoral research supervisor at the Existential Academy.
Sasha van Deurzen‐Smith, MA, is an existential coach specializing in creativity, self‐esteem, and autism spectrum disorders. She is program leader of the MA in Existential Coaching at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling.
Simon du Plock, FRSM, AFBPsS, CPsychol, CSci, is Head of the Faculty of Post‐Qualification and Professional Doctorates at the Metanoia Institute, London, UK, where he leads joint DPsych, DCPsych, and PhD research programs with Middlesex University with whom he is a professor.
Alison Strasser, DProf (Psychotherapy & Counselling) UKCP, PACFA, AAOS, is a psychotherapist, supervisor, coach, and Educator. She is also the Director of the Centre for Existential Practice in Sydney, Australia.
Digby Tantam, MA, MPH, PhD, FRCPsych, FBPsS, FBACP, UKCPF, FHEA, is Deputy Principal of the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling at the Existential Academy in London and Consultant Psychotherapist and Psychiatrist at Dilemma Consultancy Ltd., Visiting Professor, Middlesex University, and Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, University of Sheffield
Joel Vos, PhD, is psychologist and philosopher, program leader for the professional Doctorate in Existential Psychotherapy and Counselling at New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, researcher at Metanoia, and chair of IMEC Meaning Conferences.
Kirk J. Schneider, PhD, is a leading spokesperson for existential‐humanistic psychology. A protégé of James Bugental and Rollo May, Kirk is president of the Existential‐Humanistic Institute and has authored 12 books.
Ken Bradford, PhD, is a Contemplative‐Existential Psychologist. Publications include: The I of the Other: Mindfulness‐Based Diagnosis & the Question of Sanity; and Listening from the Heart of Silence.
Nathaniel Granger, Jr., PsyD is the President‐elect of the Society for Humanistic Psychology (American Psychological Association, Division 32) and is an Adjunct Faculty member at Saybrook University.
Louis Hoffman, PhD, is a licensed psychologist practicing in Colorado Springs, CO. He teaches at Saybrook University and through the International Institute for Existential‐Humanistic Psychology.
Theopia Jackson, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Director of the clinical psychology program at Saybrook University.
Orah T. Krug, PhD, has a psychotherapy practice in Oakland, CA, is the author of texts on existential‐humanistic therapy and supervision, and is the past Program Director of Clinical Training and Education at the Existential Humanistic Institute, current Director of Krug Counseling, and Adjunct Professor at Saybrook University.
Ed Mendelowitz is a clinician, essayist, and psychologist living and working in Boston, MA. He received the Rollo May Award for “independent and outstanding pursuit of new frontiers in humanistic psychology.”
Shawn Rubin, PsyD is in independent Private Practice with children, adolescents, adults, and families, Is LGBTQIA and kink‐competent, and is the chief editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology.
Ilene A. Serlin, PhD., BC‐DMT, is an existential‐humanistic psychologist and dance therapist in San Francisco and Marin, Fellow of the American Psychological Association, past‐President of the Society for Humanistic Psychology, and editor of Whole Person Healthcare.
Xuefu Wang, PhD, is founder and Director of the Zhi Mian Institute for Existential Therapy in Nanjing, China.
Irvin Yalom is Professor Emeritus of psychiatry at Stanford University and author of Existential Psychotherapy and Staring At the Sun.
Mark Yang is co‐founder and Director of the International Institute of Existential‐Humanistic Psychology.
Alfried Längle, MD, PhD, MSc, holds multiple honorary Doctorships, multiple honorary Professorships, Professor for Applied Psychology (HSE Moscow), guest professor for psychotherapy (SFU Vienna), and founder of GLE‐International (Society of Logotherapy and Existential Analysis).
Emmanuel J. Bauer, Mag. Dr. Phil., Mag. Theol., psychotherapist (Existential Analysis), Professor for Philosophy, and Director of the Department of Philosophy at the Catholic theological faculty of the University of Salzburg.
Barbara Gawel, is a Doctor of Public Health, Master of Educational Science, and a psychotherapist in Vienna.
Derrick Klaassen, PhD, R. Psych., is an Assistant Professor of Counselling Psychology, Trinity Western University, Langley, BC, Canada.
Janelle Kwee, PsyD, RPsych, is an Associate Professor, Trinity Western University, a registered psychologist in private practice, Langley, BC, Canada.
Silvia Längle, Ph.D., chief editor of Existenzanalyse‐Journal, trainer, supervisor, psychotherapist in own practice. She has a special interest in phenomenological research.
Mihaela Launeanu, PhD, Assistant Professor at Trinity Western University, psychotherapist in private practice in Vancouver, Canada.
Bruce A. Muir, CD, BA, BSW, MA, RSW, is a family therapist, Comox Valley, British Columbia, Canada.
Claudia Reitinger, MA Biology, PhD Philosophy, is a psychotherapist in private practice in St Johann/Pongau.
Karin Steinert, MA Psychology, is a psychotherapist in private practice in Vienna.
Digby Tantam, MA, MPH, PhD, FRCPsych, FBPsS, FBACP, UKCPF, FHEA, is: Deputy Principal of the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling at the Existential Academy in London; Consultant Psychotherapist and Psychiatrist, Dilemma Consultancy Ltd.; Visiting Professor, Middlesex University; and Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, University of Sheffield
Lynda Ansell has been a member of Slough therapeutic community for three years and has completed training with the Royal College of Psychiatrists as a Community of Communities peer reviewer. She also a peer mentor with Hope Recovery College.
Catherine C. Classen, PhD, CPsych., works for the Women’s College Hospital, Toronto.
Emmy van Deurzen, PhD, CPsychol, FBPsS, is an existential psychotherapist who has worked with groups since the early 1970s. She is the Principal of the School of Psychotherapy and Counselling at the Existential Academy in London.
Marie S. Dezelic, PhD, PsyD, MS, LMHC, CCTP, CFTP, CCFP, NCLC, CFRC, NCAIP, Diplomate in Logotherapy, is an author, educator, and has a private psychotherapy, coaching, and consulting practice. Her clinical research focuses on an integrative meaning approach in trauma, grief, spirituality, relationships, and psycho‐oncology.
Rex Haigh, is an National Health Service Consult (UK) consultant psychiatrist in medical psychotherapy in Berkshire. He has been in therapeutic communities as a medical student, a junior doctor, and for the last 24 years as a consultant. He has particular interests in co‐creation, “personality disorders,” and critical psychiatry.
Sarah Hamilton studied with the Bridge Pastoral Foundation at Douai Abbey to qualify as an Integrative Psychotherapist, and came along to the greencare group for the day as a professional visitor.
Orah T. Krug, PhD, is in private practice and is also the author of texts on Existential‐Humanistic therapy and supervision. She is the past Program Director of Clinical Training and Education at the Existential Humanistic Institute, Director of Krug Counseling, and Adjunct Professor at Saybrook University.
Simone Lee, Adep, UKCP (reg.), MBACP, works as an existential phenomenological therapist and supervisor in private practice in London. She also works as a supervisor, tutor, and group facilitator in London‐based training colleges.
Fiona Lomas went through the non‐residential therapeutic community in Buckinghamshire several years ago. She then worked with the national personality disorder program and local services as an expert by experience, and greencare coordinator.
Sharon Tizzard has been under Slough mental health services for seven years and feels she has now (nearly) “come out the other side.” She is a buddy, a peer mentor, and a Community of Communities peer reviewer.
Hilary Welsh is an Integrative Psychotherapist registered with BACP who works as a volunteer with Growing Better Lives CIC. Hils has always worked with youth and communities, and now works in private practice.
Professor Simon du Plock is Head of the Faculty of Post‐Qualification and Professional Doctorates at the Metanoia Institute, London, UK, where he leads joint DPsych, DCPsych, and PhD research programs with Middlesex University.
Lennart Belfrage, PhD Psychology of Religion, MA Existential Psychology, is a certified psychologist and has a private practice in Helsingborg, Sweden.
Lodovico E. Berra, MD, psychiatrist, and existential psychotherapist, is a Director of the Institute of Philosophy, Psychology, Psychiatry (ISFiPP).
Edgar A. Correia, PhD, AdvDipExPsy, MA, PgD, is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, as well as a founding member of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology (SPPE).
Anders Dræby Sørensen, DProf, is a philosopher and existential therapist and supervisor in private practice. He is a lecturer at the Universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus.
Evgenia T. Georganda, PsyD, ECP, is a clinical psychologist‐psychotherapist and a founding member and chief administrator of the Hellenic Association for Existential Psychology.
Bo Jacobsen, DPhil, PhD, is a psychologist and existential therapist, Copenhagen, Denmark and a Professor at the University of Copenhagen.
Jak Icoz clinical psychologist and existential therapist is also a founder of the Existential Academy of Istanbul.
Rimantas Kočiūnas, PhD, is Professor of the University of Vilnius, Director of the Institute of Humanistic and Existential Psychology, Birstonas, Lithuania, and Secretary General of the East European Association for Existential Therapy.
Dmitry Leontiev, PhD, Dr. Science, Professor of Psychology, Moscow State University, and is President of the Institute of Existential Psychology and Life Enhancement, Moscow.
Gideon Menda, Dr. of existential psychotherapy, and co‐founder and head of the postgraduate existential psychotherapy program at Kibbutzim College, Tel‐Aviv, Israel.
Yaqui Andrés Martínez Robles, PhD in Psychotherapy, and Founder of the Círculo Existencial México.
Yali Sar Shalom, MA, is an existential psychotherapist, and co‐founder and coordinator of the postgraduate existential psychotherapy program at Kibbutzim College, Tel‐Aviv, Israel.
Susana Signorelli, is a psychologist and President of the Latin‐American Association of Existential Psychotherapy.
Joel Vos, PhD, is a psychologist, philosopher, researcher, and lecturer at Metanoia Institute, London and New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, London. He is also the Director of Meaning Online.
Semjon Yesselson, is Chair of the Board of the International Institute of Existential Consultancy (MIEK) – Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and is also Editor‐in‐chief of the journal Existential Tradition: Philosophy, Psychology, Psychotherapy.
Xuefu Wang, PhD, is founder and leading psychotherapist of the Zhi Mian School of Counselling and Psychotherapy, which offers a Chinese existential approach to psychotherapy and cultural transformation.
Emmy van Deurzen, Kirk J. Schneider, Alfried Längle, Digby Tantam, Simon du Plock, and Erik Craig.
The editors would like to express their appreciation for the work that was put into this handbook by all the contributors to the various parts of the book. Without their expertise and dedication to existential therapy this book could not have been produced. We are particularly grateful to Mick Cooper for having worked so closely with us in writing the “Introduction.” We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers of the first draft of this book. Their feedback made us think about our writing in a new way and was helpful in improving the standard of the book. Any and all mistakes and failings of the book remain our own. We look forward to having further feedback after publication and to producing a much more complex, updated second edition of the book some time in the future.
This volume, which we can finally hold in our hands, is the joint achievement of a large group of people who have worked as existential psychotherapists, teachers, and researchers separately and independently in our own cultures for decades. Now, inspired by the First World Congress for Existential Therapy, we have found ourselves working together like members of a big family who are all inspired by the same desire to understand life and human existence better. We share the same goal of finding out how to gain and give greater access to the life knowledge and living wisdom that have been gathered over so many years, in order to pass these on to our clients and patients, our colleagues, our students, and indeed to ourselves, seeking to throw some much‐needed light in the darkness.
Together we have worked on this amazing and unprecedented project for many months and we have savored the different textures, shapes, and flavors of existential therapy that it has brought out into the open. We hope that the rich international and multicultural vista that has unfolded will make the field both more accessible and more faithful to its founding vision.
We are all equally passionate about existential therapy and we have read many of the same original texts and have felt touched and inspired by them. Yet we each represent a different aspect of the many existential ways of working, in the same way in which individuals differ from each other.
In true phenomenological tradition, by bringing together these different facets of existential therapy we have been able to create a more accurate, in‐depth picture of our field and have been able to cover a broader and wider area than any one of us might have done individually.
We have gained greater perspective by acknowledging our differences and we have found surer ground under our feet by recognizing our profound similarities. The entire project has been a fascinating adventure of discovery for all of us and we now offer you our varied views with the joy and pleasure of seeing them so closely bound together in one volume.
We hope that the clarity that this book brings will add focus and definition to your way of working. Yet we are adamant that the book, far from restricting or normalizing the existential method, will paradoxically provide greater freedom for each of us to practice in our own individual manner, which may vary with each of our cultures, each of our backgrounds, each of our clients, each of our moments of practice. Existential therapy is a therapy of continuous change and diversity.
Committing to an experience‐near‐philosophical understanding of the human troubles with which our clients struggle, we celebrate the condition we all have in common: that of being present on this earth for the briefest of time and of aiming to make the most of the challenges and possibilities we encounter.
We entrust this volume to you, reader, in the hope that it will throw light on your path in the same way it has done for us, who edited and wrote it.
Emmy van Deurzen, Erik Craig, Alfried Längle,
Kirk J. Schneider, Digby Tantam, Simon du Plock, January 2019