Understanding Existential Therapy
Existential Therapy helps you to discover you do not need to choose between your freedom and relationship with others. Both are possible at any one point.
What is Existential Therapy?
The Freedom to Discover yourself.
You might be feeling like you’re living a life that doesn’t align with your values. Or that you’re not making progress toward the goals that truly matter to you. This can be incredibly discouraging, especially when you’re not sure what steps to take next.
The existential approach to psychotherapy and counselling is about the freedom to discover yourself and believe that you’re the expert of your own life. It can help you answer some of life’s biggest questions:
- Why are we here?
- What is the meaning of my life?
- Why do people have to suffer or die?
- How can I live happily when life is so uncertain?
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Seeking answers to life’s difficult questions with someone else is a sign of strength. It’s called sharing our humanity.
Existential Therapy is about exploring the uniqueness and interconnectedness of the human experience.
Existential Therapy is like life – it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s natural to feel anxious by the uncertainty. But think of it as an opportunity to explore your deepest desires and beliefs, and to find meaning and purpose in your life.
At the heart of Existential Therapy is the belief that we all have the capacity to find meaning and purpose in our lives.
Before you can make any changes, you need to take a closer look at your own assumptions and beliefs that might be holding you back. With Existential Therapy, you can become more authentic and start living a more fulfilling life.
Ready to take the first step on this transformative journey today?
How is Existential Therapy different than traditional therapy?
This is a very important question as it determines what success is for you in therapy. With the existential approach, life is not one where all our struggles can be rid of. A life without suffering and pain is unrealistic and impossible. Being human is to be able to recognise that every lived experience is ambivalent, rich, complex and still beautiful.
The Existential approach recognises that we have the power to take control of our own lives while also recognizing that we are social creatures who need connection and community to thrive.
This means that we have two important needs as humans – the need for freedom and the need for belonging. At Encompassing, you have a safe and supportive space to explore the depths of your own beliefs and experiences and learn to express your true self while still feeling connected to the world around you.
Join us on this journey of self-discovery and growth.
The balance of freedom and belonging is essential for a fulfilling life.
Just like a tightrope walker balances on a thin line, life requires a delicate balance between freedom and belonging. It can be challenging to find that balance, but with the help of Existential Therapy, you can learn to navigate these tensions and find your unique way forward.
- Freedom – Individuality is the quality of being unique and expressing one’s personality and values.
- Belonging – Belonging is a fundamental human desire to connect with others, form relationships, and feel a sense of community.
Striking a balance between freedom and belonging can be challenging. While our need for freedom focuses on our living freely, self-expression, unique self-aspirations and autonomy, the need for belonging emphasises on social acceptance, connection, maintaining membership in our community or tribe and being part of a bigger purpose. Existential Therapy can help you find this balance.
Let us walk with you through this painful period.
What are the 3 cornerstones of Existential Therapy?
Existential Therapy goes beyond simply pondering on the fundamental concerns of life like death, freedom, meaning, and isolation. While professionals like lawyers and doctors may also confront these issues, they are not providing Existential Therapy. Existential Therapy is more than just discussing these existential themes. It entails a specific way of looking at life as we reflect on them.
1. Relatedness
All your human experiences and conclusions about existence come from your relationships with others. From an existential perspective, every individual is unique but also interconnected with others.
2. Uncertainty
Because of our interconnectivity, we can never fully know what will happen in the world, with others, or even with ourselves. This uncertainty can be challenging, but it also allows for the possibility of growth and change.
3. Anxiety
Existential anxiety arises from our uncertainty and our attempts to cope with it. Anxiety can be overwhelming and debilitating, but it can also be a source of creativity and connectedness.
FAQs About Existential Therapy
Existential therapy is a philosophical approach to psychotherapy that focuses on helping individuals confront and understand the fundamental challenges of human existence.
It explores broader themes of meaning, freedom, responsibility, and the human condition.
Learn more about it on my blog.
It’s true: Existential Therapy does explore challenging themes like death, freedom, isolation and meaninglessness. This could be why the field is associated with being overly negative.
But these themes are very much a part of our reality. Staying away from the negativity or focusing on lighter themes doesn’t mean the challenges have gone away.
Through Existential Therapy, you’re invited to embrace life fully, with all its complexities.
The journey may, understandably, feel heavy or unsettling. But you won’t be alone in it. In time, the process often leads to profound growth and a sense of aliveness.
It is through acknowledging the finite and uncertain nature of existence that you may be encouraged to live more authentically and purposefully, making choices that align with your deepest values.
So while there may be negative themes (as in life), Existential Therapy is deeply affirming.
It emphasises the capacity for freedom, creativity, and connection. It encourages individuals to find meaning in their experiences and relationships, even in the face of life’s inherent difficulties.
In this way, Existential Therapy is about finding hope, strength, and vitality within life’s uncertainties, rather than avoiding or denying them.
It’s a good question. I hadn’t learned of Existential Therapy before my studies in 2012 either. While it’s not commonly practised in Singapore for now, it is regularly offered in the US, UK and Australia.
Encompassing Therapy is Singapore’s first independent practice specialising in Existential Therapy. Helping more people to understand this branch of therapy is part of my work and if you’re still curious, head to my blog to learn more.
Short version
Many therapeutic options tend to be structured like visits to GPs. Your symptoms are assessed, you get a diagnosis and solutions, you try different solutions until you feel better and are a more effective person.
Existential Therapy takes a more holistic approach. At the heart of it, it aims to help people answer some of life’s biggest questions like: why are we here? What is the meaning of life?
In pursuit of this, more questions around identity, freedom and relationality are usually raised. And it is through these lenses and beliefs that we’ll build our sessions together.
Longer version
To someone new to Existential Therapy, I understand how it could seem abstract, so I’ve offered the comparisons in more detail.
The comparisons are meant to help you recognise the differences. They are in no way suggesting that one approach is better than another. But rather to help you understand what might better serve your needs.
Overall goal and outcomes
A lot of therapy tends to be symptom-focused.
- Clients have sessions targeting specific problem(s).
- Insights are gathered and solutions are shared and tested to address specific challenge(s).
- Clients may then feel better or function more effectively with the right diagnoses and treatment.
Existential Therapy aims to help clients understand their relationship with universal conditions and explore some of life’s biggest questions like: what is the meaning of life? How do you find true belonging?
Clients may unlock the answers within them to live more authentically and find personal meaning during our limited time in this world.
Client-therapist relationship
With most therapeutic approaches, the therapist takes on the role of expert or coach. They use insights from clients to develop treatment plans.
With Existential Therapy, therapists like me aim to be authentic fellow humans on your journey of exploration.
The client-therapist connection we’d build is part of the therapy itself. It is through these conversations and space to nurture your autonomy and freedom that we co-create something new and meaningful together.
If you’re curious to learn more, I highlight these differences in a blog post here.
Focus
While there are insights to uncover from your past, it isn’t a starting point for Existential Therapy. The past can be a great, but never-ending resource. It isn’t always healthy to keep digging.
Instead, I choose to focus on understanding your present choices and lived experiences.
We may, on occasion, take time to unpack experiences from the past – but only if it’s useful to your present and future.