Making the decision to consult a specialist in emotional, relational and mental health is not an easy choice, given the wide range of possibilities for clinical and psychotherapeutic intervention (around more than 400 psychotherapeutic techniques, not all of which are not approved by the International Federation of Psychology, American Psychological and Psychiatric Association) requires grueling research on the part of the consultant to find the appropriate therapist and approach, making the experience of starting the process less encouraging and in many cases , unpleasant and regrettable in the face of experiences resulting from a therapeutic fault.
This is one of the reasons why I share this content, because within the official models and endorsed by various internationally renowned organizations, Existential analysis is one of the most recent models and approaches, but therefore less known, and often misunderstood.
Before you begin, it is essential that you take this content in a specifically informative manner and take it upon yourself to consult with the specialist you deem appropriate and who clarifies your doubts, thus allowing you to know their professional and specialist work in more depth. detail.
Why existential therapy?
Existential Approach Therapy is an official psychotherapeutic perspective, with philosophical foundations. It is considered an approach because it encompasses a diversity of theoretical and practical points of view and perspectives; however, this is perhaps your most complex challenge when trying to define it. I will try to define it for you in the simplest way possible.
Philosophical-existential views and perspectives have in common the in-depth philosophical work, and It is characterized by a greater attention to the experience of the human being, beyond its reduction to a clinical psychodiagnosis., since it is considered that the human being is more than the sum of his parts, that is to say that he is not limited to his psychology and / or his behavior, but that he is free to decide how it meets such conditions.
Generally speaking, these are people in crisis or in immediate suffering, however; This is not the only reason for consultation, because faced with the dilemmas and tensions present in humanity, the analytic-existential approach accompanies it in various ways, considering as main the following points:
- Link and relationship between therapist and patient (relationality)
- There is no greater importance in temporality (past, present, future) however, these times are focused on immediate choices and decisions in the here and now.
- The human condition (the pleasant, the pleasant, the negative, the tragic) is at the center of attention.
Existential therapy tries to shed light on the way in which each human being builds, discovers and maintains his own existence, his destiny.
why is it called like that?
Being an approach with support and philosophical bases, the model he uses is known as the “phenomenological method” whose main purpose is to try to capture the experience (phenomenon) of the person and thus reveal a meaning, a response or, as it is called in psychology, an intuition.
This disciplinary model allows the therapist to be more receptive, flexible and with a greater willingness to grasp and discover with the client his subjective reality.
How does this type of therapy work?
It works mainly through dialogue and the experience that is revealed in it, between therapist and consultant. This can be achieved from the phenomenological, hermeneutical and dialogical method.
This is why it is a therapy that emphasizes the need to maintain the relationship between the two, take care of it and provide honesty and empathy, although it maintains a difficult tension in the bond, grateful the importance of this in the effective outcome of everything, the therapeutic process.
This is a challenge mainly for the existential therapist, since he must be aware of the difficulties of not to impose their own perspective, personal experience, own world and value system above those of the applicant. The attempt to avoid its appearance and its maintenance aims to allow, open and put on the table, these incoherent, incongruous or contradictory points, in the way and the form in which each consultant / patient regularly chooses his way of being.
Sometimes existential therapy can be confrontational, uncomfortable or painful (not by the choice of the therapist) because it isclairvoyance reality as it is for each patient, without hiding aspects of it for the simple fact of avoiding the intense or “unpleasant” emotions in the consultant, since these are the product of the experience and experience of his being-in-the-world and not given by the analyst.
This process is very liberating, as it makes it easy to explore and deeply ventilate the consultant’s experience without masks or incentives to minimize it, resulting in an experience that is as authentic and heartfelt as possible.
What makes existential therapy different from other approaches?
Therapy or Existential Analysis is distinguished not only by the philosophical support it presents, but also in that, thanks to the phenomenological attitude and the dialogical disposition, its focus of attention goes beyond the traditional clinical model (do not leave aside the psychodiagnosis when the process is carried out by a health professional trained in existential therapy).
It does not seek to “pathologize” the psyche and behavior of the patient, since it allows the person analyzed to take a free and responsible position, allowing the experience to be valued as a whole and not just the features that accompany it. .
This makes the existential perspective permeate the entire human experience of every customer.
Moreover, this approach clearly shows that it is not useful to try to avoid relieving symptoms immediately or with the naive aim of achieving it at the request of the client; on the contrary, unlike most approaches, the existential perspective does not fear the expression of “uncomfortable or unpleasant” symptoms such as anxiety, fear, deep sadness (misnamed depression, although, if it were depression in clinical terms itself, it also leaves the doors open) or anger, which, in this perspective, are recognized for their rich endowment of meaning and their potential value as responses to the context and biography of each human being.
Thus, the existential analysis seeks to explore the experience with the symptoms that are present, even if they are intense or even bothersome; you keep trying to know them and find them out, rather than eliminating them and avoiding them at all costs.
The main goal of existential therapy is the knowledge, exploration, clarification and recognition of the experience instead of just trying to explain it, interpret it or try to “heal” the experiences of. each person.
Why resort to existential therapy?
As you may have noticed, existential therapy allows participants to learn about their lived experiences through exploration, but doing so in an honest, sincere and understanding manner.
Through collaborative exploration with the therapist, the consultant can see with greater clarity the different perspectives of the same experience and the meanings that flow from it. The most complex and philosophical challenges as well as the most rudimentary and everyday experiences are linked in every therapeutic process to the commitment of understanding, challenge and challenge, allow the person to accept and take responsibility for their experience, of a more resilient and flexible attitude with which he is able to modify and conceive his subsequent project, in a perspective of the near future.
These are phenomena for which existential counseling is a good option:
- Anguish and anxiety
- Fear of death or grieving process
- Existential / absurd void
- Crisis due to illness, accidents or drastic changes in your lifestyle
- Loss of status, employment, financial constraints
- Pain
- Fault
- Anticipation anxiety
- Breaking family, social and emotional ties
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Freedom and responsibility
- Difficulty deciding between two or more circumstances
- Fear of life
- Radical isolation and relational avoidance
- Lack of creativity
- Tragic and inevitable situations
conclusion
While this article was written to be understood in a straightforward way, the aspects that support existential analysis are much more complex than what is shared here. This specialty requires years of preparation for professional studies, requiring the therapist to have at least one profession in the fields of health and philosophy, in addition to a postgraduate degree in existential philosophy with a phenomenological-hermeneutical perspective.
The existential perspective is recognized worldwide as one of the most stimulating, complex and innovative approaches, since its constitution is given by empirical research from the second half of the 20th century; however, it encompasses the basis of anthropological studies and even millennial knowledge that philosophy has contributed to mankind and will continue to contribute in the 21st century.
If after what you have just read, new questions and questions have arisen, what a wonder! Part of the goal has been achieved, as it is a thoughtful and philosophical invitation, being the questions the first step of the journey.
If you consider that the current situations in your life raise more doubts that you do not know how to answer and wish to take up this challenge, you can contact me to explore and reveal together this experience in order to discover your way of being. world.
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