Existential Therapy

Existential therapy is a form of psychotherapy focused on the client's lived experience of their subjective reality, with the aim that clients use their freedom to live authentic, fulfilled lives. Its existentialist traditions hold that people are fundamentally free to shape their lives and are responsible for their choices even under difficult circumstances; that distress around existential concerns such as death, isolation, freedom and the search for meaning are natural parts of the human condition rather than pathology, and can be catalysts for living more authentically; and that the client's subjective world and lived experience should be explored rather than given an authoritative interpretation. The approach de-emphasizes standardized technique in favor of a collaborative, dialogical encounter grounded in authentic presence and mutual exploration, and it carries a critique of reductionist models of mental health that explain psychological suffering solely through symptoms, diagnoses or biological causes.