Existential-Phenomenology

Existential-Phenomenology is a therapeutic model informed by a multi-disciplinary approach combining the rich philosophy of existentialism and phenomenology with humanistic psychology. This unique synergy in therapy allows for a deep and full understanding of clients, allows therapists to have a more collaborative, warm approach, and creates rigorous ethical standards in engaging with others.

  • A broad philosophical theory that explores human existence through questioning meaning making and purpose. “Existence precedes essence” is a phrase coined by Sartre and explores how we exist first and then create meaning from this existence rather than meaning being generated objectively or inherently. Other common concepts in existentialism include freedom, absurdity, angst/dread, authenticity, and the narratives we hold for ourselves and the lens through which we view the world.

    Notable contributors include: Camus, Dostoevsky, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, and Sartre.

  • A philosophical study that looks inward to subjective experiences in an anti-reductionistic way. Or, more simply: a way to understanding people from their in-the-moment, subjective view. Other common concepts include judgements, perceptions, intuition, intentions, consciousness, and intersubjectivity.

    Notable contributors include: Husserl, Gadamer, Kant, Levinas, Merlau-Ponty, and Ricoeur.

  • Humanistic psychology is a branch of psychology seeking to understand humans and is centered around the context of an individual, life experiences, and personal priorities. Other common concepts include: person-centered, empathy, unconditional regard, not pathologizing people, and self-concepts.

    Notable contributors include: Alder, May, Maslow, Rogers, and Satir.

Books

  • Martin Buber, I and thou

  • Eugene Gendlin, Let Your Body Interpret Your Dreams

  • Michael Foucault, Madness and Civilization

  • Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

  • Viktor Frankl, Psychotherapy and Existentialism: Selected Papers on Logotherapy

  • Martin Heidegger, Being and Time

  • Emmanuel Levinas, Totality and Infinity

  • Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

  • Soren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death

  • George Kunz, The Paradox of Power and Weakness:  Levinas and an Alternative Paradigm for Psychology

  • Rollo May, The Discovery of Being

  • Rollo May, The Meaning of Anxiety

  • Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception

  • Frederick Perls, Gestalt Therapy

  • Carl Rogers, Active Listening

  • Carl Rogers, Client-Centered Therapy: Its Current Practice, Implications and Theory

  • Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy

  • John-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness:  A Phenomenological Essay on Ontology

  • Murray Stein, Jung's Map of the Soul: An Introduction

  • Jan Hendrik van den Berg,  A Different Existence

  • Talia Welsh, The Child as Natural Phenomenologist: Primal and Primary Experience in Merleau-Ponty's Psychology

  • Irvin Yalom, Existential Psychotherapy

  • Irvin Yalom, The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients

Dense forest of evergreen trees on a mountain slope in natural sunlight

Novels

  • Albert Camus, The Stranger

  • Philip Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

  • Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground

  • William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying

  • Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf

  • Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

  • Franz Kafka, The Trial

  • John-Paul Sartre, Nausea

  • Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych

  • Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five