There are many approaches to counseling and psychotherapy which legitimately may be termed existential. Each of these approaches has as its prime focus the nature of man´s existence and how he experiences the world.
The existential approach is rather much a homeless waif. It does not really belong anywhere. It has no homestead, no formal school, no institution; it is not welcomed into the better academic neighborhoods. It does, however, have a genealogy. a fews cattered cousins and friends of the family: existential philosophy, existential analysis, humanistic psychology, and humanistic psychoanalysis.
The existential approach views man as responsible, free to choose his way of being, and as a constantly emerging being. Man is born into an unknown world and thus he is anxious. He moves in the face of this existential anxiety.
Meaning is essential for life, Frankl claims. The human being seems to required meaning. To live without meaning, goals, values seems to provoke considerable distress. In severe form it may lead to the decision to end one´s life. When frankl speaks of existential desparir, he refers to a state of meaninglessness.
Relationship is the principal means for bringing to expression the world of meaning in which the client lives. The quality of the relationship determines to what degree the personal existential world will find genuine expression. The first task of the counselor is, therefore, to establish a relationship which leads to optimal communication. The relationship itself which should be established by the counselor differs from the structure of other relationships. First it is different because of its objectives, and second, it is different from other relationships because of the specific attitudes of the counselor:acceptance, gentleness, sincerity, and creativity. The attitudes of the counselor aim at the expression of the personal existential world of the client.
The existential approach argue that counseling is a real life process and as such allows whatever technique that emerges during the counseling process to occur.
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