The existential approach can focus clients on signifi cant areas such as assuming personal responsibility, making a commitment to deciding and acting, and ex- panding their awareness of their current situation. It is possible for a time-limited approach to serve as a catalyst for clients to become actively and fully involved in each of their therapy sessions. Strasser and Strasser (1997), who are connected to the British school of existential analysis, maintain that there are clear benefi ts to time-limited therapy, which mirrors the time-limited reality of human existence.
Sharp and Bugental (2001) maintain that short-term applications of the existential approach require more structuring and clearly defi ned and less ambitious goals.
At the termination of short-term therapy, it is important for individuals to evaluate what they have accomplished and what issues may need to be addressed later. It is essential that both therapist and client determine that short-term work is appropri- ate, and that benefi cial outcomes are likely.
Application to Group Counseling
An existential group can be described as people making a commitment to a lifelong journey of self-exploration with these goals: (1) enabling members to become honest with themselves, (2) widening their perspectives on themselves and the world
160
CHAPTER SIX
around them, and (3) clarifying what gives meaning to their present and future life (van Deurzen, 2002b). An open attitude toward life is essential, as is the willingness to explore unknown territory. Recurring universal themes evolve in many groups and challenge members to seriously explore existential concerns such as choice, freedom and anxiety, awareness of death, meaning in life, and living fully.
Yalom (1980) contends that the group provides the optimal conditions for therapeutic work on responsibility. The members are responsible for the way they behave in the group, and this provides a mirror for how they are likely to act in the world. A group represents a microcosm of the world in which participants live and function. Over time the interpersonal and existential problems of the partici- pants become evident in the here-and-now interactions within the group (Yalom &
Josselson, 2011). Through feedback, members learn to view themselves through others’ eyes, and they learn the ways in which their behavior affects others. Build- ing on what members learn about their interpersonal functioning in the group, they can take increased responsibility for making changes in everyday life. The group experience provides the opportunity to participants to relate to others in meaningful ways, to learn to be themselves in the company of other people, and to establish rewarding, nourishing relationships.
In existential group counseling, members come to terms with the paradoxes of existence: that life can be undone by death, that success is precarious, that we are determined to be free, that we are responsible for a world we did not choose, that we must make choices in the face of doubt and uncertainty. Members experience anxiety when they recognize the realities of the human condition, including pain and suffering, the need to struggle for survival, and their basic fallibility. Clients learn that there are no ultimate answers for ultimate concerns. Through the sup- port that is within a group, participants are able to tap the strength needed to create an internally derived value system that is consistent with their way of being.
A group provides a powerful context to look at oneself, and to consider what choices might be more authentically one’s own. Members can openly share their fears related to living in unfulfi lling ways and come to recognize how they have compromised their integrity. Members can gradually discover ways in which they have lost their direction and can begin to be more true to themselves. Members learn that it is not in others that they fi nd the answers to questions about signifi - cance and purpose in life. Existential group leaders help members live in authentic ways and refrain from prescribing simple solutions. For a more detailed discus- sion of the existential approach to group counseling, see Corey (2012, chap. 9).
e x i s t e n t i a l t h e r a p y f r o m a m u lt i c u lt u r a l p e r s p e c t i v e
Strengths From a Diversity Perspective
Because the existential approach does not dictate a particular way of viewing or relat- ing to reality, and because of its broad perspective, this approach is highly relevant in working in a multicultural context (van Deurzen, 2002a). Vontress and colleagues (1999) write about the existential foundation of cross-cultural counseling: “Existential
161
EXISTENTIAL THERAPY
counseling is probably the most useful approach to helping clients of all cultures fi nd meaning and harmony in their lives, because it focuses on the sober issues each of us must inevitably face: love, anxiety, suffering, and death” (p. 32). These are the human experiences that transcend the boundaries that separate cultures.
Existential therapy is useful in working with culturally diverse clients because of its focus on universality, or the common ground that we all share. This approach emphasizes presence, the I/Thou relationship, and courage. As such, it can be effectively applied with diverse client populations with a range of specifi c problems and in a wide array of settings (Schneider, 2008, 2011; Schneider & Krug, 2010).
Schneider’s (2008) “existential-integrative” model of practice coordinates a variety of therapeutic modes within an overarching existential or experiential framework.
Vontress (1996) points out that all people are multicultural in the sense that they are all products of many cultures. He encourages counselors-in-training to focus on the universal commonalities of clients fi rst and secondarily on areas of differ- ences. In working with cultural diversity, it is essential to recognize simultaneously the commonalities and differences of human beings: “Cross-cultural counseling, in short, does not intend to teach specifi c interventions for each culture, but to infuse the counselor with a cultural sensitivity and tolerant philosophical outlook that will befi t all cultures” (p. 164).
The focus on subjective experience, or phenomenology, is a strength from a multicultural perspective. Another strength of the existential approach is that it enables clients to examine the degree to which their behavior is being infl uenced by social and cultural conditioning. Clients can be challenged to look at the price they are paying for the decisions they have made. Although it is true that some clients may not feel a sense of freedom, their freedom can be increased if they recognize the social limits they are facing. Their freedom can be hindered by insti- tutions and limited by their family. In fact, it may be diffi cult to separate individual freedom from the context of their family structure.
There is wide-ranging international interest in the existential approach. Several Scandinavian societies, an East European society (encompassing Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus), and Mexican and South American socie- ties are thriving. In addition, an Internet course, SEPTIMUS, is taught in Ireland, Iceland, Sweden, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Italy, Portugal, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Israel, and Australia. Most recently, the First International East- West Existential Psychology conference was held in Nanjing, China, with representa- tives from the United States, Korea, and Japan. These international developments, as well as the creation of the International Collaborative of Existential Counselors and Psychotherapists, which has members from all over the world, reveal that existential therapy has wide appeal to diverse populations in many parts of the world.
Shortcomings From a Diversity Perspective
For those who hold a systemic perspective, the existentialists can be criticized on the grounds that they are excessively individualistic and that they ignore the social factors that cause human problems. However, with the advent of the “existential-integrative”
model of practice (Schneider, 2008), this situation is beginning to change. According to Schneider (2011), existential practitioners are not only concerned with facilitating
162
CHAPTER SIX
individual change but with promoting an in-depth inquiry that has implications for social change: “One cannot simply heal individuals to the neglect of the social con- text within which they are thrust. To be a responsible practitioner, one must develop a vision of responsible social change alongside and in coordination with one’s vision of individual transformation” (p. 281).
Some individuals who seek counseling may operate on the assumption that they have very little choice because environmental circumstances severely restrict their ability to infl uence the direction of their lives. Even if they change internal- ly, they see little hope that the external realities of racism, discrimination, and oppression will change. They are likely to experience a deep sense of frustration and feelings of powerlessness when it comes to making changes outside of themselves.
As you will see in Chapter 12, feminist therapists maintain that therapeutic practice will be effective only to the extent that therapists intervene with some form of social action to change those factors that are creating clients’ problems. In working with people of color who come from the barrio or ghetto, for example, it is important to engage their survival issues. If a counselor too quickly puts across the message to these clients that they have a choice in making their lives better, they may feel pa- tronized and misunderstood. These real-life concerns can provide a good focus for counseling, assuming the therapist is willing to deal with them.
A potential problem within existential theory is that it is highly focused on the philosophical assumption of self-determination, which may not take into account the complex factors that many people who have been oppressed must deal with. In many cultures it is not possible to talk about the self and self-determination apart from the context of the social network and environmental conditions. However, a case can be made for the existential approach being instrumental in enabling clients to make conscious choices when it comes to the values they live by. Existen- tial therapists do not push autonomy apart from a client’s culture. They do assist clients in critically evaluating the source of their values and making a choice rather than uncritically accepting the values of their culture and family.
Many clients expect a structured and problem-oriented approach to counseling that is not found in the conventional existential approach. Although clients may feel better if they have an opportunity to talk and to be understood, they are likely to expect the counselor to do something to bring about a change in their life situation.
A major task for the counselor who practices from an existential perspective is to provide enough concrete direction for these clients without taking the responsibility away from them.
As an existentially oriented therapist, I counsel Stan with the assumption that he has the capacity to increase his self-awareness and decide for himself the future direction of his life. I want him to realize more than anything else that he does not have to be
the victim of his past conditioning but can be the architect in redesigning his future. He can free himself of his deterministic shackles and accept the responsibility that comes with directing his own life. This approach emphasizes the importance of my understanding of Stan’s