Publisher's Synopsis
Case Studies in Existential Psychotherapy and Counselling Edited by Simon du Plock Regent’s College, London UK As people struggle with a sense of crisis and confusion they search for clarity and meaning. Increasingly they turn to psychotherapists and counsellors, who find that the existential approach to therapy helps people to make sense of themselves by addressing their social, cultural and political context as well as their personal and interpersonal issues. The existential approach makes room for paradox and the acceptance of the inevitable. It allows for questioning and re–evaluation. But what exactly do existential therapists do and say? This illuminating collection of case studies will help therapists and counsellors to understand and apply this powerful perspective to a wide range of problems and clients. The richness and diversity of human experience, and of the existential approach, is well illustrated by these cases that include working with adolescent angst, mid–life crisis, infertility, mortal illness, cultural alienation, loneliness and ageing. Writing for the student and practitioner of counselling and psychotherapy, not just for the expert in existential therapy, these leading authorities have shared their methods, experience and humanity through the cases which they have contributed here, which represent an accessible and effective introduction to the concepts and processes of existential therapy. "In these case studies, existential therapies are allowed to present themselves through a variety of therapeutic encounters. Unconscious explanations are eschewed, and realities are allowed to disclose themselves. Then, in a friendly partnership (itself therapeutic), not what should be, but what could be freely chosen, is pursued. Could such endeavours be revealed in any better way?" F. A. Jenner, Sheffield, England
