Existential Approach Vs Mindfulness
Compare and contrast the existential and mindfulness approaches to understanding and working with fear and sadness. Which of these two approaches do you feel more drawn to and why?
Existential Approach
Introduction
This essay focuses on Existential and Mindfulness approaches and how they work. To really understand both approaches, I will be talking about where they came from and what has developed since then, what has and how it has improved psychotherapy as a whole.
Firstly, the Existential Therapy was first developed by Ludwig Bainswanger (1881-1966) and Medard Boss (1903-1990), they both worked with Psychoanalysis (Understanding Counselling & Psychotherapy, Meg Barker, Andreas Vossler and Darren Longdridge, Chapter 6: Existential Psychotherapy, pg126). From this, Existential Therapy mainly focuses on the person as a unique individual, it is understood to be a philosophical method of therapy and was mainly used in the 1940s by Sartre and de Beauvoir (Understanding Counselling and Psychotherapy, Meg Barker, Andreas Vossler, and Darren Langdridge, Existential Psychotherapy, Chapter 6.3, pg. 130). It has been said that existence precedes essence’, (adapted from Sartre, 1944).
However, it was further developed in 2002 by Ernesto Spinelli & Emmy Van Deurzen. These two Philosophers extracted the Existential Approach and improved it in many ways. This therapy is now recognised as Phenomenological Approach because of the belief of uniqueness of existence (Understanding Counselling & Psychotherapy, Meg Barker, Andreas Vossler and Darren Langdridge, 2010, Chapter 6: Existential Psychotherapy, pg127).
Secondly, Existential Therapy can be understood to be a way of acceptance of one’s life and fate, the freely understanding that fear and sadness are actually a part of life, a part of evolving as human beings, a continuous growth and something that’s experienced by every person at some point of their life.
It is a way to focus on ourselves and on the way we see life as a
Existential Approach
Introduction
This essay focuses on Existential and Mindfulness approaches and how they work. To really understand both approaches, I will be talking about where they came from and what has developed since then, what has and how it has improved psychotherapy as a whole.
Firstly, the Existential Therapy was first developed by Ludwig Bainswanger (1881-1966) and Medard Boss (1903-1990), they both worked with Psychoanalysis (Understanding Counselling & Psychotherapy, Meg Barker, Andreas Vossler and Darren Longdridge, Chapter 6: Existential Psychotherapy, pg126). From this, Existential Therapy mainly focuses on the person as a unique individual, it is understood to be a philosophical method of therapy and was mainly used in the 1940s by Sartre and de Beauvoir (Understanding Counselling and Psychotherapy, Meg Barker, Andreas Vossler, and Darren Langdridge, Existential Psychotherapy, Chapter 6.3, pg. 130). It has been said that existence precedes essence’, (adapted from Sartre, 1944).
However, it was further developed in 2002 by Ernesto Spinelli & Emmy Van Deurzen. These two Philosophers extracted the Existential Approach and improved it in many ways. This therapy is now recognised as Phenomenological Approach because of the belief of uniqueness of existence (Understanding Counselling & Psychotherapy, Meg Barker, Andreas Vossler and Darren Langdridge, 2010, Chapter 6: Existential Psychotherapy, pg127).
Secondly, Existential Therapy can be understood to be a way of acceptance of one’s life and fate, the freely understanding that fear and sadness are actually a part of life, a part of evolving as human beings, a continuous growth and something that’s experienced by every person at some point of their life.
It is a way to focus on ourselves and on the way we see life as a
References: Cooper 2003a, Existential Therapy, London, Sage. (pg. 11.29). Sartre (1944). Hoffman et al (2010). Excerpt 12; Mindfulness, Audio Block 2 (CDA6074) D240 Counselling: exploring fear and sadness. Excerpt 10; Existential Counselling, Audio Block 2, (CDA 6074) D240 Counselling: exploring fear and sadness. Understanding Counselling and Psychotherapy, Meg Barker, Andreas Vossler, and Darren Langdridge (2010). Chapter 6, 7 & Chapter 8.