Existential Therapy in Philadelphia

What is Existential Therapy?

Existential therapy focuses on free will, self-determination, and the search for meaning—often centering on you rather than on the symptom. The approach emphasizes your capacity to make rational choices and to develop to your maximum potential.

The existential approach stresses that:

• All people have the capacity for self-awareness.
• Each person has a unique identity that can be known only through relationships with others.
• People must continually re-create themselves because life’s meaning constantly changes.
• Anxiety is part of the human condition.

The Goal of Existential Therapy

Existential psychotherapies use a range of approaches, but major themes focus on your responsibility and freedom. Therapists help you find meaning in the face of anxiety by choosing to think and act responsibly and by confronting negative internal thoughts rather than external forces, like societal pressures or luck. Fostering creativity, love, authenticity, and free will are common avenues that help move you toward transformation. Similarly, when treating addiction disorders, you are coached to face the anxiety that tempts you to abuse substances and guides you to take responsibility. The goal: You learn to make more willful decisions about how to live, drawing on creativity and love, instead of letting outside events determine your behavior.