Category: Theory
We will die: overcoming death anxiety
How do we live our lives knowing we will die? This question lies at the centre of the project of overcoming death anxiety: the often unacknowledged fear that arises from the fact that we will inevitably die. I will explore death anxiety and death acceptance as two possible responses to the existential reality of life…
An existential map: Four dimensions of existence
The Existential Map is a framework for existential therapy by Emmy van Deurzen that helps us live to our fullest expression by gaining mastery over life’s challenges and tribulations. It is made up of four dimensions of existence. Each dimension is “a playground of paradoxes and contradictions” (Deurzen, Arnold-Baker, 2018) where our lives unfold with goals,…
Ego states: Child, Parent, Adult and how to make them work
Ego states are ways of being that emerge within us in different situations. As a concept, they are very much “the heart of transactional analysis” (Sills, Hargaden, 2003), a therapeutic modality that effectively combines psychoanalysis, humanistic philosophy and pragmatism. Ego states can be understood in many ways, and these all can be helpful: Ego estates…
Beyond the potato: chaos, choices and co-becoming
The actualising tendency has been pointed as a fundamental feature of humanistic counselling (Sanders, 2002). In this article, I’d like to offer a critique of Rogers’ actualising tendency (aka, “the potato”) in a move towards ideas within the same humanistic paradigm that I argue have more explanatory power and healing potential. The actualising tendency Rogers…
Choices in illness
in HumanisticSometimes we get ill. Getting ill means losing one of the most important things we need – control over our bodies. And when this eludes us, we feel stressed – maybe angry, maybe sad, maybe scared. Illness reveals chaos and contingency as the underlying truth of reality. We never know when we may get ill,…
Boundaries in Gestalt
in GestaltGestalt is an existential-phenomenological model of therapy that places focus on human experience. Boundaries are the different areas in which this experience happens, making it a key concept in Gestalt therapy. In “The emergent self” Peter Philippson gives an overview of three different boundaries. Using these concepts we can evaluate our experiencing at these three…
Beyond the search for the true self
The search for the true self is like the search for the philosopher’s stone or Kung Fu Panda Dragon Scroll: both crucial and pointless. Pointless because just like the philosopher’s stone it doesn’t really exist and therefore it can’t be discovered, per se. But crucial because it is in the journey of that search that…
How to change our past: Memories, Stories, Identity.
Psychotherapy is moving away from grand, unifying theories of human experience and wellbeing. Carl Roger’s potato and Freud’s unconscious are only partially helpful and certainly insufficient to help us understand what people are like and how they can be helped. Postmodern ideas has led to the “deconstruction of absolute truths” (Cooper, M. Rowan, J, 1999)…
The descent of Inanna: A mythical model for life transformation
in JungianThe descent of Inanna is a mythical story of breakdown to breakthrough. It is common for our lives to break down at certain times, particularly at midlife. This often comes from the combination of a major life setback (a divorce, bereavement, injury, a redundancy or any other loss) with the spiritual emptiness we experience when…
Truth is what is helpful
William James is considered the father of Psychology and of Pragmatic Philosophy. In his essay “What pragmatism means” he suggests a provocative but well-rounded argument that truth is what is helpful. The main argument goes like this. Truthness is a type of goodness, rather than a separate entity to it. He says “truth in our…
