ABSTRACT
When presented with the playful and creative narrative of a child, a traditional psychoanalytic model of practice may encourage the therapist to distinguish between the surface presentation and a deeper underlying truth. It becomes a necessary part of the therapeutic process to endeavour to uncover the true meaning of what is actually being revealed by the child. The importance of knowledge for existential psychotherapy is not related to method or systems, but to wisdom that allows to see the whole of an encounter and not simply its constituent parts. Ideas of method and truth offer the refuge, or security, of knowledge. Whether it is in knowing or interpreting an alternate symbolic reality, or simply the reinforcement of a position of power, this is unhelpful and unnecessary. By the therapist adopting a position of expert, the child and their family may find themselves pushed into a role of unknowing victim.
