ABSTRACT
Experiential-existential therapy is an emerging approach within the broader spectrum of humanistic and existential psychotherapies. Rooted in person-centred and experiential psychotherapy, it emphasizes the experiential and interactional process aspects of existence. Experiential-existential therapy differs from contemporary person-centred and experiential therapies because it adopts an existential theoretical framework to deepen the therapist’s understanding of the client’s life process. As a consequence, the therapist is more able to resonate and empathize with the client’s existential concerns. It not only increases the therapist’s capacity to be with the client’s deepest issues, the experiential and interpersonal focus makes it also possible to engage with the client’s life process in the here-and-now situation. This new model reclaims the original existential-phenomenological foundations of person-centred and focusing-oriented therapy and puts experiential meaning-processes at the heart of the therapeutic work. Theoretically it seeks a new balance between process and content aspects and between not-knowing and research. In this chapter we introduce experiential-existential psychotherapy, its unique position in the field of existential and experiential therapies, and its future challenges.
