ABSTRACT
The creation of a holding environment implies and entails the notion of limits and boundaries. Existential psychotherapy, which is rooted in existential philosophy, emphasizes the crucial role that anxiety plays when human beings are confronted with the ultimate givens of existence. For the existentialists, bad faith is an ongoing human conflict which makes us unwilling and intensely reluctant to engage honestly with ourselves and, by extrapolation, ensures that we are also therefore unable to engage openly with others. Existentialists consider the notion of freedom to be intrinsically connected to the concept of responsibility, and freedom and responsibility are ingrained in the philosophy of existentialism. The existentialist position stresses the anxieties that result when human beings are faced with the inescapable facts of existence. Sigmund Freud advanced the idea that separation and loss were fundamental aspects of anxiety. The therapist also demonstrates her inability to manage and contain her own separation concerns.
