Suicide Risk Assessment Doesn't Work
​Existential Therapy
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1y ago
This article is so important that I have simply copied and pasted it as a blog post, in the event that it should ever disappear from the net. I will follow up soon with my own reflection. The research reported in this article shows that suicide risk assessments are unreliable, and that they can even increase the risk of suicide. I worked for five years in suicide crisis intervention, talking people back from bridges and so on, and then a further five years in bereavement-after-suicide, and my experience not only aligns with the research, but with my own sense that typical suicide risk assessme ..read more
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The Grief that is existential
​Existential Therapy
by
1y ago
Grief is more than bereavement after a death. It is about significant loss, of any kind. And not only the loud losses, but also the subtle shadows that are cast over our lives. These shadows shape who we are.  It is tempting to push our griefs away because, of course, they are discomforting or painful, and because they can be addictive and we rightly fear that. However in pushing them away we are pushing away parts of ourselves, which need attention if we are to bring in more light than shadow. Furthermore we lose sight of what grief is teaching us ..read more
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A moral philosophy of depression
​Existential Therapy
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1y ago
Nothing happens while you live. The scenery changes, people come in and go out, that's all. There are no beginnings. Days are tacked on to days without rhyme or reason, an interminable, monotonous addition.”  The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life.” ​Here is a memory that will never leave me. One morning during a very bad time in my early 20s, I looked into the mirror while shaving and was suddenly overcome. I seemed to stare into an endless repetition of ..read more
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Existential Therapy and Anxiety
​Existential Therapy
by
1y ago
"Beware, lest in your anxiety to avoid war, you obtain a master."  Life is dangerous. And trying to live in a richer, fuller way, whether it be through achievement, love, or simply drenching oneself in experience, makes life even more dangerous. To be alive, to  as a human being, provokes anxiety. Philosophers call this  existential anxiety, because life is not a problem to be solved. It is a challenge to be faced. But does this mean we must be mere slaves of our anxiety, unable to do anything more than tolerate it ..read more
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Emmy van Deurzen: Existential Therapy
​Existential Therapy
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1y ago
If I had to list my greatest influences as a therapist, they would include Emmy van Deurzen, Viktor Frankl, Irvin Yalom, Ernesto Spinelli and Carl Rogers, among others. Van Deurzen has probably helped me most when it comes to developing the details of my therapeutic approach, especially in terms of her discussions of polarities. Van Deurzen is a key founder of "the British School" of Existential Therapy, and has developed her own very pragmatic approach to a philosophical form of counselling, which is primarily focused on helping clients face the challenges of everyday life . Van Deurzen argue ..read more
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Existential therapy and anxiety
​Existential Therapy
by
1y ago
Naturally we feel a desire to reduce our anxiety. But what if the cure is sometimes worse than the disease? The temptation is to try to eradicate anxiety from our lives. However, existential philosophers have long pointed out that if we are to live a fuller life, we must accept and live with a degree of anxiety. This kind of acceptance is not mere resignation but rather a positive virtue, a more rich and wise way of living with reality. Such reality includes the fact that meaningful living generates anxiety. Attempts to eradicate anxiety can make make us smaller - our attempts to diminish anxi ..read more
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Existential therapy and depression
​Existential Therapy
by
1y ago
The existential philosophy of the 20th century is rooted in the lebensphilosophie or life philosophy of the 19th century. It is philosophy as thinking which comes out of living.  Accordingly, an existential therapy focuses on challenges in living. This is in contrast to, say, a clinical therapy which focuses on problems as mental disorders. Existential Therapy helps people to deal with their challenges using the resources contained within their own humanity: their intellect, their will, their loves and desires, their values and motivations, their context and relatonships, and so forth. It ..read more
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Person-centred counselling & existential therapy
​Existential Therapy
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1y ago
In my first decade as a counsellor I was a voracious learner. This included entering into various types of counselling and psychotherapy as a client, in order to know them from the inside. I can say from this experience that I have witnessed nothing so powerful as person-centred counselling, when it is done by a genuinely accomplished practitioner of the art. That experience left me haunted by the power of this therapy, even as my own project constantly brought me back to existential therapy. Person-centred counselling is often the first approach that student counsellors learn, and as such it ..read more
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What works in therapy?
​Existential Therapy
by
1y ago
There are many different schools or "models" of counselling and psychotherapy, and much debate about which models are superior. This can be confusing for the public as they sift through the many offerings. The assumption throughout the intellectual history of counselling and psychotherapy has been that it is techniques and models which do the work. Meta-analytical research, however, has shown that most models are equally effective, and what makes them effective is not models or techniques, but rather certain "common factors." Therapies are more - or less - effective according to the presence o ..read more
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Your Potential: philosophy & practice
​Existential Therapy
by
3y ago
​You don't know just how much you're capable of. Or how good you could make your life. This idea has roots in the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who analysed life in terms of potential: the potency, or power within everything to grow into something greater. He likened us to plants, which begin as a seed and become a tree. Our potential is hidden within, waiting for the right conditions to spring forth.  Your potential is something innate, a set of wonderful possibilities seeking to unfold in you. This should not be understood in a mechanical way, however, for potential i ..read more
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