Often when an individual has experienced a traumatising event or is recovering from an addiction, he may question the value of his life. Existential therapy focuses on the questions that human beings have always asked themselves such as ‘How can I live a worthwhile life?’
Existential therapy focuses on the nature of truth and reality rather than on personality, illness or cure, so rather than thinking about function and dysfunction, it prefers to think in terms of a person’s ability to meet the challenges that life inevitably presents us with.
Action based on experience is everyone’s first language. In this sense, existential therapy is the practical application of philosophy to everyday living. It is about coming to understand and therefore live productively and creatively within the constraints and possibilities of life.