My training is in existential psychotherapy and I am a member of the International Society for Existential Analysis in Vienna (GLE-I). Existential Therapy is a branch of humanistic psychotherapy such as Gestalt therapy or person-centred therapy after Carl Rogers. All humanistic psychotherapists put the person rather than the ailment at the centre of attention. This means that we are not too much concerned with a psychiatric diagnosis but with the possibilities of personal development. Existential therapy (also referred to as logotherapy in Austria and Germany) has been founded by Viktor Frank in Austria. A prominent US-American psychotherapist using this approach is Irving Yalom (author e.g. of books such as ‘Love’s Executioner’ and ‘The Schopenhauer Cure’).
The underlying principles of existential therapy are based on a psychodynamic approach. We do however emphasise the existential meaning of psychological disorders e.g. we know that OCD is a form of dealing with anxiety and e.g. panic attacks remind us of our fear of death and dying. Thus by treating panic attacks, we would always focus – in a later stage of therapy – on the “un-lived” life that needs to be discovered and lived. By unearthing the existential meaning behind a symptom, we treat the ‘disordered’ way of dealing with it, which most often results in psychological distress.
In addition to my training in existential therapy, I also have extensive training in treating psycho-trauma in adults and children as well as treating depression, eating disorders and burnout syndrome. I have also published on psychosomatic pain and on dealing with chronic illness.
Counselling and Psychotherapy in English 