Existential Therapy

I've been conducting research on existential therapy. I assure you its life changing. the argument it holds is that we are all authors of our own lives and we do not need validation from anyone about the choices we make. Please read the following extract to get an idea of what existential therapy is all about

Existential therapy was introduced by Victor Frankl and Rollo May. Existentialism is an area of philosophy concerned with the meaning of human existence. It looks at issues such as love, death and the meaning of life - and how one deals with the sense of value and meanings in their own life. In an existentialist approach to therapy, there are basic dimensions of the human condition. These are the capacity for self-awareness, the tension between freedom and responsibility, the creation of an identity and the establishment of meaningful relationships, the search for meaning, the acceptance of anxiety as a condition of living and the awareness of death and non-being.
Existentialists believe that our human capacity for self-awareness gives us possibilities for freedom - as we will realize that we are finite and time is limited, we have the potential and the choice to act or not to act, meaning is not automatic and we must seek it, and we are subject to loneliness, meaninglessness, guilt and isolation. Therefore, people are free to choose among alternatives available to them in living and have a large role in shaping their own personal destinies. The manner in which we live and what we become are results of our choices and people must take responsibility for directing their own lives.

The aim of existential therapy is to encourage clients to reflect on life, recognize their range of alternatives and decide among them. The goal is to make people realize the ways they passively accepted circumstances and surrender control in order for them to start consciously shaping their own lives by exploring options for creating a meaningful existence. The therapies central tasks are to invite the client to recognize how they have allowed others to decide for them, and to encourage clients to take steps towards autonomy (independence)http://www.psychologycampus.com/psychology-counseling/existential-therapy.html

Dear reader, you can now find me on my facebook page. Simply search Psyched With Cindy. Thank you for visiting my blog, feel free to share your stories.

The Therapeutic Process of Forgiveness

All of us come across conflicts of some sort with people in our lives, both family and friends. Some people find it easy to forgive but for others, forgiveness is a mission. Forgiveness is a great step towards emancipating yourself from grudges you hold against other people. I believe that forgiveness is a process, and if you are one of those people who don’t find it easy to forgive you just have to master the process. The first thing you can do is understanding that you cannot change other people’s feelings; you can only change yours so even if someone hasn’t forgiven you, you need to forgive them, do it for your own well-being. Writing a letter or letters to the person who wronged you is helpful, you don’t have to send them, remember you are doing this for yourself, you can simply burn them. Trust me; it’s very therapeutic I’ve tried it more than once. I believe that letting go is just too simple, you have to make sense of it all. If you can learn from mistakes, I believe you can also learn from conflict. When someone close to me betrayed me recently, I changed my perspective about them, instead of feeling annoyed and irritated whenever I thought about them I thought about all the good things about them. But most importantly I said within my heart and soul: “I am setting you free because I’m setting myself free”. You must choose to be alive and happy no matter how hurt you’ve been. Whatever trauma you’ve been through, you just have to make sense out of it and then let go. Ever heard of learned behaviour? If you don’t make peace with your past, you are likely to replicate it.    

Some useful resources

I was listening to A word on psychology on Talk Radio 702 on thursday night and I just have to share. Are you feeling burnt-out? Do you sometimes feel that doors are being slammed right in front of you? There are some free resources to help you cope. Laughter releases some endorphins in your brain that help calm you down; companionship; your pet,looking after a pet is therapeutic; the outdoors, go out and appreciate the beauty of nature and see if you will not feel much better. Low resources can result in depression.