Existential Therapy Objectives

Treatment Goals and Objectives Existential therapy is a brief therapy. However, it does not have a set time limit for how long the sessions will last or the duration of the therapy. The goal for existential therapy is to guide the client to strive toward authenticity in life, therefore when that goal is met and Michael can put striving for an authentic life into action will the therapy end. A strong therapeutic alliance is necessary in Existential therapy, client and therapist are being-in-the-world together, it the therapist’s aim is to understand the existential position of the client to peer into their phenomenological world. Client’s phenomenological world would be their subjective experience of the world and how they view, understand

Vargas will seek to find out Michael’s phenomenological experience to life’s inherent problems, that being meaninglessness, freedom, isolation and death, and the areas these experiences are played out in, being self, others, nature and spirit. To begin to find this information, Dr. Vargas will have Michael fill out a Purpose of Life test, where she can find what inherent problems Michael is anxious about and in what areas they are experienced within. After getting this information, she may go further and conduct a Socratic dialogue with him, where she will ask Michael questions that will get him to reveal his own answers, Michael will articulate his own answers by reflecting on his own experience and this lead him to his own insights to his own values. Existential therapy is very client centered, so it will be up to Michael to find his own insight on his existential anxieties, the guilt of his choices or existential guilt, what he values most in life and his authentic self. Dr. Vargas may help Michael pick out when Michael is being his authentic self, but otherwise would have him articulate his own meaning of authenticity and his meaning of life. As Michael talks about his anxiety of having a lack of control, and his fear vomiting and catching germs from other children, Dr. Vargas may attribute this to a neurotic anxiety, as the anxiety is out of proportion to the actual problem. Dr. Vargas would not try to lower his fears about control or

Thus, he is not living his life authentically to himself. After Michael has identified what he values, Dr. Vargas will guide him towards means of bringing forth those values into his life, so he can find his own meaning outside of what his parents have thrust onto him. One of the values Michael appears to regard the most is security, as he diverges from taking risks and stepping out of his comfort zone. However, this value of security stunts growth in life. Dr. Vargas may suggest to Michael to try to broaden his social circle, create more closer relationships with others to immerse himself in his new home in New Brunswick, Michael has the choice to embrace his new home or to lock himself away experiencing it. Michael will take this responsibility for his choice of locking himself away from this new home, he must transcend past qualms of moving from life as he knew in Toronto and transition to making a new life in New Brunswick. Self-transcendence is when the client transcends immediate problems, forgetting themselves and amercing themselves in the world. Michael will come to realize this environment in New Brunswick is not like Toronto, and will never replace what he left, but it is up to him to amerce himself in this environment rather than work against it. Michael should become aware that is well liked in school, not picked on