An existential approach argues that, however limited an individual’s circumstances and howwever
powerless they may feel, there is always some degree of choice and power. Helping
clients to access that power is a role the therapist can play, and this can be in more challenging
or more phenomenological ways. From an existential standpoint, however, it is also important
to help clients face up to the limitations of their existence, and to challenge fantasies
of omnipotence. More specifically, existentialists have argued that psychological difficulties
emerge when an individual constantly oscillates between a feeling of powerlessness and a
feeling of unrealistic power, and existentialism invites us to help bring our clients back to the
reality of their power-within-limits.
The tPeP (Journal Person-centered experiential Psychotherapy) is the scientific journal for Dutch and Flemish psychotherapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists, that work from, or are interested in a client-centered perspective.