While two thirds of our clients have existential questions, psychotherapists often have a hard time in encountering these themes. However, with existential empathy we are not only contacting the client’s individual life world. We also resonate with the existential layer that transcends the precise life situation. Empathy becomes compassion for humanity and reveals its existential layer.
As a concept, existential empathy is based on Gendlin’s experiential, existential and phenomenological philosophy and rooted in his Jewish-spiritual background.
Existential empathy demands of the therapist to experientially encounter existential concerns as travel companions who continuously surprise and spice up our lives.
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.
