Thursday, April 19, 2012

Existential psychotherapy and Mindfulness


     'Existential,' in existential-humanistic psychotherapy, implies that the main focus of interest is our existence - the fact that we are, and are aware of our living. The core issue of life is life itself - being - what are you doing with the fact that you're alive? The goals of this therapy are to help be in tune with what the client is experiencing, in the moment, and to feed it back in such a way, that s/he may have more choicefulness. The therapist tries to reflect back what is implicit and very much present, but which the client can't see - the implicit in concert with the explicit. 
     Buddhism's basic koans: "What is this?" and "Who am I?"; observer-self / basic sanity; Zen masters' mirroring technique ....

James Bugental interview

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