Existential Psychotherapy, Stephen Forrest

Questions

What can I expect in Existential Psychotherapy?

All meetings last 60 minutes. Usually the first or second meeting is for the purpose of assessing your needs. Detailed information will usually be taken including what you hope to gain from therapy and what your needs and difficulties are. It is also a good time for you to ask questions.

Attending an assessment does not mean you are committed to more sessions. The assessment session(s) can be a good way of gauging whether your psychotherapist and the therapy are right for you. Often we get a 'gut feeling' about whether a person is right for us or not. The first meeting can allow us to gauge this informally without too much risk or obligation.

You can expect to be treated in an unpretentious way and as a whole person rather than a series of problems, thoughts or behaviours. Your individuality will be respected and your psychotherapist will be sensitive and empathic with you without being clichéd. Your psychotherapist will also be very honest and to the point. Your psychotherapist's job is not to judge, diagnose, 'cure' or advise you but to support you and be your advocate in finding answers for yourself. The psychotherapist draws on his/her life experience, knowledge, skills and intuition to help you find your own path.

Psychotherapy sessions can be weekly, twice weekly or fortnightly. Each session begins with what you want to look at. It then evolves through the interaction between you and your psychotherapist. In response to what you bring, your psychotherapist may offer a variety of methods and possibilities which allow you to better explore your experiences, heighten awareness of mind-body-environment, develop more authentic ways of relating, and meet your deepest needs more directly. Methods range from discussion, reflection and awareness development to more active methods such as creative writing, art therapy, yoga, and awareness experiments that you and your psychotherapist invent together. The relationship is essentially a creative one in which you and your psychotherapist collaborate; working together in a way that is tailored to your individual needs.

You and your psychotherapist will also design therapeutic tasks which you then undertake on a daily basis between each session.

Throughout the process your confidentiality will be respected and protected according to the ethical guidelines under which your psychotherapist practices as issued by the UPCA and UKCP.