To Be From One’s Own Self

1030

Abstract

The article presents the case study of psychotherapeutic work with a client, who had symptoms of the emotional-volitional reduction. Psychotherapy lasted for 18 months. The author used the following ideas of the existential approach as a support and guidance for the therapeutic work: “existence precedes essence”; the authentic mode of existence as a prerequisite for mental health, the authenticity of life achieved through comprehension of one’s experience; development of the ability of listening to oneself (ability to develop skills of listening to oneself and one’s own subjectivity), the willingness to make a conscious independent choice. The article provides the description of the nature and dynamics of the therapeutic relationship, dynamics of the client’s self-understanding and lifeworld in the process of therapy and basic methods of therapeutic work.

General Information

Keywords: existential psychotherapy, authentic and inauthentic modes of existence, lifeworld, choice

Journal rubric: Case study

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/cpp.2017250107

Published

For citation: Kondratova, N.A. (2017). To Be From One’s Own Self. Counseling Psychology and Psychotherapy, 25(1), 92–108. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17759/cpp.2017250107

© Kondratova N.A., 2017

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

References

  1. Bugental J. Nauka byt’ zhivym: Dialogi mezhdu terapevtom i patsientami v guman- isticheskoi terapii [The Search for Existential Identity: Patient-Therapist Dialogues in Humanistic Psychotherapy]. Moscow: Klass, 1998. 336 p. (In Russ.).
  2. Deurzen E. van. Prakticheskoe ekzistentsial’noe konsul’tirovanie i psikhoterapiya [Existential Counselling and Psychotherapy in Practice]. Rostov-on-Don: Assot- siatsiya ekzistentsial’nogo konsul’tirovaniya, 2007. 216 p. (In Russ.).
  3. Heidegger M. Bytie i vremya [Being and Time]. Moscow: Akademicheskii proekt, 2011. 460 p. (In Russ.).

Information About the Authors

Nataliya A. Kondratova, Candidate of Science (Psychology), Novgorod State University, e-mail: nkondratova@mail.ru

Metrics

 Web Views

Whole time: 2466
Previous month: 6
Current month: 0

 PDF Downloads

Whole time: 1030
Previous month: 4
Current month: 0

 Total

Whole time: 3496
Previous month: 10
Current month: 0