Existential Wellness provides the first-ever comprehensive look at how existential ideas and practices function as powerful and ethical alternatives to the medical model of “diagnosing and treating mental disorders.” Existentialism presents certain ideas about what it means to be human, about the tasks and challenges of being human, and about ways in which individuals flee from and avoid those tasks and challenges. It has its favorite vocabulary, just as other bodies of thought do, including words like suffering, despair, anxiety, absurdity, uncertainty, freedom, authenticity, and personal responsibility. The meeting of two threads, the existential and the therapeutic, gave rise to existential therapy, existential psychiatry, and existential coaching. Practitioners who added the word “existential” to their self-description shared certain beliefs about what helping was all about.

Editors:

Don Laird, NCC, LPC is the founder and owner of eTalkTherapy, LLC and is an adjunct professor at Carlow University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Eric Maisel is a former family therapist, based in California, USA, who works actively as a creativity coach. He is the author of many books on creativity, psychology, and mental health.

Arnoldo Cantú, LCSW is a clinical social worker and psychotherapist with experience in school social work, private practice, community mental health, and currently working in primary care behavioral health.