Mindfulness Based-Third Wave CBT Therapies and Existential-Phenomenology. Friends or Foes?

Abstract

This article explores the similarities between Existential Phenomenological Therapy (EPT) and Mindfulness-based third wave Cognitive Behavioural Therapies. It is argued that EPT and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) share common philosophical and ontological principles, but that they differ in important ways, particularly with regard to how their therapeutic objectives are pursued and to their methodology. These differences are largely bridged in the third wave developments of CBT. It is hoped that acknowledging the similarities, rather than just focusing on the divergences may facilitate a productive and stimulating debate on the nature of therapy and of psychological wellbeing over and above the adherence to modality- driven sedimentations.