Existential Therapies: A Review Of Their Scientific Foundations and Efficacy

Abstract

This article reviews the scientific foundations and efficacy of existential therapies. We discuss underlying epistemologies, clinical and therapeutic assumptions and overall effects. We follow a pluralistic methodological paradigm, where possible describing systematic literature reviews, meta- analyses and community-representative surveys. Promising evidence was found for clinical and therapeutic assumptions and positive overall effects. Key words Existential therapy, quantitative research, qualitative research, literature review, meta-analyses, philosophy of science