Daring to Listen to the Truth of the Body: Existential-Phenomenology Needs The Body’s Response

Abstract

This paper is based upon a workshop offered at the Society for Existential Analysis 2014 Conference ‘Truth or Dare’, held in London. The workshop introduces, through experiential exploration, the idea that existential- phenomenological therapy needs to be based upon some form of experiential awareness in order to be either existential or phenomenological. This idea is based upon Eugene Gendlin’s ‘philosophy of implicit experiencing’ and utilises ‘Focusing’, the therapeutic practice that arises from Gendlin’s philosophy. Key words Phenomenological therapy, experiential-existential psychotherapy, Gendlin, hermeneutics