Book Review: Existential Counselling and Psychotherapy in Practice

It is rare to be in the position of writing a review of a text which already enjoys a high profile among readers of this journal. Few of those concerned with the analysis of existence from philosophical and psychological perspectives will be unaware of the milestone that the publication of Existential Counselling in Practice represented in 1988. The approach which Emmy van Deurzen presents in this 'second edition' is as fresh and instructive today as it was back then. Her newly-revised book contains all the ingredients which made it's precursor required reading for both trainees and established practitioners in the existential-phenomenological approach, and which ensured it remained a core text whatever else was unfolding in our discipline.

Van Deurzen says of the existential approach in her 2002 Preface that "Those who are prepared to take it seriously usually find something in it that speaks to them directly. Frequently people feel that the approach expresses what they have thought themselves for a long time but could not quite articulate". These words might equally well be applied to the book. I recall my own pleasure in reading it for the first time in 1990 and discovering that much within it's covers seemed to speak to me directly and express my own world view. As important was the fact that it offered me, if not tools or techniques per se, a sense of direction for my own way of being a therapist, one which foregrounded my own being and, in doing so, showed me the value and validity of this being.

One of the many attractions of the book is that it wears its learning lightly: where philosophers are mentioned their relevance is clear and the implications of their thought for therapeutic practice is made plain to the reader. This straight-forward approach is invaluable in a field in which authors can sometimes get lost in theory and forget the bigger picture and, crucially, the human being which is the raison d'être of therapy itself. Existential Counselling and Psychotherapy in Practice retains the structure adopted by Emmy van Deurzen in her earlier text: she sets out the basic assumptions which inform existential therapy in the first two chapters and goes on to consider these in greater depth in the next four chapters and a brief conclusion which, taken together, provide a framework for therapeutic practice which "aims at emphasizing a person's life rather than just the person".

It is, perhaps, a sign of the success of the original book in promoting our awareness of existential therapy that there is little need here to enumerate – as Steve Ticktin did for his 1991 review in this journal – the differences between this and more humanistic approaches, the role of anxiety in therapy, the four-worlds model, the central place of clarification, et… I could imagine the temptation to include more and more in the book, and I think we can be thankful that Emmy has retained her winning formula. Many of the changes are slight and serve to tidy up the existing text rather than introduce new material. An obvious exception is the inclusion of Chapter Summaries which usefully capture key elements of the preceding argument. There are also some additions to the Recommended Reading section, and a concomitantly expanded index.

While the overall shape is unchanged we find on close reading that where even small alterations and additions are to be found they serve to hone the argument, and the author's position emerges with greater precision as a result. To take two examples of such fine-tuning at random, Emmy highlights the value of the four-worlds model as a 'secure frame of reference' for the therapist who, as a consequence of working existentially, is drawn into a very personal relationship with clients, (Chapter Three); she is more specific about the notion of self as understood by existential therapists in contrast to other approaches, (Chapter Six). Such clarifications are peppered throughout the text. I would have liked to read more about the theoretical basis for these arguments, but such detours would in all probability sit uneasily in this practice-oriented text and can, in any case, be found in Everyday Mysteries.

Ticktin's 1991 remark that van Deurzen's "approach is so systematically and comprehensively articulated that it comes dangerously close to smacking of the very rationalism which existentialism (a misnomer at the best of times) was, in some sense, a reaction against" is probably as cogent now as it was then. I for one welcomed, and continue to appreciate, so clear and systematic an approach as, on the one hand, the product of a long and passionate engagement with existential thought, and, on the other, a solid step from which to kick off on my own journey into this complex, often confounding, field. Existential Counselling and Psychotherapy in Practice is bound to ensure that van Deurzen's practical wisdom continues to influence the future development of existential psychotherapy and counselling for many more years to come.

Simon du Plock