Experience more joy and meaning with existential therapy
PRAGMATIC Primarily concerned with the 'present' and 'future'. Based on psychology and philosophy.
CLARITY Explores and pieces together how you live your life in your context.
BECOME YOURSELF Your values, attitudes and strengths. Your purpose in life. Accepting or making choices.
COMPETENCY GAIN Existential therapy trains your ability to be in touch with yourself, making you better at living your life.
With existential therapy I offer
Not advising, but therapy
With me, everything can be as it is. You decide what you want to do with yourself. I help you explore and discover so you can see new perspectives and opportunities. We look at what you have learned from life and how it lives with you in the present. I'm interested in what you're interested in but will also share with you what I experience while we talk.
For all adults aged 18 years and older
We look at your mental health together. You don't need to have a complete problem formulation to benefit from existential therapy.
Not problem solving, but life lessons
I'm interested in you discovering ways of being in life so that you can go out into life with more wisdom and look at it from a new perspective.
Not diagnosis oriented, but mental health
Together, we take your mental health as our starting point. We won't focus on a diagnosis, but on how you live your life, whether you have a diagnosis or not. Your mental health helps you navigate the ups and downs of life. I'm particularly familiar with ADD, ADHD, Asperger's and HSP.
Prevention
Talk therapy can prevent poor mental health. For example, when you are facing big changes in your life such as a move, education, children, bereavement or a new job.
The mind and body
The body and the mind are connected and I will therefore sometimes ask you what you sense in your body when we talk about different topics. The bodily sensations are important signals to you about how you feel and how your nervous system reacts.
FAQs
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I focus on increasing your mental health by helping you gain clarity, examine your situation and learn together how to make healthy choices. This approach is applicable to all challenges. I help you increase your mental health, whether you already have a diagnosis or not.
Examples of topics: relationships with family/colleagues/leaders/friends/spouses, anxiety, career, meaningfulness, self-esteem, sadness, emptiness, identity, loneliness, giving up, past experiences that live in you, lack of commitment, uncertainty, dilemma clarification, unclear personal values and strengths.
With existential therapy, I do not diagnose or prescribe medication, but if this is relevant, I would recommend you to go to other health professionals.
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It is an approach to therapy that focuses on exploring how you can live your life in a way that is compatible with what you have learned about life, your emotional learning, your values, etc. This means that I will not tell you how to live your life or lecture you on different psychological models. Instead, I want to discover together with you how it is good for you to live your life. This is a gentle, exploratory therapy where you are Sherlock Holmes (you have the answers) and I am Watson (helping you illuminate new aspects and opening up).
You can read about different types of therapy on the Danish Psychotherapy Association's website, including existential therapy.
Therapy directions are becoming more and more similar these years as research progresses, so you may find that some descriptions are a bit caricatured.
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Danish and English. As my supervision is conducted in Danish, I offer relatively few sessions in English. Find these under the menu item Book an appointment.
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Yes, existential therapy is a very gentle and exploratory therapy that only uses psychological models as inspiration, as every person is unique. We need to explore how life is good for you, not for the average person.
Existential therapy is for everyone - it's about mental health
Do you feel stuck? Stressed out? Is life meaningless or chaotic? Do you have anxiety? Are you sad? Do you have low self-esteem? Are you wondering about something in your life?
You are alone in experiencing your problems. In our therapy sessions, we experience what you are experiencing together. I help you to be with what feels difficult so that you have the opportunity to discover an easier way to be with the difficult. You may find that you can accept what is difficult and reconnect to your life energy and commitment.
As a psychotherapy student in existential therapy, I learn how to help you explore and experience how you live your life, focusing on specific issues and how it is good to be you. We will work with a specific topic in each session based on how you are feeling. With me, you are exactly as you should be. Together we face reality as it is for you. We might explore what you have learned from the past and how it is reflected in the way you live in the present. We can also explore how the present colors your future in terms of e.g. your courage, hopes and plans. You become clear to yourself and have the opportunity to discover where you feel stuck, your options and your responsibilities.
While we work, the body is an important source of information to understand how you feel and how it is good for you to live. I will often ask you how you feel in your body during the session.
Overall, with existential therapy, I strive to promote your ability to move smoothly through life's ups and downs in a way that best strengthens you through your experiences. Mental health is about
insights into what makes it good to be you,
a hope or belief in a good future,
a willingness and power to take responsibility for your own health.
How do I look after you in existential therapy?
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My contribution to the conversation is to benefit you in a way that improves your mental health. We deal with exactly what is good for you to talk about. You decide the topic of the conversation. Likewise, you know what's good for you and you choose how you want to live your life. I help you discover how it is good to be you by gently laying out what I discover in our conversation based on my education. When I challenge you, it's to help you discover something new that you don't see right now. I have co-responsibility for what you discover during the conversation and strive to move you towards greater mental health.
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The therapy focuses on the present and the future. We will sometimes briefly visit something that happened in the past, but the focus will be on discovering how the past is expressed in the present and perhaps how it affects your future. In this way, re-traumatization is avoided.
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The therapy is based on reflection in a conversation. To ensure that I can benefit you with my current level of training, I do not have sessions with heavy psychiatric issues, children, couples or groups.
I focus on complying with the ethics described in the Danish Psychotherapist Association's Code of Ethics
After the conversation, I reflect on my contribution and the ethics. I can also get sparring and advice as needed from my trainers on how I can better help you with existential therapy.
Existential therapy empowers you to live your life better
"What shall we do with the lives we have? Born out of nothingness, on the road to extinction. How can we give meaning to these fragile, fleeting moments of existence that we have been given?"
Emmy van Deurzen, 2019, teacher of existential therapy