JOURNAL CRITIQUE 2

EXISTENTIALISM

ABSTRACT:

The existential approach to psychotherapy and counseling has its grounding in existential
philosophy and is concerned with human existence and how humans live and exist in the world.
Existential philosophy addresses questions we all ask ourselves. What does it mean to be alive?
Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the purpose of my existence? This  
differs from traditional  psychology which focuses on defining personality or explaining
behavior. Existential philosophy has identified common themes or issues that human beings
experience in their everyday lives. 
 
INTRODUCTION: 
Humanistic and existential approaches share a belief that people have the capacity for self-
awareness and choice. Existentialism is more about helping the client find philosophical meaning
in the face of anxiety by choosing to think and act authentically and responsibly. According to
existential therapy, the central problems people face are embedded in anxiety over loneliness,
isolation, despair, and, ultimately, death. Creativity, love, authenticity, and free will are
recognized as potential avenues toward transformation, enabling people to live meaningful lives
in the face of uncertainty and suffering. Everyone suffers losses (e.g., friends die, relationships
end), and these losses cause anxiety because they are reminders of human limitations and
inevitable death.
 
STRENGTHS:
 
The strength of the existential approach is that it focuses on the life issues that matter to the
clients like death, isolation, freedom, and emptiness that cause them to be bothered. They often
see life for what it is and they feel that life is unfair and they lost their meaning and purpose.
Using this approach, the therapist and client are involved in an open and frank conversation. It
also encourages the client to become independent and find solutions to their problems and helps
them to become independent during the healing and coping process. 
 
 
 
 
WEAKNESSES: 
 
The limitation of this approach is that when a client is uncooperative with the therapist. In some
situations, clients don’t involve their emotions during a conversation, this will lead to the closing
of a potential avenue of exploration because emotions can help the therapist identify what is their
problems and concern in life. Also, some clients want to have a directive approach or immediate
solutions to their life. They don’t want to assess their lives and question or analyze what they live
or their purpose and goals in life.
 
RECOMMENDATIONS: 
Existentialism is used for treating clients with anxiety, depression, loneliness, and isolation. This
approach will work best if combined with a different approach such 
Humanistic therapy is somehow related to existentialism. It focuses on free will, human
potential, and self-discovery. It also aims to help the client to develop a strong and healthy sense
of self, explore feelings and emotions, find meaning, and focus on strengths.
 
 
INSIGHTS: 
 
The existential approach focuses on providing positive view about death and provides
understanding of anxiety, guilt, frustration, loneliness, and alienation. Using the existentialism
approach of counseling it helps us to understand that we can all resolve our own problems and all
person have the capacity for self-awareness, that we must continually rebuild ourselves and we
need to continue to find meaning because everyday, our life is constantly changing. It also
emphasized that anxiety is part of our life and death is a human condition that gives significance
to our life.
 

REFERENCES:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
291763627_Existential_psychotherapy_Philosophy_and_practice
Terao T and Satoh M ( 2022) The Present State of Existential Interventions Within Palliative
Care. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.811612
Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. Brief Interventions and Brief Therapies for Substance
Abuse. Rockville (MD): Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US);
1999. (Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series, No. 34.) Chapter 6 --Brief Humanistic and
Existential Therapies. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64939/

JOURNAL CRITIQUE 3
GESTALT THEORY 
 
ABSTRACT:
Gestalt therapy is a therapeutic approach used by many groups. Quite often, qualitative and
quantitative research for Gestalt has focused on adult populations. This literature review has
explored research on the benefits of a Gestalt approach with children and adolescents. Gestalt
research has benefited children and adolescents in the following areas: emotional self-expression,
conflict resolution, contact with therapists, well-being, self-esteem, communication skills,
decreased depression, child anxiety, parent anxiety, and trauma symptoms. The findings suggest
that evidence of effective Gestalt interventions with children and adolescents is still developing.
Eight studies after the year 2000 have reported effectiveness with this population. Implications
for Gestalt practice and research with children and adolescents are explored.
INTRODUCTION: 
Gestalt Therapy is one of the humanist and existential therapy approaches and was developed by
Fritz Perls, Laura Perls, and Paul Goodman. In this unique approach, the primary focus is
awareness. Gestalt Therapy suggests change can take place by improving people’s awareness. It
sees human nature as such a positive organism and it believes in the creative potential of human
beings. The main focus of Gestalt Therapy is to raise human beings’ awareness and
fragmentation to integrity. Gestalt Therapy aims not to analyze humans, but it targets awareness,
integrity, and contact with the environment. In sum, Gestalt Therapy is a great harmony of body,
mind, and soul. Gestalt Therapy is such an experimental approach that encourages exploring and
living, it is based on experience and it is a lively approach. It emphasizes the importance of
contact with the environment.
STRENGTHS: 
The strength of this approach is that a client can confidently share and express his or her
experiences without the fear of judgment. Using this approach, a client is just simply asked to
talk about his or her experiences and the emotions she or he had with that experiences. Using that
approach, the therapist encourages the client to be responsible, such as instead of blaming others.
If he/she didn't do that I wouldn't get so mad!" a client might be encouraged to say, "I feel mad
when he does that because it makes me feel insignificant and I don't like that.” 
Empty chairs, role-play, and creative arts such as painting sculpting, and drawing can be used to
gain personal awareness. 
 
WEAKNESSES: 
This approach requires the therapist to be knowledgeable and have a high degree when it comes
to personal development. It only focuses on the present and here-and-now approach. It doesn’t
consider diagnostic and testing which can be used by the therapist to help the client. 
RECOMMENDATION: 
Gestalt Therapy should not focus only on the present because it can be a limitation in solving the
client’s problem. Past experiences can be used to connect with the present and can understand
the situation or the problem of the client.
 
INSIGHTS:
Gestalt therapy is used by the therapist to help the client improved their self-awareness and their
contact with their environment. It focuses more on living in the present and not bringing back
past experiences. It adopts the “here and now” approach that focuses on the present moment by
staying in the present and focusing on the relationships and interactions established by the
existing people. Awareness is the sense of what a person spontaneously does, what he feels, what
he thinks, and what he experiences. Developing self-awareness can be achieved through the help
of contact with the environment and nature which will lead to personal growth and maturation.
Gestalt therapy helps the client with anxiety, depression, stress, and addiction.
 
REFERENCES:
Öztürk, A. G. (2019). Gestalt Group Practice for Increasing Awareness of University Students .
International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies , 6 (3) , 1-8 . DOI:
10.17220/ijpes.2019.03.001
Theodore Stripling; Gestalt Interventions Benefitting Children and Adolescents: A Literature
Review. Gestalt Review 1 November 2021; 25 (2): 197–220.
doi: https://doi.org/10.5325/gestaltreview.25.2.0197

JOURNAL CRITIQUE 4
GESTALT THEORY 
 
ABSTRACT: 
Psychoanalytic theory is past-oriented, based on a disease model of pathology, and focuses on
the deficits of a person as a result of the influence of past early childhood experiences on current
functioning. In essence, psychoanalytic therapy is a reconstruction of a client's past in the context
of adult analysis. Psychoanalytic theory and therapy were developed by Sigmund Freud in the
late 19th century and have undergone many refinements since his work, coming to its height of
prominence in the 1960s. Although its validity is now largely disputed and criticized, his
examination of the development aspects of the personality produced valuable insights into the
personality structure and how defense mechanisms are employed to balance the id and superego
with the perceived construct of reality, whereby a healthy state of consciousness is maintained.
INTRODUCTION:
Psychoanalytic therapy is one of the most well-known recovery approaches, but it's still one of
the most overlooked by mental health patients. The aim of this therapy is for patients to gain a
greater understanding of the unconscious forces that may be at work in their current attitudes,
feelings, and emotions. This method of therapy is based on the ideas of Sigmund Freud, the
founder of the psychoanalytic school of thought. The unconscious, according to Freud, is a
repository of desires, emotions, and memories that exist under the surface of conscious
consciousness. He concluded that unconscious forces were often responsible for psychological
distress and disruptions.
STRENGTHS: 
This approach helps the client to eliminate emotional discomfort by helping the client to
understand their problems through the expression of feelings and providing new ways and ideas
on how to solve their problems and new ways of thinking and behavior. Using this approach, it
can help the client to be truly himself. A client can say something that comes into his head, even
something that is unpleasant, embarrassing, or painful. Emotions are also important as the client
expresses his or her experiences. This helps to understand even the deepest unconscious
experiences of the patient and interpret them, that is, transform the unconscious into the
conscious.

 
WEAKNESSES:
Psychoanalytic therapy is a long journey. It involves reaching back or reminiscing past
experiences from childhood up to the present that may not be suitable or effective for resistant
and younger clients, and those patients with severe psychopathology. It also requires ongoing
sessions that can last for several years. It is also an intense process that involves emotional
responses from the client that can cause them to feel uneasy and bothered. 
 
RECOMMENDATION: 
This approach can last up to several years. Some clients may not finish the process and somehow
some other clients need immediate actions for their problems. I think, in recovering past
experiences, consider only the important experiences that happened in the past so it will not take
too long and the client can finish the session. 
INSIGHTS: 
Psychoanalytic therapy used the past experiences of the client and relate them to the present
experiences. This approach can help people with depression, emotional struggles, emotional
trauma, feelings of low self-worth, neurotic behavior patterns, self-destructive behavior patterns,
personality disorders, problems with identity, ongoing relationship difficulties, and sexuality.
According to this approach, an individual made unconscious decisions based on the client’s
childhood experience. Psychoanalysis as a therapeutic procedure is precisely aimed at the
patient’s awareness of his unconscious conflicts, including the earliest ones. The psychoanalytic
approach helps people explore their past and understand how it affects their present
psychological difficulties. It can help patients shed the bonds of experience to live more fully in
the present.
 
REFERENCES:
PsychologyWriting. (2022, December 1). Psychoanalytic and Cognitive Behavioral
Approach in Counseling and Psychotherapy. Retrieved from
https://psychologywriting.com/psychoanalytic-and-cognitive-behavioral-approach-
in-counseling-and-psychotherapy/

Seren Shah. Psychoanalytic Therapy: Process and Benefits. Clin Exp Psychol, 2021, 7 (4), 01.
https://www.iomcworld.org/open-access/psychoanalytic-therapy-process-and-benefits.pdf

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/therapy-types/psychoanalytic-therapy

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
358090684_PSYCHOANALYTIC_PSYCHOTHERAPY_Psychoanalytic_theory
PSYCHOANALYTIC

This form of therapy tends to require ongoing sessions. Traditional psychoanalysis could involve
three to five sessions a week for several years, however psychoanalysis psychotherapy is less
frequent and may be undertaken once to twice a week. Depending on how long your therapy
lasts, the costs can mount up.

Psychoanalytic therapy can also be an intense process. It involves evoking emotional responses
and often challenges established defense mechanisms. While the process can sometimes result in
uneasiness, it can also help you understand the unconscious forces that exert an influence over
your current behavior.

Gestalt therapy is a form of psychotheray that focuses on a person's present life rather than
delving into their past experiences. This form of therapy stresses the importance of
understanding the context of a person’s life when considering the challenges, they face. It also
involves taking responsibility rather than placing blame.

Gestalt therapy is a comprehensive therapeutic method that gives long-lasting benefits to an

 Increased self-awareness
 Improved self-confidence 
 Ability to make peace with the past, and an improved sense of acceptance
 Increased ability to deal and cope with stressful situations
 Being more responsible, improved ability to own up for mistakes and behaviors without
placing blames

The only limitation of gestalt therapy is that it may not help with the psychological effects of
hereditary behaviors. Neither does it help with psychological factors that are not influenced by an
individual's thoughts. However, it is an effective therapeutic treatment option for several addiction
problems and mental health conditions.
The existential approach to therapy emphasizes the following six propositions:
1. All persons have the capacity for self-awareness.
2. As free beings, everyone must accept the responsibility that comes with freedom.
3. Each person has a unique identity that can only be known through relationships with
others.
4. Each person must continually recreate himself. The meaning of life and of existence is
never fixed; rather, it constantly changes.
5. Anxiety is part of the human condition.
6. Death is a basic human condition that gives significance to life.
The core question addressed in existential therapy is "How do I exist?" in the face of uncertainty,
conflict, or death. An individual achieves authenticity through courage and is thus able to define
and discover his own meaning in the present and the future. There are important choices to be
made (e.g., to have true freedom and to take responsibility for one's life, one must face
uncertainty and give up a false sense of security).
A core characteristic of the existential view is that an individual is a "being in the world" who
has biological, social, and psychological needs. Being in the world involves the physical world,
the world of relationships with others, and one's own relationship to self (May and Yalom, 1995,
p. 265). The "authentic" individual values symbolization, imagination, and judgment and is able
to use these tools to continually create personal meaning.
Existential therapy focuses on specific concerns rooted in the individual's existence. The
contemporary existential psychotherapist, Irvin Yalom, identifies these concerns as death,
isolation, freedom, and emptiness. Existential therapy focuses on the anxiety that occurs when a
client confronts the conflict inherent in life. The role of the therapist is to help the client focus on
personal responsibility for making decisions, and the therapist may integrate some humanistic
approaches and techniques. Yalom, for example, perceives the therapist as a "fellow traveler"
through life, and he uses empathy and support to elicit insight and choices. He strongly believes
that because people exist in the presence of others, the relational context of group therapy is an
effective approach (Yalom, 1980).