According to experts, the best way to resolve most mental health issues is through therapy – which opens doors for identifying and changing thinking and behaviour patterns that are unhealthy or ineffective, replacing them with more accurate thoughts and functional behaviors.

Among most therapies is existential therapy – a form of psychotherapy that uses theories and practices of philosophy to address the challenges related to being human. Experts say existential therapy identifies ways you can understand your true beliefs and what gives your life meaning and purpose. While other forms of therapy, like cognitive behavioural therapy, focus on your past experiences which may influence your present and future actions, existential therapy focuses on how you influence your experiences.

Being a centuries-old philosophy, existential theory helps you embrace personal freedom and choice with the sole purpose of humans choosing their way of life. Among the first propagators of this theory was European philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, along with Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre who followed him and further developed the ideas.

These philosophers believed that self-awareness and self-respect were the only ways to know your identity and strived for personal evolution to become a happy and free individual. Modern-day existential therapy deals with four important issues:

• Death
• Meaninglessness
• Isolation
• Freedom or a responsibility to make the best choices

Existential therapy is designed to help people overcome these essential issues with specific directions, goals, and tools.

According to experts, it helps you understand how your decisions can lead to outcomes and so can maneuver you to make better personal choices that are meaningful and necessary for your mental health. Existential therapy is beneficial for people who experience:

• Substance use disorder
• Alcohol addiction
• Substance or behavioural addiction
• Anxiety
• Fear of the unknown
• Depression
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Lack of confidence
• A chronic physical condition or mental health condition

How does existential therapy work?

According to therapists who practice existential therapy, you need to make informed choices and plans with an eye toward future outcomes and not what happened in the past. Existential therapists also believe the past can be instructive and stop you from making tough decisions in the future.

And so, therapists urge patients to use creativity, love, and other life-enhancing experiences to help them make decisions and determine their behaviors for the future. In this process, a therapist hopes to help their patient learn to think and act without concern for anxiety or fear of messing up one’s life. Ultimately, the goal of existential therapy is to help people find meaning despite the natural worries and fears of the four givens.