I think the most profound information from this video is the client revaluating his life. He's like you know, "I spent my entire life working towards certain gains, and in just one moment, none of the things I have acquired mattered to me." The counselor took that grief and flipped it shining light on his own revelation, and asked "so what things do you value now? What is important?" The client had the opportunity to appreciate a new way of living with a new found importance.
Jasmira, I do agree with your comment. The video is an eye-opener for those who spend their entire life worried about their future and the things and people that matter to them, failing to know that their existence is not determinant on those things.
As I’m watching this roleplay, you can see and hear the fear and stress in the client's face and in his voice. Dr. Grande is expressing an imperative use of basic listening skills and empathy especially while the client is speaking on such a sensitive topic. This is imperative in the use of every technique and session, but especially in Existential Therapy as clients will be speaking about extremely sensitive topics such as a near-death experience. In this case, Dr. Grande used a lot of reflection and paraphrasing to help the client come to his “epiphany” moment, where he truly began to realize that he needs to take a step back from his work at times and spend some time with loved ones while he. I really appreciated watching this because it showed how the therapist can focus on the here and now in retrospect to something as life-altering as a near-death experience.
I appreciate the sense of being in "the here and now" that the client and therapist depict throughout this session. It was educational hearing the therapist refrain from attempting to find an answer or solution for how the client was feeling but simply allowed him the opportunity to talk about what he had been through. The therapist remained completely present with the client and was warm and empathic and simply existed with him in the present moment.
I like how Dr. Grande ended the session by asking the client to reflect on his previous mindset and recognizing his growth. The client turned a bad experience into a life changing experience all around. He is now doing things that are creating a more meaningful life for him.
This theory was difficult to say exactly how it was used but I noticed there was more paraphrasing of the clients reflections and feelings. Helping the client put his experience into practice and helping the client identify this new meaning about his own life's values and priorities played a large role in his session. In summarizing Dr. Grande helped the client to reaffirm these changes in his thinking and how he is beginning to channel this experience. He discussed the new and old version of the client and had him reflect on those changes to begin processing this experience further and find ways to grow through this experience.
The theme of this session appeared to be the clients values. I thought it was a nice to have the client acknowledge and explore their values before and after their traumatic event. The client appeared to have done a lot of thinking and was encouraged to keep thinking about their values in between sessions.
This video really helped me understand this type of therapy. I felt that the client was able to benefit from the session. The client was able to discuss the issues of end of life. The therapist provided lots of detail in this session.
Having learned about Existential Therapy, I find that I can truly resonate with the concept and practice. Having experienced my own form of existential crisis, causing me to reevaluate my life purpose and direction, I find that I implemented many of the techniques used within the theory. After watching Dr. Grande’s demonstration of Existential Therapy, I find as though it can be beneficial for numerous individuals by allowing them to determine their beliefs, goals, purpose, and meaning in life, while providing new perspective. Overall, I appreciated how Dr. Grande allowed the client to view is near death experience in a more positive light, having the client consider how he can learn from the experience and what he can take away from it. Additionally, I appreciated how Dr. Grande introduced the idea of living in two separate worlds - that of material, and that of people - I find as though this idea helps the client to put things into perspective and determine what he truly values. I find that - no matter the circumstance - the methods of Existential Therapy may be beneficial in order to allow individuals to become more centered and refocus on their goals, purpose, and values, especially when interacting in a society where it is easy to loose touch with ourselves, through social media, societal expectations etc.
I think that this a great approach. This role play really showed how this theory can help those who have had a traumatic or high stress experience. It helped the client to see his situation differently and be more positive.
Dr. Grande. I found that when looking at existential therapy and comparing it to person-centered therapy, you had great basic listening skills that allowed for the client to be open and truthful about his near death experience. Throughout your session, you summarized carefully which in return made the client comfortable because you truly heard him while he was expressing his feelings, thoughts and emotions. I did enjoy the questions you asked, that lead to the clients reflection such as, " The way you relate to the world, do you have a new perspective?" and "What do you think is valuable now." By asking minimal questions, allowed the client was able to express his new out look on life which resulted in not taking things for granted.
Dr. Grande did a wonderful job at paraphrase the clients emotions, which lead to the clients ability to recognize his strengths and the positives that he has gained from his near death experience. Dr. Grande empathized with the clients emotions and reflected the clients new outlook on life was a new beginning for him to experience life in a different way than he had prior to this experience.
I think this was a great example of existential therapy. The client had a near death experience so now he's starting to question his life. Dr. Grande does a great job getting the client to focus on the here and now as well as asking him about his values. By summarizing what the client has already stated he has encouraged him to think about his values and goals as they were prior to this experience and how they appear now that he has been through this. I think this was a great demonstration of this therapy.
Thank you Dr.Grande for sharing the existential therapy experience. The client's close call to death helped shift his perspective on life and what is of value to him. He mentioned that he would buy things and work as much as possible to continue to buy things and as soon as he was faced with death he became aware that material things no longer mattered to him. Through working with you and this process the client gained insight. He began to reflect on all of the time he could have spent with his family and not working. He mentioned feeling invincible which perhaps indicated he wasn't being his authentic self and an avoidance of death. What was also interesting was how you pointed out that the client wants to feel as though he has lived the way he wanted too without regrets. This process also appeared to be conversational, which was significant in identifying how important the relationship is between the therapist and client.
This type of therapy is definitely great for a near death experience because life and death play a large part in existentialism. It was nice that Dr. Grande was bringing the client's attention to the positives that came from the fire as well as leading him to focus on the meaning of his life and what is important to him for his life. Focusing on how the client can now live a more fulfilling life after this experience was very powerful to watch because it was turning a traumatic event in his life into something positive by acknowledging the changes he has made in order to cater to his values and fulfilling his meaning of life.
Nice example! I can't help but think it would never be this easy though in reality lol. This lad pretty much sorted through his own dilemmas independently. Helpful example of existential nonetheless :)
Reading about existential therapy is different than getting to see it in action and it is really beneficial to see how it can be utilized in a session. This role play helped me to see how person-centered therapy can integrate existential therapy and why it is common for counselors to integrate these two theories. You can see Dr. Grande listening, attending, reflecting, and getting to the core of what is important and helping the client to come to this realization of their own value and worth.
I like how Dr. Grande hit upon the positive outcome from this near-death experience, where the client has begun to reflect on the importance of finding meaning through other avenues besides work, such as friends and loved ones. An event like this could have the potential to cause a lot of existential despair over how close the client came towards death, but by identifying the "new perspective" the client has found, later sessions can help the client identify how to live best as their authentic self.
I felt that this was an interesting role-play. This life-threatening situation is very scary. I like that the therapist heard what the client had to say. Then they came up with a solution moving forward. I liked that the therapist said, “What is valuable now?” The client identified that eating lunch with his friends was valuable and the therapist pointed out that he is not “living life more the way you want”. I felt that this video was very helpful for understanding this theory.
I enjoyed being able to see how to use Existential therapy in a counseling setting. This is a very hard theory to understand and this video helped me understand it a little better. Dr. Grande did a great job paraphrasing and clarifying when the client presented a lot of information at once. The one thing that really stuck out to me was when the client said, "I value people over objects". With the help of the therapist, the client was able to reevaluate his life and what his priorities were.
This was a good role play of what existential therapy is like. The client was able to discuss his experience and the therapist kept up with him by providing effective reflections and paraphrases. The therapist also focused on the change in thoughts and feelings from the client working a lot to pay for materials and after the fire how his mindset went from that to being more focused on the relationships and interactions with others. One goal of existential therapy is to become aware of the self and find the meaning of ones life. The therapist was able to get the client to pull out more info on why he feels the way he does now as opposed to before. He also was able to have the client continue to reflect on that in order to really finalize his thoughts regarding this new thought process. This was a good example.
This role play did a great job of putting on display how a near death experience can give someone a new gained awareness. Before the client experienced an apartment fire he didn't think much about anything but work and making money. After his fear invoking experience he realized that money and the objects he owned meant nothing to him. He gained a new perspective of his life, realizing that his relationships with others was more meaningful than getting 40+ hours of work in. With this new perspective the client has begun to live life and enjoy it more by simply finding greater meaning in his life.
In this therapy, I realized that the therapist does a lot of talking. This video clip helps in making people appreciate life's experiences and value those things you take for granted because life is finite. This situation here is really frightening.
I can appreciate what existential therapy can do for a client especially when something such as a near death experience will have you pondering on this such as the meaning of life. However, the counselor walks with the client in his journey as he recognizes the difference in things he used to care for (objects) versus what matters now (relationship) and how that can be a good thing. While the client regretted not having relationship as his focus before there can be joy found in realizing that relationship is important to him now and how he can build upon that.
This was an interesting video where we got to see Dr. Grande help a client work through a tough experience they had. Dr. Grande did a great job of using active listening skills while the client was describing what happened to him. You can sense some of the emotions the client is feeling in the way he talks and acts, in which I think the client did such a great job at doing. Helping the client process something that was difficult for them can be intimidating but I am excited to learn more about this awesome tool.
The depth of Existential therapy is experienced in this session through authenticity. In this case, the client reflects on the meaning of life through his experienced crisis directly. Dr. Grande stays with the theme of death and finding the meaning of life. The client is able to express his new perspective of life in finding value in relationship versus objects. He is less self-involved and more aware of his mortality invoking a greater experience of "being". I also noticed Dr. Grande's use of the basic listening sequence to gain an understanding of the client's experience and to show genuine empathy. Essentially Dr. Grande stayed in the moment with the client and encouraged him to talk his way through it as a way to bring his thoughts and feelings into his reality and then to find a way to balance his old perspective with his new.
I like how this technique helps the client to look at their situation differently. All the things that are taken for granted, and what is more important in life.
This session is interesting to watch how the focus is not so much on emotions or affect as personal perspective. Because of this traumatic event the client examines the meaning of life and his values. Forced to ponder death and his existence in the world, he gains insight that he was not living fully. The counselor helps him reframe the event from a tragic and frightening experience to appreciation for life and relationships. The event changed his actions as well as his perspective; choosing to live in the moment brought present freedom and happiness. He feels "vibrant" and like a new person, yet in the same environment.
This non-directive approach was very interesting. Dr. Grande's use of the five stages of a counseling session (relationship, story and strengths, goals, restory and action) was very effective. From the beginning, Dr. Grande established relationship through his statements of genuine empathy and a need to understand the clients scary experience. The clients story uncovered the clients superficial concerns with possessions versus more important things in his life like his family. Also through this dialog, Dr. Grande led the client to the realization of his strengths, new found values, perspectives, changes in his life, and what it meant to exists. Goal setting allowed the client to move forward with new insight and awareness. Dr. Grande also gave homework (action) by having the client reflect on getting a better understanding of his self and his values as opposed to his former life thoughts.
This was very interesting for me to watch because I have such a fear of death. I have often heard of "near death experiences" from people who have had them and have seen the changes they have made because of it. I think Existential Therapy is a great way to explore this further with clients because of the emphasis it has on making sense of the human existence by asking questions such as why am I here and what is my life's purpose? Having a near death experience may help to clarify them.
This existential role play greatly helped me to understand existential therapy in action. First and foremost, the counselor's ability to keep up with the client's story, all the while summarizing and paraphrasing, is paramount. It would be very difficult to seek out existential themes without doing this diligently. Also it is clear that as a result of the fire and near death experience, the client has experienced a boundary situation. As Sharf (2016) states, "the individual must live in the present and become more aware of oneself and one's situation. The boundary situation provides deep meaning for the individual" (p. 175). This was clearly the case in this role play as the client changed his values from valuing objects more than people/relationships before the near death experience to valuing people/relationships more than anything after the experience. The client is able to experience life with more freedom and meaning as a result of his experience in the fire. The counselor does a great job at the end of asking the client to reflect over the next week on how the client's values have changed from then to now so as to help the client better understand their beliefs/values, have confidence in them, and help them realize the full capability of their being.
I enjoyed seeing this approach implemented. I could see this approach being very helpful to individuals that are in high stress situations with either work, family responsibilities, school, etc. It serves as a way to make them pause, look back at how they are living their life, and allowing themselves to slow down. This client was able to take a very scary situation and use it to see how much he was neglecting that things that were of value to him. He is now taking the time to slow down and live his life in a way that feels fulfilling to him.
Absolutely Melissa. While the near death experience itself is scary and traumatic, it is often compounded by so many other fears and thoughts. Often the individual ends up spending a lot of time reflecting on their life and what they need to do to get their lives in order in the event of their death or in fact what they wish they could do differently on a regular basis. For some, it will give a new appreciation for life.
In this roleplay, Dr. Grande seemed very authentic. His client shared a near-death experience that changed his view of the world. Before this tragic experience, he valued objects over intimacy and quality time spent with loved ones. His life now had a new meaning. Dr. Grande acknowledged the way his client seemed to reflect and compare his past life to his present. Walks and conversations over lunch became more appealing, or more valuable, than money, new cars, and several other objects. I enjoyed watching this roleplay and how Dr. Grande allowed the client to make connections while openly expressing his fears and thoughts about death. He was very supportive.
I think this therapy allowed the client to express his change in values in a safe environment. I also think that Dr. Grande's paraphrasing and summarizing was helpful for the client to realize his values have changed due to his near death experience.
i find this type of therapy especially interesting as i am always questioning things about life. I can relate to some of the feelings of the client in this video and some of his thoughts. It is unfortunate that in order for people to perceive the world differently, they need to go through a near death experience. However, i think the therapist did a great job processing through these feelings and thoughts with the client and helped them to see the experience in a positive way as well. Also, the client was insightful which is impressive in my opinion.
I can identify how a "near death experience," can inspire a person to begin to appreciate the important things in life, rather than materialistic things. Victor Frankl discussed to find meaning in suffering. This video displays how an individual begins to appreciate his family and relationships after the fire. Specifically the client reported after the experience he is able to reconsider his interaction with others.
Kristie Watunya The part of the role play where the client explains how the near death experience has caused him to put thought behind his day to day actions. I can relate to that awakening also. Of all of the positive changes he chooses to implement, becoming more thoughtful is one of the best. His quality of life can only improve with positive intention and gratitude. He seems to be grateful for the non-material sources of comfort in his life.
I really enjoy existential therapy because of the powerful self-awareness and understanding it can create within a client. It is observable in this role-play the change the client encountered within himself and his outlook on life, death, and freedom after having a near death experience. His outlook on life shifted from overworking himself to make money and possess material things to really appreciating the relationships he has, what they mean, and how to enhance them. The client emphasized early in the session that everyone was alright numerous times despite the apartment fire, making it evident that he is true to his change in feelings about life. Dr. Grande was empathic with the client, understanding, accurately reflected feelings, and appropriately coordinated open-ended questions to probe consciously aware feelings from the client. He was in the "here-and-now" with the client and assisted the client in understanding how to take a near death experience and channel it into a positive outlet.
In this role-play I feel that the therapist is providing a lot of feedback and talking. I do enjoy the person-centered techniques are very helpful for the client. I did feel that the client was able to process the feelings of a near death experience.
It was clear that the client felt comfortable with the counselor. The client was open about his fear of death or fear and the counselor did an excellent job with working to understand the clients experience. I felt as if the client was displaying existential anxiety appropriate to the situation that he recently experienced.
I think that existential therapy is important because as I watched this role play I saw a client discussing a sensitive topic (life & death) and having a professional who can assist with guidance responsibly is key. The client’s experience brought on the need to face his thoughts about the possibility of death, but it is not a topic that is foreign to anyone. A counseling session seems like the best place to explore the fears or intrusive thoughts in a judgement free space. The client can be honest with the counselor even if he doesn’t feel that he can be with the people in his life. These are emotionally charged topics and they can be difficult to talk about for some.
The counselor worked to use basic skills such as reflecting affect, paraphrasing, summarizing, and focusing on the client to bring about more client perspective from the detailed content of his story. The client was able to focus more so on the here and now indicating that following his near death experience the importance of the "who rather than the what" is something that he greatly values. This has worked to shape how he now lives his life day to day and his newly realized values have been brought into awareness.
The client seemed to have had a very profound spiritual awakening provoked by his near death experience. This has allowed for the perspective he needed to make better and more significant life choices. Interesting!
Existentially this client was lucky to have this near death experience. Most people go through life without having such an impactful experience. As a therapist, I think I would focus on how the client plans on using this experience to change his patterns. What was the impact on his way of being in the world? How does he plan to move forward? This is exactly what Dr. Grande did. I liked that he suggested that the client think about it and how it will continue to influence his life. This is a good example of existential therapy, whereas most people would simply put it in the past, the therapist will continue to draw on the experience to move the client forward to creating the life that he wants.
With Existential Therapy and a near death experience, we can see how effective and important it is to truly master and apply basic listening responses. Dr. Grande was effective in understanding and helping the client feel understood by utilizing summarization, reflection of feelings, and interpretation. Dr. Grande was present and there with the client. His presence was empathetic, especially with such an experience that the client had. Dr. Grande's use of interpretation and reflection helped the client see how he lives and views his life when compared prior to the fire. The client was able to see the quality of life he is living and how he hopes to improve it.
In this scenario with the client having faced a near death experience, it is clear that his emotional state of being had been altered by the events described. Existential therapy played a part in the counseling process by emphasizing the clients new found inner conflicts in comparison with his new outlook and past and present associations with life. The counselor does a good job at bringing awareness to this matter in relation to the clients values.
I saw a calmness as the client searched to find his words for how he was feeling, defined his discord from the "before" and the "after". The therapist reflected mostly and normalized the client which continued to facilitate the trust and genuineness between the 2 of them. I liked how they wrapped up by suggesting further reflection before they continue a discussion at the next session. This client was well spoken and in tune to his emotions about the situation. I wonder how it might look with a client who had not yet come to that stage of recovery.
As existential therapy focuses on themes in an individual's life; specifically that of life and death, it is clear to see the association between the topic of the conversation, the apartment fire, and the subsequent revelation of deeper meaning in the client's life. It is clear that Dr. Grande skillfully affirmed the client's exploration of regrets and reappraisal of values in life, enabling the client to pull specific situations and behaviors which could be changed to provide more meaning and happiness for the client.
Thank you so much for the clarity you provided on such a philosophical-based theory. I will be showing this to my students tonight so that they will get a more concrete example of how to put existentialism into practice. Thanks for all the videos!
The client in this video had a near death experience that allowed him to reevaluate his perspective on life. With this experience the client realized that spending time with family and friends is more meaningful then attaining things. Dr. Grande gave him homework to reflect on his new perspective in life. Sounds like the client has found purpose in life and is willing to work towards it.
This video really hit home. I think it opened my eyes a little more. At times, I tend to worry so much about the future or materialistic things. A near death experience can open someone’s eyes that it anytime we can really go. We are only here for a little time. I could relate to the client when he said he felt like prior to his near death experience he thought he was invincible. He knew that eventually he was going to die but did not think that it could happen so soon. I could relate because prior to losing Cpl. Ballard at work, I never thought, I never thought “this could be me.” I began to take life for granted. The people around me I took for granted. If someone called me and I didn’t answer, I may not of called them back right away. If my parents told me to go visit my grandparents and I didn’t, I took them for granted thinking that they would always be there until I lost them. Losing a close friend and a coworker showed me that I need to slow down, think about life, and spend time with those who truly matter. Materialistic things will always be there but your family and friends will not. Dr. Grande uses a good way to describe it. He discusses objects versus people. He explains that the clients now looks at life about spending time with people rather than objects. In the end Dr. Grande asked what could he take away from this experience? I again could relate because the client discussed how normally he would work through his lunch break and longer hours therefore hoping that his boss would like him and try to please everyone. Are used to do the same exact thing and I began to become burned out and I realize that I was not doing the things that I wanted to do for myself. Now I live for myself and do the things that I want for myself because I have experienced a near death and it showed me that at any time I could go. I used to do the same exact thing and I began to become burned out and I realize that I was not doing the things that I wanted to do for myself. Now I live for myself and do the things that I want for myself because I have experienced a near death and it showed me that at any time I could go.
Demi Moore I also related so much to the client about taking what truly matters to me for granted in order to please everyone and value material things. I believe this is a great wake-up call to myself and many others. I like how the therapist drew attention to the client's transition into developing new insights. The therapist also focused on the client's fears and existential anxieties surrounding his conflicts and experiences. I can see how the client is increasingly becoming more self-aware and accepting of himself and his life.
It seemed like this approach really helped the client to examine and expand on a new way of thinking and helped him to assimilate this new thinking into his approach to life.
Honestly, this theory was not one of my favorites. I like the idea of the theory being client focused and helping the client recognize a new way of being but it just didn't seem as helpful as other theories. The counselor was grasping an understanding for the clients experience and allowing space him to share his experience but I'm wondering how effective this theory really is? Maybe the session would have been different if the client did not already develop a new way of living life before coming to therapy.
Although it is an non-directive approach, the therapy did a lot of talking. The therapy invited the client talk about the impact and explore his change of thoughts after the frightening event. Since the thoughts happened in a short time with the short frightening event, talking helped the client to process the change in a practical and realistic way. I also like the idea of giving the client "homework" on reflecting his thoughts and change of behavior and increase his awareness.
This theory was a little more difficult for me to understand but I think I got the gist of it. During this role play they are discussing a near death experience and how the client felt coming out of it. According to existential therapy, it seems as though he was in the eigenwelt stage. He was consciously thinking about himself. After the experience he had more of an appreciation for his loved ones. Like Frankl, in the text, it seems as though he has used this experience as an opportunity to live his best life. This was a good role play.
In this therapy role play, it is clear that a catastrophic event lead to a reevaluation of one's life. It is helpful to evaluate the impact this event had on his life and how when faced with one's own mortality, one can see how perspective and priorities can shift.
The existential approach is probably best used with clients that have a fundamental level of personal insight. I don't know how effective it would be with children for instance. It does provide the client the opportunity to think deeply about an issue/conflict and its' impact/influence on the larger world.
The client had an experience which went beyond his ability to comprehend. As he said "he knew he would die, but thought he would live to be 100". He also stated he felt "invisible". The moment he was caught in this traumatic event and as he said "my life flashed before my eyes" he shifted into a different reality. This gave him a new perspective on life, which showed what is important to him. This event gave rise to the development of a new value system within the client.
It's amazing what a person has to go thru to find their purpose in life. I felt like this near death experience changed this clients life and he will never be the same. Frankl said that the awareness of death can lead to living life with purpose.
In this video, the counselor used basic skills such as attending and reflection of feelings along with compliments and encouragement to gain understanding in the experience the client had. There seemed to be an emphasis on finding meaning of life before and after the fire incident. The client also seemed to gain a better understanding of himself during the session.
I appreciate how Dr. Grande allowed the client to go through the process of evaluating the situation and the impact it had on his life to gain insight of what's important to him in life. But then allowed the client to evaluate not only how this situation affected his life physically but also mentally. The emphasis on time stood out most to me. We only get out what we put in and Dr Grande helped the client find meaning in his time and take a scary situation and helped the client see just how positive this situation has changed his life and mindset.
For me, existential theory and techniques are more difficult to grasp than some of the other theories. This role-play illustrated that staying with the themes of dying and more importantly living throughout the session is key to the use of existentialism in therapy. The session also illustrated a focus on evaluating values. To further solidify the changes experienced by the client, Dr. Grande asked him to continue to reflect on this meaning and awe for life between this session and the next. Dr. Grande's acknowledgment of the power in his story seems to continue the theme that this event can invoke positive change not only for this individual but for others that hear his story or notice a change in behavior since the incident.
After the client experienced the near-death experience of going through the trauma of a fire, he seems to be presenting concerns about his value in life and what he finds important. I think Dr.Grande did a good job summarizing what the client was feeling and reflecting it back to him. When he reflected those thoughts back to the client, it seemed to change the demeanor in the client and make him reflective of his life. It appears that the client is experiencing the Existential concept of the "four ways of being-in-the-world", where he is reflecting on what's important to him now. He appears to now view the world and experience it in a more self-aware way similar to the Eigenwelt way of being.
Rachel I agree that the four states of being according to existentialists were presented throughout this session. The client seemed to be in the umwelt and mitwelt states where he was worried about the material things the world had to offer him and what he wanted in life. The near death experience definitely changed that suggested by his own insight into how he is now and how he perceives the world around him.
The client in this role-play demonstrates how his near-death experience changes his awareness on what he values most in life. I have read up on existential therapy, and there is a lot of emphasis on how individuals begin to value their relationships with others when thinking about death. The client displayed this in the role-play by realizing that he has been over-working himself at his occupation. Now the client describes how he enjoys having lunch with his coworkers and just taking a moment for himself rather than worrying about gaining more money and buying materialistic items. The counselor discussed how the client has developed a sense of freedom within his world after the near-death experience, whereas before the client lived by a very structured lifestyle. I think that by explaining this to the client, he developed a sense of positivity in realizing what he values in his life.
The experience of a near death experience caused him to reevaluate the important things in life. Dr. Grande was able to just listen and attend to the thoughts and feelings that the client had regarding the experience. They then discussed what was really important to the client.
Situations like this must be very scary for clients. Not only do they have the natural fear of death that most of us may encounter but they may also develop a phobia of certain situations as a result of whatever it was that they encountered. It is certainly important for them to be able to move beyond this so that they don't stay "stuck" there. I appreciated the opportunity to review these strategies.
Everyone doesn't experience near death experiences, and the blessing in this is the client didn't develop a phobia, or get stuck in what he lost. Instead he gained much more insight about life.
Dr. Grande was very effective in relating the existential theme of living and dying in this role play. He was intentional in letting the client truly process his feelings regarding his near death experience and the impact it has on his meaning of life and existence. In conceptualizing existential therapy, it is the goal of the counselor to assist the client in understanding how they relate in the world. Dr. Grande was able to do this using the basic listening sequence, paraphrasing and reflecting the client's statements to bring about awareness and genuine understanding. Within this role play, one can say that the client is being-in-the-world, or dasein, as he was able to reflect on the insignificance of working hard to obtain materialistic things when in actuality he sees greater meaning in family since his near death experience.
This video shows one of the fundamental aspect of this theory-conflict with a existential given. Although the client does not seem to be severely scarred by this incident, he is more aware of those he loves, but also exemplifies an attitude of what does anything matter-" I don't even want to buy anything, whats the point." This statement shows a displacement of balance, which although not severe, is making him think. So instead of focusing on the fire and what could have happened, he works to explore any changes in values and ideas. I can see how this can be extremely effective to process but help a client remove themselves from being stuck in the incident. I imagine it could be difficult to use appropriately if you were a new counselor.
The existential therapy role-play helped me to better understand ways which you can approach discussing how a client relates to his world and his perspectives. The counselor discusses topics of existential therapy related to the client's values and fear of death. The counselor helps the client discuss and confirm how his values were shaped into more meaningful ones as the client becomes more self-aware in the process.
Existential therapy using role play is an effective way to reflect on one's experience in an event that occurs in their life. In this case, it confirmed and gave understanding to the clients juxtaposition of his old and new renewed self. We often try to find meaning in our lives and continue to try to understand the situations that cause our emotional and behavioral changes. Having someone to help reflect those feelings that we are experiencing is essential for support and growth of the individual. It will assist in the maintenance of psychological health and well being. Having the client bring information back to the next session regarding this "new view" the client has, can continue this clients reflection of his experience and collaborate on any other thoughts, issues or concerns the client may have.
Dr. Grande helped guide his client through the insight he gained after his near death experience. Although his client came in already have experienced the "eye opening" moment, Dr.Grande used existential themes to help his client make sense of it all and kind of put the pieces of the puzzle together. In our text, it talks about existential anxiety and how this type of anxiety can be an opportunity for an individual to reflect on their life, responsibilities and choices. In this role play, Dr. Grande helped the client to reflect on his own life and his past values compared to his current values and how they have changed for him. In addition, Dr. Grande helped his client to see the difference in how he once viewed death, as more "abstract" compared to how he perceives it now, as a "concrete" and very possible event.
You can tell that existential counseling blossomed out of the existential movement in philosophy due to the fact that it is far less structured than some other counseling theories (i.e. behavioral). Rather, this style of counseling seems to be much more free-flowing, and the structure of the session is primarily dictated by the client. Dr. Grande makes certain to give the client plenty of space to process his own emotion; however, this style of counseling seems like it would only work for a particular type of client. The client in the video seemed to have already gone through the process of coming to terms with facing one's own mortality. In the future, it would be interesting to see an existential role-play with a client presenting far more anxiety. What would that look like, and how would it be different from the scenario above?
I liked this approach to therapy. At times the therapist seemed to use a lot of the PCT techniques. I feel as if the client knew how he felt about his experience and had already reflected on it. Some of what came out of it was that he just wanted to talk to someone and get his thoughts out. Or maybe to hear his thoughts out loud, almost like wanting someone to co-sign his new behaviors.
I agree, I had the same thoughts while watching it. I thought that he seemed to just need someone to talk to and, as you said, needed to hear his thoughts out loud in order to make sense of how he was feeling.
I think this theory is a little more difficult to understand and incorporate into therapy but it is very important in these situations such as near-death experiences. The counselor does a good job getting the client to talk about what is important in the client's life. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a scary situation like this in order to realize what is important in life. Existential therapy helps take an awful situation and find what good has come out of it. Like in the book, Frankl takes his unfortunate situation and turns it into something good, even though it may not seem like much in the big picture.
I agree that this theory is difficult to understand but was definitely fitting for near death experiences. I'm not sure what else would work with this theory that well. Those big life changing events are really sometimes what it takes to make to realize what you truly value and what has meaning in your life.
Comment 97: 12,642 views. .. about to listen...😀🤔😫😄 Now 15 minutes in, i see how much we need an empathetic ear, and now he needs ( the client ) to establish some mileposts. To reflect. I wonder if this is as effective as Gestault with shock thrown in....
I think this approach would be very beneficial with terminal patients to help them deal with the closeness to the finitude of their lives in order to get some meaning and eventually come to terms with their fate. To find some sense out of a terrible situation may diminish their anxiety.
After watching the video and doing the reading, I agree that this role play exemplifies how perfect this technique would be for those who are fearful of death or nearing death. By helping a person accept that death is inevitable for everyone, although some sooner than others, they can then focus on doing something meaningful with their life instead of fixating on what is to come.
You're right, Roberto - anyone seeking feeling a sense of meaningless would benefit from this type of therapy intervention. Once an individual reaches a certain age, knows the inevitable is on it's way, and looks back on their accomplishments (or lack thereof), might need to feel that their life filled some kind of purpose.
I'm suffering this crisis. Contemplation of wasting years as an addicted sex worker is rough. Can't get those years back. Wasted the prime of my life 🤔
I enjoy these videos, but in this video the client seemed to have worked everything out already. However, the existential-humanistic therapies are definitely not my cup of tea, to me this guy could have had this conversation with his brother or a friend over a beer and gotten the same results. There are aspects of these theories that can be harvested, but overall I can't imagine making this therapy a focus in my practice.
I found this video to be very helpful. I listened to the way Dr. Grande used basic techniques we learned like paraphrasing, and asking questions based on what he is hearing from the client to facilitate understanding of what happened. It was amazing to see how the client and Dr. Grande connected and I could see the client becoming more comfortable disclosing his own realization from his dream. Dr. Grande allowed the client to lead and do most of the talking.
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I love old Dr Grande counseling videos, much more than the celeb analysis. people who love therapy love to watch these. it is really helpful.
I think the most profound information from this video is the client revaluating his life. He's like you know, "I spent my entire life working towards certain gains, and in just one moment, none of the things I have acquired mattered to me." The counselor took that grief and flipped it shining light on his own revelation, and asked "so what things do you value now? What is important?" The client had the opportunity to appreciate a new way of living with a new found importance.
Jasmira, I do agree with your comment. The video is an eye-opener for those who spend their entire life worried about their future and the things and people that matter to them, failing to know that their existence is not determinant on those things.
As I’m watching this roleplay, you can see and hear the fear and stress in the client's face and in his voice. Dr. Grande is expressing an imperative use of basic listening skills and empathy especially while the client is speaking on such a sensitive topic. This is imperative in the use of every technique and session, but especially in Existential Therapy as clients will be speaking about extremely sensitive topics such as a near-death experience. In this case, Dr. Grande used a lot of reflection and paraphrasing to help the client come to his “epiphany” moment, where he truly began to realize that he needs to take a step back from his work at times and spend some time with loved ones while he. I really appreciated watching this because it showed how the therapist can focus on the here and now in retrospect to something as life-altering as a near-death experience.
I appreciate the sense of being in "the here and now" that the client and therapist depict throughout this session. It was educational hearing the therapist refrain from attempting to find an answer or solution for how the client was feeling but simply allowed him the opportunity to talk about what he had been through. The therapist remained completely present with the client and was warm and empathic and simply existed with him in the present moment.
I like how Dr. Grande ended the session by asking the client to reflect on his previous mindset and recognizing his growth. The client turned a bad experience into a life changing experience all around. He is now doing things that are creating a more meaningful life for him.
This theory was difficult to say exactly how it was used but I noticed there was more paraphrasing of the clients reflections and feelings. Helping the client put his experience into practice and helping the client identify this new meaning about his own life's values and priorities played a large role in his session. In summarizing Dr. Grande helped the client to reaffirm these changes in his thinking and how he is beginning to channel this experience. He discussed the new and old version of the client and had him reflect on those changes to begin processing this experience further and find ways to grow through this experience.
The theme of this session appeared to be the clients values. I thought it was a nice to have the client acknowledge and explore their values before and after their traumatic event. The client appeared to have done a lot of thinking and was encouraged to keep thinking about their values in between sessions.
This video really helped me understand this type of therapy. I felt that the client was able to benefit from the session. The client was able to discuss the issues of end of life. The therapist provided lots of detail in this session.
Having learned about Existential Therapy, I find that I can truly resonate with the concept and practice. Having experienced my own form of existential crisis, causing me to reevaluate my life purpose and direction, I find that I implemented many of the techniques used within the theory. After watching Dr. Grande’s demonstration of Existential Therapy, I find as though it can be beneficial for numerous individuals by allowing them to determine their beliefs, goals, purpose, and meaning in life, while providing new perspective. Overall, I appreciated how Dr. Grande allowed the client to view is near death experience in a more positive light, having the client consider how he can learn from the experience and what he can take away from it. Additionally, I appreciated how Dr. Grande introduced the idea of living in two separate worlds - that of material, and that of people - I find as though this idea helps the client to put things into perspective and determine what he truly values. I find that - no matter the circumstance - the methods of Existential Therapy may be beneficial in order to allow individuals to become more centered and refocus on their goals, purpose, and values, especially when interacting in a society where it is easy to loose touch with ourselves, through social media, societal expectations etc.
I think that this a great approach. This role play really showed how this theory can help those who have had a traumatic or high stress experience. It helped the client to see his situation differently and be more positive.
Dr. Grande. I found that when looking at existential therapy and comparing it to person-centered therapy, you had great basic listening skills that allowed for the client to be open and truthful about his near death experience. Throughout your session, you summarized carefully which in return made the client comfortable because you truly heard him while he was expressing his feelings, thoughts and emotions. I did enjoy the questions you asked, that lead to the clients reflection such as, " The way you relate to the world, do you have a new perspective?" and "What do you think is valuable now." By asking minimal questions, allowed the client was able to express his new out look on life which resulted in not taking things for granted.
Dr. Grande did a wonderful job at paraphrase the clients emotions, which lead to the clients ability to recognize his strengths and the positives that he has gained from his near death experience. Dr. Grande empathized with the clients emotions and reflected the clients new outlook on life was a new beginning for him to experience life in a different way than he had prior to this experience.
Near accidental death, and intentional near death feel so different. I need to think about it more. Thanks for bringing it up.
Great Job Dr Grande and Jeff!! I love it!!
I think this was a great example of existential therapy. The client had a near death experience so now he's starting to question his life. Dr. Grande does a great job getting the client to focus on the here and now as well as asking him about his values. By summarizing what the client has already stated he has encouraged him to think about his values and goals as they were prior to this experience and how they appear now that he has been through this. I think this was a great demonstration of this therapy.
Currently looking up types of therapy to decide whats best for me. And i'm in tears from this. This is great!
Thank you Dr.Grande for sharing the existential therapy experience. The client's close call to death helped shift his perspective on life and what is of value to him. He mentioned that he would buy things and work as much as possible to continue to buy things and as soon as he was faced with death he became aware that material things no longer mattered to him. Through working with you and this process the client gained insight. He began to reflect on all of the time he could have spent with his family and not working. He mentioned feeling invincible which perhaps indicated he wasn't being his authentic self and an avoidance of death. What was also interesting was how you pointed out that the client wants to feel as though he has lived the way he wanted too without regrets. This process also appeared to be conversational, which was significant in identifying how important the relationship is between the therapist and client.
This type of therapy is definitely great for a near death experience because life and death play a large part in existentialism. It was nice that Dr. Grande was bringing the client's attention to the positives that came from the fire as well as leading him to focus on the meaning of his life and what is important to him for his life. Focusing on how the client can now live a more fulfilling life after this experience was very powerful to watch because it was turning a traumatic event in his life into something positive by acknowledging the changes he has made in order to cater to his values and fulfilling his meaning of life.
Nice example! I can't help but think it would never be this easy though in reality lol. This lad pretty much sorted through his own dilemmas independently. Helpful example of existential nonetheless :)
Amazing job!!!! It’s a real eye opener. Makes you think of what really matters. Dr.Grande I love this format. Jeff Amazing acting.
Reading about existential therapy is different than getting to see it in action and it is really beneficial to see how it can be utilized in a session. This role play helped me to see how person-centered therapy can integrate existential therapy and why it is common for counselors to integrate these two theories. You can see Dr. Grande listening, attending, reflecting, and getting to the core of what is important and helping the client to come to this realization of their own value and worth.
I like how Dr. Grande hit upon the positive outcome from this near-death experience, where the client has begun to reflect on the importance of finding meaning through other avenues besides work, such as friends and loved ones. An event like this could have the potential to cause a lot of existential despair over how close the client came towards death, but by identifying the "new perspective" the client has found, later sessions can help the client identify how to live best as their authentic self.
I felt that this was an interesting role-play. This life-threatening situation is very scary. I like that the therapist heard what the client had to say. Then they came up with a solution moving forward. I liked that the therapist said, “What is valuable now?” The client identified that eating lunch with his friends was valuable and the therapist pointed out that he is not “living life more the way you want”. I felt that this video was very helpful for understanding this theory.
I enjoyed being able to see how to use Existential therapy in a counseling setting. This is a very hard theory to understand and this video helped me understand it a little better. Dr. Grande did a great job paraphrasing and clarifying when the client presented a lot of information at once. The one thing that really stuck out to me was when the client said, "I value people over objects". With the help of the therapist, the client was able to reevaluate his life and what his priorities were.
This was a good role play of what existential therapy is like. The client was able to discuss his experience and the therapist kept up with him by providing effective reflections and paraphrases. The therapist also focused on the change in thoughts and feelings from the client working a lot to pay for materials and after the fire how his mindset went from that to being more focused on the relationships and interactions with others. One goal of existential therapy is to become aware of the self and find the meaning of ones life. The therapist was able to get the client to pull out more info on why he feels the way he does now as opposed to before. He also was able to have the client continue to reflect on that in order to really finalize his thoughts regarding this new thought process. This was a good example.
This role play did a great job of putting on display how a near death experience can give someone a new gained awareness. Before the client experienced an apartment fire he didn't think much about anything but work and making money. After his fear invoking experience he realized that money and the objects he owned meant nothing to him. He gained a new perspective of his life, realizing that his relationships with others was more meaningful than getting 40+ hours of work in. With this new perspective the client has begun to live life and enjoy it more by simply finding greater meaning in his life.
In this therapy, I realized that the therapist does a lot of talking. This video clip helps in making people appreciate life's experiences and value those things you take for granted because life is finite. This situation here is really frightening.
I can appreciate what existential therapy can do for a client especially when something such as a near death experience will have you pondering on this such as the meaning of life. However, the counselor walks with the client in his journey as he recognizes the difference in things he used to care for (objects) versus what matters now (relationship) and how that can be a good thing. While the client regretted not having relationship as his focus before there can be joy found in realizing that relationship is important to him now and how he can build upon that.
This was an interesting video where we got to see Dr. Grande help a client work through a tough experience they had. Dr. Grande did a great job of using active listening skills while the client was describing what happened to him. You can sense some of the emotions the client is feeling in the way he talks and acts, in which I think the client did such a great job at doing. Helping the client process something that was difficult for them can be intimidating but I am excited to learn more about this awesome tool.
The depth of Existential therapy is experienced in this session through authenticity. In this case, the client reflects on the meaning of life through his experienced crisis directly. Dr. Grande stays with the theme of death and finding the meaning of life. The client is able to express his new perspective of life in finding value in relationship versus objects. He is less self-involved and more aware of his mortality invoking a greater experience of "being". I also noticed Dr. Grande's use of the basic listening sequence to gain an understanding of the client's experience and to show genuine empathy. Essentially Dr. Grande stayed in the moment with the client and encouraged him to talk his way through it as a way to bring his thoughts and feelings into his reality and then to find a way to balance his old perspective with his new.
all these years later and still a great vid Dr Grande
from Australia 2022. ..x
I like how this technique helps the client to look at their situation differently. All the things that are taken for granted, and what is more important in life.
This session is interesting to watch how the focus is not so much on emotions or affect as personal perspective. Because of this traumatic event the client examines the meaning of life and his values. Forced to ponder death and his existence in the world, he gains insight that he was not living fully. The counselor helps him reframe the event from a tragic and frightening experience to appreciation for life and relationships. The event changed his actions as well as his perspective; choosing to live in the moment brought present freedom and happiness. He feels "vibrant" and like a new person, yet in the same environment.
This non-directive approach was very interesting. Dr. Grande's use of the five stages of a counseling session (relationship, story and strengths, goals, restory and action) was very effective. From the beginning, Dr. Grande established relationship through his statements of genuine empathy and a need to understand the clients scary experience. The clients story uncovered the clients superficial concerns with possessions versus more important things in his life like his family. Also through this dialog, Dr. Grande led the client to the realization of his strengths, new found values, perspectives, changes in his life, and what it meant to exists. Goal setting allowed the client to move forward with new insight and awareness. Dr. Grande also gave homework (action) by having the client reflect on getting a better understanding of his self and his values as opposed to his former life thoughts.
This was very interesting for me to watch because I have such a fear of death. I have often heard of "near death experiences" from people who have had them and have seen the changes they have made because of it. I think Existential Therapy is a great way to explore this further with clients because of the emphasis it has on making sense of the human existence by asking questions such as why am I here and what is my life's purpose? Having a near death experience may help to clarify them.
This existential role play greatly helped me to understand existential therapy in action. First and foremost, the counselor's ability to keep up with the client's story, all the while summarizing and paraphrasing, is paramount. It would be very difficult to seek out existential themes without doing this diligently. Also it is clear that as a result of the fire and near death experience, the client has experienced a boundary situation. As Sharf (2016) states, "the individual must live in the present and become more aware of oneself and one's situation. The boundary situation provides deep meaning for the individual" (p. 175). This was clearly the case in this role play as the client changed his values from valuing objects more than people/relationships before the near death experience to valuing people/relationships more than anything after the experience. The client is able to experience life with more freedom and meaning as a result of his experience in the fire. The counselor does a great job at the end of asking the client to reflect over the next week on how the client's values have changed from then to now so as to help the client better understand their beliefs/values, have confidence in them, and help them realize the full capability of their being.
I enjoyed seeing this approach implemented. I could see this approach being very helpful to individuals that are in high stress situations with either work, family responsibilities, school, etc. It serves as a way to make them pause, look back at how they are living their life, and allowing themselves to slow down. This client was able to take a very scary situation and use it to see how much he was neglecting that things that were of value to him. He is now taking the time to slow down and live his life in a way that feels fulfilling to him.
Absolutely Melissa. While the near death experience itself is scary and traumatic, it is often compounded by so many other fears and thoughts. Often the individual ends up spending a lot of time reflecting on their life and what they need to do to get their lives in order in the event of their death or in fact what they wish they could do differently on a regular basis. For some, it will give a new appreciation for life.
In this roleplay, Dr. Grande seemed very authentic. His client shared a near-death experience that changed his view of the world. Before this tragic experience, he valued objects over intimacy and quality time spent with loved ones. His life now had a new meaning. Dr. Grande acknowledged the way his client seemed to reflect and compare his past life to his present. Walks and conversations over lunch became more appealing, or more valuable, than money, new cars, and several other objects. I enjoyed watching this roleplay and how Dr. Grande allowed the client to make connections while openly expressing his fears and thoughts about death. He was very supportive.
I think this therapy allowed the client to express his change in values in a safe environment. I also think that Dr. Grande's paraphrasing and summarizing was helpful for the client to realize his values have changed due to his near death experience.
i find this type of therapy especially interesting as i am always questioning things about life. I can relate to some of the feelings of the client in this video and some of his thoughts. It is unfortunate that in order for people to perceive the world differently, they need to go through a near death experience. However, i think the therapist did a great job processing through these feelings and thoughts with the client and helped them to see the experience in a positive way as well. Also, the client was insightful which is impressive in my opinion.
I can identify how a "near death experience," can inspire a person to begin to appreciate the important things in life, rather than materialistic things. Victor Frankl discussed to find meaning in suffering. This video displays how an individual begins to appreciate his family and relationships after the fire. Specifically the client reported after the experience he is able to reconsider his interaction with others.
Kristie Watunya The part of the role play where the client explains how the near death experience has caused him to put thought behind his day to day actions. I can relate to that awakening also. Of all of the positive changes he chooses to implement, becoming more thoughtful is one of the best. His quality of life can only improve with positive intention and gratitude. He seems to be grateful for the non-material sources of comfort in his life.
I really enjoy existential therapy because of the powerful self-awareness and understanding it can create within a client. It is observable in this role-play the change the client encountered within himself and his outlook on life, death, and freedom after having a near death experience. His outlook on life shifted from overworking himself to make money and possess material things to really appreciating the relationships he has, what they mean, and how to enhance them. The client emphasized early in the session that everyone was alright numerous times despite the apartment fire, making it evident that he is true to his change in feelings about life. Dr. Grande was empathic with the client, understanding, accurately reflected feelings, and appropriately coordinated open-ended questions to probe consciously aware feelings from the client. He was in the "here-and-now" with the client and assisted the client in understanding how to take a near death experience and channel it into a positive outlet.
In this role-play I feel that the therapist is providing a lot of feedback and talking. I do enjoy the person-centered techniques are very helpful for the client. I did feel that the client was able to process the feelings of a near death experience.
It was clear that the client felt comfortable with the counselor. The client was open about his fear of death or fear and the counselor did an excellent job with working to understand the clients experience. I felt as if the client was displaying existential anxiety appropriate to the situation that he recently experienced.
I think that existential therapy is important because as I watched this role play I saw a client discussing a sensitive topic (life & death) and having a professional who can assist with guidance responsibly is key. The client’s experience brought on the need to face his thoughts about the possibility of death, but it is not a topic that is foreign to anyone. A counseling session seems like the best place to explore the fears or intrusive thoughts in a judgement free space. The client can be honest with the counselor even if he doesn’t feel that he can be with the people in his life. These are emotionally charged topics and they can be difficult to talk about for some.
The counselor worked to use basic skills such as reflecting affect, paraphrasing, summarizing, and focusing on the client to bring about more client perspective from the detailed content of his story. The client was able to focus more so on the here and now indicating that following his near death experience the importance of the "who rather than the what" is something that he greatly values. This has worked to shape how he now lives his life day to day and his newly realized values have been brought into awareness.
The client seemed to have had a very profound spiritual awakening provoked by his near death experience. This has allowed for the perspective he needed to make better and more significant life choices. Interesting!
Existentially this client was lucky to have this near death experience. Most people go through life without having such an impactful experience. As a therapist, I think I would focus on how the client plans on using this experience to change his patterns. What was the impact on his way of being in the world? How does he plan to move forward? This is exactly what Dr. Grande did. I liked that he suggested that the client think about it and how it will continue to influence his life. This is a good example of existential therapy, whereas most people would simply put it in the past, the therapist will continue to draw on the experience to move the client forward to creating the life that he wants.
With Existential Therapy and a near death experience, we can see how effective and important it is to truly master and apply basic listening responses. Dr. Grande was effective in understanding and helping the client feel understood by utilizing summarization, reflection of feelings, and interpretation. Dr. Grande was present and there with the client. His presence was empathetic, especially with such an experience that the client had. Dr. Grande's use of interpretation and reflection helped the client see how he lives and views his life when compared prior to the fire. The client was able to see the quality of life he is living and how he hopes to improve it.
In this scenario with the client having faced a near death experience, it is clear that his emotional state of being had been altered by the events described. Existential therapy played a part in the counseling process by emphasizing the clients new found inner conflicts in comparison with his new outlook and past and present associations with life. The counselor does a good job at bringing awareness to this matter in relation to the clients values.
I saw a calmness as the client searched to find his words for how he was feeling, defined his discord from the "before" and the "after". The therapist reflected mostly and normalized the client which continued to facilitate the trust and genuineness between the 2 of them. I liked how they wrapped up by suggesting further reflection before they continue a discussion at the next session. This client was well spoken and in tune to his emotions about the situation. I wonder how it might look with a client who had not yet come to that stage of recovery.
As existential therapy focuses on themes in an individual's life; specifically that of life and death, it is clear to see the association between the topic of the conversation, the apartment fire, and the subsequent revelation of deeper meaning in the client's life. It is clear that Dr. Grande skillfully affirmed the client's exploration of regrets and reappraisal of values in life, enabling the client to pull specific situations and behaviors which could be changed to provide more meaning and happiness for the client.
Thank you so much for the clarity you provided on such a philosophical-based theory. I will be showing this to my students tonight so that they will get a more concrete example of how to put existentialism into practice. Thanks for all the videos!
The client in this video had a near death experience that allowed him to reevaluate his perspective on life. With this experience the client realized that spending time with family and friends is more meaningful then attaining things. Dr. Grande gave him homework to reflect on his new perspective in life. Sounds like the client has found purpose in life and is willing to work towards it.
This video really hit home. I think it opened my eyes a little more. At times, I tend to worry so much about the future or materialistic things. A near death experience can open someone’s eyes that it anytime we can really go. We are only here for a little time. I could relate to the client when he said he felt like prior to his near death experience he thought he was invincible. He knew that eventually he was going to die but did not think that it could happen so soon. I could relate because prior to losing Cpl. Ballard at work, I never thought, I never thought “this could be me.” I began to take life for granted. The people around me I took for granted. If someone called me and I didn’t answer, I may not of called them back right away. If my parents told me to go visit my grandparents and I didn’t, I took them for granted thinking that they would always be there until I lost them. Losing a close friend and a coworker showed me that I need to slow down, think about life, and spend time with those who truly matter. Materialistic things will always be there but your family and friends will not. Dr. Grande uses a good way to describe it. He discusses objects versus people. He explains that the clients now looks at life about spending time with people rather than objects. In the end Dr. Grande asked what could he take away from this experience? I again could relate because the client discussed how normally he would work through his lunch break and longer hours therefore hoping that his boss would like him and try to please everyone. Are used to do the same exact thing and I began to become burned out and I realize that I was not doing the things that I wanted to do for myself. Now I live for myself and do the things that I want for myself because I have experienced a near death and it showed me that at any time I could go. I used to do the same exact thing and I began to become burned out and I realize that I was not doing the things that I wanted to do for myself. Now I live for myself and do the things that I want for myself because I have experienced a near death and it showed me that at any time I could go.
Demi Moore I also related so much to the client about taking what truly matters to me for granted in order to please everyone and value material things. I believe this is a great wake-up call to myself and many others. I like how the therapist drew attention to the client's transition into developing new insights. The therapist also focused on the client's fears and existential anxieties surrounding his conflicts and experiences. I can see how the client is increasingly becoming more self-aware and accepting of himself and his life.
This is such a great video.
Thank you -
It seemed like this approach really helped the client to examine and expand on a new way of thinking and helped him to assimilate this new thinking into his approach to life.
Certainly this therapy helped the client to make changes in his life.
Honestly, this theory was not one of my favorites. I like the idea of the theory being client focused and helping the client recognize a new way of being but it just didn't seem as helpful as other theories. The counselor was grasping an understanding for the clients experience and allowing space him to share his experience but I'm wondering how effective this theory really is? Maybe the session would have been different if the client did not already develop a new way of living life before coming to therapy.
Although it is an non-directive approach, the therapy did a lot of talking. The therapy invited the client talk about the impact and explore his change of thoughts after the frightening event. Since the thoughts happened in a short time with the short frightening event, talking helped the client to process the change in a practical and realistic way. I also like the idea of giving the client "homework" on reflecting his thoughts and change of behavior and increase his awareness.
This theory was a little more difficult for me to understand but I think I got the gist of it. During this role play they are discussing a near death experience and how the client felt coming out of it. According to existential therapy, it seems as though he was in the eigenwelt stage. He was consciously thinking about himself. After the experience he had more of an appreciation for his loved ones. Like Frankl, in the text, it seems as though he has used this experience as an opportunity to live his best life. This was a good role play.
In this therapy role play, it is clear that a catastrophic event lead to a reevaluation of one's life. It is helpful to evaluate the impact this event had on his life and how when faced with one's own mortality, one can see how perspective and priorities can shift.
The existential approach is probably best used with clients that have a fundamental level of personal insight. I don't know how effective it would be with children for instance. It does provide the client the opportunity to think deeply about an issue/conflict and its' impact/influence on the larger world.
The client had an experience which went beyond his ability to comprehend. As he said "he knew he would die, but thought he would live to be 100". He also stated he felt "invisible". The moment he was caught in this traumatic event and as he said "my life flashed before my eyes" he shifted into a different reality. This gave him a new perspective on life, which showed what is important to him. This event gave rise to the development of a new value system within the client.
It's amazing what a person has to go thru to find their purpose in life. I felt like this near death experience changed this clients life and he will never be the same. Frankl said that the awareness of death can lead to living life with purpose.
In this video, the counselor used basic skills such as attending and reflection of feelings along with compliments and encouragement to gain understanding in the experience the client had. There seemed to be an emphasis on finding meaning of life before and after the fire incident. The client also seemed to gain a better understanding of himself during the session.
I appreciate how Dr. Grande allowed the client to go through the process of evaluating the situation and the impact it had on his life to gain insight of what's important to him in life. But then allowed the client to evaluate not only how this situation affected his life physically but also mentally. The emphasis on time stood out most to me. We only get out what we put in and Dr Grande helped the client find meaning in his time and take a scary situation and helped the client see just how positive this situation has changed his life and mindset.
Pangalawa na to dzaii! Kaya pa kaya? Kakayanin dzaii!
For me, existential theory and techniques are more difficult to grasp than some of the other theories. This role-play illustrated that staying with the themes of dying and more importantly living throughout the session is key to the use of existentialism in therapy. The session also illustrated a focus on evaluating values. To further solidify the changes experienced by the client, Dr. Grande asked him to continue to reflect on this meaning and awe for life between this session and the next. Dr. Grande's acknowledgment of the power in his story seems to continue the theme that this event can invoke positive change not only for this individual but for others that hear his story or notice a change in behavior since the incident.
After the client experienced the near-death experience of going through the trauma of a fire, he seems to be presenting concerns about his value in life and what he finds important. I think Dr.Grande did a good job summarizing what the client was feeling and reflecting it back to him. When he reflected those thoughts back to the client, it seemed to change the demeanor in the client and make him reflective of his life. It appears that the client is experiencing the Existential concept of the "four ways of being-in-the-world", where he is reflecting on what's important to him now. He appears to now view the world and experience it in a more self-aware way similar to the Eigenwelt way of being.
Rachel I agree that the four states of being according to existentialists were presented throughout this session. The client seemed to be in the umwelt and mitwelt states where he was worried about the material things the world had to offer him and what he wanted in life. The near death experience definitely changed that suggested by his own insight into how he is now and how he perceives the world around him.
Solid role play!
Thank you so much!
The client in this role-play demonstrates how his near-death experience changes his awareness on what he values most in life. I have read up on existential therapy, and there is a lot of emphasis on how individuals begin to value their relationships with others when thinking about death. The client displayed this in the role-play by realizing that he has been over-working himself at his occupation. Now the client describes how he enjoys having lunch with his coworkers and just taking a moment for himself rather than worrying about gaining more money and buying materialistic items. The counselor discussed how the client has developed a sense of freedom within his world after the near-death experience, whereas before the client lived by a very structured lifestyle. I think that by explaining this to the client, he developed a sense of positivity in realizing what he values in his life.
The realisation was already there!
The experience of a near death experience caused him to reevaluate the important things in life. Dr. Grande was able to just listen and attend to the thoughts and feelings that the client had regarding the experience. They then discussed what was really important to the client.
Experience- Existential guilt - Clarification of values - Creating new meanings/Alternate ways of being in the world.
Situations like this must be very scary for clients. Not only do they have the natural fear of death that most of us may encounter but they may also develop a phobia of certain situations as a result of whatever it was that they encountered. It is certainly important for them to be able to move beyond this so that they don't stay "stuck" there. I appreciated the opportunity to review these strategies.
Everyone doesn't experience near death experiences, and the blessing in this is the client didn't develop a phobia, or get stuck in what he lost. Instead he gained much more insight about life.
Dr. Grande was very effective in relating the existential theme of living and dying in this role play. He was intentional in letting the client truly process his feelings regarding his near death experience and the impact it has on his meaning of life and existence. In conceptualizing existential therapy, it is the goal of the counselor to assist the client in understanding how they relate in the world. Dr. Grande was able to do this using the basic listening sequence, paraphrasing and reflecting the client's statements to bring about awareness and genuine understanding. Within this role play, one can say that the client is being-in-the-world, or dasein, as he was able to reflect on the insignificance of working hard to obtain materialistic things when in actuality he sees greater meaning in family since his near death experience.
This video shows one of the fundamental aspect of this theory-conflict with a existential given. Although the client does not seem to be severely scarred by this incident, he is more aware of those he loves, but also exemplifies an attitude of what does anything matter-" I don't even want to buy anything, whats the point." This statement shows a displacement of balance, which although not severe, is making him think. So instead of focusing on the fire and what could have happened, he works to explore any changes in values and ideas. I can see how this can be extremely effective to process but help a client remove themselves from being stuck in the incident. I imagine it could be difficult to use appropriately if you were a new counselor.
The existential therapy role-play helped me to better understand ways which you can approach discussing how a client relates to his world and his perspectives. The counselor discusses topics of existential therapy related to the client's values and fear of death. The counselor helps the client discuss and confirm how his values were shaped into more meaningful ones as the client becomes more self-aware in the process.
Existential therapy using role play is an effective way to reflect on one's experience in an event that occurs in their life. In this case, it confirmed and gave understanding to the clients juxtaposition of his old and new renewed self. We often try to find meaning in our lives and continue to try to understand the situations that cause our emotional and behavioral changes. Having someone to help reflect those feelings that we are experiencing is essential for support and growth of the individual. It will assist in the maintenance of psychological health and well being. Having the client bring information back to the next session regarding this "new view" the client has, can continue this clients reflection of his experience and collaborate on any other thoughts, issues or concerns the client may have.
Dr. Grande helped guide his client through the insight he gained after his near death experience. Although his client came in already have experienced the "eye opening" moment, Dr.Grande used existential themes to help his client make sense of it all and kind of put the pieces of the puzzle together. In our text, it talks about existential anxiety and how this type of anxiety can be an opportunity for an individual to reflect on their life, responsibilities and choices. In this role play, Dr. Grande helped the client to reflect on his own life and his past values compared to his current values and how they have changed for him. In addition, Dr. Grande helped his client to see the difference in how he once viewed death, as more "abstract" compared to how he perceives it now, as a "concrete" and very possible event.
You can tell that existential counseling blossomed out of the existential movement in philosophy due to the fact that it is far less structured than some other counseling theories (i.e. behavioral). Rather, this style of counseling seems to be much more free-flowing, and the structure of the session is primarily dictated by the client. Dr. Grande makes certain to give the client plenty of space to process his own emotion; however, this style of counseling seems like it would only work for a particular type of client. The client in the video seemed to have already gone through the process of coming to terms with facing one's own mortality. In the future, it would be interesting to see an existential role-play with a client presenting far more anxiety. What would that look like, and how would it be different from the scenario above?
I liked this approach to therapy. At times the therapist seemed to use a lot of the PCT techniques. I feel as if the client knew how he felt about his experience and had already reflected on it. Some of what came out of it was that he just wanted to talk to someone and get his thoughts out. Or maybe to hear his thoughts out loud, almost like wanting someone to co-sign his new behaviors.
I agree, I had the same thoughts while watching it. I thought that he seemed to just need someone to talk to and, as you said, needed to hear his thoughts out loud in order to make sense of how he was feeling.
I think this theory is a little more difficult to understand and incorporate into therapy but it is very important in these situations such as near-death experiences. The counselor does a good job getting the client to talk about what is important in the client's life. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a scary situation like this in order to realize what is important in life. Existential therapy helps take an awful situation and find what good has come out of it. Like in the book, Frankl takes his unfortunate situation and turns it into something good, even though it may not seem like much in the big picture.
I agree that this theory is difficult to understand but was definitely fitting for near death experiences. I'm not sure what else would work with this theory that well. Those big life changing events are really sometimes what it takes to make to realize what you truly value and what has meaning in your life.
Comment 97: 12,642 views. .. about to listen...😀🤔😫😄
Now 15 minutes in, i see how much we need an empathetic ear, and now he needs ( the client ) to establish some mileposts. To reflect. I wonder if this is as effective as Gestault with shock thrown in....
When Writing a paper for a client, I think I get more info from the video as well as the comment section.
I think this approach would be very beneficial with terminal patients to help them deal with the closeness to the finitude of their lives in order to get some meaning and eventually come to terms with their fate. To find some sense out of a terrible situation may diminish their anxiety.
After watching the video and doing the reading, I agree that this role play exemplifies how perfect this technique would be for those who are fearful of death or nearing death. By helping a person accept that death is inevitable for everyone, although some sooner than others, they can then focus on doing something meaningful with their life instead of fixating on what is to come.
You're right, Roberto - anyone seeking feeling a sense of meaningless would benefit from this type of therapy intervention. Once an individual reaches a certain age, knows the inevitable is on it's way, and looks back on their accomplishments (or lack thereof), might need to feel that their life filled some kind of purpose.
I'm suffering this crisis. Contemplation of wasting years as an addicted sex worker is rough. Can't get those years back. Wasted the prime of my life 🤔
old school Grande
Thank you thank you thank you in advance lol
I enjoy these videos, but in this video the client seemed to have worked everything out already. However, the existential-humanistic therapies are definitely not my cup of tea, to me this guy could have had this conversation with his brother or a friend over a beer and gotten the same results. There are aspects of these theories that can be harvested, but overall I can't imagine making this therapy a focus in my practice.
you know...
I found this video to be very helpful. I listened to the way Dr. Grande used basic techniques we learned like paraphrasing, and asking questions based on what he is hearing from the client to facilitate understanding of what happened. It was amazing to see how the client and Dr. Grande connected and I could see the client becoming more comfortable disclosing his own realization from his dream. Dr. Grande allowed the client to lead and do most of the talking.
I agree that the use of basic skills were appropriate and useful for this session.