Introduction
Existential psychotherapy is a method of therapy with philosophical beliefs and operates on a belief that a person’s inner conflict is because of confrontation in the existence. The givens in this therapy are inevitable and they include death, isolation, responsibility and meaninglessness. Four givens within existential psychotherapy are also given the name of ultimate concerns. Philosophers are pertinent to the development of this therapy because it makes sense to the existence of human beings. There is an impetus for further development within the approach of existence and several courses have been incorporated in academic institutions. Existential approach has spread over the last few decades and its alternatives are becoming more established with more diverse methods. This paper aims at analyzing a case using existential psychotherapy.
The case involved here is a woman who is at the age of thirty and has undergone the process of bullying during her days of schooling. This person is struggling with a problem of antisocialism and is not at a position to interact freely with others. She has a feeling that everybody can be a bully in her life and is seen to be fearful in whatever she does with a little possession of timidity. The client talks and reacts to people negatively with an idea that everybody is bad. She talks negatively about interaction and engages in activities that make her not socialize with other people. The clients’ antisocial behavior attracts me to have her attention because it is not normal for a person to keep to herself or himself and not interacting with other people. My conscious tells me that there must be a problem with this lady and that is when I identified the bullying she has been through during her schooling days.
Psychodynamic issues surrounding the Case
In this case, the client is a thirty year old lady who had been bullied in school. Existentialists focus on an individual and whether the person is self aware about what is happening around. It could have been that this lady underwent bullying because she was not aware about what was happening. There is s a focus that somebody should know what is happening and a process of changing, becoming an existing. Existentialists also focus on free will, immediate experience for somebody, a perspective that is subjective and realization of own potential.
There is concern for bullying especially the one that takes place in school because it involves little. This case presents a woman who underwent bullying in school and it is important to make experiences in organizational bullying. A major psychodynamic issue for this client is lack of understanding the organizational bullying that she has gone through. These problems will exist for the client even after her issues are handled because it is something that she has experienced at her younger ages. During the time of growing and learning this client expected protection and instead she is taken through bullying. Psychologists can then assists in resolving of organizational bullying through persuasion of this phenomenon. The client involved in the case study must be pursued in terms of the symptoms she will show and provision of a related manner that will be used to address this part of problem.
The woman is behaving in a manner of fear when it comes to interaction with other people because of the bullying she has gone through in her schooling age. It is therefore important to contribute a value add to her life and a systematic understanding of her and the bullying in her past organization must be well understood. This will require an increased complexity of studying all parts of behaviors. It will also be important to understand the dyadic relationship, victim of bullying and how the bullying is institutionalized. The client should be handled in both personal and institutional settings with consideration of how the culture has been in that organization.
My client struggles with the personal problem of interaction, acts to be antisocial, and talks like the environment is unfriendly and she engages in private activities where the public is excluded. Therapeutic framework based on human dilemma and existential anxiety applied in this case should be confronted positively. Existential anxiety handles the givens of existence including freedom, isolation, death and meaningless. Isolation as a givens of existence in this case is applied and that is why the lady involved is isolating herself from other people. Human beings are subjected to these determinates in life and that is why the lady can be identified to be subjected to isolation. Human dilemma chooses freely on how we react to forces of life.
The human dilemma makes us to choose freely on how to react to the forces of life. The client in this case has chosen to react to her forces by isolating herself from others. Moreover, she has assigned a meaning for her own existence and her reactions towards interaction have a meaning that she has been bullied before. With human dilemma, everybody is responsible for their future and destiny and that is why the client must be held responsible for what happens to her. If she has decided to isolate herself from others then she has to be responsible for that. Human dilemma experiences loneliness and in the process we must always still gives a meaning to life. It is important that everybody decides how they live and the type of life they want to live thus the client has decided how she will live.
Three modes of existing in this world include umwelt, mitwelt and eigenwelt. Unwelt that is biological world of the client is stable and she exists well. Miwelt that is relationship with others in the life of the client is not good and she is seen to be antisocial. Eigenwelt for self awareness is not clear in the client because she is not aware as to why she is that way. The only reason she gives is that she was bullied in the past.
Authentic and the inauthentic in life apply in the life of this client. The lady in this context has chosen to have an authentic life because she has chosen freely on how she will live. This lady has assigned a meaning to her own existence with a creation of her own destiny. An inauthentic life for the client does not apply because she has created her destiny.
Existential psychotherapeutic techniques will improve the authentic life of this client. An increased self awareness is therefore required and all the three phases can be used to establish this client. Phase on e is majorly identification and this is applicable for the client to identify and clarify what she assumes about the world. She can also apply a reflection for her own existence and make sense for the existence. The second phase that can work well for this client is defining sources of present systems of value. She has to identify her restricted values and attitudes that make her to be antisocial. The third and last phase involves the client taking into consideration what she has learned and putting the knowledge into action.
Conclusion
In concluding, the bullying that this lady client has gone through took place in her past life. It is because of this bullying that the client is defining her life different from others. The client is now thirty years and it has been a while since she went through bullying. The experience has not left the client and she claims that this experience sucks so much. For the client, bullying is an abuses and she aims to forever avoid the harsh human race.
