Danish existential psychology

Domain III · Humanistic, existential & experiential · Bo Jacobsen · 1998 · Denmark

What it is

This is not a manualised therapy. It is an existential psychology: a body of concepts about how individual people relate to the basic dilemmas of life, built up by Bo Jacobsen (professor at the Centre for Research in Existence and Society, Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen;…

Format

• No phase model is documented in the sources used. The sample and the reviews describe a theme-based book, not a protocol with stages, session numbers or criteria for moving on. A Danish reviewer notes that the 1998 book takes no stand on what is necessary or characteristic for a therapy to count as…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• What it is. This is not a manualised therapy. It is an existential psychology: a body of concepts about how individual people relate to the basic dilemmas of life, built up by Bo Jacobsen (professor at the Centre for Research in Existence and Society, Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen; practising psychologist, existential psychotherapist and supervisor). His therapy training came from John Smidt…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• The therapist supplying meaning. It is working when the client articulates values in their own words and acts on them.
• The client may defer to staff or family. It is working when the client voices a preference and the plan changes to fit it.
• Over-responsibility, as in "I chose to get cancer". Correct this firmly. It is working when the client owns choices without self-blame.
• Premature "silver lining" talk from you. It is working when the client can hold both pain and value without either cancelling the other.
• You may be filling silences with your own theory. It is working when the client corrects or surprises you, and when they say they feel understood.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.