APA Monitor features article on Existential-Humanistic therapy

Abraham Maslow

A notice to readers of the New Existentialists on the feature article “Searching for Meaning” in the American Psychological Association Monitor on Psychology (November, 2011):

This article is groundbreaking because for the first time in memory, existential-humanistic therapy is being exclusively featured in the flagship newsletter of the American Psychological Association. This development, along with the unprecedented convergence of leaders from diverse fields, e.g., Bruce Wampold, Steven Hayes, and Barry Wolfe, who partook in the formation of the article, marks the article as a landmark in the evolution of existential-humanistic theory and practice. And if you couple these news-breaking events with the recent publication of Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy (Routledge, 2008) and Existential-Humanistic Therapy (2010) published by the American Psychological Association, then you have a very powerful argument that existential-humanistic principles of practice are on the ascent again, and that the profession as a whole acknowledges it.

I frankly feel that with the advent of existential-integrative therapy, increasing numbers of practitioners are feeling welcomed into the existential-humanistic tent. Increasing numbers of practitioners, including those from existential-humanistic psychology, are appreciating that while most recognized therapies “work,” their effectiveness is multiplied by embracing a wide-ranging philosophy of what it means to live, to struggle for something profound, and to feel a part of a vast and unfathomable journey. This is the existential-humanistic journey, and it is a journey that this gem of an article has so eloquently chronicled.

Read the article, in PDF form, below.

— Kirk Schneider

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