British Existential Therapy

Existential ideas were initially introduced into British psychiatry and psychotherapy in the 1960's through the writings of existential psychiatrists R.D.Laing and David Cooper, who called into question the whole concept of 'mental illness', suggesting that it was a social construct as opposed to a fact. They founded the Philadelphia Association in 1965 which sponsored therapeutic communities in London, England, for people going through severe states of mental distress as an alternative to traditional hospital-based psychiatric treatment. They started their own psychotherapy training programme in the early '70's promoting an integrative model that drew upon psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and existential philosophy, still in exsistence today with a centre in the Hampstead area of London. Inspired by their work, Emmy van Deurzen, a Dutch philosopher and psychologist, set up the first training programme in existential therapy at the Regent's College School of Psychotherapy and Counselling in the late 80's, also founing the Society for Existential Analysis. She was joined by Canadian psychologist Ernesto Spinelli and other professionals with an interest in existentialism and phenomenology, including Hans Cohn, something of an elder statesman for the School, who wrote two very good books. Out of this has emerged a British School of Existential Therapy which tends to be descriptive, nondirective, and de-pathologising, with emphasis on the relational aspects of Being-in-the-World. Although much of the practice has been in the arena of individual therapy, application to working with couples and groups has been explored, as well as a more focused time-limited therapy. In 1996 Emmy left Regent's College and started the New School of Psychotherapy, based at Schiller International University, London, England. Stephen Ticktin