Deeply human, empirically based.
“Happiness is a side effect of being actively engaged in our lives, throwing off our stifling and restrictive security blankets, and reaching outside our cozy cocoons to explore our existence and to rebel against injustices. Truth, not ignorance, is existential bliss.” - Skye C. Cleary, “How to Be Authentic”
Existential-Humanistic
Values & Concerns
Existential-humanistic theory is concerned with the process of becoming and knowing oneself in context of life’s freedoms, limitations, tensions, and ambiguities. It’s commonly understood as an interdisciplinary meeting of the minds across psychology, philosophy, literature, and the humanities at large—a school of thought that values depth and honesty towards life’s deepest questions, poignant realities, and creative possibilities. In practice, this means inviting conversations relevant to matters of life and death, meaning and meaninglessness, interconnectedness and separation, and freedom and responsibility.
What do we want out of life, and how can we make that happen?
What is within or not within our control?
What responsibilities do we have to ourselves and to others?
How do we choose life in acknowledgment of death’s finality?
How can we seize our freedom to live more authentically and take responsibility for our choices?
How do we tolerate life’s inherent ambiguities, complexities, contradictions, and ubiquitous mess?
Existential-humanism values living with intention. In many ways, it is a philosophy of “doing” in the world that inspires us to face our ephemeral existence with integrity and seize the opportunity to focus on what truly matters. It also informs the therapeutic stance as one of egalitarianism, deep presence, and genuine relationship.
Evidence-Based Care:
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an evidence-based, and in many ways, an existentially-conscious approach to mindfulness and cognitive-behavioral intervention. While existential-humanistic concerns help us to acknowledge and inquire into the inevitability of human suffering and our search for meaning, ACT can move us more deeply into experiencing how we can actually deal with that suffering, reduce our internal struggles, and follow through with taking values-based action in our lives.
ACT’s model emphasizes our common humanity and the psychological normality of experiencing difficult thoughts and emotions. While our suffering may vary in unique ways and to different degrees, there is a common experience in which our attempts to control or avoid difficult experiences end up causing us more suffering in the long term. Rather than trying to eliminate or subtract symptoms, ACT works to change the ways we relate to them and connect us to what we are yearning for at the heart of our suffering.
Through mindfulness training and behavior change processes, we work together on getting in contact with the present moment, strengthening an observer sense of self, defusing from difficult thoughts, accepting challenging emotions, and building an authentic life. Together, these processes support increased psychological flexibility in service of our goals and values—much like building a therapeutic relationship with our own minds.
Situated within the behavioral science tradition, ACT is committed to ongoing empirical evaluation. As of 2023, there are over 1,000 randomized controlled trials investigating the effectiveness of ACT’s psychological flexibility model across a broad range of psychological problems.