discussion post
Hi, I need help with discussion board-Initial Post-10 meaningful sentences-
Initial Post :As you read and reflect about each of the existential themes, which has the most meaning to you and why? In addition, the existential concepts of freedom and responsibility imply that even if we do not have much choice in the circumstances to which we are born, we do create our own destiny. To what degree do you agree with this notion? Be sure to connect your response to something you learned in Chapter 6. To clearly illustrate that connection, your response must contain the page number from the textbook in order to earn full credit.
Attached is chapter 6.
I also need reply (5 meaningful sentences) to the following post: This does not need to be connected to content in the textbook.
POST for reply: There are many existential themes and concepts that resonate with me and my ideas on how a therapeutic relationship should be formed. Before we I get into the theme in which I found most meaningful I wanted to reflect on existentialism as a whole. I really like the theory in that it focuses on clients accepting their faults and that it has them take accountability for them. Moreover, I like how the concept is not a “technique” and it can work with mostly any other theoretically orientation. Most of all what I really liked about this theory is the “openness to the individual creativity of the therapist and the client” (Corey, LO5). This idea is very impactful to me because that means it is not very ridged and structured which I believe can be very important in a therapeutic session. That is not to say that there is not a time and a place for very structured and organized work. I just really like the idea of being to put my own personality into the therapeutic session and having the clients personally also reflect our growth as together.
Nevertheless, on to the question at hand. I really enjoyed the proposition that are outlines in the existential theory, mainly the anxiety as a condition of living. I thought it was very impactful to view anxiety as a normal occurrence in our lives as humans. I believe that many people live their lives afraid of their anxieties and they try to hind them from public view for fear that they will be “found out”. Silly right? People have anxiety about their anxiety, no matter how silly it sounds it is a very common occurrence that ultimately leads to increase anxiety. Corey (2017) touches on this when it discusses that people will seek therapy when their anxiety reaches an unmanageable point (LO3). The basic premise of anxiety in the existential perspective is that it serves a purpose and is not always a bad thing. In many cases anxiety can be a driving motivation for change and growth to occur. According to the theory there are two types of anxieties normal anxiety which is an appropriate response to an event that a person may be facing. This is something that we all experience and for the most part it is manageable. However, when we fail to overcome these anxieties they become a neurotic anxiety which generally speaking is way out of proportion considering the situation. This anxiety is often out of our awareness and can lead to psychological harmful situation that might lead to therapeutic interventions. To combat these anxieties the existential approach looks to help clients understand that life is full of uncertainly and we must manage to live our lives despite this uncertainty. (Corey, LO3)
The existential approach also discusses the concept in that even though we do not have control of the situations in which we are born, we still have control of our own destiny. I would agree with this to a certain point. I believe that even though we do not have control over the situations in which we are faced with we can control how we respond to these situations and how we adapt to them. Life struggles can really define who we are and who we become and ultimately it is true we have the control. However, at the same time I believe there are situations that unfortunately many people are faced with in that other concepts like learned helplessness may take place and lead to the destiny of the individual being less about personal choice.
