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Invited Paper An existential challenge to some dominant perspectives in the practice of contemporary counselling psychology Ernesto Spinelli Content & Focus: This paper aims to explore a number of key challenges raised by existential theory to the dominant assumptions, aims and practices within contemporary counselling psychology. It argues that the existential focus on relatedness significantly alters counselling psychology’s understanding of, and ways of perceiving individuals as well as the concerns that are brought to the therapeutic encounter. Keywords: Relatedness; authenticity; the self; therapeutic encounter; un-knowing. OR MANY COUNSELLING PSYCHO- primarily focused upon a structured critique LOGISTS, existential thought and of how contemporary counselling psycho- Fpractice focus upon a number of key logy (as well as therapy in general) and its themes – such as meaning/meaninglessness, aims are predominantly understood and being/non-being, isolation, and so forth – practised (Barnett & Madison, 2011; Cooper, which can be explored as part of the overall 2003; Jacobsen, 2007; Langdridge, 2007, narratives of their clients. This thematic 2013; Spinelli, 1994, 1997, 2005, 2007). focus provides practitioners from just about any contemporary model of therapy with a The challenge of being way of integrating their approach with that As I understand it, existential theory of various key concerns associated with exis- proposes a view of being that is founded tential ideas. Integrative enterprises along upon a process-like ‘flow’ of being-always- these lines are not to be dismissed nor deni- becoming. It also proposes that human beings’ grated and they appear to be increasingly reflective experiences of this ‘flow’ reveal an attractive to many counselling psychologists inevitable act of interpretation which (McLeod & Cooper, 2012). substantiates, structures or ‘thing-ifies’ However, this paper takes the position ‘being-always-becoming’ into ‘being-as- that existential counselling psychology, as substance’. This very same act of essential- with existential therapy in general, is much ising/substantiating/structuring the flow of more than a collection of themes that might being-always-becoming is itself the source to or might not be shared with other the universal – and inescapable – human approaches. Instead, it will seek to argue that experience of existential anxiety. Why? existential thought and practice provides Because no reflectively-derived substantive counselling psychologists with an approach/ construct can fully capture/contain/ model/attitude/theory that can stand on its secure/stabilise the flow of being-always- own; that has its own specific ‘take’ on the becoming. Reflection can only, and always, issues that remain central to counselling allow only for incomplete meanings that psychology as a whole; and which adopts a attempt to grasp this flow within confines of stance toward such issues that in many time and space – that is to say, within reflec- profound ways provides the means for a tive structures. In this way, existential series of significant challenges that are thought argues that the quest for any fully- Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 29, No. 2, June 2014 7 © The British Psychological Society – ISSN 0269-6975 Ernesto Spinelli realised and permanent coherence, from, and are expressions of, this relational completeness or fulfilment in one’s lived grounding is encapsulated in a quote by experience of being can only ever be just Maurice Merleau-Ponty: ‘The world and I are that – a quest and attempt, a movement within one another’ (Merleau-Ponty, 1962, towards, rather than any achievement or p.123). arrival. Karl Jaspers summarised this view wonderfully: ‘Man is always something more Relatedness than what he knows of himself. He is not what he At its simplest, the principle of relatedness is simply once and for all, but is a process’ argues that all of our embodied felt-experi- (Jaspers, 2009, p.116). ences and behaviours, all of our reflective In addition, existential theory argues that knowledge, awareness and understanding of Western thought and reflections upon our the world, of others and of our selves, existence, especially since Descartes, have emerge through an irreducible grounding substantiated being in a specifically divisive of relatedness. We cannot, therefore, dualistic mode of interpretative reflecting adequately understand nor make sense of that extends to all of our meanings, values, human beings – our selves included – on assumptions, statements and attitudes either their own or in isolation, but always and only about or toward being. The divides we in and through their inter-relational context. impose upon our reflections on, for At a deeper level, this view insists upon the instance, self/other, subject/object, mind/ interrelatedness and interdependence of body, thought/emotion are both obvious what in a modern empiricist tradition has and critical examples of our particularly been called ‘subject’ and ‘object’ (or ‘self’ separatist Western way of dualistic reflection. and ‘other’, or ‘self’ and ‘world’). From the In its broadest sense, this way of reflecting standpoint of existential phenomenology, has allowed us to construe being only as none of these terms makes sense in and of ‘boundaried’ or ‘bounded’ as well as individ- itself, just as none can, in fact, be defined or ualistically/subjectively dominated rather considered in isolation. One major implica- than relationally attuned. In short, such tion from this is that the subject who is ‘I’ forms of reflection have served to reduce the can attempt to know him/herself only by foundational relatedness of flowing being- means of ‘the world’ and of the ‘others’ who always-becoming to mere relationship – that inhabit it (Spinelli, 2007). And further, that is, the interaction of, by and between sepa- whatever knowledge is ascertained is not rate beings whose existence is claimed to be located within the subject, nor is it present as understandable and explicable from an a given of the subject, but rather only originating, individualistically-boundaried emerges via the elucidation of this inter-rela- perspective. tional a priori (Gergen, 2009). This view tells This is the crux of existential theory’s us that relatedness is not something that most foundational challenge and, I think, is becomes established only under certain also the distinguishing feature that sets it circumstances or as a result of particular aside from the vast majority of other contem- conditions or which we work towards. porary models of psychology. Existential Rather, ‘relatedness is’. Always. Even the theory rejects the idea of a subjectively-origi- attempt to disrupt or to deny relatedness nated, boundaried individual whose issues, emerges as an expression of relatedness. concerns and disorders can be understood and treated as expressions and disturbances Practising existential counselling ‘from within’. Instead, an existential focus psychology begins with the basic assumption of a foun- One critical consequence of relatedness that dational being-derived relatedness. This key is central to the practice of counselling hypothesis, that individuals spring forth psychology is this: the dilemmas, dysfunc- 8 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 29, No. 2, June 2014 An existential challenge to some dominant perspectives in the practice of contemporary… tions and disorders that individuals experi- set of relational circumstances and conditions ence and bring to therapy are now to be than it is with any directive interventionist considered as expressions and consequences treatment of dysfunctions. In this sense, exis- of their grounding in relatedness. They may tential counselling psychology is more akin arise from a lack of ‘fit’ between a person’s to research enquiry focused on under- dispositional stances toward being (i.e. one’s standing than it is to quasi-medical attempts beliefs, attitudes, assumptions, expectations, to heal. For another, it is far less concerned feelings and behaviours regarding who and with highlighting any particular subject how one is/is not or should/should not be) matter deemed to be appropriate (or inap- versus his or her actual experience of being. propriate) for therapeutic discourse (be it They might also arise as undesirable or verbal or action-based) than it is in unforeseen consequences of adopting and attempting a particular way or mode of maintaining a particular dispositional stance engagement with whatever presents itself for toward being. They might be expressions of dialogue in the way that it presents itself the pain of being experientially attuned to without seeking to amend, amplify or recon- being possibilities that cannot be fulfilled. figure it. This overall attitudinal stance ulti- Or they may ‘simply’ be the outcome of the mately serves to challenge both clients and limitations of ‘capturing’ the experience of counselling psychologists in their dominant being-always-becoming from a substantiating mode of reflecting upon being – be it reflective standpoint. Whatever the case, focused on their experience of self, of they remain inevitable and insolvable others, or of the world. In brief, the primary dilemmas arising from one’s attempts to concern for existential counselling both embrace and remain distanced from psychology is not about establishing a rela- relatedness. tionship but about experiencing relatedness As such, the alternative perspective being as it presents itself to reflective experience. proposed by existential therapy does not sit Stated with an eye on brevity, the enter- easily with currently dominant modes of prise of existential counselling psychology is theory and practice within counselling to engage in a mutually truthful discourse psychology. For one, it rejects the idea of focused upon the exploration and elucida- treating individuals as isolated beings who tion of how and in what ways the client can be understood and treated from an construes being from the standpoint of a exclusively intra-psychic perspective. series of relations – relations to self, to others Further, it rejects the assumption that coun- and to the world in general. The client’s selling psychologists can attend to and alter presenting problem(s) and concerns are or amend ‘parts’ of an individual without placed within these various relational foci so such interventions affecting the whole of the that their impact upon these can be more being (and of being as a whole) in ways adequately discerned. In doing so, the client which remain currently unpredictable. (or counselling psychologist, or both) may Third, it rejects the view that a disorder is find alternatives, challenges, contradictions, solely problematic and instead proposes that and so forth that provoke shifts in meaning, expressions of disorder may well also be felt experience and behaviour – either crucial to the continued – and desired – through active attempts to change these maintenance of the current reflectively- conditions or, more commonly, through a maintained, boundaried being. more ‘owned’ acceptance of these condi- In taking this stance, existential coun- tions and their possibilities (as well as their selling psychology shifts the focus of its limits). It is the existential counselling practice in various ways. For one, it is much psychologist’s ‘skill’ in being there in the more concerned with the descriptive investi- encounter with the client that is critical to gation of how it is to experience being in a given the enterprise. This way of ‘being there’ Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 29, No. 2, June 2014 9 Ernesto Spinelli is inquisitive but not judgemental, engaged adopting this view. However, it is also a view but not authoritarian, more concerned with that is not – and if my arguments above are promoting a ‘stillness’ that remains focused correct, cannot be – shared by existential upon what currently presents itself experien- counselling psychologists. For one thing, the tially to the client in order to provoke a more existential perspective on authenticity does honest awareness of who and how the client is not recognise it as a stance to being that can being rather than focused upon directed change truly be ‘worked upon’ or achieved in any regarding who and how different the client has permanent sense. It has no implied sugges- been or can become (Spinelli, 2007). tion of psychological, spiritual or develop- mental superiority over other ways of being. Authenticity Again, wrapped in paradox as it is, existen- In short, from the perspective of existential tially-speaking, the very claim of achieving theory, central ideas and themes that both authenticity is itself a statement of inauthen- define and permeate counselling psychology ticity. The notion of existential authenticity is – themes such as freedom and its limitations, intimately connected to the foundational choice, identity, meaning/meaninglessness, existential assumption of being-always- in/authenticity, ‘real’ or genuine expres- becoming and, as such, cannot be captured sions of self versus ‘false’ or masked versions within notions of any given substantive state and so forth are always to be contextualised or condition. In many ways, the experience within the foundational assumption of relat- of authenticity, from an existential stand- edness. Without the centrality of relatedness point, cannot really be talked about; the all of the above ideas become subjectively- term serves as a reflective ‘pointer towards’ focused ideals to which essence-derived indi- rather than a thing, or state, in and of itself. viduals may aspire for their own personal In my view, this same debate arose in the self-development. From within a context of now famous dialogue between Carl Rogers relatedness, however, a very different view and Martin Buber (Buber & Rogers, 1990). can be seen to emerge. Rogers, from a humanistic perspective, Consider, for example, the notion of attempted to argue that person-centred authenticity or ‘being authentic’. The therapy can provoke, or be provoked by, an majority views adopted by counselling I-Thou relationship. Buber’s response, as psychologists – as well as more ‘everyday’ I understand it, disputed this assertion and views – regarding authenticity approach it basically argued that any claim to the estab- within a subjectivist, or self-oriented, lishment of an I-Thou relationship actually perspective. Such views consider the possi- revealed an I-It relationship in that the expe- bility of a truly ‘authentic self’ from a rience of I-Thou is not some ‘thing’ that is substantive, unitary set of pre-suppositions substantive and fixed in time (much less regarding self (see below for further discus- permanent) but rather a ‘flow’ of being- sion). In this way, authenticity becomes always-becoming. something that an individual can ‘work toward’ or might even attain in a lasting, or The self final, manner. This kind of authenticity In like manner, the different meanings resides within an individual, is an expression arising from a term such as authenticity raise of that individual and is achieved by that further divergences that impact upon seem- individual through various means that ingly less esoteric terms such as ‘the self’. prompt him or her toward his or her true or Once again, at a surface level, both existen- genuine or real self. tial and other therapeutic approaches place This is a perfectly acceptable way of great emphasis on the issue of the self and, understanding authenticity and I would not in this sense, there exists a set of shared for a moment wish to castigate anyone for concerns that would suggest similar stances 10 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 29, No. 2, June 2014
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