Existential psychotherapy is usually individual therapy, with sessions commonly scheduled a few times a week, as in psychoanalysis. Existential therapy often shows its psychoanalytic origins: as in analysis, existential psychotherapy focuses largely on anxiety and the suppressed issues that anxiety veils. Existential therapists will push clients to confront anxiety directly; they will try to understand the clients' anxiety in relation to the lies that clients tell themselves in order to protect themselves from more anxiety. As we have already seen, existential therapists very commonly regard anxiety and depression as _promising_ symptoms because they can shake clients out of unfulfilling patterns of living. Anxiety and depression, instead of being viewed as undesirable symptoms to be eliminated, can motivate people to change and grow. Consequently, existential therapists tend to disapprove of the use of drugs in therapy. If clients take pills to reduce anxiety, for example, they will reduce the awareness of motivating pain that, if faced squarely, may bring about a more meaningful, satisfying life. Here is an example of the way an existential therapist forces a client to face issues head-on. What the therapist is thinking is in brackets. CLIENT: I don't know why I stay with my job. It just makes me depressed. All I do is tell you the same things over and over. I'm not getting anywhere. THERAPIST: [She is complaining because I'm not curing her. She has to do this herself.] To be frank, I'm impatient, {148} too. We talk, but you're not able to act. [She has to see that I can't take responsibility for her procrastinating]. CLIENT: What do you think I ought to do? I can't keep living like this. THERAPIST: [I can't make her decisions for her.] I can't tell you which way to go. I do know that you've been avoiding a decision. I believe you're going to take charge of your life but, until then, we may both feel impatient.... What _do_ you want to do? [She has to be pushed to make up her mind. She's ready now to decide but is understandably scared.] CLIENT: I want to stop worrying, stop feeling so anxious and upset. THERAPIST: [She'd like me to mother her.] Look, Diane, you've been coming to see me for three months now. You know what I think about feeling upset: if you're upset, there's something bothering you that you need to pay attention to. We both know you dislike your job and that you stay on mainly because you're afraid of a change. We can talk a long time about your unhappiness at work and about your fear of change, but eventually it will be time to stop talking and to try some alternatives. Do you think you're ready? I think you are.