CLIENT: (Sighs.) I guess you're right. I seem to be dragging my feet. If I want a satisfying job, I'm just going to have to try something else. Can we talk about some of my alternatives, then, and I'll try to stop complaining! THERAPIST: [Now she's starting to face up to the challenge.] APPLICATIONS OF EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPY These are some of the difficulties existential psychotherapy is designed to treat: * feelings of _real estrangement or alienation_ from others--from your immediate family and friends or from neighbors or colleagues at work * a sense of _acute loneliness_, of being cut off from humanity and from normal everyday activities and interactions * an awareness that your life has become an _empty pattern_ {149} of habit, that your activities or work no longer feel meaningful or valuable * an inability to _accept_ the realities that limit life; for example, anxiety experienced by older persons as they become more aware of the need to face the reality that life will end or anger and frustration experienced by individuals who must cope with real limitations--persons with physical impairments and chronic pain, individuals whose opportunities are limited by poverty, by their ties of responsibility to others, or by social disadvantage Individuals who benefit most from existential psychotherapy tend to have these characteristics: * They are reflective and analytical. * They tend to be introverted. * They have _lost faith_--in their sense of social commitment, in their identity and role within their families, in their belief that their work is of value, or in their religion. {150} 11 PSYCHOTHERAPY, PART II Logotherapy, Reality Therapy Adlerian Therapy, Emotional Flooding Therapies, Direct Decision Therapy In this second chapter devoted to major approaches to psychotherapy, we will look at logotherapy, reality therapy, Adlerian therapy, the family of emotional flooding therapies, and direct decision therapy. Like the five psychotherapies described in Chapter 10, these focus special attention on a client's personal style of relating to the world and others. They all seek to help a person to free himself or herself from troubling feelings and negative attitudes and to replace these with a stronger and more confident self-concept. Each therapy is a different path to that goal. LOGOTHERAPY _For reflective individuals who are sensitive to values and who are in search of a richer sense of meaning in life._ He who has a _why_ to live for can bear with almost any _how_. Friedrich Nietzsche {151}