What Is Existential Therapy and How Can It Help?

Existential therapy is about exploring life’s biggest questions: Who am I? What matters to me? How do I live with freedom, loss, and uncertainty? Rather than seeing these questions as problems, this approach views them as part of being human and works with them directly.

In therapy, we look at how themes like freedom, isolation, mortality, and meaning show up in your daily life and relationships. Often these questions live quietly beneath struggles with anxiety, disconnection, or feeling “stuck.” Facing them with honesty and curiosity can bring greater clarity, purpose, and a sense of alignment.

This work is especially powerful in relational therapy. Our relationships are where existential concerns come alive: longing for closeness while needing independence, feeling unseen even in connection, or fearing loss when we love deeply. Together, we’ll not only explore how your earliest attachments shaped these patterns, but also how they connect to what you most value and desire in your life today.

In therapy we might:

• Explore the sense of emptiness or purposelessness that can come with transitions, grief, or feeling “off track.”
• Identify where you feel trapped by old choices or expectations, and reconnect with your freedom to choose.
• Reflect on relationships—where you feel connected, where you feel alone—and what authenticity means for you.
• Work with anxiety as a signal pointing to deeper values and longings, not just something to “fix.”
• Clarify what gives your life meaning, and begin aligning daily choices more closely with your values.
   

Ultimately, existential therapy helps you build a stronger sense of self—one that feels more grounded, free, and authentic. It offers a space to move beyond survival strategies and into relationships, and a life, that feel more meaningful and alive.