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