Existential Therapy
Existential Therapy views pain and distress not as pathology, but as natural responses to the deeper questions of being human. It invites us to live with honesty, curiosity, and a renewed sense of choice in how we meet our lives.
Rooted in the work of Viktor Frankl, Irvin Yalom, and the broader existential tradition, this approach explores what Yalom described as the four ultimate concerns, sometimes referred to as the existential givens: death, aloneness, freedom, and meaning.
These are the fundamental realities every human must face, the conditions that give rise to both our suffering and our potential for growth.
What Is Existential Therapy?
Death: Facing the Reality of Impermanence
Death asks us to confront the awareness that our time in this body is finite. We face this truth not only through grief and loss, but through every ending and change life brings. The suffering often comes from our avoidance of this reality; yet paradoxically, there can be relief in turning toward it. When we acknowledge what is true, we may find a deeper appreciation for the immediacy and beauty of living.
Aloneness: The Invitation to Authentic Connection
Aloneness speaks to the reality that no one can ever fully know what it is like to live inside our body, with our unique history, perceptions, and inner world. This is not an absence of connection, but an invitation into a more honest relationship with ourselves and others, one that softens codependence and allows for genuine intimacy and belonging.
Freedom: Choice and Responsibility
Freedom connects closely with responsibility: the awareness that we have choice in our lives. Sometimes it can feel easier to believe we are not free, that our circumstances or past experiences determine everything. Yet it is often in this avoidance that suffering arises. Freedom asks us to face our capacity to choose, to participate in the creation of our own life and meaning. Like death and aloneness, this truth can be uncomfortable to face, yet when we do, there is often an exhale that comes from naming what is real and reclaiming our agency to live in alignment with what feels true.
Meaning: Participating in the Creation of Purpose
Meaning invites us to consider how we make sense of our lives and experiences. Some existential thinkers suggest that there is no inherent meaning in the universe, an idea that can open larger questions about spirituality, fate, and purpose. Yet rather than seeing this as despairing, existential therapy views it as an opportunity: we are participants in the creation of meaning.
When life presents difficulty or change, we are invited to engage with it: to choose how we will interpret and respond. Meaning is not something we create out of thin air, nor something handed to us; it is a living dialogue between our intuitive sense of truth and the unfolding reality of our lives. To face this concern is to acknowledge that we are both responsible for and capable of shaping meaning in our lives, and for our emotional and spiritual health, it is essential that we do so.
The Four Ultimate Concerns
How Existential Psychotherapy Works in Practice
In therapy, these ideas become deeply practical. Together, we explore how these existential themes weave through your daily life, in relationships, in transitions, in the moment to moment decisions and perspectives. Existential approaches can often be mistaken for simply abstract philosophy; rather, our focus is on cultivating an honest, grounded, and meaningful way of being in the world: one where we remember that we do have a say, where faith and free will create a dance of possibility.
Existential Therapy for Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are never just about food. They touch on deeper questions of identity, meaning, choice, control, isolation, and how we inhabit our lives. This is why existential therapy can be such a powerful modality for women navigating eating disorders or lingering patterns with food and embodiment.
Many women describe their eating disorder as something that helped them survive, cope, or make sense of overwhelming experiences. From an existential perspective, these patterns often emerge at places where life feels unbearable, uncertain, or out of control.
Existential therapy works alongside practical support and manageable behaviour change. It helps you explore:
• the part of you that longs for safety, certainty, or disappearance
• the tension between control and surrender
• the fear of inhabiting a body that changes, ages, feels
• the meaning you attach to food, hunger, fullness, or appearance
• the conflict between who you were, who you are asked to be, and who you truly are
• what freedom, agency, and self-trust might mean for you specifically
Existential therapy becomes especially helpful for women who:
• feel “recovered” on paper but not at home in themselves
• have lost a sense of direction or meaning after leaving treatment
• find themselves repeating old patterns in new ways
• feel disconnected from their bodies, their relationships, or their inner world
• are wrestling with questions about who they are or how they want to live
• sense that their eating disorder carried deeper emotional and existential roots
Working with Julia at Village Wellness
At Village Wellness, Julia integrates existential therapy with a compassionate, relational approach. Sessions offer a space to explore the deep themes of meaning, freedom, aloneness and mortality, while also working with your body and nervous system so you feel grounded and safe enough to meet them.
Whether you’re navigating a challenging relationship to food or your body, feeling overwhelmed by your sensitivity, moving through loss, uncertainty, or a desire for greater authenticity, this work supports you in meeting life’s questions with clarity, courage and care. If you’re curious about exploring existential therapy, you’re very welcome to book a consultation or reach out with any questions. Together we’ll explore how meaning, freedom and connection can become living realities in your day-to-day life.