 Emmy van Deurzen was born and raised in The Netherlands, then went to France to study, where she earned a master's degree, and wrote her thesis on phenomenology and psychiatry.She worked as psychotherapist in France, then moved to the UK in 1977, where she became involved in antipsychiatry activism and worked for some time with R. D. Laing.She came to her own version of existential therapy, and started teaching at Antioch University, after which she moved to Regent's University London when the program moved there, joining the Regents faculty when the program was incorporated into the college.