arrangement of the concepts to cover as therapy progresses allows therapists to employ a flexible format to groups. Existential therapy does not impose particular values and meanings on people, but rather investigates the values and meanings that group members attribute to their own circumstances. This enhances group members’ ability to engage on a journey of self discovery. By focussing on the universal commonalities between clients, existential therapy has proven to be effective for groups focussing on substance abuse, bipolar disorder, HIV infection, and numerous other groups of people with commonalities that may be difficult to deal with alone. Bipolar Disorder A recent treatment for bipolar disorder is that of existential psychoeducational groups. Existential psychoeducation is a type of phenomenological group therapy that assists group members in giving inner consent to their own actions (Goldner-Vukov, Moore, & Cupina, 2007). Researchers have stated that psychoeducation dealing with the givens of existence is a beneficial mode of treatment for individuals living with bipolar disorder because it has yielded results that demonstrate subjective improvement in self confidence, behaviours, and social functioning (Goldner-Vukov et al). Goldner-Vukov et al. suggest that the reason why the givens of existence provide such a useful platform for treating bipolar disorder is because individuals who have this cognitive impairment face these very challenges through their difficulties in: (1) dealing with others in the world; (2) dealing with their own life problems; (3) facing the challenges of being oneself and understanding those challenges; as well as, (4) rectifying concerns regarding the future and their identity. Death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness are issues which correlate to the literal challenges that individuals living with bipolar disorder face on a daily basis. Researchers revealed that their psychoeducational group with people who have bipolar disorder was so successful that it resulted in 90% of members attaining full-time employment
arrangement of the concepts to cover as therapy progresses allows therapists to employ a flexible format to groups. Existential therapy does not impose particular values and meanings on people, but rather investigates the values and meanings that group members attribute to their own circumstances. This enhances group members’ ability to engage on a journey of self discovery. By focussing on the universal commonalities between clients, existential therapy has proven to be effective for groups focussing on substance abuse, bipolar disorder, HIV infection, and numerous other groups of people with commonalities that may be difficult to deal with alone. Bipolar Disorder A recent treatment for bipolar disorder is that of existential psychoeducational groups. Existential psychoeducation is a type of phenomenological group therapy that assists group members in giving inner consent to their own actions (Goldner-Vukov, Moore, & Cupina, 2007). Researchers have stated that psychoeducation dealing with the givens of existence is a beneficial mode of treatment for individuals living with bipolar disorder because it has yielded results that demonstrate subjective improvement in self confidence, behaviours, and social functioning (Goldner-Vukov et al). Goldner-Vukov et al. suggest that the reason why the givens of existence provide such a useful platform for treating bipolar disorder is because individuals who have this cognitive impairment face these very challenges through their difficulties in: (1) dealing with others in the world; (2) dealing with their own life problems; (3) facing the challenges of being oneself and understanding those challenges; as well as, (4) rectifying concerns regarding the future and their identity. Death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness are issues which correlate to the literal challenges that individuals living with bipolar disorder face on a daily basis. Researchers revealed that their psychoeducational group with people who have bipolar disorder was so successful that it resulted in 90% of members attaining full-time employment
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