Exploring the Meaning of Our Unique Personal Experience
Epilogue by Rev. Lexie Brockway Potamkin in
Meaning-Centered Therapy Manual: Logotherapy & Existential Analysis Brief TherapyProtocol for Group & Individual Sessions, 8 Session Format
(Meaning-Centered Therapy Manual: Logotherapy & Existential Analysis Brief Therapy Protocol for Group &Individual Sessions, Dezelic & Ghanoum, 2015, p.103-104)
“Discovering Meaningful Existence: Exploring the Meaning of Our Unique Personal Experience”
Victor Frankl introduced into mainstream psychological practice the concept of having and maintaining a will to live in the face of suffering and adversity with his theory of Logotherapy & Existential Analysis. Dr. Marie Dezelic and Dr. Gabriel Ghanoum further translate his theories into an accessible existential atlas for both clinicians and clients to explore their own meaning and to rediscover meaning throughout life’s trials and tribulations. Our own consciousness has often been described as a conflicting element psychologically, a voice in our head with an ongoing inner dialogue. The tools in this manual are designed to focus and hone that dialogue into something useful and constructive. By asking and exploring existential questions, we can have access to unlocking our personal meaning and existence. I ask some of the basic key questions to discovering our inner meaning and existence in my “What Is…” series: What is Spirit? What is Peace? What is Love? What is Laughter? What is Death? I posed these simple, yet existential questions to myself and people from all walks of life, and found from the responses that simply asking these questions can unlock deeply held sources to our own meaning, purpose and emotional chapters in life. Finding value and meaning starts with asking the difficult and sometimes vague existential questions of our own existence. Seeking the meaning of life, death, spirit, peace, laughter and love can lead to new beginnings by rediscovering and reexamining our own previously held beliefs. This Meaning- Centered Therapy Manual is a guide to offset suffering, tragedy and despair by utilizing tools to recover and discover happiness, meaning and beauty in our lives. We all crave the momentous discovery of that fabled “reason to live.” We hear incredible stories of heroism, self-awakening, physical and mental triumph in the face of adversity. We fear suffering and therefore, also the process by which we are forced to deal with it. We may think that we do not possess the power needed to rise to the occasion if challenged in such a way in the course of our lives, but the human spirit innately wants to survive and will find a way to do so, described by Viktor Frankl as the Defiant Power of the Human Spirit.The limits of our own individual mental and physical strengths may not be truly tested until we are confronted with adversity. This may be both fortunate and unfortunate in that we do not unlock this strength of spirit until it is in dire need. When called upon, we can tap into the spiritual reserve helds pecifically for our emotional and mental survival. The will to persevere and find meaning in our continued existence is innate, but can be trapped under the weight of guilt, sadness, suffering, loss, unknowing. How do we unlock the meaning in our own lives? Continue Reading...
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