Meaning in Life
Available formats
Streaming options
Meaning is something every person struggles with in life. Understanding life experiences and developing a sense of purpose are often central concerns for clients, so therapists need to be prepared to handle these larger questions.
In this video program, Dr. Clara E. Hill explores the idea of meaning in life and discusses how to work with it as a focus in therapy.
In a series of highlights from a therapy session with an older male client struggling to define the purpose of his life, Dr. Hill shows how she encourages the client to explore possibilities, reframe negative thoughts and feelings with positive ones, and find insights by expanding on initial interpretations of the client's most impactful life milestones.
Viewers can see how Dr. Hill's work with the client helps him to effectively define his place in the world and therefore develop his own meaning in life.
Dr. Clara E. Hill's approach is an integration of client-centered, psychodynamic, and behavioral approaches, resulting in a three-stage model that includes exploration, insight, and action.
Clara E. Hill earned her PhD at Southern Illinois University in 1974. She started her career in 1974 as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, and is currently still there as a professor.
She has been president of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, editor of the Journal of Counseling Psychology, and coeditor of Psychotherapy Research.
Awards include the Leona Tyler Award (APA Division 17: Society of Counseling Psychology), the Distinguished Psychologist Award (APA Division 29: Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy), the Distinguished Research Career Award (Society for Psychotherapy Research), and the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award (Section on Counseling and Psychotherapy Process and Outcome Research, Society of Counseling Psychology).
Her major research interests are helping skills, psychotherapy process and outcome, training and supervising therapists, dream work, meaning in life, and qualitative research.
She has published 223 journal articles, 76 chapters in books, and 14 books (including Helping Skills, Dream Work in Therapy, and Consensual Qualitative Research).
APA Videos
- Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy for Clients With Multiple Problems
Gayle Y. Iwamasa - Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy for Late-Life Depression
Dolores Gallagher-Thompson - Helping Skills in Practice: A Three-Stage Model
Clara E. Hill - Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Older Adults With Depression
Gregory A. Hinrichsen - Mental Health Issues in Late Life
Patricia A. Arean - Mindfulness for Well-Being
Rezvan Ameli
APA Books
- Consensual Qualitative Research: A Practical Resource for Investigating Social Science Phenomena
Clara E. Hill - Dream Work in Therapy: Facilitating Exploration, Insight, and Action
Clara E. Hill - Helping Skills: Facilitating Exploration, Insight, and Action, Fourth Edition
Clara E. Hill - How and Why Are Some Therapists Better Than Others? Understanding Therapist Effects
Edited by Louis G. Castonguay and Clara E. Hill - Insight in Psychotherapy
Edited by Louis G. Castonguay and Clara E. Hill - Meaning in Life: A Therapist's Guide
Clara E. Hill - Transformation in Psychotherapy: Corrective Experiences Across Cognitive Behavioral, Humanistic, and Psychodynamic Approaches
Edited by Louis G. Castonguay and Clara E. Hill
