Existential–Humanistic Case Formulation

Existential–humanistic therapy blends existential philosophy and psychology with humanistic psychology forming a new, distinct approach to psychotherapy. Existential–humanistic case formulation is a fluid, evolving, client-centered approach that seeks to help clients identify, clarify, and explore core concerns and how they want to engage in life. In Existential– Humanistic Case Formulation, Dr. Hoffman demonstrates this approach, collaborating with a client to identify their problems, clarify goals, and help them see their vision of a good life. He helps the client take agency in their healing process with techniques of self-reflection and discovery of feelings and by affirming their experience. The demonstration in this video is framed by an informative discussion with the guest therapist hosted by Dr. Theopia Jackson.

Existential–humanistic therapy blends existential philosophy and psychology with humanistic psychology forming a new, distinct approach to psychotherapy. This therapeutic modality attends to issues of freedom, agency, human limitation, meaning, and authenticity. In addressing these issues, existential-humanistic therapy utilizes relational depth, agency, presence, here-and-now engagement, and the experiential processing of emotions. This approach to case formulation was developed by Louis Hoffman and Heatherlyn Cleare-Hoffman.

Louis Hoffman, PhD, is the executive director of the Rocky Mountain Humanistic Counseling and Psychological Association. He has been granted fellow status with APA and six of its divisions (1, 10, 24, 32, 36, 48, 52) for his contributions to professional psychology and is the 2010/2011 recipient of the Rollo May Award of the Society for Humanistic Psychology. Dr. Hoffman continues to teach at the University of Denver and Saybrook University. In addition to providing training and clinical supervision, Dr. Hoffman also continues to see clients through is private practice.

APA Videos of Related Interest

Existential–Humanistic Therapy Over Time
Kirk J. Schneider, PhD

Existential–Humanistic Psychotherapy Supervision
Kirk J. Schneider, PhD

Existential Therapy
Kirk J. Schneider, PhD

Case Formulation in Emotion-Focused Therapy: Addressing Unfinished Business
Rhonda N. Goldman, PhD

Case Formulation in Psychotherapy
Tracy D. Eells, PhD

Constructive Therapy in Practice 
Jonathan D. Raskin, PhD

The Human and Relational Core of Psychotherapy
David N. Elkins, PhD

APA Books of Related Interest

Existential–Humanistic Therapy: Second Edition 
Kirk J. Schneider, PhD, and Orah T. Krug, PhD

Supervision Essentials for Existential–Humanistic Therapy
Kirk J. Schneider, PhD, and Orah T. Krug, PhD

Emotion-Focused Therapy: Revised Edition
Leslie S. Greenberg, PhD

The Psychology of Meaning
Edited by Keith D. Markman, PhD, Travis Proulx, PhD, and Matthew J. Lindberg, PhD

Case Formulation in Emotion-Focused Therapy: Co-Creating Clinical Maps for Change
Rhonda N. Goldman and Leslie S. Greenberg

Psychotherapy Case Formulation
Tracy D. Eells, PhD

Other related titles 

Bugental, J. F. T. (1999). Psychotherapy isn’t what you think: Bringing the psychotherapeutic engagement into the living moment. Zeig, Tucker.

Schneider, K. J. (2015). Existential-integrative psychotherapy: Guideposts to the core of Practice. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

May, R. (1999). Freedom and destiny. W.W. Norton & Company.

Falk, J., Hoffman, L., Park, H., Schneider, K., Bland, A. M., Vallejos, L. X., Mendelowitz, E., Zymnis, K., Yang, M., Heery, M., Granger, J., Nathaniel, Krug, O. T., Wang, X., Galvin, K., & Rubin, S. A. (2022). Becoming an existential-humanistic therapist: Narratives from the journey. University Professors Press.