Alison Strasser - Time-Limited Existential Therapy

While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this work, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives, written sales materials or promotional statements for this work. The fact that an organization, website, or product is referred to in this work as a citation and/or potential source of further information does not mean that the publisher and authors endorse the information or services the organization, website, or product may provide or recommendations it may make. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a specialist where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data

Names: Strasser, Alison, author. | Strasser, Freddie, author.

Title: Time‐limited existential therapy : the wheel of existence / Alison Strasser with Freddie Strasser

Other titles: Existential time‐limited therapy.

Description: Second edition. | Hoboken, NJ : Wiley‐Blackwell, 2022. | Revision of: Existential time‐limited therapy / Freddie Strasser and Alison Strasser. 1997. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021043976 (print) | LCCN 2021043977 (ebook) | ISBN 9781118713716 (paperback) | ISBN 9781118713686 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781118713709 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Existential psychotherapy. | Brief psychotherapy.

Classification: LCC RC489.E93 S77 2022(print) | LCC RC489.E93(ebook) | DDC 616.89/147–dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021043976LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021043977

Cover Design: Wiley

Cover Image: © Dody Strasser, RBA

Freddie Strasser (1924–2008)

This book is dedicated to my dad, Freddie Strasser, whose wisdom, innovation, and vision, whose passion for the time‐limited modular approach, and whose appetite for wheels of every description laid the foundational ideas upon which this book is based.

Thank you for remaining steadfastly by my side as this second edition took shape and for your unswerving belief.

Your Hungarian charm and infectious smile will continue to ripple in all those who have been touched by your irrepressible spirit.

All therapy, de facto, is time limited and has a beginning and an end. In this it is very much like human existence. The more we allow ourselves to be aware of the limits of life, the defter we get at using the space and time available to us. It is like this with therapy too: the more we approach it with awareness of its limits and boundaries, the sharper becomes its lens, allowing us to throw a clear light on a person’s difficulties whilst illuminating their possibilities. Time, here too, is of the essence, as it leads us naturally from our memory‐laden past, through our present predicaments, towards a future purpose and destination. Throughout the pages of this book our journey in time points the way towards progress, meaning, and understanding.

When Freddie Strasser and his daughter Alison Strasser co‐authored their book on time‐limited therapy at the end of the 1990s, they had both relatively recently completed their existential training (with me), but had already shown themselves to be prime contributors to the existential approach. In that earlier book I recognised many of the ingredients I had introduced them to, though they had been mixed and prepared in a new way, providing a fresh and original take on existential therapy that foregrounded the important theme of the time‐limited nature of our profession.

In this new volume, Alison Strasser has remixed the themes, elegantly updating her vision of time‐limited work, displaying her maturity of thought and her professionalism. Here we find a broader spectrum, a more coherent narrative, and a much more sure‐footed account of time‐limited existential therapy. This is now a clear and carefully worked out guide demonstrating to existential therapists how they can concretely apply these ideas to their everyday practice with their clients. This is a book by a seasoned and talented therapist, who has not only seen hundreds of clients over the intervening decades, but who has created a thriving existential training institute of her own, in Sydney, Australia, and who has taught and supervised many hundreds of trainees over the years.

The experience jumps off the page and is continuously in evidence through the intertwining of theoretical concepts and practical application. There are many vignettes, whose storylines are engaging whilst highlighting the points that matter. There are great summaries of relevant philosophical ideas and of salient practitioners’ work. There are also plenty of original contributions, culminating in a brand‐new ‘wheel of existence’, which will speak to existential therapists worldwide.

Alison Strasser has boldly taken up the challenge of revising and reviving a highly successful book, which she wrote together with her late father. Having had the immense pleasure of knowing and working with Freddie Strasser myself, I have no doubt that he would have smiled proudly upon this feat of daughterly pluck and accomplishment. The book will give his own reputation a new lease of life, thus cheating time and death itself in the nicest possible way. Many new readers will now benefit from their joint ideas, and previous readers will note how these ideas have thrived and blossomed, through Alison’s work, over the years. The book is a true testimony to the ripening of life with the passing of time. It will be appreciated on many continents.

Emmy van Deurzen

The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor: he took my measure anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me.

George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1905)

The first edition of this book, Existential Time Limited Therapy: The Wheel of Existence (Strasser & Strasser, 1997), co‐authored by my father, Freddie Strasser, and me, paved a pathway to describing how existential therapy offers an effective approach to brief therapy where ‘it was the certainty of the ending that was identified as the most influential distinguishing factor’ (Lamont, 2012, p. 172). We proposed that time itself is the ‘tool’ that facilitates awareness and the potential for change.

One of the original aims of the first edition was to convey existential philosophy as a vehicle for common sense. Neither my father nor I saw ourselves as experts in existential philosophy; however, we were both stimulated by how the integration of existential and phenomenological philosophies added alternative perspectives and ways of understanding people that related to their concrete living in the world rather than being limited to a psychological perspective. As is probably true for most existential practitioners, we saw ourselves as existential‐oriented therapists, signifying that we are informed by numerous ideas and approaches that build on our own personal experiences.

Читать дальше