What is the meaning and essence of the lived experience of the outcome of existential therapy for depression?

Depression is experienced by millions of people worldwide with the leading treatments being medication and cognitive behavioural therapy. It is important to consider the outcomes of other approaches to working with depression. The purpose of this study is to explore the question of what is the experience of the outcome of existential therapy for depression. It is important to understand the experiential outcomes of this type of therapy, to build on the many quantitative studies in the area.

This study has three aims 1. Explore the qualitative experience of depression before therapy. 2. Explore the change that existential therapy brings to participants’ experience of depression/ any change in experience after existential therapy. 3. Explore factors that contributed to any change in the participants’ experience of depression, and what they learned from being in existential therapy. Eight interviews were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

The findings show themes of lost connections, and change in relationships with self and others, as well as participants’ not understanding their depression and themes around their relationship with their experience. The strongest theme in contributing to the change was the therapeutic alliance helping the participants understand their experience of depression, leading to meaning-making and how they could draw on their values therefore changing their relationship with their experience resulting in an openness to life, and connections with others. This suggests that the therapeutic relationship is an important base when working with depression to help clients/patients develop an empathetic understanding of their experience leading to change in other themes of their depression.