A critical analysis of the use of visual communication in existential practice

This dissertation presents an Applied Thematic Analysis of seven interviews comprising qualified counselling psychologists and psychotherapists who consider themselves to be working within the existential-phenomenological ethos. This research presents the findings of this small-scale qualitative study. Consonant with the priorities, objectives, and spirit of qualitative methodology, this study examines the personal experiences of these research participants. This is set against my experience of encountering the phenomenon of visual communication in my clinical practice. For expedience, I termed the artifacts of visual communication, visual art. This includes but is not limited to graphic representation and pictorial expression. To realise the research question, the participants were invited to share their accounts of their engagement with this phenomenon in their existential practice with adults. The function of visual communication was illuminated, as they expressed its facilitative power in the drawing out of, existential themes. The research exposed biases which provide plausible reasons for the lack of engagement with this expressive mode by the British Existential School. This research indicates that existential schools are optimally positioned to own and embrace the phenomenon as a congruent tool and method of communication in the service of their clients. It also demonstrates the absence of guidelines within the literature to assist existential practitioners when presented with visual products of expression by their clients whether client initiated, or therapist suggested. I have generated a schematic representation to provide a novel conceptualisation for existential practitioners as a theoretical and practical guide when engaging with visual communication via the conduit of the aforementioned.