Humanistic & Existential Therapies
Research awards
Distinguished Contributions to Existential Therapy Research Award (WCET 2026)
International Transactional Analysis Association Research Award (ITAA 2026)
Humanistic & existential therapies 101
Ten research facts about humanistic & existential therapies
Humanistic & Existential Therapies Fact 1.
Humanistic & existential therapies
are equally bona fide and equally effective
as other psychological therapies.
Humanistic & Existential Therapies Fact 2.
Clients work on deeper topics
in deep relationships with their therapist.
Humanistic & Existential Therapies Fact 3.
Clients come to psychotherapy
not to get rid of a diagnosis,
but to learn to live a meaningful and fulfilling life
in spite of everything.
Humanistic & existential therapies Fact 4.
Therapists guide clients
from sedimented meanings and stories
back to the dynamic stream of lived experiences
from where everything originates.
Humanistic & existential therapies Fact 5.
Suffering, pain and death
do not only challenge life
but also offer opportunities to life.
Humanistic & existential therapies Fact 6.
Humans waste precious life time running away
from suffering and death,
until they realize that
suffering and death are running their lives.
Embrace them, before they embrace you..
Humanistic & existential therapies Fact 7.
Over our lifetime,
we develop different parts inside ourselves:
a Critical Parent, a Nurturing Parent,
an Adapted Child and Free Child, and an Adult.
Some parts are sometimes more dominant than others.
What matters is the flexibility to shift and balance.
Humanistic & existential therapies Fact 8.
Structure and practical skills
are equally important in psychotherapy as
freedom and abstract reflection.
Humanistic & existential therapies Fact 9.
A therapists works simultaneously at three levels:
Macro-level:
follow the client's preferred goals and methods
Meso-level:
follow the agreed method to achieve the client's goals
Micro-level:
follow the client's lived experiences, meanings & values.
Humanistic & existential therapies Fact 10.
A bona fide therapist starts
with a bona fide assessment of the client.
Humanistic & existential therapies Bonus Fact.
Nothing in therapy is more difficult,
or more essential,
than taking responsibility for one's own life.
Humanistic & existential therapies Bonus Fact.
If a patient tells their family doctor
about their sore throat,
and the doctor amputes their foot,
we call this a medical error.
If a patient tells their therapist
about their struggles with housing, work, and relationships,
and the therapist tells they need to improve their negative thoughts
or get psychiatric medication,
we should call this a psychotherapeutic error.
Explanations
Visualisation of conceptual frameworks
Books
Lectures & interviews
Academic publications
See Joel Vos’ profile on scholar.google.com for the most up to date list of publications
Also see the publications in the topic: Meaning & Purpose
Vos, J. (2025) Chapter 2. Existential–Therapeutic Competencies. and Vos, J. (2025). Chapter 9. Working With Meaning in Life in Existential–Humanistic Psychotherapy. In: Louis Hoffman & Veronica Lac. (Eds.). The Evidence-Based Foundations of Existential–Humanistic Therapy. APA.
Vos, J. (2023). Existential psychological therapies: An overview of empirical research. Pratiques Psychologiques.
Vos, J. (2023). Phenomenology in the Bedroom: How Martin Heidegger and Michel Foucault Could Reinvigorate Your Sex Life. Chapter 1 in: Eros and Psyche. Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives.
Vos, J. (2021). The existential therapeutic competences framework: Development and preliminary validation. International Journal of Psychotherapy, 25(1), 9-51.
Vos, J. (2019). A review of research on existential‐phenomenological therapies. The Wiley world handbook of existential therapy, 592-614.
Vos, J. (2018). Death in existential psychotherapies: A critical review. In: Menzies & Menzies. Curing the dread of death: theory, research and practice, 145.
van Bruggen, V., Ten Klooster, P., Westerhof, G., Vos, J., de Kleine, E., Bohlmeijer, E., & Glas, G. (2017). The Existential Concerns Questionnaire (ECQ)–development and initial validation of a new existential anxiety scale in a nonclinical and clinical sample. Journal of clinical psychology, 73(12), 1692-1703.
Craig, M., Vos, J., Cooper, M., & Correia, E. A. (2016). Existential psychotherapies. In D. J. Cain, K. Keenan, & S. Rubin (Eds.), Humanistic psychotherapies: Handbook of research and practice (2nd ed., pp. 283–317). American Psychological Association.
van Bruggen, V., Vos, J., Westerhof, G., Bohlmeijer, E., & Glas, G. (2015). Systematic review of existential anxiety instruments. Journal of humanistic psychology, 55(2), 173-201.
Vos, J., Craig, M., & Cooper, M. (2015). Existential therapies: a meta-analysis of their effects on psychological outcomes. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 83(1), 115.
Vos, J., & van Rijn, B. (2021). The evidence-based conceptual model of transactional analysis: A focused review of the research literature. Transactional Analysis Journal, 51(2), 160-201.
Vos, J., & van Rijn, B. (2026). The effectiveness of transactional analysis treatments and their predictors: A systematic literature review and explorative meta-analysis. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 66(3), 637-673.
Vos, J., & van Rijn, B. (2025). Brief Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy for Depression: A Pilot Controlled Trial With Block-Randomization. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 00221678251360447.
Vos, J., & van Rijn, B. (2021). The transactional analysis review survey: An investigation into self-reported practices and philosophies of psychotherapists. Transactional Analysis Journal, 51(2), 111-126.
Vos, J., & van Rijn, B. (2021). A systematic review of psychometric transactional analysis instruments. Transactional Analysis Journal, 51(2), 127-159.
Vos, J., & van Rijn, B. (2025). Using mixed methods in feasibility studies: The example of brief transactional analysis psychotherapy for depression. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 25(1), e12871.
Vos, J., & Van Rijn, B. (2024). Brief transactional analysis psychotherapy for depression: The systematic development of a treatment manual. Journal of psychotherapy integration, 34(1), 1.