The Lowdown: While these two different schools of therapeutic thought, they are closely related in that they both approach the person as a whole. Humanists believe that people are inherently good and they strive for self-actualization. It's not so much a treatment as a perspective on the human condition that informs therapeutic treatment. The therapist and the patient strive to bring forth the client's best, most expressed self, and do whatever it takes to get there.
Existential psychotherapy is based on the ideas of existential philosophy. The thought that life has no prescribed or determined meaning may trigger feelings of intense isolation and meaninglessness. So, the antidote to this is creating meaning by working on the individual's beliefs and values. It's the "might as well make the best of it while you're here" kind of approach.
You'll like this if: You are a deep thinker, always questioning life and your place in the world and prefer a more touchy-feely kind of therapist.
