SYNOPSIS
Humanistic-phenomenological psychotherapy, based on Merleau-Ponty's mundane phenomenology, is developed in the intersection of the relationship, psychotherapist-client-world. It is an attempt to understand the Lebenswelt (lifeworld) which is neither inside nor outside, conscious nor unconscious, individual nor environmental, but sits at the intersections or, as Merleau-Ponty would say, in the chiasm. Anxiety is thus understood as part of an existential style rooted in the client's Lebenswelt, going beyond notions of health and pathology.
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Notes on contributors
Virginia Moreira
Virginia Moreira Ph.D. is a psychotherapist specialist in the Person Centred Approach. She is a Doctor in Clinical Psychology (PUC, São Paulo), a Post-Doctor in Medical Anthropology (Harvard University), and a former Fulbright Visiting Professor (2003–2004) of Harvard Medical School. She is a Professor of Clinical Humanistic-Phenomenological Psychology and Phenomenological Psychopathology in the Post-Graduation Programme of Psychology at Universidade de Fortaleza, Brazil (www.unifor.br), where she is co-chair of APHETO—the Laboratory of Psychopathology and Critical Humanistic-Phenomenological Psychotherapy (http://www.apheto.com.br). Her research focuses on the development of Carl Rogers' thought in a phenomenological direction, with Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology as a lens for understanding lived experience, and phenomenological methodology used to understand the lived world of mental illness. With a private practice in Fortaleza, Brazil, she conducts a clinical group training formation in Humanistic-Phenomenological Psychotherapy. A clinical supervisor in psychotherapy credited by the Sociedad Chilena de Psicología Clínica (Chile), Dr Moreira has published six books and over 60 articles about humanistic-phenomenological clinical work and phenomenological psychopathology. Email: [email protected]; [email protected]