Emmy van Deurzen
Emmy is an existential philosopher, therapist and counselling psychologist, who has worked in the mental health field since 1973 and has written numerous books on existential psychology and psychotherapy. She is President of the worldwide Existential Movement, and lectures internationally.
Areas of interest
- Existential philosophy
- Moving from crisis to Freedom
- Playing and writing music
Emmy van Deurzen is an existential philosopher, therapist and counselling psychologist, who has worked in the mental health field since 1973 and has written numerous books on existential psychology and psychotherapy. Her work has been translated into over 30 languages. She founded the Society for Existential Analysis and its journal in 1988, the Regent’s School of Psychotherapy in 1990, and the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling (NSPC) in 1996. She was the driving force behind the First World Congress for Existential Therapy, which was held in London in 2015. This also led to the founding of the Federation for Existential Therapists in Europe (FETE). Emmy was the first chair of UKCP and external relations officer of the European Association for Psychotherapy. She continues to co-direct NSPC, the Existential Academy (EA) and Dilemma Consultancy, with Digby Tantam. She is a visiting professor with Middlesex University and current President of the worldwide Existential Movement. Emmy is an international speaker who has given hundreds of presentations and workshops on five continents.
Amongst her books are the bestseller Existential Psychotherapy and Counselling in Practice (Sage, 3d edition 2012), Psychotherapy and the Quest for Happiness (Sage, 2009), Everyday Mysteries (Routledge, 2nd ed, 2010), Paradox and Passion (Wiley, 2nd ed 2015) and Rising from Existential Crisis (PCCS books, 2021). Her book The Art of Existential Freedom: Guide to a Wiser Life will be published by Penguin in 2025. She is co-authoring a book for Routledge on Researching Life: Structural Existential Analysis as a Research Method, with Dr. Claire Arnold-Baker, to be published in the autumn.
Emmy will share her personal explorations through the mental health field, as she worked in three different psychiatric institutions in France, amongst which the revolutionary social therapeutic community of Saint Alban. She later participated in the Arbours and Philadelphia Association experiments, living in a therapeutic community and working in the crisis centre in London. Emmy has also worked and studied in California, spending time at Esalen, the Mental Research Institute and Soteria.
