This discussion forum is dedicated to the corpus of writings by Dr. Alvin R. Mahrer (Professor Emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, Canada.

Experiential psychotherapy has evolved from the writings of Alvin Mahrer. It's direction is based largely upon philosophy of science and existential philosophy. As a conceptual system, its aims and goals are a substantial departure from previous thought in both the field of psychology and the field of psychotherapy. One of its unabashedly ambitious aims is to enable the person to undergo a radical, deep-seated, transformational change, into becoming the person that he or she is capable of becoming. A related companion aim is for the person to become essentially free of whatever painful feelings and situations are front and center for the person in the session. These two goals are present in every session.

Experiential psychotherapy rests on a model of potentials for experiencing in relationship with one another. The key to experiential sessions is a scene of strong feeling as a doorway into the inner world of deeper potentials for experiencing. The gift offered by experiential sessions is the opportunity to undergo a magnificent shift into becoming the qualitatively new person that the person is capable of becoming, a new person who can be free of the old person’s painful scenes of painful feelings.

It is rather likely that the future of experiential psychotherapy includes (a) further adoption by a relatively small constituency of psychotherapists whose way of thinking is friendly to the experiential way of thinking; and (b) progressive evolution and development so that experiential psychotherapy becomes more and more the psychotherapy it is capable of becoming.

For more on Alvin R. Mahrer, Ph.D., see www.almahrer.com

Howard Gontovnick
Moderator
Questions or comments can be sent to: howardg@alumni.concordia.ca