protective patterns Archives - Existential-Humanistic Institute

Existential Moment series

The Existential Moment: An E-H Understanding of Relational Distress and Healing

Last month’s Existential Moment suggested that Existential-Humanistic (E-H) therapy, though not a formal couple’s model, naturally extends into relational work. This month begins to give fuller shape to that frame. Watch this brief scene from The Break-Up. Notice how an argument about dishes quickly becomes a disconnected, polarized argument about feeling unseen and unsupported, criticized and unappreciated.

June 1, 2026

Existential Moment series

The Existential Moment: Toward an E-H Informed Couples Therapy

Unlike many contemporary approaches to couples therapy (e.g., Gottman), existential-humanistic work does not offer a defined, manualized model with specific techniques or stages for working with couples. Instead, it provides a way of understanding and engaging human experience that naturally extends into the relational space. This piece aims to make explicit what is often implicit in existential-humanistic practice as applied to couples, offering a brief, high-level framework that will be explored in greater depth in future Existential Moments.

May 1, 2026

Existential Moment series

The Existential Moment: Resistance and Self-World Constructs

To understand resistance in therapy, we must look beneath activity to the deep personal belief systems that the behavior expresses. These largely unconscious meanings about self, others, and world, which the Existential-Humanistic Institute (EHI) calls self-world constructs, influence our experience, understanding, and behavior, how we feel, think, and act. Protective activity expresses those meanings.

April 1, 2026

Existential Moment series

The Existential Moment: Working With Resistance

Haven’t we all pushed harder and harder on a door that would not open, only to pause, look at the handle, or see the sign “pull,” realizing then it was

February 1, 2026

Existential Moment series

The Existential Moment: New Year’s Resolutions

“Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky…” Tennyson’s words from In Memoriam call us to a reckoning with the old year and the birth of the new. His poem pulses with the longing to discard what weighs us down personally and socially—detachment, pride, regret, etc. — and to embrace a brighter beginning. But the transformation he invokes is not simply a celebration; it is a call to action, a challenge to confront ourselves honestly toward living differently.

What do we leave behind as the bells ring out, and what new commitments do we make as they ring in?

This moment of transition mirrors a deeper, ongoing question central to Existential-Humanistic therapy: “How am I presently living?” and “How am I willing to live?” These questions, like Tennyson’s appeal, invite us to envision change and engage with it courageously.

January 1, 2025

Existential Moment series

The Existential Moment: Supporting and Celebrating Freedom

“The road to freedom is a difficult, hard road.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

These words resonate deeply as we reflect on the significance of Juneteenth, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, were finally informed of their emancipation, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. This day, now celebrated as a national holiday, Juneteenth, symbolizes the long and arduous journey toward freedom for African Americans and the ongoing struggle for equality and justice.

Juneteenth is more than just a historical milestone; it is a celebration of freedom and a reminder of the resilience and strength of those who fought tirelessly for their liberation. As we observe Juneteenth this month, we are called to recognize the importance of meeting our past and embracing the present in our journey toward freedom.

June 1, 2024

Existential Moment series

The Existential Moment: Protective Layers

Existential-Humanistic theory holds that the self of the client relies on protective layers. A diagram of those layers includes the following:

December 1, 2022

Existential Moment series

The Existential Moment: The Parable of the Good Samaritan

The standard interpretation of the parable of the Good Samaritan is about having compassion and charity for those in need, without expectation of reward. But what if we think about it slightly differently?

September 1, 2022

Existential Moment series

The Existential Moment: Protections – Pt II: Living With Them

The Chinese finger trap is a good illustration of the law of reverse effect: try something and get the opposite. The framework is helpful to remember when working with psychological protections (i.e., “spacesuits”). When we push or confront, we may get resistance.

Working with “spacesuits” is part of the art of therapy. Still, there are points to keep in mind.

August 1, 2022

Existential Moment series

The Existential Moment: Protections – Part I: Spacesuits

“Houston, I feel a lot of water on the back of my head.” Instructed to return forty-five minutes into a maintenance repair spacewalk on the International Space Station, astronaut Luca

June 1, 2022

Tag: protective patterns

The Existential Moment: An E-H Understanding of Relational Distress and Healing

The Existential Moment: Toward an E-H Informed Couples Therapy

The Existential Moment: Resistance and Self-World Constructs

The Existential Moment: Working With Resistance

The Existential Moment: New Year’s Resolutions

The Existential Moment: Supporting and Celebrating Freedom

The Existential Moment: Protective Layers

The Existential Moment: The Parable of the Good Samaritan

The Existential Moment: Protections – Pt II: Living With Them

The Existential Moment: Protections – Part I: Spacesuits

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