Emmy van Deurzen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 13 December 1951 |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Occupation(s) | Existential therapist, professor |
Emmy van Deurzen (born 13 December 1951 in The Hague, Netherlands)[1] is an existential therapist. She developed a philosophical therapy based in existential-phenomenology.
van Deurzen was born and raised in The Hague, in The Netherlands, then went to France to study, where she earned two master's degrees, one in philosophy, at the University of Montpellier, where she studied with Michel Henry, and one in clinical psychology, at the University of Bordeaux, during which time she was supervised by Dr. François Tosquelles. She wrote her thesis on phenomenology and psychiatry in relation to solitude and loneliness for her philosophy dissertation and on attempted suicide for her clinical psychology thesis.[2] She worked as psychotherapist in France, then moved to the UK in 1977, where she became involved in antipsychiatry activism and worked for some time with R. D. Laing.[2] She came to her own version of existential therapy, and started teaching at Antioch University, after which she moved to Regent's University London when the program moved there, joining the Regent's faculty when the program was incorporated into the college.[2]
She published her first book on her approach in 1987 and the next year founded the Society for Existential Analysis (SEA) and its Journal of Existential Analysis.[2][3] After she left Regent's, she founded the New School for Psychotherapy and Counselling, and a conflict resolution centre.[2] In 2005 she became an honorary professor at the University of Sheffield.[4] She did her PhD on Heidegger's concepts of authenticity and inauthenticity and their relevance to psychotherapy, at City University, London. She has published widely on existential therapy and her work has been translated into twenty plus languages. She contributed numerous ideas to existential therapy, including that of the four worlds model and the emotional compass.
In 2014 she and her husband Prof Digby Tantam, created the Existential Academy, a community interest company, in West Hampstead, where they offer five masters programmes and two doctoral programmes in conjunction with Middlesex University, as well as a range of short courses. (www.existentialacademy.com)
As listed by the University of Sheffield.[4]
