Existential & Humanistic Comparisons
Comparing person-centered, gestalt, existential, EFT, focusing and meaning-centered approaches.
The existential and humanistic lineage starts from a claim the rest of the field mostly brackets: that the person in the room is not a mechanism to be repaired but a being who has to decide how to live. What follows from that varies enormously. Some approaches in this family are almost entirely non-directive; others run structured experiments, chair work and task analyses that would not look out of place in a behavioral manual.
Comparing them means separating the shared philosophical commitment from the very different technical answers built on it. These pages do that, and they are candid about the evidence: this lineage has contributed more to how every other tradition understands the therapeutic relationship than its own trial record would suggest, and its more manualized descendants carry most of the formal support.
56 comparisons · 13 within the same tradition · 43 across traditions
Across traditions
Comparisons where the two approaches disagree about what a person is, not only about technique.
- ACT vs Buddhist Psychology / Contemplative Psychotherapy
- ACT vs Logotherapy
- ACT vs Morita Therapy
- ACT vs Naikan Therapy
- Adlerian Therapy vs Positive Psychotherapy
- Analytical Psychology vs Existential Psychotherapy
- Art Therapy vs Play Therapy
- Buddhist Psychology / Contemplative Psychotherapy vs Existential Psychotherapy
- Buddhist Psychology / Contemplative Psychotherapy vs Hakomi
- Child-Parent Psychotherapy vs Play Therapy
- Daseinsanalysis vs Lacanian Psychoanalysis
- Daseinsanalysis vs Psychoanalysis
- EMDR vs Sandtray Therapy
- Emotion-Focused Therapy vs Emotion Regulation Therapy
- Emotion-Focused Therapy vs Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy
- Emotion-Focused Therapy vs Hakomi
- Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy vs Hakomi
- Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy vs Person-Centered Therapy
- Existential Psychotherapy vs Focusing
- Existential Psychotherapy vs Gestalt Therapy
- Existential Psychotherapy vs Hakomi
- Existential Psychotherapy vs Interpersonal Process Group Therapy
- Existential Psychotherapy vs Life Review Therapy
- Existential Psychotherapy vs Morita Therapy
- Existential Psychotherapy vs Person-Centered Therapy
- Existential Psychotherapy vs Positive Psychotherapy
- Existential Psychotherapy vs Process Group Therapy
- Filial Therapy vs Theraplay
- Focusing vs Hakomi
- Focusing vs Person-Centered Therapy
- Focusing vs Relational Psychoanalysis
- Gestalt Therapy vs Psychodrama
- Gestalt Therapy vs Transactional Analysis
- Life Review Therapy vs Logotherapy
- Life Review Therapy vs Prolonged Grief Disorder Treatment (PGDT/CGT)
- Life Review Therapy vs Supportive Psychotherapy
- Life Review Therapy vs Worden's Task Model of Mourning
- Logotherapy vs Naikan Therapy
- Logotherapy vs Positive Psychotherapy
- Logotherapy vs REBT
- Play Therapy vs Sandtray Therapy
- Play Therapy vs TF-CBT
- Play Therapy vs Theraplay
Within the same tradition
Comparisons between approaches that share a worldview and differ in method or emphasis.
- Art Therapy vs Dance/Movement Therapy
- Art Therapy vs Music Therapy
- Art Therapy vs Sandtray Therapy
- Dance/Movement Therapy vs Music Therapy
- Daseinsanalysis vs Existential Psychotherapy
- Emotion-Focused Therapy vs Gestalt Therapy
- Emotion-Focused Therapy vs Person-Centered Therapy
- Existential Psychotherapy vs Logotherapy
- Existential Psychotherapy vs Transpersonal Psychology
- Filial Therapy vs Play Therapy
- Morita Therapy vs Naikan Therapy
- Music Therapy vs Sound Therapy / Therapeutic Sound
- Person-Centered Therapy vs Positive Psychotherapy