“I find that I'm very anxious. That I have no idea what it is that I'm facing….I think I'm taking outwardly appropriate steps, but inwardly, you know, it's terra incognita.”

Thus begins Yalom’s poignant sessions with Gareth, a man who is frightened by what lies ahead for him in his retirement, and haunted by childhood traumas that continue to undermine him in his professional life today.

Yalom is right at home working with people facing existential crises, not only because he has spent much of his life studying, writing and pondering what he has described as life’s “existential givens,” but because he himself is in his mid 80s, facing the inevitability of his own death. For the first time ever, you’ll have a chance to see Irv working with a real client. In excerpts of two sessions with Gareth, you’ll learn how to incorporate the existential approach into your work with clients, what it means to work in the “here-and-now,” and witness how therapist authenticity and honesty can strengthen the therapeutic relationship. Indeed, you’ll be impressed with the depth of the work that Yalom and Gareth achieve in such a short time.