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Coaching approaches

Existential coaching

Existential coaching works with the questions that come with being someone who chooses: what you are free to change, what you are responsible for, which limits you cannot change, and what gives your choices meaning. It adapts existential psychotherapy for coaching conversations, and the coaching form has been set out in recent handbooks. The research that exists is on existential therapy, mainly a 2015 meta-analysis of its effects. No controlled study of existential coaching itself turned up in the searches for this page.

What it is

An existential conversation starts with the situation as you experience it, rather than with a goal or a technique. The coach stays close to what is happening for you, including uncertainty, and then looks at the choices in front of you and the ones you are making by default. The question of what matters is treated as a live question rather than one with a fixed answer.

Existential coaching draws on themes that existential therapy keeps returning to: freedom and the responsibility that comes with it, limits and mortality, the need for connection, and the search for meaning. Not every session touches all four. The coach follows what you bring, and keeps the conversation tied to concrete decisions so that it does not drift into abstraction.

Where it comes from

Existential psychotherapy developed in the twentieth century from existential philosophy, and its therapists have worked with freedom, responsibility and mortality since then. The coaching form has been described in recent handbooks, including a chapter by Hanaway (2020) and a chapter by Spinelli (2024).

A 2015 review of the scientific foundations and efficacy of existential therapies by Vos, Cooper, Correia and Craig (2015) sits alongside a meta-analysis of their effects on psychological outcomes by Vos, Craig and Cooper (2015).

The principles underneath

Freedom and responsibility

You are the author of your choices, and that brings responsibility for them. The coach helps you see where you are choosing and where you are not.

Limits and mortality as material

Limits, endings and the finite time available are treated as information about what matters now, not only as threats.

Meaning is made through choice

Meaning is worked out through commitments and actions, not only found, so a conversation about meaning returns to what you will do.

Staying with lived experience

The coach attends to how the situation feels from the inside and keeps returning to it, rather than moving straight to solutions.

How a session runs

  1. You describe the situation as you experience it right now, without a plan yet.
  2. The coach asks where you feel stuck between what you want and what you are doing, and which choices seem to be made for you.
  3. The coach asks what you are free to change here, what you cannot change, and what you are responsible for in either case.
  4. You explore what matters most in the situation, and what a good answer to the question would look like for you.
  5. You agree on one choice or commitment that follows from that, and how you will notice whether you are living it.

When it tends to fit

  • A decision keeps being put off, and the delay seems to be about what the choice would mean rather than about logistics.
  • An ending, a loss or a major move has left you asking what it is all for.
  • You are going through the motions in a role that looks fine from the outside, and you cannot yet say what would make it feel like yours.

What the research shows

Evidence: Some peer-reviewed studies

The peer-reviewed research here is on existential therapy, not on coaching. A 2015 meta-analysis by Vos, Craig and Cooper examined the effects of existential therapies on psychological outcomes (Vos, Craig & Cooper, 2015). A 2015 review in Existential Analysis looked at their scientific foundations and efficacy (Vos, Cooper, Correia & Craig, 2015). The coaching form is described in chapters by Hanaway (2020) and Spinelli (2024), which set out what existential coaching is and how it is practised. No controlled outcome study of existential coaching turned up in the searches for this page.

Where the evidence is thin: The meta-analysis tells us about existential therapy as studied, and it cannot be read as a result for existential coaching. Existential coaching is a recent adaptation, and the chapters that describe it set out theory and practice rather than reporting outcomes.

Sources

  1. Vos, J., Craig, M., & Cooper, M. (2015). Existential therapies: A meta-analysis of their effects on psychological outcomes. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 83(1), 115–128.
  2. Vos, J., Cooper, M., Correia, E., & Craig, M. (2015). Existential Therapies: A Review Of Their Scientific Foundations and Efficacy. Existential Analysis, 26(1).
  3. Hanaway, M. (2020). What is existential coaching? In The Handbook of Existential Coaching Practice (pp. 36–58).
  4. Spinelli, E. (2024). Existential Coaching. In The Complete Handbook of Coaching.

Where it stops

Questions about death, freedom and meaninglessness can feel heavy. If you feel hopeless, or have thoughts of ending your life, contact a qualified professional or your local emergency service now rather than waiting for a coaching session.

Without a return to specific decisions, the conversation can stay abstract, and the coach should bring it back to what you will do. Long-standing depression, trauma or grief that does not ease are better worked with a qualified professional.

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