To Be From One’s Own Self

The article presents the case study of psychotherapeutic work with a client, who had symptoms of the emotional-volitional reduction. Psychotherapy lasted for 18 months. The author used the following ideas of the existential approach as a support and guidance for the therapeutic work: “existence precedes essence”; the authentic mode of existence as a prerequisite for mental health, the authenticity of life achieved through comprehension of one’s experience; development of the ability of listening to oneself (ability to develop skills of listening to oneself and one’s own subjectivity), the willingness to make a conscious independent choice. The article provides the description of the nature and dynamics of the therapeutic relationship, dynamics of the client’s self-understanding and lifeworld in the process of therapy and basic methods of therapeutic work.