Existential life coaching is an approach which examines the client’s views towards the meaning of life. It helps in evaluating whether the client is deriving [sufficient] satisfaction as he or she journeys through life and offers philosophical resources to help improve satisfaction. It is not counselling, although hopefully the existential life coach provides wise counsel. It thus may be thought of as taking a step back from regular life coaching in that it considers more fundamental matters.

For example, one immediate issue might be whether the client is in the right career. There are several possibilities: the client might be in the given career to fulfil parental wishes but perhaps would not have chosen that career; or moved into the career somewhat accidentally but finds the remuneration etc very attractive and so is reluctant to move; or the client made a genuine mistake in choosing that career; or the prospects in the career are rapidly diminishing in the face of AI. An existential life coach would help the client to explore what values the client has in terms of doing something meaningful and lend a sympathetic but critical voice as to what the trade-offs are in aligning future career moves with those values.

Another example might be if the client has existential depression. There are different types of depression. Some require clinical intervention, such as when the client has depression resulting from a chemical imbalance in the brain [perhaps necessitating anti-depressant medication] or when the client has a distorted perspective on the world [perhaps necessitating an approach such as cognitive behavioural therapy]. There can be one form of depression, however, which does not necessarily interfere in the client’s day-to-day functioning and does not call for a clinician, but expresses an often-deep underlying worry about what life is all about and which occasionally spoils one’s enjoyment of life. This can become manifested for instance in death anxiety. This is something we all experience at times. Of course, the line between what is ‘normal’ and what is ‘neurotic’ can be a fine one. Normal unhappiness and dissatisfaction with life can deteriorate into a depression requiring the services of a clinician. However, in the normal case, the issue is often more one of needing the assistance of an independent adviser who can provide a non-judgmental perspective to help the client to reflect and see a bigger picture. Here, the existential life coach can help.