The therapist sits on their chair, the patient on theirs; a sense of unavoidable hieracy is immediately created. The unforgiving clinical halogen lights glare down unforgivenly on the patient, who is thenexpected to conjure up enlightentments from the most personal and painful sections of their psyche. For decades, psycotherapy, in all its different forms, has been devliverd as such.
Patients compartmentalise two groups of experiences; one being their daily life, and the other their therapy experience. Whilst all therapy modalities encourage patients to transfer realisations and behaviour from the therapy experience to their life outside of the constulation room, when the standard theraputic experience is so unnatural and juxtaposed compared to their daily life experiences, this translation can be difficult.
Experiential therapy instead allows patients to engage in more natural and pleasant experiences ( for example music, contact with animals, art, even pscyedelics), with a trained therapist, who encourages the patient, in relation to the experience, to be aware of self-realisations, inner-thoughts and behaviour patterns – which ultimately translates into poisitive thought and behaviour change.
Life after all, is experience.
experiential therapy 