Massimo Biondi

The book presents a detailed description of brief existential psychotherapy (BEP) based on an articulated model, integrating knowledge from existential psychotherapy, psychobiology of human stress, mind-body techniques, and principles of positive psychiatry and psychology. BEP is conducted according to a pragmatic method, centered on the view of one's existence, analysis, and response to critical life stress events, designing a route of acceptance and search for meaning in life. BEP does not substitute other psychotherapies or their indications. It is born for the short-term treatment of crises after severe life stress events, such as deaths of loved ones, losses, divorce, retirement, personal or collective emotional traumas, major violations of law, and detention in jail, with a particular emphasis on severe somatic diseases (cancer, myocardial infarction, stroke, degenerative diseases, and other subacute or chronic conditions that change life’s perspective). The volume presents a methodology of BEP based on traditional clinical psychopathology, with a first step of medical and psychopathological assessment, establishing a...