Loving Presence as an Ontological Encounter in Therapy

Abstract

This article is included in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology Special Issue “Healing Emotional Suffering Through Heartfelt Love,” guest edited by Michael W. Cornwall, PhD. The article explores loving stance as a phenomenological quality in a therapeutic encounter. While adverse events can shatter ways of one’s relating to the world and create a sense of ontological insecurity, it is explored in the article how loving presence of a therapist can soothe this kind of rupture and allow a new way of being to emerge. Following phenomenological tradition, it is explored what kind of therapist’s attitude is needed for this to happen. The Author illustrates this by describing their own encounter with a therapist meaningful in their life, Branka Jakelić. It is argued that loving presence in therapy can be seen as an ontological encounter. It is phenomenologically described how this kind of presence has an immeasurable therapeutic value and a potential to integrate into a client’s organization of experience.