Awakening Life-Enhancing Anxiety in our Profession and the World:
An Existential-Depth Appropach
Presented and Facilitated by Kirk Schneider, Ph.D.
This hybrid workshop will explore how anxiety is hitting the roof in our practices and the world precisely because we so often fail to address the underlying or primal anxiety that fuels greater and more destructive anxiety. That which I term “life-enhancing anxiety,” is a level of anxiety that enables us to live with and make the best of the depth and mystery of existence. Or to put it more concretely, it fosters our capacity to live more on the edge of wonder and discovery rather than terror and overwhelm.
In this presentation, I will elaborate on the above and provide a series of exercises that can optimize our capacity for life-enhancing anxiety both in our practices and in the communities in which we live.
I will provide “live” engagement with an individual volunteer from the audience that draws from my work as an existential-humanistic and existential-integrative therapist. I will then facilitate a one-on-one conflict mediation process, which I call the “Experiential Democracy Dialogue,” again with a volunteer from the audience.
This approach aims at humanizing difficult encounters between people from conflicting cultural and political backgrounds. Time-permitting, I will guide the audience in a one-on-one practice session with the Experiential Democracy Dialogue, and elaborate on ways they might use the format to work with their clients and/or willing/interested people in their communities.
In sum, I will raise and address the fraught problem of how to really “meet” each other and ourselves in the encounter with differences, fostering in turn a more presence-based, awe-based world.
KIRK J. SCHNEIDER, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist and leading
spokesperson for contemporary existential-humanistic and existential-
integrative psychology. Dr. Schneider is past editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, adjunct faculty at Saybrook University and Teachers College, Columbia University, and president of the Existential-Humanistic Institute (EHI).
*Note: 6 Clinical CE's are available through NASW for those interested. See more below.
** Please note that the Early Bird ticket prices will be on sale through 8/15/25. At that time the rates will go up by $20-$35 depending on the type of ticket you purchase.
*** If you will be viewing our fall workshop in a time zone which is 4 hours or more before or after Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), we will offer you access to the video of the day-long workshop through a one-month free trial EHNW Affiliate membership. This month will begin when the workshop video is posted on our website. EHNW Affiliate membership is $100 for professionals and $50 for students, paid annually. https://www.ehnwpdx.org/ehnw-affiliation-opportunities/
