Working with Existential Dread in a Profoundly Shifting World ONLINE: Over 2 mornings on Thur 29 & Fri 30 OCTOBER 2026
Introduction
Many of our assumptions about life that once provided stability and meaning are now being profoundly challenged. Climate change, artificial intelligence, geopolitical conflict, social fragmentation, and declining trust in institutions have created a world that often feels increasingly uncertain and unpredictable. As familiar frameworks begin to shift, questions of identity, purpose, belonging and how to live well can move from the background to the foreground of experience.
Existential dread is more than anxiety about an uncertain future. It is a lived, embodied disruption to our sense of self, our relationships with others, and our understanding of the world. Even seemingly small changes can unsettle our experience of continuity, security and meaning. Increasingly, clients are bringing these concerns into the therapeutic space—sometimes explicitly, but often in ways that are difficult to recognise or articulate.
How do we meet clients when certainty cannot be restored? How do we remain present with existential suffering without rushing to explain, reassure or resolve it?
Workshop overview
In this workshop, we will explore both theoretically and experientially how to work with existential dread from an existential-phenomenological perspective. Drawing on the work of Søren Kierkegaard, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Irvin Yalom and contemporary existential practitioners, we will consider existential dread not as something to eliminate, but as a fundamental aspect of human existence that can open possibilities for authenticity, meaning and growth. Together, we will explore how to remain present with clients experiencing existential dread, helping them develop greater grounding and discover personally meaningful ways of relating to the uncertainty that characterises contemporary life.
What we’ll cover:
Through guided reflection, embodied exercises and dialogue, we will explore:
- How existential dread presents in contemporary therapeutic practice
- How to recognise existential dread and distinguish it from presentations that are primarily psychopathological
- An existential-phenomenological approach to accompanying clients through experiences of existential disruption
- How to remain present with uncertainty without moving towards reassurance or certainty
- Ways of supporting clients as they develop personally meaningful narratives in response to an increasingly unpredictable world
Key existential themes we will explore include:
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- Freedom and responsibility
- Aloneness and relationship
- Uncertainty and ambiguity
- Mortality and finitude
- Anxiety as an existential phenomenon
- Meaninglessness and the search for meaning
What you can expect to walk away with:
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- A deeper understanding of existential dread as a lived, embodied human experience
- Greater confidence in recognising the different ways existential dread may manifest in clients
- An experiential understanding of how to work phenomenologically with existential themes in therapy
- Increased capacity to remain present with existential suffering while supporting clients in developing meaningful ways of living amidst uncertainty
Who should attend
Practitioners in counselling, psychotherapy, psychology, coaching, social work and related disciplines who wish to deepen their understanding of existential dread and strengthen their capacity to accompany clients through experiences of profound uncertainty and existential crisis.
Facilitators: Dr Alison Strasser & Dr Adam McLean
Alison Strasser DProf (Psychotherapy & Counselling), MA, BA Hons
Alison is a practising psychotherapist, coach and supervisor. She is also an educator with a passion for imparting how existential themes can be integrated into every therapeutic approach. She was instrumental in creating the existential curriculum for many counselling and psychotherapy trainings in Australia and her doctorate focused on the process of supervision, work that led to a framework for supervisor training, now a major component of CEP’s annual program.
Adam McLean DProf (Psychotherapy & Counselling), M Counselling, Grad Dip Psych/Couns, BCHC, BN
Adam is a clinical psychotherapist, supervisor, educator and trainer with over 30 years experience and a continuing interest in the human capacity for opening up to the possibilities in life. He is recognised as a leading group therapist and supervisor and provides training in both areas. Adam’s doctorate focused on what it takes to elevate group leader technique to the art of group leader presence, work that now informs CEP’s suite of specialist offerings.
NATIONAL ONLINE via ZOOM
Date: Thur 29 & Fri 30 OCTOBER
Cost: $320 (flat rate)
CPD Hours: 6
Time: 9.00am to 12.30 pm AEDT each day
Location: online via zoom (registrants will receive an invitation to participate and all the details they require in advance of the date)
note to registrants:
If you have registered for other CEP online workshops in 2026 the registration form will show checked boxes for those. That is your personal record, so please just check the box for this registration – you do not need to uncheck the others
Payment is due at least 21 days before start of the workshop or earlier. Please check our Terms and Conditions when you register.