Regional hubs
The Regional Hubs throughout the world are the core of the Existential Movement. New hubs are still being added. We will be adding new hubs through 2024, and more information about the training and services provided by each hub. The current hub leaders are listed below and can be contacted for further information Existential Movement has been actively establishing regional hubs worldwide, each led by distinguished individuals who contribute significantly to the movement's development.
The leaders of the hubs are:
Australia
Dr Alison Strasser
Africa
Dr Julia Kukard
We run leadership development programmes globally and in the first three months of this year have run programmes in South Africa, Thailand, Dubai and the US. These programmes are informed by existential ideas about leadership and leader’s roles in times of complexity and chaos.
Aephoria trains coaches and our second level of accreditation on human maturation includes an existential component on leadership freedom. We use the work of Heidegger, Sartre and African existentialists Fanon, Biko and Mbembe to bring richness to this work.
We provide a free coach supervision session once a month on a variety of topics often existential in nature. This is attended by coaches from SA, UK, USA and Europe. Last month Simon and Julia ran a session on stabilising one’s inner world in a context of turbulence and pain. This month Dr Helena Dolny spoke on living well and dying well. You can find recordings of these and other sessions on our Aephoria YouTube channel.
China
Dr Xuefu Wang
We begin to make enlarged connections to individuals and organizations which, at various degree, are relating to existential counselling and psychotherapy, aiming to organize a team for participating the fourth World Congress of Existential Therapy to be held in 2026 in Denver, USA. Hopefully, we will present with a bigger team from China than ever.
At Zhi Mian institute of counselling and psychotherapy, we launched an existential reading group by selecting Emmy Van Deurzen’s book Existential Counselling & Psychotherapy in Practice (third edition) as intensive reading material. We have quite a number of participants both on site and online, from across China. People demonstrate intense interest in going deeper with existential therapy as a form to put existential philosophy into practice.
Existential Counselling & Psychotherapy in Practice (third edition) is also designated by a Publisher in Beijing for translation and I am invited to be the translator of this book. Hopefully this book will become another influential or impactful book since Irvin Yalom's Existential Therapy was translated into China back over ten years ago.
In collaboration with an Institute in Beijing which also involves in promoting existential psychology, especially Irvin Yalom, we plan to invite Prof. Emmy Van Deurzen for an interview to introduce her books and Existential Movement, so the voice of EM can be widely heard in China.
With the recent publication of my book The Voice of Zhi Mian, more readers begin to read existential therapy from chapters on dialogue and collabration in this field between China and the world, including the World Congress and EM, besides the active leading figures in this realm.
We, at Zhi Mian Institute, continue to conduct training courses on existential therapy, and the course has approached to introducing existential leaders of present-day world.
We edit a journal called Existence and Zhi Mian and plan to interview the leading existential therapists around the world.
Europe
Dr Nancy Hakim Dowek
The European Hub of the global Existential Movement aims to foster engagement with existential concepts across Europe, drawing upon the rich cultural diversity and philosophical traditions of our continent. Through a spectrum of activities including workshops, discussion groups, and book or film clubs, we aim to spark dialogue and exchange, cultivating an environment where individuals can share insights and perspectives on how to lead fulfilling lives.
In transcending borders, the European Hub serves as a forum for these conversations and the collective pursuit of a grounded philosophical approach, enriching the community with shared wisdom. Embracing and celebrating social, ethnic, and cultural diversity, the European Hub is dedicated to creating an inclusive space for all.
Latin America
Dr Susana Signorelli
Dr Signorelli currently trains new existential therapists and has written five books and contributed many papers to journals and chapters to books. She founded ALPE, the Latin American Association for Existential Therapy and was its first President. From 2010 to the present, she is editor and director of the Latin American Journal of Existential Psychology, ALPE's dissemination organ. In Argentina she is president of the CAPAC Foundation.
ALPE is a group of professionals committed to the development of Existential Therapy in Latin America. Consolidated in 2010, ALPE organises conferences, trainings, courses and publications that promote the Existential perspective of psychology and therapy in different countries.
Contact information Website: www.alpexistential.com Email: [email protected]North America
Dr Kirk Schneider
Dr K Schneider 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), He is also a Fellow of five divisions of the American Psychological Association (Humanistic, Psychotherapy, Clinical, Theoretical and Philosophical, and Independent Practice) as well as a frequent speaker at conferences and in the media. His most recent book is Life-Enhancing Anxiety: Key to a Sane World.
Dr Schneider has had successful workshops facilitating the Experiential Democracy Dialogue (EDD) at Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY and for the Global Psychology Alliance of the American Psychological Association (APA). He has at least two more EDD events, in addition to the one planned for the EM, in the next couple months for the New York State Psychological Association and the Covid Trauma Task Force representing 14 Divisions of the APA.
Dr Schneider also has a YouTube channel called Corps of Depth Healers which aims to o provide a resource for existentially, humanistically, and psychodynamically oriented service providers to apply their practices to social crises of our times. The further aim is to encourage viewers to apply these samples to affordable, in depth caregiving. This channel is affiliated with the Existential Movement, which advocates for applications of existential practice to the larger social world.
Contact information
Website: kirkjschneider.com Email: [email protected] Institute: ehinstitute.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/kschneider56Singapore
Dr Magdalen Cheng
Dr. Magdalen Cheng is a BPS chartered counselling psychologist and UKCP registered psychotherapist. She is the founder of Encompassing Therapy, Singapore’s first independent practice specialising in existential therapy, and an avid researcher of authenticity, self-expression, and self-censorship among Singaporean millennials.
Dr. Cheng’s mission is to introduce existential psychology to Southeast Asia. Through a dedicated blog on her website, she aims to spark existential dialogues in the region. She has also authored an e-book guiding individuals on how to find the right therapist for themselves, promoting personal agency in life choices. Beyond talk therapy, Dr. Cheng seeks to convey existential ideas through creative mediums like music, art, and drama.