“It's not ideas, nor vision, nor tools that truly matter in therapy. If you debrief patients at the end of therapy about… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
One doesn't do existential therapy as a freestanding separate theory; rather it informs your approach to such issues as death, which many… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
“Perhaps the real therapy occurred at the deathbed scene, when they moved into honesty with the revelation that they were fellow travelers,… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
Therapists need to have a long experience in personal therapy to see what it's like to be on the other side of… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
“I've always regarded therapy more as a calling than a profession, a way of life for people who care about others.” — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
The ultimate goal of therapy... it's too hard a question. The words come to me like tranquility, like fulfillment, like realizing your… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
“If you make a mistake, admit it. Any attempt at cover-up will ultimately backfire. At some level the patient will sense you… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
“Friendship between therapist and patients is a necessary condition in the process of therapy - necessary, but not, however, sufficient. Psychotherapy is… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
Therapists need to have a long experience in personal therapy to see what it's like to be on the other side of… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
One reason patients are reluctant to work in a therapy group is they fear that things will go too far, that the… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
To the best of my knowledge, every acute inpatient ward offers some inpatient group therapy experience. Indeed, the evidence supporting the efficacy… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
“A great many of our patients have conflicts in the realm of intimacy, and obtain help in therapy sheerly through experiencing an… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
“Four givens are particularly relevant for psycho-therapy: the inevitability of death for each of us and for those we love; the freedom… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
“keep in mind that therapy is a deep and comprehensive exploration into the course and meaning of one’s life; given the centrality… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
“One of the great paradoxes of life is that self-awareness breeds anxiety. Fusion eradicates anxiety in a radical fashion—by eliminating self-awareness. The… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
You know, I think everybody I've seen has come from some other therapy, and almost invariably it's very much the same thing:… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
“Indeed, the capacity to tolerate uncertainty is a prerequisite for the profession. Though the public may believe that therapists guide patients systematically… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
“ALAS, IF ALL HUMANS WERE WISE AND HAD MORE GOOD WILL THE WORLD WOULD BE A PARADISE NOW IT IS MOSTLY A HELL” — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
I dream of a love that is more than two people craving to possess one another. — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
Therapists need to have a long experience in personal therapy to see what it's like to be on the other side of the couch… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
“Beginning therapists must learn that there are times to sit in silence, sometimes in silent communion, sometimes simply while waiting for patients' thoughts to… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
If one is to learn to live with the dead, one must first learn to live with the living! — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
Specialness as a primary mode of death transcendence takes a number of other maladaptive forms. The drive for power is not uncommonly motivated by… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
“Exactly. We know that the great Goethe carried a copy of Spinoza’s Ethics in his pocket for a year. Imagine that—an entire year! And… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
Absolute power, as we have always known, corrupts absolutely; it corrupts because it does not do the trick for the individual. Reality always creeps… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
“Indeed, the capacity to tolerate uncertainty is a prerequisite for the profession. Though the public may believe that therapists guide patients systematically and sure-handedly… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
