In this episode of Becoming Existential, I sit down with Dr Claire Arnold-Baker — Principal of the New School of Psychotherapy & Counselling (NSPC), existential psychotherapist, psychologist, researcher and current Chair of the Federation for Existential Therapy in Europe (FETE).

Claire is one of the course leaders on my training programme and someone whose clinical, academic and organisational work continues to shape how existential psychotherapy is practiced today. Speaking with her offered a way to come back to the foundations of our approach through the lens of her own lived path into existential work.

Our dialogue travelled widely.

From the tensions and contradictions that characterise human existence to liberty and restriction, togetherness and solitude, accountability for ourselves and, at times, unavoidably, for others.

We explored the question of why existential therapy feels as particularly significant in a current fast-paced, anxiety-driven, and technology-dominated world.

An important part of our conversation was on Structural Existential Analysis (SEA) and the book on that Claire co-authored with Emmy van Deurzen: a structured way of exploring life as it is lived, through five interwoven dimensions:

Space, Time, Emotion & Value, Paradox and Purpose

We also spent time with Claire’s longstanding clinical and research work on motherhood, as a profound, ambiguous, identity-shaping experience — one marked by freedom and boundaries, care and responsibility, possibility and constraint.

And inevitably we arrived at the contemporary themes of human connection in an age of technology and AI. What shifts and what remains essential in the therapeutic encounter and beyond the therapy room.

Regardless of whether you’re a psychologist, therapist, researcher, or just someone interested in understanding how we interpret our experiences, I encourage you to engage with this insightful, meaningful conversation featuring a prominent figure in contemporary existential therapy.

0:00 – Why this series? Introducing the project & Claire

1:56 – Claire’s path into existential therapy (childhood death experiments, family philosophy, choosing psychology)

8:16 – NSPC as the “home of existential training” & what existential training feels like

13:10 – Structure, regulation & uncertainty: freedom within limits in professional practice

16:48 – Motherhood, feminism & giving voice to mothers’ existential crises

20:28 – Bound and free: the paradox of motherhood and responsibility for another life

23:09 – Structural Existential Analysis (SEA): researching life with four dimensions, time, paradox, emotion & purpose

29:12 – Clients turning to AI chatbots: human contact, disconnection & the tension of technology

34:55 – Existential therapy today: FETE, public discourse & why it’s “in its ascendancy”

39:41 – Who existential training is for & Claire’s advice on approaching philosophy and the journey

About Dr.Claire Arnold-Baker

Claire Arnold-Baker is Principal of the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling (NSPC) in London, and also the Course Leader for the DCPsych Programme. She is UKCP-registered existential psychotherapist, HCPC-registered Counselling Psychologist, supervisor, trainer, lecturer and Chair of the Federation for Existential Therapy in Europe (FETE).

🔗 Links:

https://nspc.org.uk/faculty/nspc-faculty/faculty-member/262/claire-arnold-baker/

https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/counsellors/claire-arnold-baker

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Claire-Arnold-Baker/s?rh=n%3A266239%2Cp_27%3AClaire%2BArnold-Baker

https://x.com/DrClaireAB

Federation for Existential Therapy in Europe

https://existentialtherapies.org

Existential Movement

https://www.existentialmovement.world

About the Host:

Max Karlin - psychologist, counsellor, and trainee existential therapist at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, London.

https://linktr.ee/maxkarlin

https://maxkarlin.com

What happens when the path you’ve followed your whole life suddenly stops making sense?

What does it really take — emotionally, personally, existentially — to become a therapist?

In this intimate and reflective conversation, I sit with my peer and fellow trainee Persefoni Kaltaki, with whom I began my journey at the New School for Psychotherapy and Counselling. Together, we speak openly about the emotional and existential cost of becoming a therapist.

Persefoni shares what it’s like to navigate training with dyslexia and ADHD, to move countries, to learn in a new language, and to start over while trying to hold space for others. She reflects on the limits of neurobiology and psychopharmacology in understanding the human condition and how discovering existential thought offered a way back to meaning.

“I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.” — Nikos Kazantzakis

This isn’t a conversation about methods or theories. It’s about what happens when therapy stops being a profession and becomes a way of being — about the laughter, vulnerability, and quiet courage it takes to keep becoming.

00:00 – 01:20

Intro — Meeting Again

01:20 – 04:00

How It All Began: Psychology, Curiosity & Early Certainties

04:00 – 06:40

Setbacks, Dyslexia, ADHD & the Weight of Academia

06:40 – 09:20

Moving Abroad & The Isolation of Training

09:20 – 12:00

Hitting the Void: Depression & Directionlessness

12:00 – 14:30

Turning Toward Existentialism

14:30 – 17:20

What Existential Therapy Feels Like

17:20 – 20:10

Starting Over: New Country, New Language, New Practice

20:10 – 23:00

The Hardest Thing She’s Ever Done

23:00 – 25:30

Ethics, Responsibility & Knowing When You’re Ready

25:30 – 28:00

Meaning, Capitalism & Going Against the World Around You

28:00 – 30:20

Staying With Uncertainty

30:20 – 32:30

Time as the Real Existential Anchor

Why time, more than death, shapes her awareness, choices, and orientation to life.

32:30 – 34:40

The Mutuality of Therapy — And Some Laughter Too

How connection nourishes the therapist, the thin line between personal and professional needs, and shared humour in the process.

34:40 – 35:00 Outro

About Persefoni:

Persefoni Kaltaki is a psychologist and UKCP trainee psychotherapist with an MSc in Clinical Psychology and advanced training in existential psychotherapy at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling (NSPC) in London. She currently works both in private practice in Copenhagen and remotely with UK-based clients through Headstrong Counselling.

Her therapeutic work is trauma-informed and rooted in existential and phenomenological approaches, with a focus on relational depth, self-exploration, and psychological awareness. She has supported clients navigating cultural displacement, gender identity, neurodivergence, and systemic marginalisation, committed to inclusive, reflective practice that responds to each client’s unique context and lived experience.

She is also trained in working with survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse and has facilitated group work and psychoeducational spaces focused on resilience, emotional wellbeing, and identity exploration. In addition to her independent practice, Persefoni collaborates with Daggry an organisation supporting LGBTQIA+ communities in Copenhagen.

🔗 Find out more about Persefoni :

🌐 persefonikaltaki.com

📧 persefonikaltaki@gmail.com

📍 Based in Copenhagen | Online therapy across the EU and UK

About the Host:

Max Karlin - psychologist, counsellor, and trainee existential therapist at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, London. On this channel I share existential therapy insights, interviews, and reflections to explore how psychotherapy can help us live more authentically and meaningfully.

https://linktr.ee/maxkarlin

In this first episode of Becoming Existential, I’m joined by Dr. Kirk J. Schneider — psychologist, author, lecturer, and one of the most influential voices in contemporary existential–humanistic and existential–integrative psychology.

Kirk has written more than a dozen books, including Life-Enhancing Anxiety and The Spirituality of Awe, and has devoted his career to bringing existential ideas beyond the therapy room — into education, politics, and dialogue across divided communities.

Together, we explore the gift of presence, the paradox of anxiety as a life-enhancing force, and what it means to stay human in an age of AI, quick fixes, and polarization. We also talk about the training journey of therapists today, and Kirk offers grounded, compassionate advice for those entering the field.

This conversation challenged and inspired me — and it feels like the right way to begin this series about becoming a therapist, and becoming human.

00:00 – Introduction

01:00 – Kirk’s Childhood & Early Trauma

03:00 First Encounters with Therapy

07:10 – The Essence of Existential Therapy

11:00 How the Existential Approach Shapes Us Professionally & Personally

15:00 – On Presence as the Greatest Gift

18:00 – Family, Relationship & Parenting Reflections

20:00 Advice for Aspiring Therapists

24:00 Getting personal experience of therapy first

25:00 Learning therapy skills

27:00 How Existential Approach contributes to the world

30:00 – Anxiety as a Constructive Force

33:00 The Space for the dialogue

35:00 Existential Question for Society

39:00 The Danger of a Machine-Like Society

41:00 – Final Reflections & Existential Question for Society

Dr. Kirk J. Schneider, Ph.D., is a leading voice in contemporary existential-humanistic and existential-integrative psychology. A licensed psychologist, he 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).

Dr. Schneider has authored or edited over a dozen influential books — including Awakening to Awe, Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy, The Polarized Mind, and his recent Life-Enhancing Anxiety: Key to a Sane World. His work has been translated into multiple languages and featured in outlets such as Scientific American, The New York Times, and Psychology Today.

He is a Fellow of five divisions of the American Psychological Association and recipient of the prestigious Rollo May Award for his pioneering contributions to humanistic psychology. Internationally recognized, Dr. Schneider has delivered keynote addresses at the World Congresses of Existential Therapy and the International Existential Psychology Conference in China.

At the heart of his work is the idea that awe and anxiety are central to living more fully, authentically, and humanely — both in therapy and in society at large.

Kirk Schneider

https://kirkjschneider.com

Existential-Humanistic Institute:

https://www.ehinstitute.org/

Social Media:

@kirk.schneider.908

@kschneider56

/ kirk-schneider-a526a661

Books by Kirk J. Schneider Ph.D.:

Life-Enhancing Anxiety, Awakening to Awe, Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy and more:

https://www.amazon.com/Kirk-J-Schneid...

Other links:

New Corps of Depth Healers website and Certificate Program:

https://www.corpsofdepthhealers.com

Latest Book: “Life-Enhancing Anxiety: Key to a Sane World”

https://www.amazon.com/Life-Enhancing...

New YouTube Channel-“Corps of Depth Healers” / @corpsofdepthhealers-ws9nq

I’m Max Karlin, a psychologist, counsellor, and trainee existential therapist at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, London. On this channel I share existential therapy insights, interviews, and reflections to explore how psychotherapy can help us live more authentically and meaningfully.

https://linktr.ee/maxkarlin