Alvin R. Mahrer, Ph.D  of the University of Ottowa, developed experiential psychotherapy in order to free people from the human tendency to close the doors of their minds on those experiences to which they attach powerful negative feelings. Experiential psychotherapy is not another method of problem resolution or reduction: it actually calls patients to open the emotional doors that they previously avoided.

The therapist’s initial goal is to connect empathically through expressing understanding of the full extent of the patient’s feelings. Experiential psychotherapists encourage patients to relive those experiences that elicit their stongest emotions, because these experiences and emotions are their means for connecting to their deepest potentials.

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