What to Know About Logotherapy

Frankl believed that it was possible to turn suffering into achievement and accomplishment. He viewed guilt as an opportunity to change oneself for the better and life transitions as the chance to take responsible action.

In this way, logotherapy is aimed at helping you to make better use of your "spiritual" resources to withstand adversity. Three techniques intended to help with this process include dereflection, paradoxical intention, and Socratic dialogue.

Dereflection is aimed at helping you focus away from yourself and toward other people allowing you to become "whole" and to spend less time feeling preoccupied with a problem or worry. 

This technique is meant to combat "hyper-reflection," or extreme focus on an anxiety-provoking situation or object. Hyper-reflection is often common in people with anticipatory anxiety.

Paradoxical intention is a technique that invites you to wish for the thing that you fear most. This was originally suggested for use in the case of anxiety or phobias, in which humor and ridicule can be used when fear is paralyzing. 

Socratic dialogue is a tool used to help you through the process of self-discovery by noticing and interpreting your own words. During Socratic dialogue, your therapist listens closely to the way you describe things and points out your word patterns, helping you to see the meaning in them. This process is believed to help you realize your own answers—often, these are already present within you and are just waiting to be discovered.

Perhaps not surprisingly, there is evidence that meaning in life correlates with better mental health. This knowledge might be applied in areas such as:

Anxiety 

Depression 

Grief 

Pain 

Phobias

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Schizophrenia

Substance abuse 

Suicidal ideation

Logotherapy may improve resilience—or the ability to withstand adversity, stress, and hardship. This may be due to the skills that this form of therapy encourages people to develop, like:

Acceptance

Allowance of "healthy" stress

Altruism

An active approach to life (rather than an avoidant or overly passive one)

Cognitive reappraisal, or reinterpreting the meaning of an event

Courage to face fears

Humor

Optimism even in the face of tragedy

Responsibility

Spirituality (which may or may not be religious)

Values-based lifestyle