Existential-Phenomenological Psychotherapy in the Trenches: A Collaborative Approach to Serving the Underserved

This article describes the origin and the work of a volunteer run nonprofit agency designed to provide low cost psychotherapy. The agency was developed by psychotherapists connected with the Seattle University graduate program guided by the vision of psychotherapy as a healing relationship and in response to a growing crisis in the mental health system. We address the benefits and the challenges of this collaborative effort, and especially the difficulty involved in successfully running an agency while staying true to a particular vision of therapy, collaboration, and community.