IJSP Number 2, 2020

44 most importantly death. Although the approach to death is also present in other forms of psychotherapy, in existentialism one can notice a more complex and open approach, which adds to the personal development of the person engaged in therapy. As to the meaning of life, a lack of meaning is a different case regarding death anxiety, especially because of the difficulty of the subject itself. Death can be accepted as such, but the fact that there is no meaning in the universe and the world we live in, is a much more complex problem that may not have the same impact as the awareness that we are mortal beings, but the implications can be major. At the same time, the concern of the meaning of life can be considered one of the main qualities of our lives. Viktor Frankl talked about an event regarding his biology professor who explained to his students that life was only a burning, oxidizing process, and Frankl asked the question, “But then, what is the point to life?” [1], a question to which his biology teacher did not know how to respond. Therefore, probably not only didn’t his biology teacher find a sense to life, but on the whole, we cannot say that there really is a single well-defined meaning to life. The most appropriate phrase that could be used to answer the question, „What is the meaning of life?” Would be that finding a meaning in life itself can be considered as a meaning of life. [2] Existentialism as a form of psychotherapy is based on philosophy and by its nature is rather a complement to other forms of therapy than a self-directed psychotherapeutic orientation. For this reason, existential psychotherapy is a form of psychotherapy with an integrative approach. 1.1. THE EXISTENTIAL AXIS The existential axis of the strategic integrative model is based on the foundations of existential psychotherapy, along with the fundamental concerns: death, isolation, freedom and lack of meaning [2]. Therefore, the ideas with which a person has to reconcile are: • all people die • we are alone in most of our important moments • we are free to choose our lifestyle • we try hard to give meaning to the world we live in These ideas are the basis of existential psychotherapy and a set of objectives that could be pursued in psychotherapy. 1.2. THE IMPLICATIONS OF EXISTENTIALISM IN PSYCHOTHERAPY Existentialism as a form of psychotherapy is not necessarily self-contained, but rather presents a desire to integrate into another form or other forms of psychotherapy. What makes existentialism stand out is that although it presents a