Helping Relationships NCE Practice Test

Focusing on meaning and purpose is the guiding idea behind Viktor Frankl’s approach. He developed logotherapy to address the human drive to find meaning in life, even in difficult or painful circumstances. In logotherapy, the goal of therapy is helping clients uncover what gives their life meaning—be it meaningful work, loving relationships, or a committed stance toward unavoidable suffering—and to align their choices with that meaning.

Key ideas include the notion that meaning can be found in three main ways: through creating or accomplishing something (work or deeds), through experiencing something or someone (love, connection), and through the attitude we adopt toward unavoidable suffering. This last part emphasizes that even when we can’t change a situation, we can choose the stance we take toward it, preserving a sense of purpose.

Technique-wise, logotherapy uses methods like dereflection (shifting attention away from problems to what is meaningful), paradoxical intention (reducing anxiety by intending to do the thing you fear), and guided dialogue to help clients articulate their values, goals, and sources of meaning. The emphasis is not on symptom relief alone but on constructing a life that feels purposeful.

Other approaches mentioned in the options address related ideas but were not developed by Frankl. Existential therapy explores meanings and concerns about existence more broadly, but it is not the specific system Frankl created. Narrative therapy centers on shaping and retelling life stories. Gestalt therapy focuses on present-mence and self-awareness in the here and now. The therapy developed by Viktor Frankl that centers on meaning and purpose is logotherapy.