A Unique Approach to Family Counseling

Family counseling requires a holistic approach to address complex problems that emerge in families. Elisabeth Lukas has helped hundreds of families using ideas embodied in Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy. In this book, topics include:

• Meaningful education


• The search for meaning in youth


• Self-transcendence in conflict resolution


• Self-help and crisis intervention


• Meaning-centered family counseling


• The meaning of children’s play

From the book:

We do not need theories of dysfunctions caused by unconscious traumas, repressed sex symbols, and inferiority complexes; we need education for responsibility. The crisis of our time can be seen as primarily educational, a failure to educate people so they see themselves as full human beings. (p. 3)

Young individuals have not had much chance to discover meaning structures. Their existence is full of yet-unlived possibilities. But precisely because they have not discovered many meaning potentials, their search is more urgent. If they want to fulfill innate longings for a meaningful life, they have to start the quest. To start a harvest for their empty granaries they must go out into the fields, rain or shine. (p. 30)