Existential Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (EISTDP): A Process-Oriented Conceptual Model

Zaree, Behnam; Erfani, Nasrolah

Volume 26, Issue 30 (12-2025) JNIP 2025, 26(30): 1-27 | Back to browse issues page

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Zaree B, Erfani N. Existential Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (EISTDP): A Process-Oriented Conceptual Model. , JNIP. 2025; 26 (30) :1-27
URL: http://jnip.ir/article-1-1413-en.html

Existential Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (EISTDP): A Process-Oriented Conceptual Model

Behnam Zaree

, Nasrolah Erfani ^*

Department of Psychology, Payame Noor University (PNU), P.O. Box 19395-4697, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: (40 Views)

Existential psychotherapy emphasizes concepts such as freedom, responsibility, death, meaning, isolation, identity, and authenticity. However, translating these concepts into psychological processes that can be systematically formulated and empirically tested remains a theoretical challenge within this approach. The present article aims to propose a conceptual model to explain how existential concerns are organized within an individual’s psychological experience. This theoretical study employs conceptual modeling by integrating George Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory with psychodynamic concepts to provide a framework for understanding the relationship between meaning-making, prediction, and the organization of experience, on the one hand, and emotion, anxiety, conflict, and defense, on the other. According to the proposed model, existential concerns acquire meaning through different personal construct systems, and certain constructs may, within the context of an individual’s developmental and relational history, acquire defensive functions in addition to their meaning-making and predictive functions. This theoretical proposition does not imply that personal constructs and psychological defenses are equivalent; rather, it suggests a potential relationship between meaning organization and defensive–emotional processes that can be investigated empirically. Overall, the proposed model provides a theoretical framework for linking existential concerns with meaning-making, emotional, and defensive processes, thereby establishing a basis for formulating propositions and hypotheses to examine these relationships empirically. Nevertheless, the model is theoretical and hypothesis-generating in nature, and neither its empirical validity nor its effectiveness in psychotherapeutic interventions can be established without further empirical investigation.

Keywords: Existential Psychotherapy, Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy, Personal Construct Theory, Defensive Organization, Emotional Processing

Graphical Abstract:

Graphical Abstract

Type of Study: Research | Subject: Special
Received: 2025/09/27 | Accepted: 2025/11/17 | Published: 2025/12/1