This programme is for graduate students and working professionals who wish to understand and explore existential psychology topics.

Applicants with a background in psychology are particularly encouraged, but the course is also open to highly motivated participants from other fields.

Please note that it draws on theory, research and concepts from both psychology and philosophy, so prior familiarity with the social sciences and/or with research will help participants navigate the material.

In a world that changes faster than ever, we are constantly called to redefine who we are, our roles, and the direction we want our lives to take. Especially in current times when technology accelerates this process beyond anything previous generations could have imagined, reshaping not only how we work and communicate, but also our identities, relationships, and our sense of what it means to be human. Yet in the pace of everyday life, we rarely pause to reflect on these questions or on the direction we want our lives to take, as individuals and collectively.

This programme offers a space to slow down, think deeply, and reconnect with what matters. Bringing together philosophy, psychology, and contemplative science and practice, it explores core existential themes such as identity, freedom, isolation, meaning, and mortality: questions that are as relevant today as ever.

Using a combined first-person (experiential) and third-person (evidence-based) approach, lectures, workshops, discussions and contemplation practice participants will reflect on their own experiences while exploring what the existential thinkers and current scientific evidence has to say about those questions.

By the end of the programme, participants will  (1) Understand the foundations of existential psychology and its relevance today, (2) reflect on how technology shapes identity, relationships, and well-being, (3) explore key existential questions  related to death, isolation, freedom, identity, and meaning in a structured and accessible way, (4) apply these insights to your own life through guided contemplative practices, and (5) turn reflection into meaningful, values-and strength-oriented actions.

• This course will meet live via Zoom 3 times per week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. All live lectures begin at 12:00 and will last around 2,5 hours (with a break included). Do you live outside of Europe? Calculate the time of the live sessions for your time zone
• A preparatory assignment will be before the programme starts. 
• Students will also complete in-course assignments and a final paper due roughly two weeks after the course ends.
• Looking for more information? Visit our practical matters page to find out more.

Prof. Maja Wrzesien, PhD (she, her) is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Valencia (Spain) and a former postdoctoral researcher (Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow) at the University of Amsterdam. Her research is largely interdisciplinary, focusing on emotion regulation, contemplative practice with special emphasis on mindfulness, compassion, altered states of consciousness and innovative technologies. She is also a certified mindfulness and compassion trainer. She has performed different training in both the public and private sectors for youth, parents, clinicians and educators. Visit her personal website. 

Learn more about studying with us through the eyes of past students and our community of passionate experts. 

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