Training Programme in Logotherapy and Existential Analysis
About the training
The Logos Centre for Logotherapy and Existential Analysis offers training in logotherapy and existential analysis following the approach of Viktor Frankl.
It is addressed to psychologists, theologians, psychotherapists, physicians, social workers, educators and other professionals who work with people. It qualifies graduates for full psychotherapeutic work within the logotherapeutic and existential-analytical framework.
Logotherapy is a meaning-centred psychotherapy. It uses existential analysis to help people become aware of their own values and to overcome the existential vacuum — a sense of emptiness and absence of meaning that leads to anxiety, depression, addiction and aggression. Logotherapy helps people discover their inner strength by recognising that life always has meaning — even in suffering.
The training is held in Sofia — in person and online.
Entry requirements
- Completed higher education, preferably in psychology, theology, philosophy, pedagogy, medicine or sociology
- Or equivalent education with professional experience in the psychosocial field
Training structure
The training comprises a theoretical and a specialised practical part. It is delivered in blocks — four consecutive evenings a month, from 18:00 to 21:00, or at weekends.
Theory — lecture sessions, independent study of the literature, and the diploma thesis
Practice — placement, counselling protocols and supervised case work
Personal self-experience — individual and in group
Supervision — group and individual, including supervision of the trainee’s own cases
A written examination follows each course. The fourth part concludes with a diploma thesis.
Curriculum
Part one: ANTHROPOLOGY
The origins and foundations of logotherapy and existential analysis. Psychotherapy as a scientific discipline. The anthropological image of the human being. The spiritual (noetic) dimension of the person. An analysis of freedom and responsibility. Motivational theory and the value of existence. Meaning and values.
Part two: PREVENTION OF CRISES
Models of mental health. Salutogenesis and logotherapeutic prevention. Noogenic neuroses and the existential vacuum. Sexuality — eros — love. Sexual disorders. Existential-analytical pedagogy.
Part three: CRISIS INTERVENTION
Trauma and the paths towards mental health. Crises and crisis intervention in psychotherapy. Mediation and conflict management. Family therapy. Art therapy. Meaning-centred management and organisational development.
Part four: MEDICAL MINISTRY — THE DOCTOR AND THE SOUL
Psychopathological personality disorders: obsessions and compulsions, depression, psychoses. Addictions. Psycho-oncology and psycho-oncological logotherapy. The tragic triad — suffering, guilt, death. The meaning of suffering. Grief and death. The positive triad — faith, hope, love. Tragic optimism.
Courses and seminars
- Therapy for People with Cancer and Their Families
- Family Crisis Intervention
- The Counselling Process
- Grief, Sexual Violence and Abortion
- Sexual Disorders
- Basic Trust
- Marriage Counselling
- Healthy Conflict and Meaningful Communication
- The Optimistic Triad: Love, Faith and Hope
- Meaning, Kinds of Meaning and Values
- Art and Values — Asenovgrad
- Logopedagogy
- Epigenetics, Depression and Meaning-Oriented Family Therapy
Support for professionals
The Centre also works with practitioners outside the training programme: those beginning practice after completing a specialisation; those working in another modality who meet questions of loss, suffering and meaning; practitioners in the helping professions outside psychotherapy — physicians, nurses, social workers, educators, hospice companions; and experienced colleagues looking for another perspective on a difficult case.
Supervision
The Centre offers individual and group supervision in logotherapy and existential analysis, for trainees and for external practitioners alike. Supervision is confidential.
Mentoring
Mentoring is an individual conversation held at the practitioner’s own pace. It addresses the frame of practice — the first session, boundaries, time, terms, contact between sessions; the assessment of one’s own competence and when a case should be referred on; and the protection of one’s own resources in daily work with pain and crisis. Mentoring is not an examination.
Intervision
The intervision group is a regular meeting of practising colleagues. Each participant brings a case from their own practice; the group listens and offers another perspective. There is no hierarchy — everyone takes part as an equal.
Daily work with pain, life crises and transience gradually exhausts the therapist’s inner resource. This exhaustion is rarely cured by rest alone — it is restored in a community of like-minded colleagues and through shared experience.
Continuing education
Advanced modules and thematic seminars are held for already certified logotherapists.
Lecturers
The modules are taught by practising therapists — specialists who work with clients in the respective field. The programme draws on lecturers from Bulgaria and abroad.
Lecturers →