Questions about the nature of human existence have puzzled the human mind for millennia, for instance, "What is the meaning of my life?" "How do I cope with my mortality?" (e.g., Greenberg, Koole, & Pyszczynski, 2004;Tillich, 1952). For some people, these concerns may evoke such anxiety, uncertainty, and crisis that they may experience severe psychological distress (Yalom, 1980). People may be especially vulnerable to experiencing such distress when they are in boundary situations (Jaspers, 1925)-that is, when they are confronted with issues about their very existence, such as the diagnosis of terminal illness. Many forms of psychotherapy and counseling implicitly help clients to address such existential concerns. However, one group of therapies that explicitly claims to do this-and to help clients develop a deeper understanding of their lived existence within a close relational encounter-consists of the existential approaches to psychotherapy.

Existential psychotherapy is a recognized and widespread therapeutic paradigm, with almost 100 years of clinical intervention. Despite some evidence of its effectiveness, existential psychotherapists have been criticized for a lack of a coherent framework of practice. Existential authors have been reluctant to make explicit their therapeutic methods, and an encompassing consensual understanding of its core constitutional practices has yet to be reached. To begin to address this, an online international survey was conducted and 971 existential practitioners from 46 countries and different theoretical and cultural backgrounds gave 2,611 responses to the question "which three specific therapeutic methods or practices would you consider most characteristic of existential therapy?". Responses were contentanalyzed and a total of 77 different specific practices were identified and clustered into 17 subcategories and 5 overarching categories of practice. Phenomenological practices, methods associated with specific existential branches, practices informed by existential assumptions, relational practices, and practices of other therapeutic paradigms were found to be considered the most characteristic categories of an existential practice. An empirically based, encompassing, and structured taxonomy of existential practices is now available. New avenues are opened for research concerning the applicability and effectiveness of these fundamental existential practices.

PREÂMBULOO meu trabalho enquanto psicólogo tem-se desenvolvido, sobretudo, em contextos de saúde, mais concretamente na área do VIH/SIDA e, mais recentemente, na área da Doença Inflamatória Intestinal. Situações crónicas e complexas como ambas são, rapidamente me senti vogando num mar de dúvidas, incertezas e sentimentos de impotência e frustração, quanto ao meu papel profissional. No que poderíamos denominar de um movimento de "coping focalizado no problema" (ou seria antes um "coping de evitamento"?!), procurei formação na denominada Psicologia da Saúde, alimentado pela esperança de encontrar ferramentas teóricas e técnicas que me permitissem (confesso) curar ou salvar os pacientes do seu sofrimento psico-emocional.Feito o luto do paraíso das certezas profissionais, não pude, no entanto, deixar de me sentir desiludido com o que considero uma visão mecanicista do homem perante as dimensões de saúde e doença e com os modelos totalitários que pululam a Psicologia da Saúde.É certo que para conseguir se imiscuir no apetecível mundo da saúde, a Psicologia teria de comprovar a sua eficácia e importância e isto, claro está, teria de ser numa linguagem que fosse aceite, compreensível, convincente e, de preferência, "irrefutável", pelos "protagonistas" da saúde. A psicossomática psicanalítica, por exemplo, tal como se apresentava há umas décadas atrás, ortodoxa, dogmática e sustentada mais numa fé nos modelos teóricos que a nutriam do que propriamente numa evidência empírica ou fenomenológica (Angerami, 2003), acabou por não conseguir "penetrar" o ventre fecundo da saúde. De uma forma diametralmente oposta, a Psicologia da Saúde apresentou-se sustentada na investigação quantitativa, onde a precisão dos números e os modelos simplistas tornaram-na não só aceitável, mas até irrecusável, na intervenção em saúde. Impossível contestar a pertinência e a eficácia desta estratégia; graças a ela podemos contar com um número cada vez maior de psicólogos a trabalhar em contextos onde há uma ou duas décadas atrás apenas víamos médicos e enfermeiros. Todavia, ultrapassada a questão da afirmação da pertinência da intervenção psicológica no mundo da saúde e da doença, importa hoje questionar o papel do psicólogo enquanto técnico a trabalhar em contexto de doença física, bem como sobre a identidade da psicologia na saúde.CONTEXTUALIZANDO A PSICOLOGIA DA SAÚDE Permitam-me então uma breve contextualização histórica da Psicologia da Saúde

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Authors agree that a range of different existential therapies exist. However, not much has been written about what is characteristic and distinctive of each existential therapy, and the few claims that have been made are mainly hypothetical. Practitioners from the four main branches of existential therapy were asked about the authors and texts that have most influenced their practice and the practices they considered most characteristic of existential therapy. From all over the world, 29 daseinsanalysts, 82 existentialhumanistic, 573 existential-phenomenological, and 303 logotherapy and/or existential analysis practitioners participated in this study. Data show that the scope of influence of an author is pretty much limited to the branch he or she is related to and only a few authors, in particular Frankl and Yalom, influence practitioners from all four branches. Five categories of practice are shared among the main existential branches as the most characteristics of existential therapy, with phenomenological practices being the most shared category: But the frequency of each of these categories of practice differs significantly depending on respondents' training or affiliated branch. Data

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Within the major therapeutic paradigms, observational instruments have been developed to assess orientation-specific interventions or processes. However, to date, no such instrument exists to assess existential practices. Recent research indicates the key practices of existential therapists, and forms an empirical basis on which to develop an observatory grid. This paper describes the development of such a grid, and its exploratory testing with eight clients of four Portuguese existential psychotherapists. A total of 32 sessions were observed and both speaking turn and whole session analysis showed that it was feasible to assess existential therapy using the instrument, although psychometric findings recommend further refinement of the tool. Session rating data suggests that the chief practices applied by existential therapists were relational, followed by the use of hermeneutic interventions and reformulations. Interventions based on phenomenological and existential assumptions were observable in practice but limited in frequency. Further refinements and developments of the observational grid, together with additional researchusing a range of therapists from different schools of existential therapyare recommended.

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