Dilemma Consultancy

Emmy was born on 13 December 1951 in The Hague, Netherlands. After a classical education she moved to Montpellier, France, where she studied French and Philosophy. She completed a Masters Degree in phenomenology and existentialism and worked for several years in the revolutionary psychiatric hospital of Saint Alban in the Massif Central as a group facilitator and counsellor.  

 After this she worked in the psychotherapeutic centre ‘La Candelie’ in Agen, South West France, where she also trained in psychotherapy, whilst completing a Masters Degree in clinical psychology at the University of Bordeaux. She came to the UK in 1977 to live and work in a psychotherapeutic community of the Arbours Association, in London, where she also worked in the Crisis Centre and taught on the psychotherapy training programme. After a work/study trip to California, she began teaching on the London programmes of Antioch University International and became Associate Director of their MA in Humanistic Psychology. She developed the MA in the Psychology of Therapy and Counselling of which she became Director in 1982. The course moved to Regent’s College in 1985 and merged with the College in 1989, when she was appointed as Head of the Regent’s Psychology Department. She became Dean of the School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, which she founded in 1991 and she expanded this to a large and successful training organization, obtaining validation from City University. She was awarded a Chair in 1993. Emmy left Regent's College in 1996 to found the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, which specializes in existential psychotherapy training. The school is based in London, on the South Bank, in Waterloo, across from the Imax cinema and the station and next door to King's College.

Emmy continues to direct the New School and she is a Professor in Psychotherapy with Schiller International University, which NSPC is associated with. She runs two masters and two doctoral programmes with Middlesex University at the New School and is a visiting Professor with Middlesex University.  She is also Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Conflict and Reconciliation at the University of Sheffield and an Honorary Professor with the University of Sheffield. She has written extensively on the application of philosophical ideas to working with individuals, couples, groups and organizations and she founded the Society for Existential Analysis in 1988, of which she remains an Honorary Life Member. Her book Existential Counselling and Psychotherapy in Practice, published in the same year, became a bestseller and saw its second edition in 2002. It has also been translated into a number of other languages, including Russian, Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Korean, Hebrew and Chinese. Her books Paradox and Passion in Psychotherapy (Wiley 1998) and Everyday Mysteries (Routledge 1997) are also still in print and the second edition of Everyday Mysteries is in press.  She has co-authored the Dictionary of Existential Psychotherapy and Counselling with Raymond Kenward and co-edited a book on existential therapy with Claire Arnold-Baker (Palgrave 2005) and a book on existential supervision with Sarah Young (Palgrave 2009). Her book Psychotherapy and the Quest for Happiness, also with Sage (2008) took on the controversy over positive psychology and shows the importance of facing reality and learning to be.  Emmy is much in demand as an international speaker on these subjects. She has a particular interest in helping people question their assumptions, beliefs and values and guiding them through life crises, dilemmas and transformations towards a more meaningful life.

Emmy is a chartered Counselling Psychologist and was elected a Fellow of the British Psychological Society in 2000.  She is a registered existential psychotherapist and was offered a Fellowship by the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (of which she was the first chair) in 2006.  She was also made a Fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy in 2001.  She has chaired numerous other professional associations and has founded several as well.  She and Digby Tantam co-founded and co-chair the International Collaborative of Existential Counsellors and Psychotherapists (ICECAP) and they were co-chairs of the European Training Standards Committee, when it developed and launched the European Certificate for Psychotherapy. They worked with the Council of Europe on human rights issues on behalf of the European Association for Psychotherapy and Emmy was also the Ambassador for the EAP to the European Commission.

Emmy's article entitled Existential Counselling and Psychotherapy has been placed on this site.