Emmy Van Deurzen - Biography

Biography

Emmy van Deurzen received a classical education in the Netherlands, before moving to Montpellier in France to study French and Philosophy, before doing a Masters Degree in Phenomenology and Existentialism. She followed this by working for a number of years in the psychiatric hospital of Saint Alban in Massif Central and then a psychotheraputic centre in Agen, during which she undertook a Masters Degree at the University of Bordeaux in Clinical Psychology.

After moving to the United Kingdom in 1977 to work in a psychtheraputic community in London, she began teaching at Antioch University International, rising to Associate Director of the MA in Humanistic Psychology. From this position she developed an MA in Psychology of Therapy and Counselling, becoming Director of it in 1982 and stayed with the course through its move and merge with Regent's College in 1985 and 1989 respectively, becoming Head of the Psychology Department with the merger. Whilst working at Regent's she founded the Society for Existential Analysis, and its accompanying journal, Existential Analysis in 1988. This was followed by the founding of the School of Psychotherapy and Counselling in 1991, validated by City University, the former of which van Deurzen became Dean.

In 1996 she left Regent's College to establish the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling (NSPC), a school which specialises in training students to become existential therapists, where as of 2011 she remains Principal, and is associated with Schiller International University, where van Deurzen is a Professor of Psychotherapy.

Van Deurzen has become a noted figure in the school of psychotherapy, being the first chair of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy, and an ambassador for the European Association for Psychotherapy to both the European Commission and Council of Europe. Her work has been translated into a number of other languages, including Russian, Chinese and Spanish, and her Existential Counselling and Psychotherapyin Practice book was a bestseller.