Finding Meaning in Depths

As coaches, we often encounter clients who have achieved external success yet feel profoundly unfulfilled. Perhaps they've climbed the ladder, accumulated wealth, built relationships, and checked all the boxes society told them would bring happiness and success. And they may wonder in a coaching session with you, is this all there is? Or they may say, I’m interested in creating something deeper in my life. Or they may even ask what’s the point of all that I have achieved?

These moments may call for something deeper than traditional goal-setting or problem-solving approaches. Instead, this may invite the opportunity for existential coaching.

Yannick Jacob, Existential and Leadership Coach shares that an existential philosophy offers a lens through which we can look at our relationship with ourselves, with other people and the world.

An existential coaching approach draws from philosophy and psychology to support clients exploring fundamental questions of human existence. This can include finding meaning, purpose, freedom, responsibility, authenticity, mortality, isolation and more.

Rather than clients focusing only on what they want to achieve, existential coaching explores who they want to become and why their existence matters. This approach recognises many of our struggles aren't problems to be solved, but rather, to be embraced and navigated to support intentionality with the creation of greater awareness.

The foundations of existential coaching

Existential coaching supports our clients to find freedom as well as take responsibility for their choices. As human beings, we are radically free to choose our responses to life's circumstances, and with this freedom also comes the responsibility for the choices we make.

As coaches, we support our clients with their meaning-making. Life doesn't come with pre-installed meaning, but through our questions, we can support clients to create it by providing them the opportunity to expand their awareness, make choices, and decide upon commitments.

We can also support clients to live in alignment with their deepest values and truest self, rather than conforming to external expectations and programming - if they so choose. This is with the client's understanding and awareness that they have limited time, which can create urgency and help to prioritise what truly matters.

Existential coaching questions to support deeper understanding

Existential questions can support the client’s exploration to raise deeper awareness. If a client says, ‘I've achieved everything I thought I wanted, but I feel hollow inside. What's wrong with me? A more traditional coaching approach might focus on work-life balance, stress management, or new goal-setting. An existential approach may explore the 'why' behind their achievements. These questions might sound like:

• What has driven you to pursue these particular markers of success?
• Which of your accomplishments feel authentically yours versus what you felt you 'should' pursue?
• If you knew you had five years left to live, what would feel most important to focus on?
• What are you becoming aware of that lets you know there is something deeper to explore?

Holding space for existential anxiety

Existential coaching often brings up what philosophers call ‘existential anxiety’ - the unease that comes from confronting life's big questions. 

As coaches, our role is to support our clients to get curious about what this anxiety brings - to assist clients in developing a more conscious and empowered relationship with what is showing up for them. Curiosity invites questioning, deep listening and space for reflection to uncover deeper truths..

Key principles to hold when existential coaching:

• The discomfort is normal, and existential anxiety is a sign of psychological health and growth.
• Stay curious, resist the urge to quickly resolve existential tensions
• Honour the process: deep questions don't have quick answers - trust the unfolding
• Model presence: Your ability to sit with uncertainty gives clients permission to do the same

When to use existential coaching

Asking existential coaching questions can be particularly powerful when clients are experiencing:

• Life transitions (career changes, relationship endings, parenthood, retirement)
• Success without satisfaction
• Quarter-life or midlife questioning
• Grief or loss
• Major health diagnoses
• Spiritual or philosophical questioning
• Feeling stuck despite having tried multiple approaches

Your own work comes first

We often share at Empower World when training coaches that we can only take our clients as far as we are willing to go ourselves. And as Yannick shares, “There’s certain depth that you can only take people to when you’re sitting confidently with who you are.”

An existential coaching approach requires us to be comfortable with ambiguity, depth, and philosophical exploration. It's not about having the answers but about supporting clients to find their own.

Existential coaching doesn't replace other approaches to coaching

Existential coaching doesn't replace other coaching approaches; it deepens them:  It invites us to move beyond the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of our clients' lives and invites them to explore the profound ‘why’ and 'who' that gives everything else meaning.

In a world that often prioritises productivity over purpose and achievement over authenticity, existential coaching offers our clients something precious: the opportunity to live more consciously, choose more intentionally, and create lives that genuinely feel worth living.

As coaches, we have the privilege of witnessing our clients' courage as they face their life's biggest questions. In doing so, we're not just partnering with them to find answers; we are supporting them to become the authors of their own existence.

Be Empowered.

www.empower-world.com

To hear the full conversation with Marie and Yannick, click here

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Coming up at Empower World:

Empower World's world-class ICF Approved Professional Coach Training and Leadership Programme's next intake starts on 03 Oct 2025 in Doha, Qatar. You can find out more here.

Coaching Skills Mentoring Programme with an MCC mentor for ICF credentialing purposes, starting 19 September 2025. Find out more here.

The Reignite Coaching Community supports coaches rebuild confidence, reconnect with their purpose, and return to coaching with clarity and momentum. Through practical resources, peer coaching, expert-led sessions, and a vibrant community, you gain the experience and growth, together with encouragement and feedback to enhance your skills, pursue credentials, and create a thriving, sustainable practice - no matter where you are on your coaching journey, from beginner to highly experienced. Find out more here.

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