What happens when the path you’ve followed your whole life suddenly stops making sense?
What does it really take — emotionally, personally, existentially — to become a therapist?
In this intimate and reflective conversation, I sit with my peer and fellow trainee Persefoni Kaltaki, with whom I began my journey at the New School for Psychotherapy and Counselling. Together, we speak openly about the emotional and existential cost of becoming a therapist.
Persefoni shares what it’s like to navigate training with dyslexia and ADHD, to move countries, to learn in a new language, and to start over while trying to hold space for others. She reflects on the limits of neurobiology and psychopharmacology in understanding the human condition and how discovering existential thought offered a way back to meaning.
“I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.” — Nikos Kazantzakis
This isn’t a conversation about methods or theories. It’s about what happens when therapy stops being a profession and becomes a way of being — about the laughter, vulnerability, and quiet courage it takes to keep becoming.
00:00 – 01:20
Intro — Meeting Again
01:20 – 04:00
How It All Began: Psychology, Curiosity & Early Certainties
04:00 – 06:40
Setbacks, Dyslexia, ADHD & the Weight of Academia
06:40 – 09:20
Moving Abroad & The Isolation of Training
09:20 – 12:00
Hitting the Void: Depression & Directionlessness
12:00 – 14:30
Turning Toward Existentialism
14:30 – 17:20
What Existential Therapy Feels Like
17:20 – 20:10
Starting Over: New Country, New Language, New Practice
20:10 – 23:00
The Hardest Thing She’s Ever Done
23:00 – 25:30
Ethics, Responsibility & Knowing When You’re Ready
25:30 – 28:00
Meaning, Capitalism & Going Against the World Around You
28:00 – 30:20
Staying With Uncertainty
30:20 – 32:30
Time as the Real Existential Anchor
Why time, more than death, shapes her awareness, choices, and orientation to life.
32:30 – 34:40
The Mutuality of Therapy — And Some Laughter Too
How connection nourishes the therapist, the thin line between personal and professional needs, and shared humour in the process.
34:40 – 35:00 Outro
About Persefoni:
Persefoni Kaltaki is a psychologist and UKCP trainee psychotherapist with an MSc in Clinical Psychology and advanced training in existential psychotherapy at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling (NSPC) in London. She currently works both in private practice in Copenhagen and remotely with UK-based clients through Headstrong Counselling.
Her therapeutic work is trauma-informed and rooted in existential and phenomenological approaches, with a focus on relational depth, self-exploration, and psychological awareness. She has supported clients navigating cultural displacement, gender identity, neurodivergence, and systemic marginalisation, committed to inclusive, reflective practice that responds to each client’s unique context and lived experience.
She is also trained in working with survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse and has facilitated group work and psychoeducational spaces focused on resilience, emotional wellbeing, and identity exploration. In addition to her independent practice, Persefoni collaborates with Daggry an organisation supporting LGBTQIA+ communities in Copenhagen.
🔗 Find out more about Persefoni :
🌐 persefonikaltaki.com
📧 persefonikaltaki@gmail.com
📍 Based in Copenhagen | Online therapy across the EU and UK
About the Host:
Max Karlin - psychologist, counsellor, and trainee existential therapist at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, London. On this channel I share existential therapy insights, interviews, and reflections to explore how psychotherapy can help us live more authentically and meaningfully.
https://linktr.ee/maxkarlin
In this first episode of Becoming Existential, I’m joined by Dr. Kirk J. Schneider — psychologist, author, lecturer, and one of the most influential voices in contemporary existential–humanistic and existential–integrative psychology.
Kirk has written more than a dozen books, including Life-Enhancing Anxiety and The Spirituality of Awe, and has devoted his career to bringing existential ideas beyond the therapy room — into education, politics, and dialogue across divided communities.
Together, we explore the gift of presence, the paradox of anxiety as a life-enhancing force, and what it means to stay human in an age of AI, quick fixes, and polarization. We also talk about the training journey of therapists today, and Kirk offers grounded, compassionate advice for those entering the field.
This conversation challenged and inspired me — and it feels like the right way to begin this series about becoming a therapist, and becoming human.
00:00 – Introduction
01:00 – Kirk’s Childhood & Early Trauma
03:00 First Encounters with Therapy
07:10 – The Essence of Existential Therapy
11:00 How the Existential Approach Shapes Us Professionally & Personally
15:00 – On Presence as the Greatest Gift
18:00 – Family, Relationship & Parenting Reflections
20:00 Advice for Aspiring Therapists
24:00 Getting personal experience of therapy first
25:00 Learning therapy skills
27:00 How Existential Approach contributes to the world
30:00 – Anxiety as a Constructive Force
33:00 The Space for the dialogue
35:00 Existential Question for Society
39:00 The Danger of a Machine-Like Society
41:00 – Final Reflections & Existential Question for Society
Dr. Kirk J. Schneider, Ph.D., is a leading voice in contemporary existential-humanistic and existential-integrative psychology. A licensed psychologist, he is past editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, adjunct faculty at Saybrook University and Teachers College, Columbia University, and president of the Existential-Humanistic Institute (EHI).
Dr. Schneider has authored or edited over a dozen influential books — including Awakening to Awe, Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy, The Polarized Mind, and his recent Life-Enhancing Anxiety: Key to a Sane World. His work has been translated into multiple languages and featured in outlets such as Scientific American, The New York Times, and Psychology Today.
He is a Fellow of five divisions of the American Psychological Association and recipient of the prestigious Rollo May Award for his pioneering contributions to humanistic psychology. Internationally recognized, Dr. Schneider has delivered keynote addresses at the World Congresses of Existential Therapy and the International Existential Psychology Conference in China.
At the heart of his work is the idea that awe and anxiety are central to living more fully, authentically, and humanely — both in therapy and in society at large.
Kirk Schneider
https://kirkjschneider.com
Existential-Humanistic Institute:
https://www.ehinstitute.org/
Social Media:
@kirk.schneider.908
@kschneider56
/ kirk-schneider-a526a661
Books by Kirk J. Schneider Ph.D.:
Life-Enhancing Anxiety, Awakening to Awe, Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy and more:
https://www.amazon.com/Kirk-J-Schneid...
Other links:
New Corps of Depth Healers website and Certificate Program:
https://www.corpsofdepthhealers.com
Latest Book: “Life-Enhancing Anxiety: Key to a Sane World”
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Enhancing...
New YouTube Channel-“Corps of Depth Healers” / @corpsofdepthhealers-ws9nq
I’m Max Karlin, a psychologist, counsellor, and trainee existential therapist at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, London. On this channel I share existential therapy insights, interviews, and reflections to explore how psychotherapy can help us live more authentically and meaningfully.
https://linktr.ee/maxkarlin