We, the core faculty of the Center for Existential Studies and Psychotherapy, regard the persistence of gross social inequities in the United States as a betrayal of “the proposition that all [humans] are created equal.” We oppose societal structures and attitudes that foster or tolerate inequity on the basis of any individual or group attribute, including race, gender, sexuality, religion, class, ability, language, appearance, or national background. The tenacity of bigotry in our culture makes it urgent to keep addressing these matters. At times, during programs or discussions we’re sponsoring, we may shift from the planned topic to questions of diversity and privilege as they arise. We regret that we’ll sometimes handle such situations imperfectly. We’re committed to learning from our mistakes, and we’re committed to ongoing examinations of our own biases, conscious and otherwise. These commitments are central to our values. Those values include the following propositions:

• • We are defined not by the circumstances we’re thrown into, but rather by what we choose to do, say, or think within those circumstances. We always have decisions to make, including the decision to avoid making an active choice.  Passivity lets no one off the hook of responsibility. 
  • We all share a common humanity and we are all more different from each other than we can imagine. Both are true. Both are grounds for mutual generosity and care.
  • Good questions are more important than good answers.
  • Humility is never optional.
  • Uncertainty opens the door for curiosity and learning.
  • People matter more than ideas do.
  • Challenging what we think we know allows us to discover what we do not yet know.

Movie Night

The Life of Chuck
Mike Stiers, PhD, Discussant
Date: January 9, 2026

Reading & Book-signing

Richard Smith, PhD
Date: TBA

Beyond Where Words Can Go: A Novel in 200 Sonnets – April 2026 by Bauhan Publishing

Developmental Seminar Three: Existential Issues in Midlife

Megan Flood, MSW, Jane Prelinger, MSW, Kate Scharff, MSW
Date: TBA

Existential Therapy Workshop: Human Existence In Life And Psychotherapy

(See Homepage for Detailed Description)

Michael Stadter, PhD, Jane Prelinger, MSW
Now in its seventh year, the program runs from October to May with two distinct groups: one meets monthly on Zoom, and the other meets monthly in person.  New members may apply for the next cycle.

Existential Book Club

Book Club 4.0 – Power, Privilege, and Obtuseness: Expanding the scope of patients’ self-reflection and ethical responsibility

 Richard Smith, PhD / March 2025 – November 2025

Learn More…

Book Club 3.0 – Thought as Mental Action – Psychological Responsibility

Richard Smith, PhD / March – November 2021

• Oedipus at Colonus (Sophocles)
• Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison)
• The Winter’s Tale (William Shakespeare)
• Howards End (E.M. Forster)

Book Club 2.0 – Self-Creation and the Creative Self – Decision Points

Richard Smith, PhD / March – November 2020

• Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf)
  
• Beloved (Toni Morrison)
  
• Measure for Measure (William Shakespeare)
  
• Middlemarch (George Eliot)

Book Club 1.0 – Existential Shipwrecks

Richard Smith, PhD / March – May 2019

 The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera) 

 King Lear (William Shakespeare)

 Villette (Charlotte Bronte)

Existential Therapy & Phases of Development Seminar Series

Developmental Seminar Three: Existential Issues in Midlife

Megan Flood, MSW, Jane Prelinger, MSW, Kate Scharff, MSW
Date: TBA

Developmental Seminar Two: Emerging Adulthood, The College Years

Wanda Collins, PhD, Gary Glass, PhD
Date: June 3, 2023

Developmental Seminar One: Working with Clients in the Reproductive Phase

Megan Flood, MSW, and Rachel Freedman, PhD
Saturday, April 9, 2022, 9 am – 12 pm, EST, via ZOOM

Reading & Book-signing

Richard Smith, PhD
Saturday, May 14, 2022, 10:30 am – noon

Richard Smith will read from his book Not a Soul but Us, winner of the 2021 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize, and field questions and sign books. We’ll gather in Rock Creek Park at an outdoor picnic shelter that has a roof in case of rain but is otherwise open-air.

Not a Soul but Us is a story told in 84 sonnets, set in a remote village in medieval England, where the bubonic plague pandemic wipes out half the population. Left behind are a 12-year-old shepherd boy and his dog, who keep their flock alive through a brutal winter—and then must figure out how to reconnect with life as it moves forward.

Conferences

The Existential Sensibility: Self and Psychotherapy in an Uncertain World
(Co-sponsored with the Washington School of Psychiatry)
Special guest: Carlo Strenger, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Philosophy, Tel Aviv University
April 7-8, 2017

Movie Nights

Harold & Maude
Kimberly Satin-Kubler, MSW, Jonathan Stillerman, PhD – Discussants
September 12, 2025

Calvary
Eileen Dombo, PhD, Discussant
April 4, 2025

Arrival
Julie Mitchell, LPC, Discussant
April 23, 2021

Grey Gardens
Megan Flood, MSW, Discussant
August 20, 2020

Nanette
Charlotte Blutstein, LPC, Discussant
May 17, 2019

Paterson
Barry Wepman, PhD, Discussant
September 15, 2017

Resolved
(Co-sponsored with the Center for Race, Ethnicity and Culture of the Washington School of Psychiatry)
Reginald Nettles, PhD and Michael Stiers, PhD, Discussants
May 6, 2016

The Sheltering Sky
Emily Randall, MSW, Discussant
January 20, 2016

Her
Michael Stadter, PhD, Discussant
September 18, 2015

The Swimmer
Jane Prelinger, MSW, Discussant
May 1, 2015

The Barbarian Invasions
Michael Stiers, PhD, Discussant
February 6, 2015

The Trip
Jane Prelinger, MSW, Discussant
November 14, 2014

Salons

A Poetry Therapy Experience
Lauren Boyle Phd
May 14,2023

Death Café
CESP Death Café
Jane Prelinger, MSW, Megan Flood, MSW, Richard Smith, PhD, Michael Stadter, PhD, Michael Stiers, PhD
October 20, 2018

An Existential Salon, Featuring the Poetry of Jonathan Stillerman, Ph.D.
Jane Prelinger, MSW, and Michael Stiers, PhD, Discussants
November 18, 2016

Seminars

Topics in Existential Psychotherapy
CESP Faculty and Michael Stiers, PhD and Emily Randall, MSW, Guest Lecturers
October 2017 – May 2018

Supervision Groups
Existential Ideas and Clinical Work
Jane Prelinger, MSW and Michael Stiers, PhD
September 2014 – June 2018