Abstract
This portfolio was submitted to the University of Surrey for the completion of the Practitioner Doctorate in Psychotherapeutic and Counselling Psychology. The research dossier contains a literature review about ecopsychology and existential therapy as approaches for trauma, followed by two empirical studies using qualitative methodologies. The first study uses Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to explore the client experience of existential therapy, while the second study explores how the existential dimensions manifest when women talk about becoming mothers for the first time. This was achieved through Content Analysis.