Course in Clinical Phenomenology. From theory to practice – 4th edition

 ABOUT 

As mental health care becomes ever more biologically grounded, phenomenology offers a corrective lens. It is a disciplined way of attending to what psychological distress is actually like from the lived experience — the altered atmosphere of a delusional mood, the stalled time of melancholia, the thinned self of depersonalisation — before that experience is sorted into a diagnostic category.

The 4th edition of the PhenoLab course in Clinical offers mental health professionals, nurses, social workers and academics working at the intersectional fields of mental health a set of tools for encountering patients as people living through something, rather than as cases matching a category.

TEACHING METHODOLOGY

Each two-hour session combines lecture, case presentations, and discussion. Participants will engage with original texts, contemporary clinical applications, and have opportunities to practice phenomenological approaches through case discussions.

• Synchronous lectures 

• Recordings will be made available only to enrolled participants

The course is designed for:

• psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychotherapists

• psychiatric nurses and social workers

• researchers in mental health 

• postgraduate students in psychology, and philosophy 

• philosophical counsellors and consultants 

• anyone who wants to enrich their practice with phenomenological insight

COURSE STRUCTURE

This 21 session journey progresses from philosophical foundations to practical clinical applications. Beginning with core phenomenological concepts, we'll explore how this approach transforms our understanding of major mental health conditions and clinical practice.

Each thematic session lasts 2 hours and takes up one author (for BLOCK I) and one phenomenon (from BLOCK II onwards) and follows it through: 

- conceptual groundwork in the phenomenological tradition

- description of the phenomenon itself

- what it looks like in clinical practice

- discussion

COURSE CONTENT

BLOCK I: FOUNDATIONS (SESSIONS 1–7)

- Session 1, Phenomenology for beginners: the basics

12 September, from 3 to 5 CET

- Session 2, Mind, brain and consciousness

19 September, from 3 to 5 CET

- Session 3, Edmund Husserl: from descriptive psychology to the transcendental turn

26 September, from 3 to 5 CET

- Session 4, Martin Heidegger and the hermeneutical shift

10 October, from 3 to 5 CET

- Session 5, Karl Jaspers: descriptive phenomenology and the role of psychiatry

17 October, from 3 to 5 CET

- Session 6, Maurice Merleau-Ponty: perception, the lived body and being-for-others

31 October, from 3 to 5 CET

- Session 7, Critical phenomenology

7 November, from 3 to 5 CET

BLOCK II: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF DEPRESSION (SESSIONS 8–12)

- Session 8, Varieties of depressive experience I: the loss of possibility

14 November, from 3 to 5 CET

- Session 9, Varieties of depressive experience II: melancholia, guilt and the closed future

28 November, from 3 to 5 CET

- Session 10, Temporality in depressive experience I: Binswanger and Minkowski

5 December, from 3 to 5 CET

- Session 11, Temporality in depressive experience II: Straus, Jaspers, Tellenbach

12 December, from 3 to 5 CET

- Session 12, Lived body, corporeality and intercorporeality in depression

19 December, from 3 to 5 CET

BLOCK III: PSYCHOSIS AND SELF-DISTURBANCE (SESSIONS 13–16)

- Session 13, Kraepelin, Bleuler and contemporary classification

9 January, from 3 to 5 CET

- Session 14, First-generation phenomenological approaches

16 January, from 3 to 5 CET

- Session 15, Contemporary approaches: ipseity, self-disorder and their critics

6 February, from 3 to 5 CET

- Session 16, Hallucinations, delusions and the quest for meaning

13 February, from 3 to 5 CET

BLOCK IV: BEYOND THE PARADIGMS (SESSIONS 17–21)

- Session 17, Anxiety, panic and trauma

20 February, from 3 to 5 CET

- Session 18, Eating disorders and the body seen from outside

27 February, from 3 to 5 CET

- Session 19, Phenomenological interviews

13 March, from 3 to 5 CET

- Session 20, From clinical semiology to the existential encounter

20 March, from 3 to 5 CET

- Session 21, Recognition, relationality and empathy in practices of care

27 March, from 3 to 5 CET

ENROLLMENT INFORMATION

Interested participants should fill in the form at the following link Course Registration – PhenoLab Academy | Online Courses in Phenomenology & Mental Health and attach the receipt of payment in pdf. 

The course fees include:

• Live synchronous lectures

• All required teaching materials

• Access to recorded sessions

• A certificate of attendance will be provided upon course completion

Language: All sessions will be conducted in English.

Total of hours: 42

Cost. 488 euros VAT included

Application Deadline: September 10, 2026

Starting date: 12 September 2026