Home
Can you study a meaningful life? Yes, you can. Welcome to the course!
Course Tips

Can you study a meaningful life? Yes, you can. Welcome to the course!

The basic studies in logotherapy are intended for anyone, regardless of age, who is interested in personal growth, recognising the essential building blocks of life, learning to encounter others with respect and finding and using their own resources.

Anyone can start studying logotherapy with personal growth as their goal. Students who start with professional goals may have a wide range of backgrounds, for example in social and health care, teaching and education, diaconal and pastoral work, business and management, human resources and recruitment, therapy, or coaching or work supervision.

Aims

The aim of the basic studies is to provide basic knowledge of logotherapy and the skills to recognise and face changes in life. The studies also aim to give you new perspectives and tools for your professional skills and wellbeing at work. You also gain a solid foundation for possible further studies.

Provided that other requirements are met, the training qualifies you for further studies to become a logotherapy counsellor LTI®, logotherapist LTI® or logotherapeutic work supervisor LTI®. These further studies are only available to those who have completed the basic studies of the Finnish Institute of Logotherapy.

Delivery

You can complete the basic studies in logotherapy alongside work or other studies, as they are delivered as blended learning. The contact teaching (210 hours) is arranged in 10 three-day periods. In addition to contact teaching, the studies include reading literature, a book summary, learning assignments and a written final essay and its presentation during the distance learning periods. In addition to lectures, the training is interactive and makes use of learning in and from the group.

The training is delivered in cooperation between Helsingin aikuisopisto, Aktiivi-Instituutti and Suomen Logoterapiainstituutti Oy (the Finnish Institute of Logotherapy). Founded in 2003, the Finnish Institute of Logotherapy is an expert and training organisation in logotherapy that offers logotherapy training open to everyone and professional specialisation studies in logotherapy. The LTI® mark is a guarantee of quality, confirming that the training follows the consistent and original European training system (FLP-EU).

Please note that the training is in Finnish.

Place and time

The contact teaching for the basic studies takes place at Helsingin aikuisopisto, Runeberginkatu 22–24, 00100 Helsinki.

Contact teaching times: Thu 15.00–19.15, Fri 09.00–16.00, Sat 09.00–15.45

Content

  • 7–9 September 2023: Viktor E. Frankl and his life’s work. What is logotherapy?
  • 5–7 October 2023: The view of human beings and its significance in everyday life, the logotherapeutic view of human beings
  • 2–4 November 2023: Purpose in life and values
  • 7–9 December 2023: The contribution and significance of logotherapy in our time
  • 11–13 January 2024: Logoeducation, life skills for transitions in the life cycle
  • 8–10 February 2024: The philosophical basis of logotherapy
  • 7–9 March 2024: Supporting the growth of children and young people
  • 4–6 April 2024: What logotherapy can offer working life and work communities
  • 2–5 May 2024: Special topics and themes requested by students
  • 6–8 June 2024: Final period, presentation and assessment of final essays

What is logotherapy?

Logotherapy was developed by Viktor E. Frankl (1905–1997), a Viennese professor of neurology, psychiatry and logotherapy and a doctor of medicine and philosophy. He also called logotherapy existential analysis. The key content of logotherapy relates to the view of human beings and finding a place that is the right size for a human being. A person is seen as responsible and at least partly free to choose their attitude to their situation, their past and everything they have experienced.

In addition to the physical and psychosocial being, the logotherapeutic view of human beings includes a spiritual dimension, through which a person can put their personal freedom and responsibility into practice. Heredity and environmental factors do not determine what kind of future a person can have. Logotherapy has its roots in philosophy and psychology.

Experiences of purpose, meaning and meaningfulness in life and work are closely linked to human wellbeing. Logotherapy, the meaning-centred thinking developed by Viktor E. Frankl, challenges us to reflect on our present, past and future through the lens of meaningfulness. Such reflection leads each of us to ask whether we are on the right path. The question is existential: one that everyone should stop to consider not only at turning points in life but also when a vague feeling of (travel) sickness or emptiness creeps into the mind and/or body. In the framework of logotherapy, existential reflection relates both to one’s own existence and to its purpose.

In practice, logotherapy helps you find perspectives and answers to what to move towards in different areas of life and why. It also offers methods tested in practice and theory for reflecting on the values and purpose of life, learning to face adversity and finding hope and positivity in life.

Logotherapy can be applied in all areas of life, such as working life, family life, upbringing and teaching, and questions of life skills. The greatest contribution of logotherapy is that it supports being human and solving related problems in a meaning-centred way in our time. The questions of our time are mostly problems of the spiritual dimension, which, if left unsolved or solved incorrectly, can cause physical and psychosocial disorders and illnesses.

Logotherapy can be described as a way of thinking that strengthens upbringing and self-education, life skills, and the skills of encountering and supporting others. In this sense, it has also been called logopedagogy and resource-oriented brief therapy. Logotherapy is also called the third Viennese school of psychotherapy. However, this training does not give a psychotherapist qualification in Finland.

Trainers

The trainers are professionals approved by the Finnish Institute of Logotherapy who have a higher education degree and have completed logotherapist (LTI®) studies, and who have pedagogical studies or solid experience as trainers in their own field. The trainer in charge is Mia Salo, MSc (Econ.), doctoral researcher, Logotherapeut FLP-EUROPE®, Logotherapist LIF®, +358 40 585 1158.

Apply for the training

Send your application by 10 August 2023. After that, you can ask about possible places that become available.

Your free-form application should include a short summary of your life, education and work experience and your reasons for applying to study logotherapy. Places are filled in the order in which acceptable applications are received.

Send your application and attachments to Suomen Logoterapiainstituutti, Lounatuulet, Läntinen Pitkäkatu 33, 20100 Turku, Finland, or to mia.m.salo@utu.fi. Use the subject line: Logoterapian perusopinnot, Helsinki 2023-2024.

Once you have been accepted, register for the training in the Helsingin aikuisopisto registration system.

Professional further training

Applicants for professional further training are generally required to have a university of applied sciences or university degree and at least five years of work experience working with people. Acceptance can also be decided individually on the basis of other broad education and work history. Applicants with personal growth goals are also accepted on other grounds.

Applicants for the basic studies come from many different educational and professional fields. You can start studying without aiming for further training. Logotherapy counsellor LTI® and logotherapist LIF® are not independent official qualifications in Finland, but professional further training that adds specialist expertise to your own profession.

Price

The price of the whole training is €2,400 (incl. 24% VAT). You can pay the course fee in two instalments. The first instalment must be paid by 29 August and the second by 8 February 2024. Payment is made to Aktiivi-Instituutti (an institution belonging to the same organisation as Helsingin aikuisopisto), which will send the invoice. The price includes teaching, teaching materials provided by the teachers, and tutoring and marking of learning, learning assignments and final essays.

More opportunities after the basic studies

Study to become a logotherapy counsellor (60 credits)

To be accepted, you must have completed basic studies approved by the Finnish Institute of Logotherapy. In addition to the basic studies in logotherapy, the logotherapy counsellor LTI® specialisation studies include advanced studies (second theory year) and a one-week course in guiding conversations. Together with the basic studies, the studies take about two and a half years.

From logotherapy counsellor to logotherapist (100 credits)

The logotherapist LTI® specialisation studies (100 credits) consist of four and a half years of training following the European model. They are made up of the logotherapy counsellor training described above and two further study modules:

  • Applied logotherapy – logotherapy in practical work (20 credits), delivered through group work supervision methods, reading literature and learning assignments. The aim is to learn to apply the theory and methods of logotherapy in your own work and life, client work and conversational support.
  • Autobiography, or logotherapeutic life story (20 credits), in which students reflect on their own lives in a guided group in the framework of logotherapy and learn to use this method in their own work. The actual examination of your own life is written independently between contact sessions, life stage by life stage, in periods according to the instructions.

The licences Logotherapist LIF® and Logotherapeut FLP Europa®, defined by FLP-EU, our European cooperation organisation of logotherapy professionals, are granted on application for three years at a time only to those who have completed logotherapist LTI® studies, who also have 200 hours of further logotherapeutic training and activity in the field of logotherapy and who commit to following FLP-EU’s ethical principles in their work. The licence serves as quality assurance for logotherapists themselves as professionals and especially for clients.

More information