The spreadsheet existed. So did the pros-and-cons list, the conversations with people whose judgment was trusted, the months of quiet deliberation during the commute and on weekend mornings when the house was still. Every angle of the decision had been examined. And still, nothing moved.
This is not a failure of analysis. It is something closer to a structural problem.
Kierkegaard wrote about what he called the leap — the moment when deliberation has done everything it can do and something else is required. Not more information, not another perspective, not a cleaner read of the available data. Action. Into uncertainty. With no guarantee of the outcome.
The difficulty is that we tend to experience the anxiety that lives in that gap as a sign that we are not ready — that if we just thought a little longer, gathered a little more, the right path would clarify itself and the anxiety would lift. It rarely does. The anxiety is not a warning that something is wrong. It is the texture of a real choice. It is what it feels like to stand at the edge of a decision that actually matters, where the outcome is genuinely open and the stakes are real.
More thinking, at that point, is often less a path toward clarity than a way of staying on the safe side of the gap.
The people I work with in New Jersey are often skilled deliberators. They have navigated complex careers, managed real responsibilities, made difficult calls under pressure. The tools that served them in those situations — analysis, planning, the careful weighing of options — are genuine strengths. And they can become, in certain kinds of decisions, a way of avoiding the one thing the situation actually requires.
Existential therapy takes the leap seriously as a concept, not because it romanticizes risk but because it recognizes something true about how change actually works. A life genuinely redirected — a relationship honestly reckoned with, a career reconsidered at its roots, a version of yourself finally set down — does not arrive through more thinking. It arrives through a moment of action that thinking can prepare but cannot replace.
The anxiety doesn't go away before the leap. It tends to go away after.
I work with adults throughout New Jersey — in Montclair, Summit, Short Hills, Ridgewood, Morristown, Westfield, and beyond — through telehealth sessions. Prospective clients are welcome to reach out at jonathanwalsh@hushmail.com or to request a complimentary 15-minute consultation through this site.
Frequently Asked Questions about Existential Therapy
What is existential therapy? Existential therapy explores questions of meaning, freedom, choice, and identity rather than focusing primarily on symptoms. It treats emotional difficulty as information worth examining, not just a problem to be corrected.
What does existential therapy help with? It is well-suited for anxiety, life transitions, grief, and the persistent feeling that something is off even when life appears to be working. It tends to appeal to people who want to understand themselves more deeply, not just feel better in the short term.
How is existential therapy different from CBT? CBT targets specific thought patterns and behaviors. Existential therapy is more concerned with the larger questions underneath — what a person values, what they are choosing, and whether the life they are living is genuinely their own.
Who is a good fit for existential therapy? It works best for people who are reflective and willing to sit with uncertainty rather than looking for a quick fix or a structured program.
Jonathan Walsh, LMHC, LCMHC, LPC is a licensed therapist providing existential therapy via telehealth in New Jersey and several other states. He is a member of the New England Center for Existential Therapy and has completed core training at the Institute for Existential-Psychoanalytic Therapy. Learn more about Jonathan.