Logotherapy: Educating Students to Search for Meaning

This chapter presents a process for educators (teachers and counselors) to guide students in a classroom setting to explore the search for personal meaning. Interventions based on Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy are described along with resources that are used. Socratic dialogue is used to help students explore their uniqueness, values, power to make choices and be responsible (internal/external locus of control), and ability to give beyond their own selves. By understanding their ability to impact others, students learn skills to assist them in making crucial life decisions based on their values. Interventions are based on a quasi-experimental eight-week research study, as well as case studies done over a 40-year time span of working with students.