Alvin R. Mahrer Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus

University of Ottawa - School of Psychology

Founder of Experiential Psychotherapy
 & Optimal Behaviors

Alvin R. Mahrer, Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus of the school of Psychology, University of Ottawa. He is also the author of 23 books and more than 200 academic publications.

Dr. Mahrer is one of four recipients in the first "Living Legends in Psychotherapy" by the American Psychological Association's Division of Psychotherapy (University of Ottawa News Release, Feb 15, 2002). Dr. Mahrer received the Award for Excellence in Research in 1992 from the University of Ottawa

Alvin R. Mahrer, Ph.D., graduated in 1954, from Ohio State University with a doctorate in clinical psychology, went to the VA Hospital in Denver, and became president of the Colorado Psychological Association. In 1967, he was professor and clinical director at Miami University, then the University of Waterloo, and then the University of Ottawa where received the 1992 University of Ottawa Award for Excellence in Research, partly on the basis of his 13 books and about 200 other publications about psychotherapy.

• The recipient of the Rollo May Award for Pursuit of New Frontiers - APA Division 32 (2006)
  
  
• One of four recipients in the first "Living Legends in Psychotherapy "by the APA's Division of Psychotherapy (2002). 

• Received the Award for Excellence in Research in 1992 from the University of Ottawa. 

In their classic book Current Psychotherapies (2004 ed.), Raymond Corsini and Danny Wedding wrote; "In the process of editing the Handbook of Innovative Therapy in which some 70 systems are analyzed, I searched for the ideal system of psychotherapy. When I read Mahrer's contribution, I was amazed by the audacity of experiential psychotherapy, which in many ways turns the world upside down. To my knowledge, no one has studied psychotherapy's origins in philosophy or science as well as Mahrer has. He has truly broken new ground.”... “All therapists should consider learning this approach. It is not just another method; in fact, I consider it as revolutionary as was Freud's 100 years ago and Carl Rogers 50 years ago. Experiential psychotherapy is a revolutionary concept that must be tried to be appreciated."

“Experiential psychotherapy does not aim at reducing or resolving problems. It's directions of change include the washing away of bad feelings of pain, hurt, suffering; the ending of scenes of bad feelings; no longer does the person behave in ways that construct and use the situational context to undergo painful experiencing accompanied with bad feelings.” Alvin R. Mahrer, Ph.D.

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