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Beginning to Live
  • Published: 14 May 2026
  • ISBN: 9780241612217
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $28.00

Beginning to Live

The Art of Existential Freedom

Formats & editions
Hardback
18 Aug 2026
EBook
14 May 2026
Audiobook
14 May 2026
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A user's guide to the everyday challenges of living, which looks to philosophy to reframe the way we understand ourselves and our relationships

In this book, pioneering therapist, Emmy van Deurzen, harnesses over fifty years' experience to help us consider the world around and within us with fresh clarity, showing how we can take all that is good from the past, whilst being fully present in the moment and having a strong sense of direction for the future.

Beginning to Live is a practical invitation to step back, look at the big picture and discover what really matters: in relationships with peers, friends and family, in solitude and creativity, and when dealing with dilemmas and difficulties of every kind.

Whether you’re in therapy or prefer to find your own way through life’s struggles, van Deurzen offers a lifeline for rebuilding trust in the world, considering each of the four key aspects of our experience in turn: physical, social, personal and spiritual. This book is filled with wisdom and moving stories that show how, even when survival takes all you have, you can rekindle confidence in your own abilities and revitalize your capacity to relate to others, whilst finding a more engaged way of living that is purposeful, deliberate and buoyant.
  • Published: 14 May 2026
  • ISBN: 9780241612217
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $28.00
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About the author

Emmy van Deurzen

Emmy van Deurzen is a world-renowned existential psychotherapist and counselling psychologist who directs her private practice, Dilemma Consultancy, in London. She was the inaugural Chair of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy and the founding director of the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, as well as the Existential Academy in London. She is a Visiting Professor with Middlesex University. She has published twenty books on existential therapy and the challenges of the human condition and she has lectured in more than thirty-five countries around the world.
EvD

Praise for Beginning to Live

Speaks powerfully to the lived experience of being in a body – its freedom, fragility, and change – offering profound insight into ageing, identity, and transformation

Kriss Akabusi

One of the most profound and potentially life-altering encounters I’ve had . . . van Deurzen writes about helping people rediscover their existential courage in the face of life’s struggles and uncertainty . . . demonstrates a knack for distilling complex ideas into something easy to grasp and practical . . . She is interested in how we can cultivate meaning, courage and freedom despite or because of the suffering life throws at us, a process that begins with how we approach life, how we cultivate our inner worlds

Sophie McBain, Guardian