MF Summer School
Experience a week of reflection set against Oslo’s endless summer nights, where the pulse of the city meets the calm of forests, fjords, and wide-open skies. Whether you’re drawn to cultural life or quiet moments in nature, Oslo offers both within easy reach. Join us for an inspiring summer where reflection, community, and the beauty of Norway come together.
Questions?
Tatjana Schnell
Location: Oslo, Norway
When: 24-28 August 2026
Registrer by: 1 May 2026
Summer School 2026: Existential Psychology
Are you eager to explore and understand existential questions that impact human life? The MF Summer School on Existential psychology: Meaning in Life offers an intellectually stimulating and immersive week in Oslo, August 2026.
This one-week course addresses themes such as meaning in life, suffering, mortality, and existential health. Our approach blends philosophical, psychological, and practical perspectives.
Take part in interactive lectures, group activities, reflection exercises, and excursions throughout the week. You'll gain theoretical insights and practical tools for understanding and navigating life's existential dimensions. And you can enjoy and explore beautiful Oslo!
Target group
The course targets professionals and MA students from a variety of fields such as:
- Healthcare (psychiatrists, therapists, palliative care workers, social workers)
- Coaching and counseling (including deacons and pastoral care professionals)
- Humanities (philosophers, theologians, social scientists)
- Academia and students interested in existentialism (PhD, MA-level)
- Peers from other disciplines who wish to explore existential themes
Entrance requirements
- English proficiency at B2 level or higher
- A background in social sciences, humanities, or health sciences
No formal tests or documentation required.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course, participants will:
- Have an enhanced understanding of existential philosophy and its psychological and social implications.
- Be able to apply existential insights to various professional and personal contexts.
- Gain practical skills in facilitating existential conversations and providing existential support in their fields.
- Reflect critically on their own sources of meaning and how they navigate existence.
This course is not credit bearing, but if you wish to get it assessed for credits, please ask your home university for advice.
Price:
Early bird price: EUR 750 (until 1 April)
Regular price: EUR 850
Participants pay a fee of EUR 100 when registrering. If the course is cancelled, this fee will be refunded.
Tentative Schedule
Day 1 - Welcome and introduction
Morning until 15.00: registration
15: Welcome and introduction of teachers and each other
16: Lecture on existential philosophy history, and psychology (Tatjana Schnell, Ole Magnus Vik) 30 minutes each
17.30: Ice-breaking session, getting to know each other
18.30: Social dinner at MF
Day 2 - How can we live meaningfully?
9 – 12.00: What is Meaning in Life? Experiences, Sources of Meaning (Tatjana Schnell)
13.00 – 15:00: Exploring our Sources of Meaning Sources of Meaning Card Method (Peter la Cour)
15.15 – 16.15: Philosophy of meaning in life and its consequences for lived experience (Ole Magnus Vik)
16.30 – 17.15: Meaning or Happiness? On the Polarities of Existence (Tatjana Schnell)
17.15 – 18.00: Reflection groups: What do we take from today?
Day 3 - How can we deal well with suffering, death, and dying?
9 – 12.00: Existential vulnerability, awareness, sense of life and empowerment (Gry Stålsett)
13.00 – 15: Emotional and Existential First Aid when Facing Sudden and Brutal Death (Gry Stålsett)
15.15 – 16.15: The meaning is not that we have it nice all the time… Suffering and mortality (Ole Magnus Vik)
Going to MUNCH together
17 – 19:30: Visit to MUNCH – Facing Life and Death with Edvard Munch
Day 4 - What is existential health?
10 – 11.30: From the Biopsychosocial Model of Health to Existential Health (Peter La Cour)
12.30 – 15.00: Introduction to existential psychotherapy – with exercise (Ole Magnus Vik)
15.20 – 16.20: Meaning in life as the basis for mental and physical health (Tatjana Schnell)
16.35 – 17.30: Practicing existential conversations – a case study
17.30 – 18.00: Reflection groups: What do we take from today?
19 - Social evening at the beach
Day 5 - Bringing existence to life
10 - 11: Harvesting the Week – summary of lectures
11 – 12: Small groups
What does that mean for
- Existentially aware healthcare
- Existentially aware work
- Existentially aware life
- Existentially aware society
Lunch
13 – 14: Small groups continued
14.15 – 15: Plenary: Take-aways from the week, closing
Lecturers
Tatjana Schnell
Dr. Tatjana Schnell is professor of Existential Psychology at MF vitenskapelig høyskole, Oslo and a Fellow at the Humanistic University Berlin. She heads the Existential Psychology Lab where they work on existential issues such as meaning in life, suffering, extremism, or religious/spiritual/secular worldviews and their practical significance for individuals, organisations, society and the environment.
Former co-editor for the Journal of Happiness Studies; numerous international publications, collaborations, functions, talks. Latest book: "The Psychology of Meaning in Life, 2nd ed." (Routledge, 2025)
Gry Stålsett
Gry Stålsett is Associate Professor at MF and has worked at Modum Bad as a clinical psychologist, researcher, and supervisor for 30 years. She is one of the architects behind the VITA program and has extensive experience working with stress, trauma and emotions, and crisis psychology.
Peter La Cour
Dr. Peter la Cour is Danish, professor adjunct in psychology of religion at MF vitenskapelig høyskole, and authorized specialist in health psychology. He has worked clinically with integration of existential themes in client relations for long.
His current interest concerns the introduction of the term existential health in modern health thinking and application of existential perspectives into modern understanding of health and healthcare. Latest book: “Introducing existential health: A four-dimensional model for integrated health understanding» (Routledge, 2025)
Ole Magnus Vik
Ole Magnus is trained as a psychologist at the University of Bergen and as a philosopher at NTNU. He has further training in psychodynamic therapy from the Institute of Psychotherapy in Oslo and additional training in existential therapy from Sällskapet för Existentiell psykoterapi in Sweden.
Ole Magnus has extensive experience working with life crises, burnout, separation, loss of work ability, grief reactions, existential issues, physical complaints, eating disorders, anxiety, and depression. In addition, he has substantial experience in acute and forensic psychiatry.