Healing Through Meaning: The Practice of Logotherapy
When life feels uncertain, our instinct is often to search for control. But meaning, not control, is what restores us.
Viktor Frankl — Holocaust survivor, psychiatrist, and author of Man’s Search for Meaning — believed that even in the darkest circumstances, we retain one unshakable freedom: the power to choose our attitude, our response, and our relationship to what’s unfolding.
He called his approach Logotherapy — from the Greek logos, meaning word, reason, or spirit. In Frankl’s usage, logos means meaning — and Logotherapy literally translates to “healing through meaning.”
Unlike therapies that focus on the past or on behaviour, Logotherapy is oriented toward the future — toward the meaning that can still be fulfilled in a person’s life. It asks not “What went wrong?” but “What still calls to you?”
The Tenets of Logotherapy
Frankl’s work rests on three guiding truths:
1. Freedom of Will
We are not fully determined by our circumstances. Even in suffering, we retain the freedom to choose our response.
2. Will to Meaning
The deepest human drive isn’t pleasure (Freud) or power (Adler), but meaning.
When we feel a void, it’s rarely from a lack of success — it’s from a lack of purpose.
3. Meaning of Life
Life always has meaning — even in suffering. Meaning isn’t abstract; it’s discovered moment to moment, through how we meet what life gives us.
The Three Sources of Meaning
Frankl described three main paths to meaning:
Creative values → what we give to the world (our work, art, service, or contribution).
Experiential values → what we receive from the world (love, beauty, nature, connection).
Attitudinal values → the stance we take toward unavoidable suffering or limitation.
These aren’t philosophical categories — they’re invitations. Meaning is found not by thinking about life, but by living it fully and consciously.
Applying Logotherapy in Modern Life
You don’t have to be in crisis to turn toward meaning. You just have to be awake enough to ask: What am I living for?
Below are some practices inspired by Frankl’s method — practical tools to bring Logotherapy into daily life.
Meaning-Centered Inquiry: Explore what makes you feel most alive.
Reframing Suffering: Ask what pain might be trying to teach you.
Future-Oriented Dialogue: Shift focus from anxiety to purpose.
Values & Legacy Work: Define what you want your life to stand for.
Gratitude & Awe Practices: Let small moments of beauty remind you that life is still meaningful.
Meaningful Goal-Setting: Align ambitions with purpose, not ego.
20 Prompts to Help You Find Meaning
What has felt most meaningful in your life so far — and why?
When do you feel most alive or connected to something larger than yourself?
What value do you most want to embody, no matter what happens?
What kind of legacy do you hope to leave in the hearts of others?
If you could write one line to summarize your life’s purpose, what would it say?
Think of a moment of deep beauty — what did it awaken in you?
What pain in your life has taught you something valuable about love or strength?
If this challenge were a teacher, what lesson might it be offering?
Who or what reminds you that life is still worth showing up for?
Where in your life do you feel called to contribute or create?
What do you want to give to the world — that only you can give?
What experiences make you feel a sense of awe or gratitude?
What relationships or environments make you feel most yourself?
When do you feel most aligned with your values?
What would “success” look like if it were defined by fulfillment instead of achievement?
If your future self could speak to you now, what would they thank you for enduring?
How might you bring meaning to a current struggle by changing your attitude toward it?
If you knew your time was limited, what would suddenly matter most?
What story about your life are you ready to rewrite?
What is one small act you can take today to live with more purpose and love?
Meaning doesn’t erase pain — it gives pain a direction.
When life narrows, Logotherapy widens the lens. It asks us to look beyond comfort and control, toward contribution, connection, and choice.
We can’t always choose our circumstances, but we can always choose our stance.
And in that choice, we rediscover our freedom.
Healing begins when we stop asking “Why me?” and start asking “For what purpose?”
Every moment offers the chance to find meaning again.
And from meaning, comes renewal.
P.S. Which of these prompts spoke to you most deeply? I’d love to hear your reflections in the comments.
With heart,
Bryony