COUNSELING AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
Common Issues
Counseling and therapy are transformative methods that help with issues affecting our lives as we have lived them and ways we have yet to live. It deals with the past, present and future potentials waiting to be integrated into our personalities. Issues commonly dealt with include:
Problems with relationships
Experiences of separation, loss and grief
Dissatisfaction with the experience of work
Sense of something missing
Search for self-direction and meaning
Desire for greater creative expression and fulfillment
Crisis of identity caused by spiritual/religious experiences
Difficulty expressing one's vision
Inability to change old patterns of behavior
These issues are often experienced through their symptoms; such as feelings of inadequacy, being trapped, powerlessness, doubt, anger, depression and a sense of life having no meaning.
Psychosynthesis approach to symptoms
The psychosynthesis approach is not to see these symptoms as bad, necessitating their removal or cure, but to take a more systemic view. Symptoms carry a lot of information about what is going on at a deeper, inner level, and can be valued for alerting us to the necessity of paying attention to our inner being.
Exploring symptoms in this way involves discovering what is seeking to emerge in our knowing of ourselves, and then integrating this discovery into our day to day living.
Uncertainty & Transition
Sometimes this discovery and integration can be achieved relatively easily. At other times it seems to require radical change and transformation of how we experience and know ourselves. We are faced with making a life transition. We need to let go of known, and therefore safe ways of being, and enter the uncertainty of the unknown. If we do not engage this process, we compromise our integrity, impoverish our experience of both inner and outer worlds, and restrict ourselves through fear. Often our fear is about feeling alone in the process, as well as about going into what is unknown. There may be little to support us in the culture.
What can I expect from a Psychosynthesis Therapist?
Working with a psychosynthesis counselor or therapist means there is skilled support available. Often people feel they should be able to work through issues and life passages by themselves or with the help of friends. Sometimes this is possible, but often it is safer, more effective and more nurturing to make inner explorations with a therapist who can choose from a range of methods and techniques, the most appropriate ways of facilitating that exploration.
Psychosynthesis specializes in adapting diverse methods to the person rather than the person to the method. Not applying pre-set techniques to everyone means the uniqueness of each individual can unfold organically. The dynamic process of psychosynthesis means that people actively experience making choices for themselves rather than being given advice or interpretation upon which they may or may not act.
Knowing ourselves more fully helps us to make creative responses to difficulties and opportunities. Responding in this way allows more passionate engagement with life, a richer experience of meaning, and increasing ability to use the integrative power of Will.
How is Psychosynthesis different from other therapies?
As with all therapies, the main difference is in the qualitative experience of the client. Having a holistic framework which articulates that the Self is the unifying center of the psyche, profoundly affects the energetic context of therapy and the interpersonal dynamics. This is so even when the client has no spiritual practice, vision, or language. In particular clients experience being met, rather than experiencing technique.
Because psychosynthesis addresses the spectrum of our experience; heights, depths and everyday concerns - the issue that the client is bringing can be addressed at the appropriate level. A psychosynthesis therapist will keep these levels distinct. This allows the context for work to be clear between client and therapist. Consequently change at an everyday form level as well as transformation at a more profound level is effected and integrated.
Words often used to describe the qualitative experience of psychosynthesis are gentle yet powerful, accepting and challenging, still and contained, subtle and profound. People respond to being encouraged to look at; What's seeking to emerge, what's calling me on, what's beckoning me forward?; as well as exploring; What's holding me back, what's blocking me, what's my experience of pain about?;
It is the point of tension between what was, what is, and what could be, held dynamically in session, which excites, challenges and empowers clients.
Counseling for Couples
In a relationship there are times when the value or worth of that relationship is being questioned by one or both partners. There may be feelings of frustration, boredom, anger and hurt; difficulties with communication; confusing and conflicting motivations for being together.
There may be an understanding that relationships have phases and changes, as do individuals, and these are times to seek clarity and reexamine commitment.
In such situations, a skilled counselor can quickly help the individuals understand the dynamics of interaction in the system that the relationship forms. Creative responses to shift impasses in the system are generated. As with all responsible counselors, a psychosynthesis counselor is not attached to a particular outcome with an issue brought by a couple.
However, a psychosynthesis counselor will be holding not only the personal level of the couple's interaction but also the transpersonal level of the system. This is the level where the purpose and meaning of the relationship itself is held in focus. The potential of the relationship, which depends on the two people being together, is revealed. This unique potential is not available to either person on their own, as it is a function of their interaction.
Acknowledging and working with these two levels allows both the possibility of making effective changes in relationship, and the possibility of exploring the depth and richness of intimacy.
Counseling and therapy are transformative methods that help with issues affecting our lives as we have lived them and ways we have yet to live. It deals with the past, present and future potentials waiting to be integrated into our personalities. Issues commonly dealt with include:
Problems with relationships
Experiences of separation, loss and grief
Dissatisfaction with the experience of work
Sense of something missing
Search for self-direction and meaning
Desire for greater creative expression and fulfillment
Crisis of identity caused by spiritual/religious experiences
Difficulty expressing one's vision
Inability to change old patterns of behavior
These issues are often experienced through their symptoms; such as feelings of inadequacy, being trapped, powerlessness, doubt, anger, depression and a sense of life having no meaning.
Psychosynthesis approach to symptoms
The psychosynthesis approach is not to see these symptoms as bad, necessitating their removal or cure, but to take a more systemic view. Symptoms carry a lot of information about what is going on at a deeper, inner level, and can be valued for alerting us to the necessity of paying attention to our inner being.
Exploring symptoms in this way involves discovering what is seeking to emerge in our knowing of ourselves, and then integrating this discovery into our day to day living.
Uncertainty & Transition
Sometimes this discovery and integration can be achieved relatively easily. At other times it seems to require radical change and transformation of how we experience and know ourselves. We are faced with making a life transition. We need to let go of known, and therefore safe ways of being, and enter the uncertainty of the unknown. If we do not engage this process, we compromise our integrity, impoverish our experience of both inner and outer worlds, and restrict ourselves through fear. Often our fear is about feeling alone in the process, as well as about going into what is unknown. There may be little to support us in the culture.
What can I expect from a Psychosynthesis Therapist?
Working with a psychosynthesis counselor or therapist means there is skilled support available. Often people feel they should be able to work through issues and life passages by themselves or with the help of friends. Sometimes this is possible, but often it is safer, more effective and more nurturing to make inner explorations with a therapist who can choose from a range of methods and techniques, the most appropriate ways of facilitating that exploration.
Psychosynthesis specializes in adapting diverse methods to the person rather than the person to the method. Not applying pre-set techniques to everyone means the uniqueness of each individual can unfold organically. The dynamic process of psychosynthesis means that people actively experience making choices for themselves rather than being given advice or interpretation upon which they may or may not act.
Knowing ourselves more fully helps us to make creative responses to difficulties and opportunities. Responding in this way allows more passionate engagement with life, a richer experience of meaning, and increasing ability to use the integrative power of Will.
How is Psychosynthesis different from other therapies?
As with all therapies, the main difference is in the qualitative experience of the client. Having a holistic framework which articulates that the Self is the unifying center of the psyche, profoundly affects the energetic context of therapy and the interpersonal dynamics. This is so even when the client has no spiritual practice, vision, or language. In particular clients experience being met, rather than experiencing technique.
Because psychosynthesis addresses the spectrum of our experience; heights, depths and everyday concerns - the issue that the client is bringing can be addressed at the appropriate level. A psychosynthesis therapist will keep these levels distinct. This allows the context for work to be clear between client and therapist. Consequently change at an everyday form level as well as transformation at a more profound level is effected and integrated.
Words often used to describe the qualitative experience of psychosynthesis are gentle yet powerful, accepting and challenging, still and contained, subtle and profound. People respond to being encouraged to look at; What's seeking to emerge, what's calling me on, what's beckoning me forward?; as well as exploring; What's holding me back, what's blocking me, what's my experience of pain about?;
It is the point of tension between what was, what is, and what could be, held dynamically in session, which excites, challenges and empowers clients.
Counseling for Couples
In a relationship there are times when the value or worth of that relationship is being questioned by one or both partners. There may be feelings of frustration, boredom, anger and hurt; difficulties with communication; confusing and conflicting motivations for being together.
There may be an understanding that relationships have phases and changes, as do individuals, and these are times to seek clarity and reexamine commitment.
In such situations, a skilled counselor can quickly help the individuals understand the dynamics of interaction in the system that the relationship forms. Creative responses to shift impasses in the system are generated. As with all responsible counselors, a psychosynthesis counselor is not attached to a particular outcome with an issue brought by a couple.
However, a psychosynthesis counselor will be holding not only the personal level of the couple's interaction but also the transpersonal level of the system. This is the level where the purpose and meaning of the relationship itself is held in focus. The potential of the relationship, which depends on the two people being together, is revealed. This unique potential is not available to either person on their own, as it is a function of their interaction.
Acknowledging and working with these two levels allows both the possibility of making effective changes in relationship, and the possibility of exploring the depth and richness of intimacy.
