Self

SOCIETYA Forum for Contemporary& Psychology £4.50 where sold Volume 35 Number 2 Sept - Oct 2007 Healing the earth, healing the mind The Heart and Soul of Transition – Creating a Low Carbon Future with Psychological and Spiritual Awareness Sophy Banks

Seeing Things: Therapists’ Altered Visual Perceptions Maria North

Surfing the Field: An Exploration of Energetic Communication in Therapy Audrey Wilson

Healing and Psychotherapy – a Personal Integration Maria North

Integral Psychology vs. Humanistic Psychology Elliot Benjamin

Reigniting the passion for life Asaf Rolef Ben-Shahar

published by The Association for Humanistic Psychology in Britain - AHP(B) website: www.ahpb.org.uk AHP(B) The Association for Humanistic Psychology in Britain AHP(B) is an organisation devoted to exploring the scope of human capacity and potential so as to enhance both the individual and society. It publishes Self & Society and other activities include lectures, workshops, conferences and special events. See the back of the magazine for a membership application form.

Self & Society publishes articles in the field of contemporary and humanistic psychology, particularly those concerning issues of personal development. The views expressed in Self & Society are not necessarily those of the editor or of the AHP(B). We welcome contributions, so please contact Maxine Linnell for an information sheet on preparing a manuscript for publication. Self & Society also welcomes advertising; see the back of the magazine for details.

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Layout by Sue Medley, 265A Main Road, Sidcup DA14 6QL - 020 8300 9646, [email protected] Printed in the UK by JFA Printers, New Malden, Surrey Phone 020 8942 7766, Fax 020 8942 7288, Email [email protected] Self Volume 33 Volume 35 Number 2 Sept - Oct 2007Number 1 July- SOCIETY& August 2005

Healing the earth, healing the mind 5 The Heart and Soul of Transition – Creating a Low Carbon Future with Psychological and Spiritual Awareness Sophy Banks 15 Seeing Things: Therapists’ Altered Visual Perceptions Maria North 23 Surfing the Field: An Exploration of Energetic Communication in Therapy Audrey Wilson

E Healing and Psychotherapy – a Personal Integration 30 Maria North

Integral Psychology vs. Humanistic Psychology 35 Elliot Benjamin 39 Reigniting the passion for life Asaf Rolef Ben-Shahar

A Note on Self & Society Contents Copyright remains with the authors, who take full responsibility for the regulars accuracy of their contributions. The Editorial editors and AHP(B) can take no 4 responsibility for any loss arising from 44 AHP(B) Chair’s Page any action taken in reliance on information provided in Self & Society. 45 Reviews Whilst every effort is taken to ensure that the content in Self & Society is 53 Subscription Form accurate, on occasion there may be 55 mistakes and readers are advised not How to advertise in S&S to rely upon its content. Self SOCIETY & Maxine Linnell Editorial [email protected] 0116 2891378

We all wondered if the festival would happen. Floods and torrential rain affected Worcestershire badly, and the original field where the event was to take place had been under six feet of water. There were anxious phone calls and emails flying around until Green & Away confirmed on Tuesday that they were running, ready and waiting for us. So what should we do? If we cancelled, what were we saying – that we loved the earth and environment as long as the sun shone? That we weren’t willing to compromise our comfort for our ideals? There was no going back. The festival was a sellout. The sun began to shine on Friday, and it didn’t stop shining, except on Saturday evening and night when we had some rain. We had mud, lashings of it, and some of us learned to dance the mud, to glide on it, rather than getting stiffer. And we had slugs, ‘so slow and yet so fast’, as one person said. The generosity and thoughtfulness of the site organisers was a delight, as well as their cooking. Their embodiment of a vision is an inspiration. In the next issue we shall be publishing the main talks, articles from the workshop facilitators and participants, and more photos, so I won’t give details here – you will have to wait. But the weekend was an integral experience in true Wilber mode. We used our bodies in Chi Kung, meditated, massaged, sang, drummed, thought, talked, some of us cried and there was a lot of laughter. Most of it happened in wellies. Many of us were outside our comfort zones right from the start, and the home groups absorbed the pain and connected us. Being at Green & Away was a political act, a small one perhaps, but one I personally do not want to relinquish. The political band Seize the Day usually play with amplification to huge audiences, so we were delighted they came to play in our marquee to a hundred and twenty happy people on Saturday evening. They are an inspiration –watch them on video at www.seizetheday.org There were many thanks at the end, but particularly here I want to offer mine to Julian, Timothy and Tony who held steady through the difficult times and worked so hard to make it happen, to Tyagi for working hard in the background, and to Sue for stepping in as a volunteer at the last moment. We shall be thinking about how to do this again, engaging in discussions about the venue and shape of festivals to come. Come and join in by being at our AGM in September and becoming part of this new, revived community which is AHPB. Maxine Linnell

This issue was edited with the help of Maria North

The Regular Column will return next issue

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What’s Transition?

We live in times of unprecedented challenge, and unprecedented change.

As the global problem of climate first national meeting of people from change regularly hits the headlines these initiatives – and a new kind of response is emerging, representatives from a further fifteen one which seeks to inspire and places considering forming one – involve a whole community in took place at the end of May. creating a positive future vision and working towards making it a reality. Although still in its infancy the The first of these initiatives, Transition model appears to be Transition Town Totnes, was launched having a different impact to other in September last year. Already sustainability or climate change hundreds of people from the local initiatives because of the positive area have been involved in coming energy it generates and the scale of regularly to talks and films about its vision. This is an attempt to create issues ranging from peak oil to the a genuinely inclusive, community- psychology of change, and several wide response to our global crisis, working groups have started to recognising that many of the address themes from ‘Energy’ to challenges that climate change and ‘Local Government Liaison’ to ‘Arts’ . reducing fossil fuel consumption pose can be addressed successfully at the The project has received widespread local level. attention through national events and media and has already inspired In this article I write about my similar initiatives in around twenty experience as one of the focalisers other towns, villages and bio- of the ‘Heart and Soul – Psychology regions. Bristol looks likely to of Change’ group within the become the first ‘Transition City’ and Transition Town Totnes project. This there are Transition projects starting group was one of the first to form, in some boroughs of London. The and includes in its brief exploring and

5 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 evolving the areas of psychology, spirituality, relationship, consciousness and group dynamics during the process of transition. In all these areas we aim to address these four questions of our time: • How did we get here? • What is happening now - what is it like to be alive right now? • What is needed to help with the journey of awakening and change? • What is our vision for a different future? What processes and tools can help make the vision a reality?

It is difficult to write this article Sophy Banks without some assumptions about where you, the reader, are in your transition is re-localisation. As oil relationship to the issues of climate production starts to decline we will change and global crisis. Rather than no longer be able to ship food covering the ground which is so well thousands of miles; it won’t be explained elsewhere I’ll assume that economic to import all our you are aware of the pressing need manufactured goods from China. We for considerable change in the ways won’t be able to afford to build we live. In TTT we mainly talk about washing machines and fridges that the twin drivers of climate change are designed with limited lives, and and peak oil, but other factors include then throw them away after a few deforestation, overfishing, fresh years. These crazy aspects of our water shortage, soil erosion and modern lives will stop because there pollution. In practical terms this might won’t be the cheap energy to support look like reductions in carbon them. emissions of perhaps 50% in the UK over the next decade or two and We could learn to trust and rely on continuing to 80% by 2050. This is our neighbours, to share, to simplify only achievable with major changes because there will be a pressing to how our world and lives are need to. We can relearn skills which structured. If you don’t think this our grandparents largely took for scale of change will be needed I offer granted – how to grow and preserve you some reading suggestions at the our own food, repair things when end. broken, get about without cars. At a recent talk about the transition The wonderful news that the concept to a fairly elderly group one Transition Town model brings is that response was ‘Oh it’ll be just like the not only are these reductions really 1950s… That’s ok then, we know how achievable, they can also bring real to do that!’ benefits if we plan and prepare ahead. One of the key themes of

6 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 However some aspects of transition production and consumption will be very different from what has because of an inner feeling of gone before. Effectively we will be scarcity. We create hierarchy, changing the course of our industrial division and oppression because growth society’s evolution over we don’t feel good enough hundreds if not thousands of years. ourselves. We create institutions Apart from a few exceptional times based on power and control every generation has collectively because we feel powerless. But had greater material wealth, broader also the outer world shapes our horizons, more access to travel than inner reality. Our belief that the the one preceding it. Now we are world is unsafe is confirmed if we looking at levels of material watch the news and see stories consumption and travel falling as we of rape, murder, child abduction. accept the inevitability of the need Our lack of self worth is to contract our economy and confirmed by adverts designed dramatically reduce our ecological to create the feeling that our lives footprint. This will not just be a don’t match up to the perfect sudden recession and then back to people on the bill boards, or by growth as usual, but a long term work cultures that give status to descent in energy and therefore those who work long hours material consumption, continuing disregarding family or home life, probably for the next hundred years or health. at least. • The absence or slowness of Energy Descent – response from many people and Consciousness Ascent! institutions results not from apathy or indifference but from At a physical level the project names feelings of overwhelm, one of its objectives as ‘Energy disempowerment or Descent’ – to map out a way for a psychological numbing in the face community to steadily reduce its of terrifying information about energy consumption over the next the state of our world and twenty years (and beyond). In the present dangers. As well as Heart And Soul group we use the holding a positive vision the phrase – ‘Energy Descent, transition process needs to help Consciousness Ascent’ – to remind people to get in touch with, and us all that while we will be learning express in a safe and holding to do without on some areas there environment, the feelings of is are other aspects to the journey grief, fear, despair, overwhelm or of transition which will be expansive rage that arise as we understand and illuminating. of the scale of the problems and the dangers we are facing Some of the themes which have become clear. been emerging and clarifying through the Heart and Soul group • The transition process gives can be summarised as follows: an opportunity to vision the society that we really want, to • Inner and outer worlds are speak out our dreams and inextricably connected. On the deepest wishes. This may also one hand the outer world is feel very difficult; feeling the created from the inner. In simple depth of my longing for a just, terms we create a world of over sane, spiritually and ecologically

7 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 connected society to belong to out, competition, exclusion – brings to the surface my and all the shadow elements of awareness of how problematic a movement that aspires to our current society is. embody values such as inclusion, cooperation, harmony, • The seriousness and urgency respect and reciprocity. of the collective situation brings an unprecedented opportunity The field of consciousness and motivation for change if we surrounding the Transition process can find effective ways to is understandably powerful, and harness it. As a society we are standing in a place such as focalising at the place that an addict the Heart and Soul aspect of such comes to when he or she faces a project has stretched me in my the choice to end their addiction capacity both for feeling grief – for or die. those things we are losing, and for feeling the deep longing I have to • ‘You cannot solve a problem help create a world of peace and at the level at which it was sanity. If I envisage the collective created’ , as Einstein said. We consciousness as something all won’t solve our problems by around, like a sea which in which I thinking in the paradigm of swim, I imagine the areas relating technological solutions because to transition containing both the this way of thinking is part of the highest aspirations and visions of problem. We need to look human possibility – that we might outside our industrial growth live in a truly sane world – and the system and its beliefs to find deepest fear: that if we cannot turn ways to live in harmony with the tide of our social structures and each other and other species. economic systems we will destroy This does not mean ‘going back’ not only our own way of life but the to an imagined historic past, but extraordinary, intricate and integrating enduring wisdom exquisite web of life that we are part from culture who know how to of. live in a sustainable and healthy way with our own present Moving from the Bad to the consciousness to create Good Reality something new. I came across the concept of the • Psychological understanding good and bad reality in the book of the unconscious and its ‘The Fifth Sacred Thing’ by effects creates a possibility of Starhawk. I strongly recommend understanding some of the this to anyone wanting an sabotaging and shadow effects exploration of possible futures. She which have disrupted previous extrapolates two social movements attempts to create lasting clearly visible today and poses a beneficial social change. future where they live side by side and inevitably come into armed • Parallel process across conflict. One side is the individual, group and wider fundamentalist, racist, patriarchal interactions is everywhere. We system, based on domination of can expect the Transition people and control of the resources process to reflect our culture’s necessary for life. The story is told tendency to produce splits, burn from their opposition – a place

8 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 which could be the end result of a safe holding relationship, and through Transition process! A society that has the conscious process of managed to create an inclusive understanding how each client’s mind earth based spirituality that respects is triggered into perceiving a bad all faiths and traditions, has reality and takes up residence there participative democracy and holds again. the four elements of earth, water, air and fire as sacred and therefore The Many forms of the not to be owned by anyone. The fifth Collective Healing Journey sacred thing is Spirit, permeating and guiding all. One way to view the process of transforming our society to a In this book some of the characters sustainable, just and joyful paradigm explore their own inner good and is that we collectively need to make bad realities – holding the idea that a similar journey, from the bad reality both the good and bad reality exist in which we live – based on fear, within each of us and are just a scarcity, competition, relationships of hairsbreadth apart. If we domination and exploitation – to the understand how these realities work good reality. Thus we could say that we can consciously move between the job of the Heart and Soul of a them, increasingly able to choose Transition Town project is to help the which reality to be in. entire community undergo a healing journey. In the good reality the universe is abundant, supportive, welcomes all This begs the question, what is the of each one of us in our entirety. nature of that journey? What kind of There is pain and suffering but processes could we use or develop enough love and support to hold this. to create a collective version of what Each of us has the opportunity – and has largely been undertaken as an even the obligation – to be all that individual process? It also brings a we can be, holding nothing back. question about how the possibilities for therapy or healing work might be The bad reality is based in fear – evolving during this time of rapid the universe is a place of scarcity change and shifting collective and competition, I watch out for awareness. enemies and need to be ready to fight. I feel unacceptable and judge Many different people have become others, I must censor what I say and part of the Heart and Soul group. As often do what doesn’t feel right in well as those interested in Joanna order to please others or be Macy’s ‘Work that Reconnects’ we accepted. have therapists from many traditions, energy workers and healers, people I have found this model useful in my trained in indigenous and shamanic work with clients. I would often ask practices, constellators, body – to myself or directly to the client – therapists, dance and movement ‘What makes the shift from bad to practitioners; and people from many good reality?’ And conversely, ‘What different spiritual traditions. We have trips you from the good place to the run a number of events including an bad?’ I see the individual journey of Open Space day where about eighty therapy as a process of steadily people attended and held discussions building more and more good and ran a variety of mini-workshops. reality, through the experience of a

9 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 For the two of us holding the group training I have done (Light Body) the our principles have been to teaching time has reduced encourage what wants to happen, dramatically over the ten years or so while trying to ensure a balance that I have been learning it. Emotional represents the different areas of the Freedom Technique, breath work, field. cognitive processes enable clients to access and release trauma very The Evolving Field of quickly. This process seems to me – Psychological Healing like many other processes of evolution – to be exponential. That I am fascinated by the sense of an is, the early gains are slow and evolving path of western painstaking and the rate of change psychological practices and how this accelerates over time. So there is both reflects and shapes what is now the potential for many people to happening in the collective reach high states of awareness, even consciousness. The image I have is enlightenment, where this used to be of Freud starting about a century ago an extremely rare event. on a completely new kind of journey – of working with human psychology. The second is the diffusing of Because there was so little psychological awareness into the awareness and so much damage in general field. Ideas about human the individual and collective system psychology have emerged from the the work was slow, required intense specialist field into the wider effort and a great commitment of consciousness – for example ideas time. Perhaps it felt like the hero who about the unconscious, Freudian slips, comes to Sleeping Beauty’s thick projections are now in the forest - dense, thorny and at first mainstream vocabulary. impenetrable. Over the years the paths into the dark thickets became And third, the development of new more well-worn and established, tools from increasingly sophisticated more are created, they cross and understanding of the territory. As with interweave. As a result there is more all evolutionary processes the next light in the forest; it becomes easier generation stands on the shoulders to see what is here, to find new ways. of the previous and sees and reaches further. I would argue that currently As thinking about the nature of our there is a trend towards integrating psychological structures and energetic and transpersonal methods wounding have clarified, new ways with psychological – either within a of working with them have also single method, or within a person’s evolved. I believe this has three journey. Many of my clients were also strands. One is that as more and meditating, or started meditating more people have undergone the while in therapy. journey the collective consciousness itself evolves – where it might have My sense is that we are now seeing taken several years of sessions five an explosion in healing techniques as days a week to work through an all the different pathways interweave issue in 1930 the same journey could and recombine into more complex and happen quicker in 1960, and much, specific methods. In the table much faster in 1990. Hence the opposite I map some of these out in number of therapies that involve terms of the levels they work at and sessions once a week, or that require their methodology: just a few sessions. In the energy

10 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 Type of system Methodology Examples

Direct transmission of it is possible to change an individual or Light body higher states of group’s capacity to be conscious at higher Deeksha consciousness levels by transmitting energy frequencies Some healing practices allowing direct experience of Oneness

Spiritual practice Practices such as meditation, presence, Buddhist, Zen, Taoist, awareness, to evolve consciousness Sufi, Qabballah and towards the oneness, Atman other spiritual traditions

Healing, celebrating, To be whole as humans we need to Pagan embodying the experience ourselves as part of the wider Shamanic relationship with spirit web of life. We need rituals and practices Work that reconnects through nature that reconnect us to what western culture has broken

Linking Oneness and To be really effective it is necessary both Psychosynthesis the authentic self with to hold a view of the real self as part of Ridhwan (linking Sufi psychological traditions the oneness, transcendental, and work systems with western and practices with super-ego, ego structures that distort psychology) the experience of our true nature The Power of Now (E Tolle) Osho

Energy healing Using energy techniques to heal trauma in Barbara Brennan and different aspects of the energy body – other energy healers, physical, emotional, mental, spiritual NFSH Colour light therapy

Working with trauma Energy work or other techniques to Breath work, re-birthing access, release and heal trauma directly Emotional Freedom and quickly technique EMDR

Systemic therapy Understanding how the soul works Constellations and through relationships and systems; orders of love. viewing dysfunction as an expression of a Collective rituals for whole system rather than the individual healing – Wicca, Pagan, shamanic

Family therapies Healing whole family systems; mainly at Family therapy the level of emotions and relationship

Human therapies Work with healing the splits in mind, Humanistic therapies emotion, body, intra-psyche. Some Body approaches – include several levels of human existence Feldenkrais, body some focus on working through a specific psychotherapy, aspect movement work Mental approaches – NLP, CBT, Byron Katie

Work with splits in the For those with profound damage to the Psycho-dynamic, psyche self and extreme difficulty in maintaining psychoanalytic boundaries and relationships a system which preserves strong levels of separation

11 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 (Of course this is my map and Final words only one of several ways to lay things out I could have chosen – We need to be aware of the and I’m sure there are dozens evolution of therapies that is of rearrangements you might happening. Part of our western make, overlaps that should be thinking model can be the belief shown, as well as things I have that our environment, the ground missed (she hasn’t put Jung on beneath our feet is static and anywhere!!!). The general unchanging; this is absolutely not picture I am trying to show is the the case at the moment, and it breadth of levels at which will be moving increasingly humanity is trying to heal itself rapidly over the next few years. of its wounds both individually and collectively.) Within the psychological arena we need to keep looking up, to On the one hand this makes the widen the field we are involved world of healing and therapy with. As can be seen from the bewildering – how to choose? It’s table above most healing impossible these days even to methods are still deeply rooted know everything that’s out there, in our relationship with the let alone analyse fully what might human – first myself, then my be the ‘best’ system for a family, perhaps occasionally particular problem. However the looking at wider groups and wonderful aspect is that healing communities. This reflects part is happening on a vast scale and of the old paradigm thinking of at so many levels of human human separateness that drives existence. Could it be that we our sense of isolation and the are learning to heal our inner capacity for disrespecting other world at high speed just in time forms of life. We need to include to create the shifts needed to an awareness of wider levels of prevent us from wiping out life belonging – the collective human on the planet? Will there be a experience and ‘all our relations’ ‘tipping point’ at which the shifts – other life forms and even the in awareness start to ripple out entire ecosystem of our planet. into the collective consciousness without the need for a conscious And the third is to look out for a therapy or healing process? We transition initiative starting near haven’t come up with an answer you, and if you feel inspired to in the Heart and Soul group, but join or initiate some kind of heart the questions and discussions and soul movement within it. Or that arise are continually start a transition project yourself. fascinating. And it feels clear to There is now a manual and me that whatever the shape of people available to give talks to the social change movements groups on how to get a transition that come into existence as a project off the ground (see response to our planetary crisis, resources section below). We are it will be crucial to give a central the people we have been waiting place to psychological and for. spiritual awareness if we are to create a reality in which we all want to live.

12 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 Resources www.transitiontowns.org – for all transition towns and the national network, forums and so on. Manual on starting a transition project and other resources. www.transitiontowns.org/Totnes for what’s happening here, and the Heart and Soul – psychology of change group pages for the project I am involved with. www.transitionculture.org – the website of Rob Hopkins, responsible for initiating the Transition model. Lots of information and resources about transition themes including the only existing ‘ Energy descent plan’

If you are interested in joining the Heart and Soul of Transition Town Totnes mailing list, please email me at [email protected]

The Pachamama alliance offer one day ‘Waking the Dreamer’ symposiums to inform and inspire – highly recommended http:// www.bethechange.org.uk/symposium.cfm A Selection of Books

Coming Back To Life, Practices that Reconnect by Joanna Macy

Limits to Growth by Lester Brown

The Collapse of Complex Societies (New Studies in Archaeology) by Joseph A. Tainter,

Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth/Healing the Mind (Sierra Club Books Publication) ed. Roszac

The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community by David C. Korten

For more relevant books have a look at www.greenspirit.org.uk/books/

Societies which live in the good reality

Ancient futures, Learning from Ladakh by Helena Norberg-Hodge

The Other Side of Eden: Hunter-gatherers, Farmers and the Shaping of the World by Hugh Brody

The Continuum Concept – in search of happiness lost, by Jean Liedloff

The Healing Wisdom of Africa, by Malidoma Some

Peak Oil

Powerdown by Richard Heinberg

The Last Oil Shock by David Strachan

13 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 Websites: http://www.crudeawakening.org/InformationSharing.htm has a good list of resources including films, books, websites

Films

If you want to be informed and motivated get a group of friends together and watch one of these.

An Inconvenient Truth – Al Gore’s film about the science and effects of climate change

Crude awakening – effective film about the oil industry, peak oil, oil and war

The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and The Collapse of The American Dream

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak oil inspiring film about how Cuba coped with the sudden halving of its oil supply

Sophy Banks - With a background in computer systems and later in Psychosynthesis, Light Body and healing Sophy’s interests and work span outer and inner worlds. More recently she has combined ideas from family constellations and Joanna Macy’s ‘Work That Reconnects’ to create ‘Waking the Dreamer’, a workshop that explores the process of transitioning to a sane earth based society. She co-focalises the Heart and Soul group of Transition Town Totnes. After twenty years of competitive football she’s too old to be slide tackling in the Hackney marshes mud and now lives in Devon, cycling and walking on Dartmoor whenever she can.

Have your own details on the AHP(B) website

For members who offer a humanistically oriented service (not only therapy) you can have your details on our Links page of the website, including links to your own email address and website, or your postal address if not online.

Details and a brief description of your services must be under fifty words and should be emailed or posted to

Tony Morris [email protected] 6 Burston Road, Putney SW15 6AR T: 020 8788 3929

14 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 Seeing Things: Therapists’ Altered Visual Perceptions Maria North

Altered visual perceptions are not traditionally associated with therapists’ work with clients. The first association might be with psychotropic drugs, or perhaps hallucination. Yet in the course of my work as a psychotherapist I have had such experiences within the therapy room and have come across a number of colleagues, sane and sober as far as I can tell, who have similar experiences. For some years I questioned the meaning of the experiences, without finding satisfactory answers. This prompted me to undertake a research study to explore the phenomena, and this article addresses some of my findings.

I interviewed five integratively addressed questions of safety, in trained psychotherapists, with terms of how the phenomena between five and twenty years’ were interpreted and used with experience, who had identified clients, and in terms of whether themselves as having altered such experiences could be visual perceptions when working indications of instability rather with clients. My intention was to than expanded perception. begin to explore the variety of such experiences, to open By ‘altered’ visual perception I debate about what the refer to visual perceptions which phenomena might be, and to see differ from what is considered whether they had therapeutic ‘normal’ vision. Some of the meaning and use. In searching experiences of the interviewees therapeutic literature for are as follows: a client might references, I found little directly appear to distort, to become related material, though much bigger or smaller; might seem to which might have interesting be dissolving or disappearing, or connection. I explored links with telescoping into the distance; the world of healing, where another face might experiences of altered ‘superimpose’ upon the client’s perception might be more own face; colours might appear comfortably accepted. I also around, upon or within the

15 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 clients; some reported a This was not Jung’s only perception of auras or chakras. experience of altered perception. Some therapists saw animals, After a heart attack in 1944, he some perceived signs, symbols, had a ‘near-death experience’, or words. Some had a sense of during which he felt himself to be the space around the client or ‘high up in space’, viewing the between themselves and the earth from a vast distance. A client as having a different vision of a Hindu temple, and a density, or of the energy almost sense of the stripping away of crystallising, for instance like ‘earthly existence’, ensued knots or steam from a kettle. before he was called back to Some of these experiences were earth. His return left him familiar to me; others were not. ‘profoundly disappointed’ to be There was some commonality of back in the ‘box system’, and experience, but also wide questioning the nature of reality. differences. During his recovery, he continued In exploring therapeutic to experience ecstatic visions literature it became apparent that during the night, and depression Jung, among others, was no during the day. Whilst this could stranger to altered visual be pathologised as bipolar experiences, although those he disorder, or the effects of writes about did not take place medication, Jung utterly trusted within the therapy room. In the experiences: ‘It was not a ‘Memories, Dreams and product of imagination. The Reflections’, he tells of visiting the visions and experiences were tomb of Galla Placida in Ravenna utterly real; there was nothing with a friend. From a previous subjective about them; they all visit, he had remembered had a quality of absolute windows in the Baptistery, but objectivity.’ this time he saw in their place ‘four great mosaic frescoes of Nor did Jung doubt the veracity incredible beauty.’ He and his of what he saw at Ravenna, companion lingered at one of the convinced that ‘something mosaics, discussing the interior can be seen to be archetypal significance. Having exterior, and that something tried unsuccessfully to obtain exterior can appear to be pictures of the mosaics before interior. The actual walls of the returning home, later he asked baptistery, though they must a friend visiting Ravenna to have been seen with my physical acquire the pictures for him. The eyes, were covered over by a friend could not oblige, since the vision of some altogether mosaics did not exist (1963). different sight which was as Was Jung’s experience an altered completely real as the perception? Perhaps, but since unchanged baptismal font. Which Ravenna is famous for its was real at that moment?’ numerous mosaics, it is important to conjecture that his Jung also writes of his encounters memory may have deceived with Philemon, a figure who him, and that he and his friend originally appeared in a dream, could have seen the mosaics whom he defined as ‘superior elsewhere. insight’, but who became for him

16 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 sometimes ‘quite real, as if he compensatory relationship to were a living personality.’ He consciousness, in order to concluded from this and other balance one-sidedness and experiences of fantasy figures create wholeness. that ‘there are things in the psyche which I do not produce, Even if hallucination is a but which produce themselves compensation, it would still be of and have their own life. It is not concern if therapists’ altered clear whether Jung actually ever vision related simply to their own ‘saw’ Philemon in waking life. But material. The ‘fine line’ between he obviously felt his presence: inspiration and pathology might he engaged in significant also be of concern. The difficulty dialogue with him, feeling that ‘it in distinguishing sanity from was he who spoke, not I’, and madness is a theme of John describing himself as walking in Costello’s pamphlet Psychosis or the garden with him. Religious Experience: is there a difference?, in which he However, as mentioned, some of describes the life of a 17th Century Jung’s experiences could be seen Jesuit priest, an exorcist for a as psychotic rather than convent. As part of his ministry, transcendant. I was concerned to the priest would pray to be explore the difference between possessed of the nuns’ evil vision and psychosis, and my spirits. Through this, he conclusions were perhaps experienced having two souls, surprising. Whilst some early his own and that of the evil spirit. psychoanalysts concentrated on Costello finds himself unable to the pathological aspects of arrive at any definite conclusion altered vision, whereby the regarding the priest’s sanity, unconscious takes over the commenting that ‘...different conscious in a distorted and states of mind can in one age be destructive way, by 1971 seen to be normal while in Winnicott is referring the another age they may be seen hallucinations as ‘dream as madness. A lot centres around phenomena that have come the ability of the conscious ego forward into the waking life’, and to recognise, interpret and make suggesting that ‘hallucinating is sense of the altered states of no more of an illness in itself than consciousness’ (1989). the corresponding fact that the day’s events and the memories Costello is suggesting that there of real happenings are drawn is no clear-cut way of across the barrier into sleep and distinguishing sanity and into dream formation’. madness but that the ability to reflect on shifts of consciousness This echoes Jung’s conception of might be an important deciding the purposive nature of the factor. How the distinction is dream and the unconscious. made varies not only from age Whilst he acknowledges that the to age but from culture to culture. unconscious can swamp the In traditions where shamanism conscious with psychotic is practised, experiences which material, by far his overriding could be described as observation and experience was hallucination are commonplace. that the unconscious existed in Henri Ellenberger’s references to

17 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 shamanism note that many cultures first identify shamans through unusual behaviour which would be defined as psychotic in the West, but which in this different context is accepted as preparation for service to the community (1970).

Some interviewees bore out this conclusion about sanity and madness. One, a shamanic practitioner as well as a psychotherapist, referred to the shaman’s requirement to step into the ‘madness’ of their clients, and to return. Another, who worked as a healer and psychotherapist, agreed with Costello that often the difference between sanity and madness was Maria North simply the ability to remain in or re-establish conscious reality, in concepts of interconnection, ‘one- order to contain what she would ness’ and the transcendence see as experiences of the individual boundaries. Jack and collective unconscious, wherein Jan Angelo’s description is contents from the realities of similar to many: ‘There is no others could be merged or actual division at the highest confused. levels of soul energy between one “soul” and another. All is Although in later years he was spirit, all is Oneness. The reality less certain, Jung originally of embodiment is that the energy referred to visions in of soul permeates and surrounds psychological terms, as all levels of being’ (2001). ‘exteriorisations’. He describes the ‘spirits’ which appear to The conception of a boundariless mediums as ‘exteriorised effects connection with the universe is of unconscious complexes’ not a little uncomfortable in the (1953). If therapists are therapeutic arena, where experiencing ‘exteriorisations’, boundaries are essential these are still projections of their containers. If experience of own material. However what altered visual perceptions means began to shape during my that therapists are dissolving the explorations was the possibility boundaries between themselves that the therapists’ altered and their clients, perhaps they perceptions were the stuff of and their clients are at risk of unconscious communication merging. But if they are between client and therapist, and connecting through that they did not necessarily communication which maintains stem from the therapists’ a distinction between two material. Taking a frame perhaps individuals whilst sharing the more familiar to healers than archetypal nature of human psychotherapists, I explored the being-ness, this could be powerful therapy. 18 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 Analytical psychotherapist emphasise this intersubjectivity Nathan Field, writing in 1996, whilst clearly managing to would see this way of connecting maintain deep focus on the as four-dimensional, involving clients’ material rather than their the ‘simultaneous union and own. separation of self and other’ (Field’s italics): ‘I have in mind Writing in 1997, psychoanalyst those moments where two people Thomas Ogden perhaps comes feel profoundly united with one closest to explaining how another yet each retains a connecting with the unconscious singularly enriched sense of of the client can differ from themselves. We are not lost in merging. He describes being each other, but found.’ ‘made use of’ via an ’unconscious intersubjective construction of The sense is of relating from the the analyst and analysand’, profundity of self, as if touching continuing that ‘Unconscious oneness whilst experiencing the receptivity of this sort ... involves clarity of individual being. Jung (a partial) giving over of one’s describes this apparent separate individuality to a third contradiction as ‘...the absolute subject ... that is neither analyst individuality of self, which nor analysand but a third combines uniqueness with subjectivity unconsciously eternity and the individual with generated by the analytic pair’ the universal. The self is a union (Ogden’s brackets). of opposites par excellence...’ Ogden surrenders individuality, The need is for both connection though, importantly, only to a and detachment, to be utterly ‘partial’ extent. The focus is involved and yet enough of an asymmetric: although the third expert witness to privilege the subject represents a tension client’s material. From this frame, between two subjectivities, the I started to conjecture that it was relationship privileges the possible for a therapist to be analysand. The transferential connected with the unconscious dynamics are held and of the client, but with sufficient understood in a perspective distance that the s/he might be which acknowledges the perceiving the client’s material subjectivity of the analyst, but via the altered perceptions. This focuses on the analysand’s was certainly the view of the world. Ogden is talking about interviewees, all of whom felt both universality and connected but not over-involved uniqueness. He is a particular during the experiences, and all analyst in relationship with a of whom had undergone their particular analysand exploring own deep therapeutic human-beingness through this explorations and thus were less particular relationship. Could the likely to be projecting their own altered visual perceptions of material onto the clients. therapists be a kind of ‘analytic However Jung would say that the third’, an illustration of what therapist not only cannot help happens in the mutuality of a being affected by the material, particular relationship, and in the but that s/he should be. Several mutuality of humanity? writers, including Bollas and Bion,

19 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 Some therapists experience the can sometimes see the energy connection as a ‘field’, not between himself and his patient. dissimilar to magnetism or Moreover he proposes that the electricity. Jungian analyst Marie- exchange of energy in the Louise von Franz had such sessions is as healing as the experiences and attributes the therapeutic dialogue. first use of the term to William James. Contemporary Jungian Teachings about subtle energy analyst J Marvin Spiegelman derive from long tradition. Jung believes that his somatic made several references to reactions, such as headaches and chakras and subtle bodies, stomach aches which have an particularly in his studies of ‘underlying symbolic parallel’ Eastern philosophy and with the psychological content of mysticism. He describes chakras his clients’ material, are in psychological terms, as examples of the ‘therapeutic field’ ‘psychic localizations’ (1954), and in operation: ‘... there has been as symbolising ‘highly complex a constellation of complexes and psychic facts which at the an energy exchange so that both present moment we could not the patient and myself are possibly express except in embedded in that field’ (1996). images’ (1976). He suggests that Like Ogden, Spiegelman relates the contents of the chakras are the connection between himself difficult to access because ‘we and the patient to a guiding are studying not just ‘third’: ‘whether a healing consciousness, but the totality of presence or the larger Self’. the psyche’, thus linking the Spiegelman agrees that the chakras with the unconscious, material which emerges depends and perhaps with archetypes, on the subjectivities of the since both chakras and analyst and analysand, while archetypes might be considered seeing the field as reaching as blueprints and potentialities beyond the personal and for existence, each is makingconcretely experienced represented in images but is archetypal connections: ‘By ultimately indefinable, and concrete, I mean not the bringing each into consciousness concreteness of physical contributes to wholeness and contact…but the concreteness of individuation. a true energy exchange. I am speaking now about the psycho- Jung conceived of archetypes as physiological energies described having a ‘psychoid’ nature traditionally in Kundalini Yoga or (1960). He describes the by healers who transmit their psychoid as a level of being which healing energies.’ gives ‘matter a kind of “psychic” faculty and the psyche a kind of For Spiegelman, the interactive “materiality”.’ He suggests the field and the energy perceived psychic aspect of being is more by healers are the same, being than biochemical, but ‘grounded the medium through which the on an as yet unknown substrata unconscious is manifested and possessing material and at the archetypal connections made. He same time psychic qualities’ believes he can often feel the (1964). Could chakras also be presence of the subtle body, and seen as existing in the psychoid

20 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 realm, as neither physical nor something was happening on an psychic contents but pertaining energetic level. They differed as to both? For healers, the true to whether they felt they were nature of human beings is being externally or internally spiritual: Jack and Jan Angelo guided. believe ‘we are souls with a physical body, not bodies with a The interviewees all soul’. Whether they would concur acknowledged the risk of that the energy in the chakras grandiosity. Summed up and the subtle bodies is of succinctly by one interviewee, psychoid and archetypal nature ‘There is a glamour’. Having such is unclear. But if this comparison perceptions might invite spiritual is correct, it suggests that people inflation; and one participant who are reading information confessed to having succumbed from chakras and the aura might to this at first, telling her clients be tuning in to an archetypal what she saw and basking in level of being. Could this apply their projections. Having spotted to therapists’ altered visual this, she is now more careful with perceptions in general? her interventions. In general, the interviewees most often used the If therapists’ altered visual perceptions for information perceptions do belong to the rather than intervention, or if client’s material, or to a more they did make an intervention, collective layer of existence, can it was oblique. So with a client they be used therapeutically? who was talking of a relative as The therapists I interviewed the ‘superimposed face’ varied as to whether they wanted appeared, the intervention might to make meaning, some feeling be ‘You seem very identified with that it was best to stay uncertain, him right now’, or with the others being clear about what ‘disappearing’ client, ‘Maybe you they thought was happening but felt as if you wanted to disappear sometimes circumspect about when that happened?’ Fairly what they said to the client. All literal and simple, not grand. And concurred that at least some of usually received with the perceptions were about recognition. It was this accuracy unconscious communication, which suggested that the visual often connected with, for experiences were often related instance, split off material, to the client’s material. They material which was ready for were of therapeutic use. One integration, or identifications. interviewee commented that the Mostly, they did not acknowledge experience was nothing special; archetypal significance. The she believed that everyone could therapist who could perceive the do it with enough training and chakras derived direct focus, but that it required ego information from them and strength to contain the material. worked accordingly with the client. Those who saw animals I was left concerned that perhaps believed that they might be in many more therapists were touch with guides or power having such experiences, or animals who were assisting the other versions of altered process of integration or perceptions, but were not finding individuation. All believed that a container for them. This is not

21 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 the stuff of counselling and experiences neatly categorised psychotherapy training courses, and definitive meaning made (I thus most supervisors will have do not think the unconscious is little experience of it; and might like that, nor therapy in general, even pathologise it in fact), my exploration indicates unnecessarily. I was heartened that there is a relatively untapped to ascertain that all those I vein of therapeutic interviewed held a sense of understanding which would responsibility about their use of benefit from deeper the phenomena – but what of investigation and debate, and therapists newer to the work? which, moreover, might make for Whilst I would not like to see the a greater integration between psychotherapy and healing. Further Reading

Jung, C G, Memories, Dreams and Reflections, 1963, Routledge & Kegan Paul

Jung C G, Collected Works 7 1953; CW8 1960; CW10 1964, Routledge & Kegan Paul

Jung C G, ‘Psychological Commentary on Kundalini Yoga’, in Spring, 1976, the Jung estate

Angelo Jack & Jan, Sacred Healing, 2001, Piatkus

Costello John, Psychosis or Religious Experience: is there a difference?, 1989, Guild of Pastoral Psychology

Ellenberger Henri F, The Discovery of the Unconscious, 1970, Basic Books

Field Nathan, Breakdown & Breakthrough, 1996, Routledge von Franz, Marie-Louise, ‘Science and the Unconscious’, in Jung C G (ed), Man and His Symbols, 1964, Aldus Books

Ogden Thomas H, Reverie and Interpretation, 1997, Karnac

Spiegelman J Marvin, Psychotherapy as a Mutual Process, 1996, New Falcon Publications

Winnicott, Donald W, Playing and Reality, 1971, Tavistock Publications

Maria North is a UKCP and UKAHPP registered psychotherapist and a Senior BACP accredited psychotherapist and supervisor. She is co-director of Spiral Holistic Therapy Centre in North London, where she has her own private practice. She embraces healing as an intrinsic part of psychotherapy.

Spiral Holistic Therapy Centre, 020 7607 4403, www.spiralcentre.org, [email protected]

22 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 Surfing the Field: An

Exploration of Energetic

Communication in Therapy

Audrey Wilson

I am not a surfer. I’m not even a particularly strong swimmer. But I can remember watching a surfing championship taking place in Hawaii and being fascinated by the surfers. It wasn’t the physiques that caught my attention. Rather, it was the fact that even when it seemed clear that a surfer had attained balance on top of the phenomenally impossible surface of a moving, curling wave, they weren’t still. They weren’t still and they weren’t at rest. A surfer’s balance isn’t always a tenuous thing, but it is always dynamic. There are repeated small movements to the left, to the right, backwards and forwards, up and down, and every possible combination in between. Surfers don’t fight the water, they don’t try to tame it, they don’t restrain it. They learn to ride the waves. To roll with them, to become a part of the wave, and to let the power of flow of the ocean move them where they want to go.

Surfing expresses...a pure yearning for visceral, physical contact with the natural world. Matt Warshaw Maverick’s: The Story of Big Wave Surfing

This article isn’t about surfing exactly – this is Self & Society after all - but it is about becoming aware of how much we yearn to connect and to have contact with the natural world of our experiences, and about the consequences of that. This natural world exists in the winds of our thoughts and memories and the watery movements of our emotions and feelings. This natural world is what calls the therapist and counsellor to their chair. It calls the client too. This natural world is what human beings live for. Contact, communication, connection; the need to be understood, validated, accepted. As therapists, as counsellors, we understand these needs. Hopefully we understand and accept

23 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 them in ourselves and therefore worked well, with the exception model them for our clients. of the fact that within the first However, the relationship year of working with clients I between therapist and client is began to notice the continued more than active listening, well occurence of what appeared to used phrases such as, ‘can you be ‘parallel process’. say a bit more about that?’, or well timed mirroring. It is more than In a nutshell parallel process all the bags of skills and gifts that points to a particular type of a therapist can bring to the aid of transference and a client already committed to their countertransference. Much of growth and health. It is more than the academic writing on parallel the humanity of ‘two scared process is centred around people sitting together in a room’. supervision, so for example, a counsellor may begin to relate I encountered the concept of the to their supervisor in the same ‘synergetic field’ (or interactive or manner that their client relates interactional fields) while doing to them. Or in terms of my counselling training. The idea countertransference, the of a field of energy including both supervisor may begin to behave client’s and therapist’s conscious with the counsellor, as the and unconscious thoughts and counsellor does with their client. feelings, personal histories and This I find fairly straightforward, Jung’s ‘collective unconscious’, if sometimes uncomfortable. was thoroughly intriguing. Stein And as with all transference and referred to the field as a ‘pattern countertransference, I find that of energy flow that affects objects if I can remain open to it, I can in its domain (Stein, 1995, p72.). become privy to often So rather than an image of the invaluable information about the field being a dumping ground for client’s life and relationships. both client and therapist, I viewed the field as a...moving, breathing, The ‘parallel process’ I was energy mass, both created by experiencing however (and this and encompassing the creators. was the only term I came up And therefore I began to with at the time to express what understand that the ‘third’ created I could barely explain) was of a by the client and counsellor is different nature. I became bigger than the space in between, aware that as I dealt with a the whole being bigger than the particular issue in my own life, sum of its parts. some or all of my clients would bring that issue into our I understood transference and sessions. countertransference. I recognised when I had been In my second year of training, I ‘infected’, as Jung said, by a client began to deal with a challenging and when my wound was being sibling relationship in my own re-activated by the work with a life, utilizing a depth and breadth particular client. I was as of courage that I had previously conscious as I could be, and when lacked. Some weeks after my that wasn’t ‘good enough’, and ‘sibling showdown’, I found two even when it was, I had my of my clients (on the same day) supervisors to lean against. This speaking of clearing up issues

24 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 with their siblings that they had woundings, etc. Indeed one of my never mentioned before in our clients, upon telling me about his sessions. I noted this masturbatory experiences and occurrence in supervision, called that he loved his partner said he it a sort of parallel process and just wished he could be...and then didn’t think much of it until it went silent for a minute. I then happened again. And again. And countered with, ‘ “taken” on the again. And again and again and bonnet of a car?’ To which he lit again. The phenomenon kept up, clapped his hands and yelled, my attention because the ‘Exactly. Exactly.’ And then spoke similarities between my clients’ about his fantasy man. For quite and my own respective some time. He felt absolutely situations got stronger, to the liberated. point where I may have used a particular phrase (or had After this day of non-stop sexual someone in my life use it to me) content with my clients I could and come into a session with a hardly ignore the reality that client whereupon they detailed something was happening a similar occurence and used the between myself and my clients. same language. It was uncanny. The field that I had previously Particularly because the ‘lag thought of as simply existing time’ as a I called it, the time between the two chairs, within the between which I made a therapy room, was much much ‘breakthrough’ in my life and my bigger than I had imagined. And client expressed the same didn’t parallel process appear to breakthrough, became shorter be pointing to the therapist picking and shorter. up something from the client, and not the other way around? One particular weekend during my final year training we had a At first I could be heard touting therapist specialising in that phrase about a therapist only sexuality come to speak at my being able to accompany their training centre. One of this client where they themselves trainer’s most memorable have gone. But I grew phrases was about being uncomfortable with that after ...’taken’ (frankly not quite the seeing my clients exhibit courage word he used) ‘on the bonnet of in ways that I could not imagine. a car.’ It was an enlightening Or survive things that I know weekend during which my very little about first hand. I awareness of my own sexual recognise that if for example, as wounding deepened. On Tuesday a counsellor you are not when I saw my clients (the comfortable with say sexuality, or Tuesday following the Sunday of issues of race or whatever it may the workshop) all four of my be, it is less likely you will get a clients, including two clients of client opening up to you about whom NEVER previously those issues. As a counsellor, our discussed sex, came in, sat unresolved mysteries, denials, themselves down on the chair and ‘no go’ areas are just as opposite mine and discussed visible under the cover of the field their relationship to sex, their as our client’s are. So that might relationships to sex and their have been the case. Perhaps my partners, their sexual clients could feel my own

25 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 insecurity or tentativeness about waves. To roll with them, to a particular subject in some become a part of the wave, and cases, and on some level were to let the power or flow of the waiting for me to be open or ocean, move them to where they comfortable enough to respond want to go...A surfer who isn’t to them and their issues in those connected to the water probably realms. I certainly would not rule spends most of the time spitting that out, however, it is unlikely out water and getting up on their to explain each and every board. It may be that the surfer example of this phenomenon. recognises, consciously or not, that they are a part of that nature Outside of the therapeutic with which they long to connect. relationship and the therapy That the ninety odd percent of room, I had always been a strong water in their bodies is similar emitter and receiver of energy. enough to that which could In my life before becoming a potentially buffet their bodies on therapist, I had noted how it was the rocks, or sweep it under the possible for a lecturer to inspire wave, to speak the same her occasionally limp and lazy language. That their bones, students to sit up, sometimes on muscles, organs, skin, are the edges of their seats, and use somehow connected to that their voices, allow their opinion undulating awesome power. to count. I noticed how affected I could be from films or books What I am beginning to or crowds. I noticed how one understand is that in the therapy person in a queue could be rude room, as in life, everything really to an already overworked is connected. This is something cashier, and how that cashier we as a planet have come to could turn around and be short understand. We have learned with the next person in the queue that our actions leave carbon who then felt unjustly persecuted. footprints, and like I often wondered as I watched environmental detectives we are the shoppers leave, whether beginning to track back to learn they would drive safely or slam more and more about what we the doors of their cars, getting have done, in the hopes of their coats stuck and fueling learning what we can do more of their foul temper. I differently. Quantum physicists wondered whether they took it tell us that while we see our home to their spouses, to their bodies as solid, under a powerful children. enough microscope we would see a mass of vibrating energy. To develop a complete mind, And so, the cry of ‘everything is study the science of art, study connected’ is no longer the the art of science. Learn how to message of the new age hippie, see. Realize that everything it is simply, fact. And it is connects to everything else. something that healers know. It Leonardo da Vinci is something that surfers know. But I am not certain that either And so we return to surfing... the academic literature, Surfers don’t fight the water, they contemporary theory on don’t try to tame it, they don’t counselling and psychotherapy, restrain it. They learn to ride the or most trainings acknowledge.

26 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 I am not sure it is ‘known’ in our if a therapist solves a puzzle on field. And I believe this is at best, the Monday only to have their an oversight and at its worst, a client speak about solving it, or potential harm. going out to buy it, on Tuesday. What does it matter anyway? Counselling and psychotherapy, Truthfully, I am not sure the the offspring of analysis, have specifics are the first thing that developed their own discipline, matters. Whether all my clients language and way of being, started speaking about sex on though in all, the therapists the same day, whether both my understanding for the need of client and I decided to move in strong boundaries is paramount. the same week, or whether two These boundaries protect both of my clients decided to go out a counsellor and client, and are buy house plants for the first time one of the basic building blocks two days after I did, is not the of a solid therapeutic point. Those specifics make relationship. Without a container anecdotal stories, not much else. that holds, both therapist and But the implications are vast. If client rest on shifting sands. the field of communicated thoughts and feelings exists, and How then to see this synchronistic the knowledge that we are made process? Perhaps someone out up of vibrating energy exists, there knows the name for it (and how do we best do the work? if you do please for goodness How do we use this energy? How sake let me know), but I think are we used by this energy? the fact that I can not even begin to develop a phrase for it says When one tugs a single thing in something of the lack, and fear nature, we find ourselves that our therapeutic disciplines attached to the whole world6. have for such a phenomenon. John Muir Symbiosis - oh no, that often suggests something At this point I have more unhealthy...synchronicity - well, questions than answers. I am still Jung wasn’t really speaking of in the enquiry, still in the process this was he?...parallel process as of recognising that I am a part I called it in the beginning, well of this nature, this moving, we have been through that creating, information filled one...even the more obscure energy and for the moment, characterisations around being conscious of this and transference and reminding myself of it, is the countertransference don’t really extent to which I have gone. I apply, for example Jung’s believe the acknowledgment is participation mystique, his term key. Because like the surfer for the relationship between the focused on taming the waves, therapist’s and client’s becoming their master, (we could unconscious. It isn’t clearly probably call this individual a evident that this phenomenon is faller rather than a surfer), I think actually transference or it can be within the ken of the countertransference at all. psychotherapist to foolishly and egotistically think that we always And frankly it is a valid to ask need to control the flow or the the question, ‘so what?’. So what nature of communication

27 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 between our clients and this synchronistic/ parallel ourselves. Guide the session, phenomenon so fascinating. It sensitively and intuitively probe, isn’t about hair changes or and determinedly block personal clothes changes or the fact that questions for the protection of where you once wore a ring you our clients and ourselves. But do not have one any more. what if the client potentially has These communiqués are subtle, access to all of us, and us to nuanced, and importantly - them? (Keep breathing, in and healing. out, in and out). What if, energetically, a client will Rather than the usual call for unconsciously receive research, I would like to call for information about his therapist two things, others’ experiences that will help him to heal? Not regarding this phenomenon, as Mystic Meg information, ‘you I do not for one moment imagine have a sister named Betty and I am alone in this. And secondly, had a dog with three legs when a growing awareness in the you were a child...’ but reality of our connectivity. My information in the form of ever wise supervisor recently emotion, ‘I want a visible way of told me, ‘Audrey, allow the nurturing myself, I want a mirror practical to take care of itself in my home that illustrates how and keep your focus on the I am doing on my journey...I energy of the situation.’ She was think I’ll buy a plant.’ There is a reminding me that I had the vast difference here. What if our basics in place, in this particular clients are privy to our therapeutic relationship, sessions beingness, our ability to have were starting and ending on joy, or our routine slide into self time, I was warning my client criticism? What if every time we that the session would be ending, break through some emotional I was listening and mirroring, I barrier that held us back, the occasionally probed, the alliance force of the energy expelled by was strong, and so on. This that breakthrough ripples particular client was content through our entire client list? heavy and at times I could be caught in the net of that heavy While we know that changes in content. The communication that our personal lives undoubtedly was taking place energetically have an impact on those that required a different kind of know us, those who can see the attention, and required me, not change in us, those who watch to ignore the content, but to our clothes change or our hair place my attention elsewhere. My get cut or whatever. And yes, supervisor was using my when our hair and clothes change language to invite me to alter the and we bring those changes to level of my gaze. While this kind our sessions, our clients are very of movement of the therapeutic aware of them. In my gaze is commonplace within experience, aware, curious, and therapy, I think the basic tenet sometimes slightly obsessive. is just as useful in the explication And those kinds of responses are of this phenomena. I think this par for the course in traditional is the point. psychotherapeutic or analytic literature, which is what makes

28 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 We no longer live in a world If all is connected and all is where conscious and energy, then the same force that unconscious thought are the allows a surfer to roll with a wave entire picture. With the trickling can wash away towns and tear down of quantum physics, the down houses. And the same virtual establishment of energy force that allows for the transfer medicines and the like, we as of energy in the form of counsellors and psychotherapists transference or counter- have a duty to broaden our gaze, transference between therapist our awareness. If indeed our and client, or parallel process clients are able to receive between supervisee and energetic communications, not supervisor, can create a jewel of created specifically for them, but an emotion in your life and also created out of our own growth, drop it in your client’s pocket. we have a responsibility to at the very least to recognise that our Only through our connectedness growth (and perhaps our with each other can we truly stagnation) may effect our know and enhance the self. And clients, just as we take it for only through working on the self granted that our clients’ growth can we truly enhance our and/or stagnation has an impact connectedness with others. on us. Harriet Goldhur Lerner

Bibliography

R Jacoby, The Analytic Encounter, Transference and Human Relationship, (Inner City Books, 1984)

N Schwartz-Salant, (M Stein ed) The Interactive Field in Analysis, (Chiron Publications, 1995)

M Stein, (M Stein ed) The Interactive Field in Analysis, (Chiron Publications, 1995

Audrey Wilson is a Counsellor at the Spiral Holistic Therapy Centre in London and has a private practice in Bath. Surfing the Field is part of a larger project that Audrey is now developing. She is an essayist and scriptwriter and writes under the name Audrey Sicard.

Eric Whitton died in August. He was a central member of the humanistic movement in the UK.

Please send recollections and photos of Eric to us at [email protected]

29 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 Healing and Psychotherapy – a Personal Integration

Maria North

This is an attempt to describe how I experience healing in my psychotherapy practice, and to feel for rather than justify or prove where the two might meet.

Sometimes I have listened to practice. On some level, I want healers who say, with what can to be ‘better than’. Oh what an feel like an amount of old, old struggle that is for me. superiority, too much certainty, that healing can reach and Actually, what I really believe is resolve issues much more that the best of both quickly than psychotherapy. I’ve psychotherapy and healing is become defensive, feel superior about acceptance, not self in return. How can all that hard improvement, not ‘getting rid of’ work, that depth of study and or getting better, but feeling for understanding of the psyche be the potential of what is and less effective than merely understanding the necessity of channelling energy into what has been in terms of doing someone? How can someone’s our best, self-protection, emotions or behaviours be survival. It is only when we get transformed without their invested in ‘results’ that the participation, without making the competition starts. issues conscious? I also believe that the channelling It is possible that some of the of healing energy invites a healers who discount or diminish communication with the psychotherapy are in spiritual unconscious and with the defence, splitting from the recipient’s Self (with a little ‘s’ in shadow and aspiring to the same Jung, a big ‘S’ in for their clients. It is also obvious, psychosynthesis), or source (in because I react with superiority, the Core Process model). that I am defensive of my Whichever, all are attempts to

30 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 define the place of deep wisdom metaphor manifests consciously? and knowing, of some sort of Can we ‘damage’ the dream or connection with Spirit, whether the metaphor in some way by this is seen as ‘inner’ or ‘outer’ over-defining it? We can certainly or both. I don’t believe that misdefine it, and that won’t help. healing, any more than My sense now is that as psychotherapy, is something psychotherapists we need to which is ‘done to’ the recipient stand more often on the delicate and which they play no part in. edge between conscious and The unconscious needs to be in unconscious, that place of a state of receptivity, of heightened but not always literal readiness, of willingness to perception. I believe this is also receive communication from a the attunement which healers different depth of being. seek.

Though I never believed that In order to connect with what I simply understanding an issue will call healing, I believe that was enough, I used to believe clients need to have a readiness that shifts could only take place to accept a responsibility for through making issues and themselves, a willingness to face experiences conscious. I felt that their own truths with compassion conscious understanding needed rather than judgement. They to be embraced by the heart and also need to honour their gifts reprocessed at an unconscious and their potentials, with joy level, so that, eventually, a new rather than superiority. I believe conscious ‘naming’ could root the this is what healing is – an change. (I have to be careful invitation to shine light on the self. here – I am aware of the The client needs to be in on the contradiction of not desiring work, whether it be results but seeking a model psychotherapy or healing. which embraces the fact that Similarly, I have to hold this people come to therapy, or responsibility for myself, meet healing, in order to make shifts. the truth of my own shortcomings The difference might be that the and defences, that in me which shifts come about through self- is wounded, my humanness. I acceptance, through the ability to need also to honour my skills let in love, not through the desire without grandiosity and with a to improve a not good enough kind of humility and gratitude self). Now I am not so sure how (though I’m not sure who I’m conscious the process needs to grateful too, and the humility be – do we have to translate all does not reduce me.) This is the metaphors which arise in sounding like a very ‘conscious’ dreams, or is the fact that we process; what I’m trying to feel have dreamed the metaphors an for is how much of this can be indication that the shift has sensed, ‘lived in’, rather than already been made? Is the spelt out. A bit like how we learn creation of a powerful piece of our first language, and how, artwork enough in itself, or do we despite our best efforts to get the have to analyse it to benefit? And grammar and vocabulary right, doesn’t both the dream and the a second language sinks in. artwork come from the Sometimes the more conscious unconscious, even if the I am of a process, the less I can

31 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 be in it, and the more clumsy I me as a present from India. become. Sometimes. Sometimes I self- neglect, cut corners, rush from So how do I work on this level, admin to session with a full head, bring healing into my practice? not taking enough time for lunch. When I remember, I prepare the On these occasions I am not room and myself. Sometimes I taking care of the sacred space sit quietly, inviting my focused which is the practice room, or the depth, that almost meditational sacred space which I invite within space within me which I believe me. Yet my energy wave is a holds the most wisdom. I ask for strong one and I like the feeling support. I do not know from of stretch, being taxed, and its whom. I do not know what spirit sigh of relief aftermath. Manic? is. My own sense is that it is both Compulsive? Determined? Or within me and all around me, a just making good use of a strong combination of the best of all our wave? energies, and more. I do not know what the more is. I do not Too tight an observation of the know whether the guidance I rules sends me into a good girl receive is from within me, from space where I feel ‘boxy’ – the collective, or from the ‘more’, square at the edges, over- but sometimes I have a sense contained, unconnected. I have during sessions of being strongly to find a flexibility that is not too urged to ask a particular onerous and restrictive, too question, or to make an ‘good’, but which does not leave observation that feels ‘risky’. The me in the neglectful space, resulting interventions often elicit where I’m bluffing containment. profound responses. Again I need to be wary – does this So sometimes I sit quiet, invite come from my Self or my own spirit and Self, attuning. And drivenness? I hope I can tell the sometimes I sound the temple difference now, energetically: bells. I need to be very sensitive although the Self guidance is – if I put any effort whatsoever insistent, it does not have the into bringing them together the driven quality of my neediness, sound they make is diffuse, where it is as if my energy is fuzzy, like an untuned radio. The almost running in front of me, merest touch is what makes the very ‘headstrong’ (head directed, clearest sound. This is the energy not from the heart) rather than I need for my spiritual practice, at peace within me. my attention to the sacred space, the relationship with Ironically, I have run ahead of myself and with others. myself, and arrived in the Sometimes I push too hard to session before completing my compensate for the neglect. attunement. As I do sometimes. So, again, when I remember, I This morning, after the sounding, find a way of focusing, trusting I resisted the urge to go down that something energetic is about and check the answerphone to happen, and that it is already because my client was late. I preparing itself before my clients was told clearly to wait five arrive. With this in mind, I sound minutes. After five minutes, she the temple bells, brought back to arrived. On a good day, as I walk

32 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 towards the bus stop after my between ‘try harder’ and ‘you sessions have finished, I get shouldn’t be pushing’. It’s how I similar information about want to hold me holding the whether my bus is coming. Inner client, so that each of us can find or outer? Does it matter? Is it the this ease of being, this still point same? which makes room for transformation. And it’s in the In the sessions I invite healing sparky conversations, full of by holding an awareness of the energy, where our words are energetic – what can I see, hear, catalysts for each other and feel, sense on this ‘extra- there’s a feeling of bright sensory’ level? Am I working wisdom in the room, a depth of from the heart? What do I discovery which is more about understand intuitively? What is joy than ego. the imagery within me? It’s about being in my being, my What else? Sitting quiet with the Self, as I work, responding with depths of the dilemma, or the the whole of me, mind, body, depths of the realisations. heart and spirit, as if the energy Reaching that place of calm with within me is opening like rays to a client – the ‘still small voice’ receive and to communicate. So which helps them carry through it’s also about inviting this level when life seems impossible, of being and seeing from my when what has to be faced is too client, whether explicitly or much. We don’t arrive at this simply through my being there place because I tell them to go in this focus. there – I believe it is the quality of our tuning in, and our ability It’s about seeing my clients’ to attune with each other, that journey towards wholeness. It’s enables us to reach this place. also about supporting them with This is not conscious. This is near this quality of listening when as I get to channelling. This will they’re in the pits, without trying be very familiar to many to make it bright, and yet psychotherapists who would not afterwards, with the hurt define this depth of holding and sufficiently seen by us both, to experiencing and sensing as help find the opportunity in the ‘healing’, but just what they do crisis, the turning points, the in the course of their work. growth, the new choices, the reconnecting with the Self more I’ve found something I wrote deeply than before. eight years ago, about working transpersonally. It feels very It’s about helping people to meet similar: chaos and to trust to the letting go of control and rigidity, letting ‘The transpersonal is in the the clarity and direction emerge, silences, the waiting for so that choice instead of fear something to emerge, like in directs them, or sometimes even yoga the decision/remembering surrender, a letting be into what not to push and the joy and relief is which can tap into a more at noticing the still moment when universal sense of the journey, I choose not to push any more, a trusting to the more which when I let go of the struggle takes the pressure off doing

33 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 anything other than being held the process which happens, by the connection with earth, consciously or unconsciously, spirit, universality, life and when we connect from the heart. death, death and rebirth.’ Another contradiction: we can come to this place of awareness, Sometimes we do this through of the edge between consciousness words. Sometimes it is beyond and unconsciousness, through words, and, if so, sometimes it conscious invitation – we can is untranslatable. Sometimes it practise this and become more is a combination of words and fluent, more attuned. But the no words. place of deep focus is not our ‘normal’ conscious reality – it is Unless we work only from the deeper than that, and less head, I believe that many definable. It is the edge. It is the counsellors and psychotherapists deep. It is the at-one-ness. It is are healers. I think that this is the ability to invite love.

John Rowan’s newly revised Guide to Humanistic Psychology Reviews, promotes and critiques humanistic psychology in today’s world. Essential reading for all those interested in human development.

Published by UKAHPP at £5.75 inc. p&p.

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34 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 Integral Psychology vs. Humanistic Psychology

Elliot Benjamin

If I rely solely upon my intellect, I would have to conclude that Ken Wilber’s integral psychology appears to be a more comprehensive and effective system of psychotherapy than contemporary humanistic psychology (see Ken Wilber, ‘Integral Psychology’ (Boston: Shambhala, 2000) and Kirk Schneider, James Bugental, J. Fraser Pierson (editors), ‘The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology’ (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2001)). However, I must also say that when I think of Wilber’s integral psychology, although I fully appreciate its intellectual brilliance and incredible comprehensiveness, there is something that often leaves me ‘unmoved.’ When reading Wilber’s books that describe his four quadrant approach of individual subjective, individual objective, interpersonal cultural, and interpersonal social systems, he repeatedly stresses that one quadrant is no more important than any other quadrant. This equalitarian philosophical principle has extended into the integral psychology realms regarding an ‘equal’ appreciation of all systems and psychotherapies for clients with various symptoms and needs, in order to give a client the psychotherapy treatment that will be most effective (see for example many of the articles in the first two volumes of AQAL journal, the leading journal of Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute, at www.integralinstitute.org). Thus there is no priority or hierarchy or ranking of psychotherapies; humanistic, behavioral, cognitive, psychodynamic, transpersonal, pharmacological, neuropsychological, family systems, existential, nutritional, etc. all have equal merit for integral psychology. And this is precisely what leaves me feeling rather dry and uninspired.

35 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 I am in full agreement with the necessarily antithetical to a philosophy that is at the crux of general humanistic psychology integral psychology, i.e. to be an perspective. effective psychotherapist it is important to be knowledgeable I can view all the forms of about various psychotherapeutic psychotherapy that are treatment modalities and to be continuously described by able to utilize particular integral psychology as taking treatments that would be most place in the four quadrants, as effective for particular clients at revolving around the central particular times. However, it can themes of humanistic be argued that this same psychology; i.e. the context of philosophy of integration is at the genuine, caring, authentic heart of both contemporary relations between therapist and humanistic psychology and client involving the client’s existential psychology. But there personal growth, spiritual is also a significant difference exploration, quest for self here as well. For contemporary actualization, etc. And I also humanistic and existential know very well that I psychology fully describe their consequently will be labeled as respective integration with a being in the Spiral Dynamics focus upon the humanistic or ‘Green Meme’ (see Don Beck & existential context. And this I find Chris Cowan, ‘Spiral Dynamics: ‘moving’. When I think of the Managing Values, Leadership, pioneering visions of Carl Rogers And Change’ (London: Blackwell, and Abraham Maslow I feel 1996), i.e. stuck in the first tier inspired and rejuvenated, new age human potential reminding me of the uplifting movement of the 1960s and creative potential that human 1970s. Well, perhaps there is beings are capable of. For me, some truth to this this kind of humanistic vision pronouncement, as I cannot includes the existential realities deny that my spirit becomes of our tragic human predicament infused from what I experience that death looms large for all of as ‘real’ and ‘authentic’ relations us who choose to think about it, with other human beings as well as the transpersonal involving what I perceive as realm that has the possibility of genuine creativity and experiencing transcendental spirituality. I have much states that could even transform knowledge about techniques of our notions of the meaning of behavioristic and cognitive death itself. At the same time, I psychotherapy, and I can realize that changing our thought appreciate their usefulness in an patterns, focusing upon intellectual sense. But the truth behavioral reward systems for is that my heart is not in the particular external situations, picture. and if I really stretch myself - So now I am talking about my even the use of medication to ‘heart’ and not just my mind. accompany psychotherapy in Why not go even further and talk extreme circumstances, is not

36 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 about my ‘soul?’ What is my have a humanistic twist, an ‘inner calling’ telling me to pursue existential twist, a transpersonal in the realm of psychotherapy twist, an artistic twist, etc. with clients? I have formulated Actually I suspect that deep down my own version of Ken Wilber himself does integral psychotherapy that I have psychology with a transpersonal described as ‘the artistic theory twist, but I do not believe he of psychology’ (see Elliot would state this publicly. For the Benjamin, ‘Art And Mental official integral policy is an Disturbance’ (Journal of equalitarian one: all things are Humanistic Psychology, to equal (but perhaps some things appear in 2008); see Journal of are more equal than other Conscious Evolution things?) However, since we are (www.cejournal.org, volume 3, all human and it is only natural 2006) for an earlier version of that deep down we have our this article). And I choose to preferences for what moves us follow in the footsteps of the most, I firmly believe that we contemporary humanistic as psychotherapists should go in psychology and existential- the directions that truly inspire integrative psychology (see Kirk us, while being versatile and Schneider & Rollo May, ‘The integral in the process. So I Psychology Of Existence: An suggest that we start doing the Integrative, Clinical Perspective’ psychotherapeutic integral twist: (New York: McGraw Hill, 1995); humanistic-integral, existential- i.e. I choose to embrace a integral, transpersonal-integral, multitude of psychotherapeutic artistic-integral, etc. Now we are techniques while retaining my integral but we have some life in dominant artistic context and us, some colour, heart to framework. This is what feels accompany mind, with the right to me, what ‘moves’ me. prospect of even discovering our Perhaps one could call it ‘integral souls. psychology with a twist.’ We could

References

Rogers, Carl. On Becoming A Person Boston: Houghton MIfflin, 1961.

Maslow, Abraham. Toward A Psychology Of Being (Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand, 1962)

Arnold Lazarus, Multimodal Therapy in U.C. Norcross (editor), Handbook Of Eclectic Psychotherapy (pp. 65-93) (New York: Brunnel/ Mazel, 1986)

References continued overleaf:

37 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 The following articles in AQAL journal (www.integralinstitute.org)

Volume 1; Issue 2, 2006:

Elliot Ingersol, An Introduction To Integral Psychology (pp. 131- 143)

Susanne Cook-Greuter, 20 Century Background For Integral Psychology (pp. 144-184)

Bert Parlee, Integral Psychology: An Introduction (pp. 185-200)

Paul Landraites, Jane: An Integral Psychotherapeutic Case Study (pp. 201-236)

Volume 1: Issue 4, 2007

Annie McQuade, Revisiting The Interiors: Serving The Mentally Ill Living In Our Streets (pp. 116-150)

David Webb, Integral Suicidology (pp. 87-115) Volume 2: Issue 1, 2007

Kelly Bearer, Toward An Integral Treatment Methodology For Schizophrenia (pp. 23-39)

Joachim Sehubrock, Preliminary Evidence For The Effectivenss Of Integrative Informal Psychotherapy (pp. 40-59)

David Zeither, Integral Psychology: Clinical Applications (pp. 60- 73)

David Zeither, An AQAL Case Study Of Short-Term Psychotherapy As Transformation (pp. 74-96)

This is a shortened version of an article first published in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology.

Elliot Benjamin is a mathematician, philosopher, counsellor, musician, writer, and the author of over forty published articles in the fields of pure mathematics, mathematics education, spirituality and the awareness of cult dangers, and art and mental disturbance. He has also written several self-published books, including Numberama: Recreational Number Theory In The School System, Modern Religions: An Experiential Analysis And Exposé, and Art And Mental Illness. He can be reached at [email protected]

38 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 Reigniting the passion for life Asaf Rolef Ben-Shahar

My clinic manager asked me to teach the practitioners in the clinic principles of NLP and hypnotic communication. During a short round, checking for expectations, the participants all spoke of real desire to rediscover motivation for the work. Our job is hard, they said, and we have forgotten the passion that once brought us to practice. We arrive to work at the beginning of the week and cannot wait for it to be over. We notice that, our clients notice that, and it corrodes us.

So I would like to share a poem with you. Dawna Markova, the poet, has struggled with cancer for any years. Once she was even told she had three more months to live (she is still practicing, writing and lecturing). This poem is, for me, a celebration of life: of the willingness to open to the passion within us, to the meaning beyond us – to commitment to the life into which we were born.

I will not die an unlived life

I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, To allow my living to open me, To make me less afraid, More accessible, To loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance, to live so that which comes to me as seed goes to the nest as blossom, and that which came to me as blossom goes on as fruit.

Dawna Markova.

39 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 Somehow, there is a common illusion that our job has to be difficult, unpleasant, and that life rests over the ocean, outside of our working life. Considering the fact that most of us will spend at least forty active years at work, at least eight hours a day – and a bleak picture is painted before us. We go to work and we ‘do what’s needed doing’, so that we can go home, too exhausted to enjoy our leisure time, our friends and family (is that not what we work so hard for?).

‘You are being unrealistic’, I have frequently been told, when I spoke of our responsibility to find a way to be present to ourselves in our lives; to reject being turned-off all week and wake up only in the weekends. Something in this belief, that we are required to suffer and struggle at all times is strongly embedded in our societal psyche (that is, unless we are on a bender of self-medicating life). Because it is true – life isn’t a theme park, and we all find ourselves (and will find ourselves in the future) in painful, difficult places; sad and angry, despairing or mundane and meaningless. Such is life, changing and moving without asking us for permission (or checking that we are comfortable with these changes). Yet, somehow, within this movement, we are still genuinely indebted to this rare gift we have been given, to this glimpse of a life.

Dr Stephen Gilligan, my teacher and friend and Milton Erickson’s student, often emphasizes two major questions that we are called to ask ourselves. The first is – What do I want of life? What do I want to achieve, to become, to develop in me? And we are personally responsible, this is a real responsibility, to invest our resources to achieve that. There is nothing sweet, or noble or humble in avoiding our personal dreams because ‘there’s no real chance for me to get there’ or because ‘there are more important things’ or even ‘I don’t want to be disappointed, so I will not invest in my dream’. This is not a realistic attitude, but a defeatist one. Naturally, life does carry failure, disappointment and pain with it; yet even if we stay in bed, covered in our duvet with our eyes closed we will still not manage to avoid the pain, the disappointment, the failure. As far as I understand, this gift – this time limited gift – of life, is so rare that when we are not coming towards it with open arms we engage in sinful behaviour. Do you know these romantic films, how at the end of the movie an old man on his deathbed summons his wife, confessing his love to her and apologising for not having shown it all his life, only to draw his last breath and die? Well, our commitment to the life that we want is about being active, so that our end will not be such, so that we can express our meaningfulness within our lives, and not only outside of our lives or at the end of it.

The second question, says Gilligan, is What does life want of me? What am I here to do? Gilligan assumes that life does not begin and end with our personal satisfaction. The good life, according to Gilligan, requires active pursuit of meaningfulness and further giving meaning to life. Our duty to our families, our friends and the society within which we live creates a crucial facet in the meaning-giving to life. And the answer to this question need not necessarily be political

40 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 activity or social involvement. It can simply be an acknowledgement that my family requires my time, or the importance of nature in my life.

Even in times where security and fear take such a significant space in our personal and collective consciousness (and perhaps even more so in such times), we ought to stop being ashamed in our seeking meaning and aspiring meaningful life. On our deathbeds, when we contemplate the life we had, trying to decide if it was a life worth living, to be able to answer affirmatively we need to invest. A life without consciousness and readiness to invest in our personal dreams and societal duties will not end happily. A happy life is not (merely) a result of luck and coincidence, but a process requiring work and investment. And when we are easily willing to invest many hours of our lives to have a better car, bigger house, smarter cloths, stronger jets, this lack of investments in our souls becomes sadder still.

But how can we reconnect to our dreams? How can we reconnect to the passion we once possessed, to the big dreams we held so dear before life had given us a lesson or two in humility? And how can we do so without giving up groundedness and realism? Without giving up our duties to our families, to society, to being functional and productive members of our community? I really am not sure! I haven’t got an answer to this big and important question.

But I feel that, by the very willingness to ask these questions, time and again, even when this is uncomfortable or challenging our decisions, we contribute to finding answers that will be right for us.

A simple NLP exercise that might help connect to meaning is Chunking up. The idea behind it, is that even our most mundane actions, however small and insignificant, are connected to core beliefs and values. When we remember these beliefs and values and acknowledge them, it is easier to maintain connection to meaning – our actions can be realigned with their intent. I like to practice this before a long working day:

To use this exercise, simply ask yourselves: As I think about the day ahead of me, what would I have liked of this day? In answering, make sure you answer what you want, rather than what you don’t want of the day.

This answer is ‘chunked up’ by asking the following question: Suppose I already have what I would have liked, what would it have given me? (or What would it do for me?). We carry on chunking-up until we reach that special place where something inside flutters, where a presence inside is touched or stretched or becomes uncomfortable – this is when we touch meaning.

Let me give you an example:

· As I think about the day ahead of me, what would I have liked of this day? I would like to feel rested, and that I spent some quality time with Tom (my wife).

41 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 · Suppose I have rested and spent quality time with Tom, what would it have given me? I’d feel refreshed and ready towards the coming week.

· Suppose I am refreshed and ready towards the coming week, what would it have given me? I’d feel energised, but not anxious – energised and relaxed.

· Suppose I am energised and relaxed, what would it have given me? I would feel good in myself, and more present to my clients.

· Suppose I feel good in myself and am more present to my clients, what would it have given me? I would be excited from every session, from every contact with people. Every piece of life would have touched me.

· Suppose every piece of life would have touched me, what would it have given me? A feeling of belonging, I’d feel that I am not alone in my need for touch, for connection.

· Suppose I had that feeling of belonging, of sharing the need to touch and connect, what would it have given me? A clear breath

· Suppose I have clear breath, what would it have given me? (Thinking of this question, my eyes become moist. Something in me shivers when I contemplate an answer) I would connect to my need to receive, and to give.

We can go on and on, but the goal here is not necessarily to reach the ‘right answer’ or the final one. The process in itself can remind me why I invest my time at work, why I write during my weekend. The coming day can therefore be informed by this remembrance and understanding, that even if I still uncertain how exactly it is connected, walking hand in hand with Tom to the supermarket for food shopping helps me connect to my need to give and receive; that this is what I am here for.

Psalm 34 examines the good life and the need to focus, and practice, positive thinking and positive and honest speech. It reads:

What man [is he that] desireth life, [and] loveth [many] days, That he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

However, I believe that the first two sentences are the important emphasis here. The original Hebrew version separates the two first sentences and it may be translated slightly differently to mean:

42 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 What man is he that desireth life? He loveth many days to see good!

It is our very commitment and responsibility to see the good in our days and love our lives, to make the effort to invest in ourselves, in others and in our surrounding that allows us to desire life, and to love ourselves.

May we dare to insist on what’s important, and not shy from pursuing the good life.

Asaf Rolef Ben-Shahar (UKCP reg. EABP acc.) is a psychotherapist, writer and trainer. Asaf integrated his experience of Neuro-Linguistic-Psychotherapy, Self-Relations, Hypnosis and Body-Psychotherapy into his work to create Integrative-Mindbody-Therapy (IMT). For the last eleven years Asaf has practiced, taught and written about IMT.

He works in London and St Albans and teaches in the UK, Israel and worldwide.

01727-811427

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.imt.co.il

The tremendous success of the Festival shows what we can achieve.

So come and join a revitalised AHP Board. We’re looking for new members and a Chair, Deputy Chair and Treasurer plus Events and Marketing Officers.

There are new developments planned for the future, including the Festival as an annual event, so the AHP Board will be an exciting place to be.

Even if the AGM has passed, contact: Anton Smith: BM Box 3582 London WC1 3XX T: 08457 078 506 [email protected]

43 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 AHP(B) page Tony Morris

Tony Morris

Didn’t we do well!

I’m writing this just after the Festival, tired and elated. I expect the 100 or so others who were there feel the same, including some 35 non-members. It was a great success, in terms of talks, workshops, human contact, atmosphere and financially. We’re still analysing the substantial written feedback, and there are some niggles with AHP and Green & Away, but mostly it’s very positive. And the niggles show us what to do better next year. Despite the flooding in the Worcester area almost everyone got there, some with great determination. Yes, there was a lot of mud, but thankfully little rain except overnight, and wellies and boots served their purpose. Green & Away’s friendliness and fantastic food (and bar) kept us going, and Saturday night was great, with the band Seize the Day entertaining and amusing us with protest songs, and our singing the choruses. During the day we drummed, danced, sang, shouted out our frustrations, talked, meditated and more. All typical of the early days of the humanistic movement, yet these were fresh experiences, not throwbacks to a starry-eyed past. We sometimes feel that humanistic ideals are now subsumed into the wider therapeutic community, but they are still there below the surface, alive and well and awaiting the opportunity to flourish, which AHP, with others, can and does provide. To help do that we’ve made a significant profit, enough to put us into the black for a couple of years, and we’ve brought in new members – more to come I hope, they having experienced us for real, rather than in S&S and flyers. So lots of special thanks to Julian, not only for organising it all, but handling numerous emails and phone calls just beforehand from delegates fearing it was flooded out. Thus the Festival, as we anticipated, has really given us the confidence to have another next year and it gives new energy to the Board.

You’ll probably be reading this around the time of the AGM, so it will be largely a new Board, as I, Timothy McMichael and John Buckle are standing down. A resurgent and revitalised Board will be an exciting place to be, so come and join in, even after the AGM. The Festival shows what can be achieved and there’s so much AHP can do, now that money worries are laid aside for a while.

So, this is my last Chair’s page, my first was in May 2003, so it’s been a long haul, fulfilling, challenging, exciting, tiring, frustrating, enlivening, purposeful, etc., etc. All the stuff of living life fully, living life humanistically. I trust that the new Chair, and the whole of the new Board, experience the same satisfactions. I brought the Festival to a close with words that seem equally appropriate now, “Fare Well Travellers, Farewell”.

44 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 Self SOCIETY& Reviews The Person Centred Approach, A contemporary Introduction Louise Embleton Tudor, Keemar Keemar, Keith Tudor, Joanna Valentine and Mike Worrall (Pub Palgrave Macmillan PP324 £17.99)

‘It’s all Carl Rogers’ fault’, I remarked ironically to a colleague over a pint after a particularly difficult workshop, ‘If I hadn’t read that book on encounter groups, I wouldn’t have done DABS, met Tricia Scott etc, etc and ended up running this workshop!’

Reading and reviewing The Person Centred Approach is therefore both a return to my roots and an updating of my knowledge of this model, which forms a key component, if not the basis, of the Humanistic School.

The Person Centred Approach is, perhaps, the best known and the least understood of the approaches to counselling and psychotherapy. It is attractive because of its apparent philosophical and theoretical simplicity and, particularly in an integrative context, is extremely susceptible to ‘cherry picking’. We would all love to be a Carl Rogers (or even a Dave Mearns or Brian Thorne), but we don’t see, or perhaps don’t want to see, the self-developmental work that goes into working in this apparently effortless and spontanaeous way.

The appearance of this book is both welcome and timely as a means of clarifying the many misunderstandings of the PCA which the authors acknowledge in their introduction, and for its exploration of the implications of the PCA for, amongst other things, training, accreditation, therapists’ personal lives and the wider community.

The book is written in four parts – First Principles, The Person, Implications and Applications and Beyond the Individual, Beyond Therapy. The first part begins with a chapter, called First Principles, in which the underlying philosophy of the PCA is defined and derived, both from its own history and from the existing philosophical schools of existentialism and phenomenology. The influence, contradictory or not, of Christianity is also acknowledged. Key concepts, such as the organism, the actualising tendency and especially the necessary and sufficient conditions are defined.

The core conditions are explored further in the next chapter, which is focussed on The Person in Therapy and traces the psychotherapeutic roots of the PCA, comparing these with the Psychoanalytic Approach.

Given my involvement with counselling training the next chapter was, for me, one of the most thought provoking. The contradiction,

45 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 for example, between assessment, accreditation, external validation etc and the development of an internal locus of evaluation is obvious when you think about it. But how many of us do think about it and how do we maintain our congruence having done so?

One thing I would take issue with in this chapter is the section on ‘practice’. Whilst I would broadly agree with the authors’ contention that the assumption that clients from voluntary or statutory agencies will be damaged by inexperienced therapists is a blunt instrument, I would suggest another way of looking at the issue. Earlier in the same chapter, the authors make the statement:

‘the personal development of the student is the training’

I have always believed this, but I also believe that there are implications for practice here. What makes a student ready, or not, to see real live clients is, for me, much more a matter of their self- development than their knowledge of theory or even their use of counselling skills. I’m rarely worried that a student gong into counselling practice will actively damage a client, but I am concerned that they may give the client the impression that they’re working on the problem whereas, in reality and because of the counsellor’s rather than the client’s reluctance, they are only discussing it superficially and possibly reinforcing the problem in the process. More to the point and although I have a duty of care towards the clients a student sees, my primary concern is with the student and his/her training experience. I agree with the authors that students come into training with a wealth of life experience, but this can be a double-edged sword. Often, a student’s learned way of dealing with emotional distress in themselves and others can run contrary to, for example, the core conditions. It can take considerable self-development work to overcome the tendency to want to control the session, for example, and, given that vulnerable clients may well demand this from the student, there is a strong likelihood that the student is going to end up ‘practicing in their mistakes’, which any good music teacher will tell you is not a good way to learn. Perhaps I’m illustrating here the ‘thought provoking’ I referred to earlier!

The next section of the book consists of three chapters which deal with the development and view of the person in the PCA. The first explores Rogers’ developmental theories and, again, contrasts these with the psychoanalytic model. This is a comprehensive account and incorporates findings from neuroscience, which substantiate Rogers’ original ideas.

The next chapter, Personality continues this exploration and works towards Rogers’ theory of personality and behaviour, which supports the actualising tendency of the human organism. I found the following chapter The Person in Context inspiring in its approach to such thorny issues as ‘Anti-oppressive practice’. This is epitomised by statements such as:

46 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 ‘…we are critical of the political correctness of the “equal Opportunities” industry, particularly rife in local authorities and the voluntary sector ,which simply adds another “oppression” to the list, whilst doing little or nothing to make their services equally accessible. Political Correctness has become an issue of compliance and compliance breeds resentment.’

I also liked the section on Personal Power in this chapter.

In the next section, Implications and Applications the authors explore the extrapolation of the Person Centred Approach to couple and family relationships, education and politics. This is important because often therapy is seen as something isolated from the rest of human experience.

Chapter 8 explores the relationship from a PCA standpoint. The impression I get is that, aside from identifying four ‘trends or themes’ in relationships, Rogers himself didn’t seem to work with the relationship as such, but a lot of his work can be usefully applied to the relationship. Similarly, whilst it is very useful to apply the PCA to parenting, contributions from other models such as Winnicott’s work and systems theory are equally useful.

In contrast, chapter 10 Freedom to Learn is extremely powerful in applying, for example, the core conditions, only slightly modified, to the learning process. This, and the incorporation of Paulo Freire’s ideas on education contribute to the delight of this chapter. I particularly liked the way issues which are endemic in counselling training are addressed, especially the negotiation of the relationship between the organic needs of the learning group and the demands of outside authorities, validating bodies and accrediting organisations.

The final chapter in this section, The Person of Today – and Tomorrow, moved me almost as much as Rogers’ book on encounter groups did in the mid seventies, perhaps because it revived in me the idea that change is possible even in monolithic, controlling cultures.

The last section of the book Beyond the Individual, Beyond Therapy widens the field of application of the PCA to couples, groups, the community, organisations and the environment itself. The chapter on couples work was interesting, but, as the authors acknowledge in their summary:

‘Practitioners differ about whether or not person-centred principles are sufficient for work with couples’

As I remarked earlier, my therapeutic journey began with person centred group-work so I was interested to read the next chapter on the application of the PCA to groups. I particularly liked the differentiation between structure and directivity. These are often confused by comparatively experienced practitioners as well as students and beginners.

47 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 I learned a lot from the following chapter on Community, particularly about the learning community, which is often problematic in the counselling training context. The interface of psychotherapy and politics is always interesting to me and I believe that small-scale community interventions are the most positive expression of this.

The seeds of the next chapter Organisation could be found in the DABS course [The Diploma in Applied Behavioural Sciences at what was then The Polytechnic of North London] in the 1970’s. I like the way the core conditions are applied to the consultation process in an OD setting and can see how this would work constructively. I have less faith in an organisation which was totally person centred, although this may be my scepticism creeping in.

Eco-psychology is becoming more recognised at the moment, and the final chapter, which looks at the application of the PCA to environmental issues, would appear to be going in that direction. This involves seeing the Earth as an organism, à la Lovelock, with an actualising tendency of its own.

The authors are to be congratulated on this very clear exposition of the Person Centred Approach, which I would recommend to trainees, new and experienced practitioners and especially to trainers.

Geoff Lamb

The Wisdom of the Psyche – Depth Psychology after Neuroscience By Ginette Paris (Pub Routledge £12.99 pp240)

When Geoff Lamb sent me this book for review, I was puzzled. I’m not a neuroscientist and, although I always say there’s a spiritual dimension to my work and I’ve gained a lot from reading authors such as Thomas Moore, I don’t think of myself as a Jungian. I was relieved to find, when I read it, that there was very little actual neuroscience – the emphasis is on the after in the title. It was also a pleasure to be re-introduced to some of the Jungian – I think perhaps I should say post-Jungian - ideas which I have, as I said, come across in Thomas Moore’s work.

Ginette Paris bases her work on her very human, or humanistic, account of her personal process following a near fatal accident. She explores her thoughts on the state of contemporary psychotherapy and also her own process in becoming a therapist together with the influence, on both of these, of coming face to face with her own death.

The Preface sets the scene. It gives just enough biographical information and therapeutic background so that the reader who may not be familiar with Ms Paris’ work gets a sense of who she is and where her life had got to before the accident. It also explores the literal and metaphorical significance of death.

48 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 The first chapter describes the accident. The author fell into an empty cement pool and cracked her head on the bottom. She talks about her experience of intensive care and the thoughts and images which drifted through her mind in her state of semi-consciousness. It’s inspiring to read about her experience of nearly, but not quite, dying. I was surprised, and then again not, by the description of her regression in the arms of her daughter and the subsequent healing of her brain haemorrhage. This, according to her consultant, is most often observed in young children rather than women in their fifties.

The next chapter, post operative one might say, is a meditation or, as the author puts it, a fable on three archetypes – the Archetypal child, the Great Mother and the Archetypal Father. She introduces each of these characters before giving an imaginary dialogue between the Archetypal Child and each of the others. This outlines the elements of each archetype, which have a bearing on the growing up process and I found it very moving.

In the next four chapters, Ms Paris deconstructs four ‘versions’ of what therapy is about. These are: ‘Therapy as Cure – The Medical Model’, ‘Therapy as Investment – the Economic Model’, ‘Therapy as Plea – the Legal Model’ and ‘Therapy as Redemption’. Although most people will be as familiar as I am with the differences of opinion which surround the medical model of psychotherapy and counselling, the other ‘models’ were new to me. When I say ‘new’, of course they make perfect sense when you think about them, but I certainly haven’t considered them in depth before I read this book.

In Chapter 3, ‘Therapy as Cure’, Ms Paris gives a lovely example of an inappropriate attempt to ‘cure’ a young boy of his ‘pathological’ response to the death of his beloved dog. I was very moved by the story of how his grandmother had come to stay with the family, supported the boy in staying off school, talked with him at length about death and mortality and finally ritually buried the dog’s remains in the back garden.

I don’t know whether the idea of therapy ‘as investment’ is more common in the United States than in the UK. Certainly, in the field of publicly funded therapy, the arguments of Layard and his colleagues seem to be pushing it in that direction. Ms Paris seems to recognise some of her own ‘drivenness’ in this chapter, perhaps as a result of the accident. She also, I was interested to see, deconstructs the polarity which seems to exist between cognitive approaches and depth psychology. To do this, she uses an example from her work with violent men. These men were suffering, she says, from: ‘a poverty of language, an incapacity to translate their frustration, anger and disappointment into words.’

She felt that the cognitive approach was appropriate because it involved the ‘un-learning’ of an inappropriate response and the

49 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 development of the capacity to communicate with words – something she feels should have been fostered in these men as they grew up.

‘Therapy as Plea’ looks at blame or accusation in therapy, particularly family or couple therapy, and the tendency of the therapist to be cast in the role of Judge and/or jury. It is certainly tempting, when we’re trying to support a client, to side with him/her against the partner/mother/father/boss – whoever seems to have been behaving abusively, meanly or is just plain ‘out of order’ towards the client. The problem is, as Ms Paris points out, that you end up ‘imprisoning’ your client in the ‘victim position’ for life.

I wonder if ‘Therapy as Redemption’ as explored in the next chapter, is yet more subtle than the other three? More and more humanistic therapists are claiming a ‘transpersonal’ aspect to their work and I don’t blame them for that. Many of my colleagues say their work wouldn’t make sense without a spiritual dimension. But therapy, says Ms Paris, doesn’t bring about absolution or perfection. The nitty gritty of everyday life still has to be negotiated and grappled with, however much therapy we’ve had. The only difference is that we do this consciously. Therapy, whilst it can certainly contribute to the individual’s spiritual journey shouldn’t be confused, according to Ms Paris, with the journey itself.

It always seems to me that therapy lives on the cusp between science and the humanities. In the next chapter, Ms Paris explores this curious interface as well as the dilemma of where to put Depth Psychology.

The autobiographical element re-asserts itself in the following chapter and, since her brother is a philosopher, uses their relationship to explore the relationship between philosophy and psychology.

This chapter flows neatly into the next, which revisits the archetype of Mother. Ms Paris broadens the scope of this archetype to include not only male parents who bring up children single-handedly, but also to comment on the lack of ‘mother energy’ in contemporary American society.

She comments too, in the next chapter, on the lack of ‘Father energy’ in the US today and in the field of therapy. In both of these chapters, she includes her views on the predominant monotheistic religions and what she considers their detrimental effect on humanity’s psychic development. Here, and in her acknowledgement of her own feminist views, which sometimes seem at odds with her explorations of myth and legend, she is bolder in her outlook than Thomas Moore, who seems to sit on the fence sometimes.

This expression of social commentary is further developed in the next two chapters, ‘The Invisibility of the Psyche’ and ‘The Ultimate Virtual Reality Game’. In the first she relates the ‘invisibility’ of psychological distress today with the same invisibility of physical suffering in mediaeval times i.e. because there’s so much of it and

50 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 we don’t think we can do anything about it, it just becomes part of life.

In ‘The Ultimate Virtual Reality Game’, Ms Paris explores the subjectivity of story yelling, with a particular focus on the way we tell our own story in therapy. I like the way she validates this subjectivity and also the way she isn’t afraid to challenge some of the myths about psychotherapy, including rigid interpretations of what constitutes sexual abuse, which she links with the fundamentalist Christian beliefs of some therapists. I was also relieved to read her critique of Lacan’s prose style. I haven’t read much, but I always thought I wasn’t clever enough to understand it!

The last chapter ‘Joy: the antidote to anxiety’ contains some gems. Ms Paris differentiates between anxiety and fear and argues strongly that both are, in their own way, healthy responses of human beings with consciousness living in the world. As anxiety, along with depression, is said to be one of the most endemic problems in therapy and counselling, this chapter ought to be compulsory reading for those involved in finding ‘treatments’ for these conditions.

As I said at the beginning, I wouldn’t normally have picked up this book on the basis of its title, but I’m very glad I read it and would thoroughly recommend it to new and experienced therapists of all orientations.

Jenny McCarthy is a humanistic psychotherapist in private practice

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Please subscribe to: International Journal of Psychotherapy 1072, Budapest, Nagydiofa u. 3. Hungary e-mail: [email protected]

51 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 LETTERS

Letters for the next issue of S&S should be with the editor by September 21st. Ed.

Dear S&S

Cordelia Galgut’s article on being a breast cancer sufferer

I was deeply touched by Cordelia Galgut’s courageous description of her experience as a breast cancer sufferer.

Cordelia, you show a remarkable ability to observe your own emotions and write lucidly and openly about your illness. Entwining, enfolding your awareness and wisdom with your basic, gut-level terror is an act of amazing self-integration.

I am struck by your skill at making meaning and coherence out of an uncontrollable, scary illness like breast cancer. When we are threatened bodily by things outside our control, faced with our frailty and vulnerability, all of us need a foundation of support and strength out there in the world. We need this to resonate with those parts inside us that anchor and stabilise from within, as well as to counter balance and contain the surges of raw fear.

I agree wholeheartedly. with your views on the need for much greater ‘psychological support in the health’ service, for ‘patients with physical illnesses. There seems still to be insufficient attention given to the inextricable link between body and mind. This has been my experience, both professionally, as a psychologist, and as a patient, whenever I’ve needed to tap into health services myself.

Medicine has moved on, in the science and understanding of the mechanics of the body but still seems to be way behind in understanding the importance of our psyche in how we experience our illness and well-being.

Cordelia, I commend you for your honesty and bravery.

Surbala Morgan.

Chartered Clinical Psychologist, Chartered Counselling Psychologist

52 Self & Society Vol 35 No 2 Sept - Oct 2007 Self & Society is published by the Association for Humanistic Psychology in Britain, a charity whose purpose is the promotion of humanistic ideals in everyday life.

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