Transpersonal therapy
Transpersonal psychotherapy involves creatively exploring beyond the foundation of integrative psychotherapy.
I view it as remembering ourselves before Western psychology and the medical model took hold.
Often, clients come to it when other routes have stalled. Wisdom can be experienced through ancient practices such as meditation and visualisation.
Jung helped us to connect with ancestral practices such as the concept of archetypes, representations of ourselves and our patterns expressed through myths and symbols. Jung also encouraged us to explore our unconscious world through dreams, shadow work and an understanding of our interconnectedness in the collective unconscious.
This numinous world helps us connect to the divine and unlocks systems we can use to heal. For example, there are seven chakras in our subtle body, which are the spinning discs of life force energy. When we work to keep these open and balanced, it promotes harmony between mind, body and spirit. Reiki, meditation and breathwork can be used for alignment.
Healing through breath and sound involves guided visualisations and meditations. We use this space to explore non-verbal messages that can be interpreted through creative expression, such as artwork or sounds. We might draw bodymaps of symbols that come to us, sounds from the chakra points or textures, colours and temperatures of body symptoms.
Trauma-informed. Although I have a working knowledge of neuroscience, it is through spiritual practices that I notice the biggest shift in clients. Memories are often jumbled or detached. Talking about trauma can often re-trigger it. So, encouraging safety in body and soul can alchemise pain into growth. This is transgenerational healing.
Transgenerational healing is not as woo-woo as it sounds. Epigenetics shows that trauma can impact at least three generations of family members. Looking beyond measurable science to spiritual wisdom confirms that we can heal ourselves from our ancestors’ wounds, like slavery and racism, as well as protect future generations from negative family patterns.
I end on the CCPE Model. The Elements Model describes 12 groupings of qualities into the four categories of Earth, Water, Fire and Air. These groups are then associated with an archetype, such as Sovereign, Friend, Knight or Priest. These qualities can be active, receptive or balanced, so the challenge is to identify the qualities you want to harness and those you want to suppress.
The Planes of Consciousness describes levels of our subtle or divine nature. Here, the soul journeys into existence as consciousness. The planes run from Level One to Level Seven as the: Earth; Gross; Upper Astral Plane; Loving; Wise; Sacred; Pure Self and The Transcendent State. The soul travels from the subtlest to the densest Plane depending on the qualities with which the soul resonates. Therapy helps to identify and repair interruptions in the journey.
The final part is Alchemy, turning base materials into gold. This involves sitting in the nigredo, the challenges of life, whilst identifying various operations that can help turn our unconscious material and trauma into gold. These processes include solution, a dissolving, sublimation, a rising above, and mortification, the death and hopeful rebirth of something.