Psycho-Spiritual Counselling takes the spirit, rather than the mind, as its starting point of balance. It has an expanded view of life, recognising that the world is a complex mystery and it takes into account belief systems, universal & personal energy systems, intuitive psychic realities, karmic interplay, subconscious and superconscious states of awareness, metaphysical experiences, spiritual theology, spiritual presence and higher-self cosmic connections.
This form of psychology is perspective based on the reality of a spiritual centre or "self" within each individual, that motivates us and guides us towards wholeness.
As such, it is a synthesis of psychology and spirituality, drawing from many related approaches, both western and eastern. The pioneers of such a perspective include Carl Jung (Individuation), Maslow (Self-Actualisation) and Roberto Assagioli (Psychosynthesis).
Each of us has an individual path to follow, and transpersonal psychology offers a perspective that can include all the dimensions of our being on this journey - mind, body, feelings and spirit.
This creative way of working, that can include using visualisation, imagery and drawing to explore the psyche and the Self, may be found especially helpful by people who are themselves creative or artistic.
Psychosynthesis is a method of psychological development and Self realization for those who refuse to remain the slaves of their own inner phantasms or of external influences, who refuse to submit passively to the play of psychological forces which is going on within them, and who are determined to become the master of their own lives. (Roberto Assagioli)
The Transpersonal Approach to Counselling & Psychotherapy
While many perspectives have emerged in the field of Psychotherapy in the 20th Century it is possible to identify four major viewpoints: the psychoanalytic, the behaviourist, the humanistic and the transpersonal. The transpersonal perspective includes the understanding and methods of the earlier orientations and expands them to include the spiritual dimension of human experience. In doing so transpersonal psychology draws on the world's spiritual traditions and mythologies together with anthropology, art and consciousness research in addition to current psychological theory.
Transpersonal psychology believes that behind the masks, culturally conditioned beliefs and roles of each individual lies a deeper state of being that transcends individual identities, and that the individualised self or persona is only one manifestation of this deeper self.
Transpersonal psychology affirms the concepts of holistic health that all living systems aspire to - biological, psychological, familial and cultural co-exist as a web of interdependent relationships, none being separable from the whole. Thus every action and word has reverberations for others. This theory forms the basis not only for individual responsibility and freedom but also for the family systems approach to counselling and psychotherapy. This perspective also helps us to negotiate the shift from viewing disease from a purely linear perspective, as externally imposed, to a systems perspective that perceives illness as a function of one’s relationships to self and the environment.
Mark Borrington holds a Sheffield Hallam University Diploma in Integrative Psychotherapy, an Oxford College Diploma in Child & Adolescent Counselling and has additional training in Transpersonal Psychology. He is a member of the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP) and the Association for Counselling and Therapy Online (ACTO). Mark has been a practicising Spiritual Advisor and group facilitator since 2004.
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