The therapeutic process

Why does a person begin the therapeutic process? Life can feel overwhelming or meaningless. When a person is confronted by a major crisis or suffers from anxiety, depression, guilt or grief, they may feel out of control or “lost at sea” and in need of someone to talk to in order to understand what is happening to them and explore options. Others, who experience a more general dissatisfaction with life, turn to therapy as a means of discovering how to live their life with more richness and vitality. Ttherapy can help an individual first of all, observe and listen to the parts of her or him/self that wish to please, or criticize (themselves or others), judge, strive for success, as well as parts that may choose to indulge in alcohol, drugs, shopping, or food to excess.  These (and other) parts may show up in dreams as an intruder or as the one driving the car too fast, or as abandoned, barely alive infants.  When there is conflict and suffering in the psyche, therapy can be a way of stopping our automatic  behaviours and turning, instead, towards the conflicted parts with compassion and interest.  In this space, healing can begin.

What happens in during therapy?

In the safety of the therapy room, any problem can be unburdened. Working together, psychotherapist and client first focus upon the current conflict.  As the story unfolds, feelings, dreams and the wisdom of the body are brought in as further means of expression. At the heart of the Jungian process is a great value for the creative, symbolic language of the unconscious as it is expressed in dreams, images, mythology, and fairy tales. This language gives us access to the psyche’s deeper wisdom and creativity. While it is not necessary to remember one’s dreams, as the work of analysis proceeds, the dreams often become easier to remember. They are essential maps expressing the point of view of the psyche at that time– how the conflict appears from the point of view of the deeper Self. I find that dreams are reliable guides in the work of therapy.

While my training is primarily in the Jungian model, I have included the approach of working with our various inner parts– which is explained more fully on another page under the heading ‘Working with Inner Parts’. In this style of therapy, the parts of our psyche can speak their own truth. It is direct and, at the same time, gentle and respectful.

How long does therapy take?

Jungian therapy can offer a creative approach to short-term problems; more often it is a slow, mindful process of inner work. We meet once or twice a week, looking into difficult situations with the “eye of the heart.” Nothing changes, Jung has suggested, unless you take yourself seriously. If you would like further information I would be happy to discuss my approach with you.

The role of the therapist

“One frequently heard analogy for the role of the analytic therapist a role that claims authority about process but uncertainty about content, is that of the trailblazer or travel guide. If one is walking through an alien jungle, one needs to be with someone who knows how to traverse that terrain without running into danger or going in circles. But the guide does not need to know where the two parties will emerge from the wilderness; he or she has only the means to make the journey safe. “

Nancy McWilliams