Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 67-82 © 2010 Heart-Centered Therapies Association Using Heart-Centered Therapies and the Integral Model for Shadow Integration and Psycho-Spiritual Development Louise Northcutt, M.S. Abstract: The aim of this article is to introduce the elements of the Integral Model as an approach to understanding consciousness. The article will speculate how the Integral Model can be used with Heart-Centered therapies in the process of shadow identification and integration. These practices are useful for clients, as well as for our own growth. The intent of this process is to shift from being stuck in a limited perspective, to the ability to take multiple perspectives. When an individual can easily take many perspectives there is an increased capacity to give and receive love, to handle greater complexity, express compassion and grow in to a life of service. Ultimately and ideally, this leads to an embodied awakening of consciousness. This is when one is carrying transcendent awareness into daily actions, as a fully selfexpressed being, identified as infinite consciousness and expressing as finite self. Elements of Integral – Many Perspectives of the One Integral theory has recently been synthesized by Ken Wilber, drawing on the work of many of the philosophers, scholars and researchers from around the world, such as Jean Gebser, Teilhard de Chardin, Jean Piaget, James Fowler, Abraham Maslow, Susanne Cook-Greuter, Clare Graves, and Daniel Goleman. The elements of the Integral Model include five key distinctions for mapping all our experience. The five key areas are: quadrants, levels or stages of development, lines of development, states and types. The model uses the acronym AQAL (all quadrants, all levels and lines). This can be useful in helping us see how the various models we use to understand our experience are related to each other. Each perspective is a partial truth. The Integral Model provides a framework for integration with room for more and more of the whole truth to be seen. _____________________________ * louise@louisenorthcutt.com X (404) 434-3235 67 468 Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 2 In terms of ultimate reality, it is only a map and not the reality itself. Wilber calls it a map of Samsara, or a map of the ‘prison.’ He then adds, “If you want to make a prison break, it is helpful to have a good map.” (From a 16 minute talk in the Integral Operating System: Exercise Your Finite Self While Resting in Infinity.) 1. Quadrants The mathematical visual tool of Quadrants is created by declaring that all experience has interior (hidden) and exterior (measurable) qualities, and both of these qualities can be experienced individually and collectively. This can be mapped into four quadrants, with interior on the left side and exterior on the right; individual above and collective below. (See FIGURE 1.) The upper left is interior-individual experience, the experience of “I”. The lower left is interior-collective or the experience of “we”. The upper right is the exterior-individual experience, or the experience of “it”. The lower right is the exterior-collective or the experience of “its”. So, when we talk about any event or experience, we can do so with the awareness that it occurs in each of these quadrants simultaneously; that is, subjectively (I; thoughts and feelings), inter-subjectively (we; relationships and culture), objectively (it; nature and science), and inter-objectively (its; systems and society). The quadrants provide a simple way of assessing our own development and impact in the world. An example of how Heart-Centered therapists might experience the four quadrants is in coming to a Wellness weekend. In circle, we bring our thoughts and feelings (subjective-I) and choose what to share with the group. It is with the group we work through our personal process (intersubjectiveWE). We, each individually travel a certain distance, under varying weather conditions, which sometimes create measurable changes in the body (IT), as example of individual exterior (objective) experience. We use public transportation systems, the monetary system, the internet (ITS) to get there. Northcutt: Using Heart-Centered Therapies and the Integral Model INTERIOR I N D I V I D U A L C O L L E C T I V E 69 EXTERIOR I SUBJECTIVE THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS (Intentional) IT OBJECTIVE NATURE AND SCIENCE (Behavioral) prehension sensation perception emotion concepts concrete operational formal operational vision-logic atoms molecules neuronal cord reptilian brain stem limbic neocortex WE INTER-SUBJECTIVE RELATIONSHIPS AND CULTURE (Cultural) ITS INTER-OBJECTIVE SYSTEMS AND SOCIETY (Social) vegetative archaic magic mythic rational galaxies planets Gaia societies groups nations FIGURE 1 - The Four Quadrants - with examples (Wilber, 2000) 2. Levels The second major element of the Integral Model is Levels of Consciousness. It maintains that we progress to higher levels of development in waves or stages (and that it happens in all four quadrants). Some examples of this are: childhood, adolescence, adulthood as levels of individual values and needs; slavery, segregation, civil rights as levels of cultural development; atoms, molecules, cells, organisms as levels of biological and cognitive evolution; egocentric, ethnocentric, world-centric, kosmo-centric as levels of moral development. Another important Integral concept to note: each level transcends and includes the previous level. Developmental researcher, Robert Kegan of Harvard, describes the process of adult growth as becoming aware of what previously shaped perception. In other words, or in HeartCentered therapy, the old conclusion that one was subject to, and that previously shaped behavior, is brought in to awareness and held as object at the next level of development, as a new 470 Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 2 conclusion and conscious choice is made to think, feel, and behave in a healthier way. 3. Lines Multiple lines of development within individuals (upper left quadrant) are distinguishable (much like Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences). Growth in each of the lines occurs relatively independently. Some examples of lines of development are: cognition, moral, needs, values, interpersonal, emotional, and aesthetics. The cognitive line has significance because it provides the capacity to be aware of something and to act on it. This capacity is necessary to grow in the other lines. Awareness itself is a balancing force. One can use one’s strongest lines of development to leverage and strengthen weaker lines. Developmental lines can be looked at as a series of questions that life asks us again and again. Here are some examples (Wilber, 2008, p. 86): • Cognitive: What am I aware of? • Needs: What do I need? • Values: What is important to me? • Emotional Intelligence: How do I feel about this? • Aesthetics: What is beautiful or attractive to me? • Moral Development: What is the right thing to do? • Spiritual: What is of ultimate concern? The Kosmos Evolving through Us The common denominator between developmental lines and levels is consciousness itself. Consciousness is the space in which lines unfold and levels emerge. In the Integral Model, colors are used to talk about world views, or the various altitudes of consciousness. Altitude has no content, it is an abstract unit of measure that can refer to any line of development. It is useful to understand distinct world views as ways of interpreting and making sense of experience. This allows us to relate and communicate more effectively with all kinds of people. Each step up to a higher altitude expresses more consciousness, complexity, wisdom and compassion. The figure below (FIGURE 2) is a synthesized list of the stages of development based on the Integral framework. Northcutt: Using Heart-Centered Therapies and the Integral Model 71 Altitudes of consciousness can be mapped across all major developmental lines, such as Maslow’s needs, Piaget’s cognitive, Graves/Spiral Dynamics’ values, Kegan’s orders of consciousness, or Cook-Greuter’s self-identity. In the figure below, the highest altitude is at the top and the lowest developmental altitude is at the bottom. You see columns for color label, stage label, description of the stage, and some limitations of the lower stages. As one develops to higher stages of complexity and awareness, all the previous stages are included and transcended. (Reader, please note that the colors do not correspond to the chakras.) A major distinction in the figure above is between first and second tiers. In all the levels of the first tier, individuals whose values are located in one of these levels each see their perspective and the ONLY right one, and all others are wrong. The leap to second tier happens when one realizes that everyone is at their own developmentally appropriate place. There is no absolute right or wrong. There is an acceptance of people where they are and an ability to take their perspective. Color Stage Description Indigo Integral Super Integral, transcend subject object separation; intuitive, flexible, flowing relationship with experience Turquoise Integral Holistic, appreciates the virtues of every level, not blind to limitations Teal Integral Kosmocentric, can shift between all previous levels and see relative truths Second Tier (Above. Development may continue beyond what we currently see.) Recognition that all perspectives are valid, true, but partial Shadow Aspects Elitist; Insensitive; Aloof; Lack of patience Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 2 472 Color Stage First Tier (Below) Description Shadow Aspects Characterized by right/wrong thinking, difficulty accepting validity of other perspectives Pluralistic (postmodern) Multi-worldcentric, the stage of divinity within all beings, all paths equal; major social revolutions, consensus decision-making Narcissism; Denial of hierarchy; contempt for modernism and traditionalism Orange Rational (modern) Worldcentric, the level of universal regard, reason and tolerance; business striving, science; strategy, planning, testing Materialism; selfish; greedy; unscrupulous; exploitive Amber (or sometimes known as Blue in Spiral DynamicsGraves/Beck) Mythic (traditional) Ethnocentric, the stage of absolute traditional truths, tribal/ethnic beliefs; myths Rigid intolerance; dogmatic fanaticism, prejudice; fundamentalism; chauvinism Power Magic Egocentric, the world of Violent, ruthless, magical powers; control moral at any cost bankruptcy, egocentric ethics Tribal Magic Obey customs and taboos Superstitious; violent; slavery to the group; naive FIGURE 2 - Levels of Development from an Integral Perspective 4. States of Consciousness Another major element of the Integral Model is the understanding of states of consciousness. Again, states occur in all four quadrants, and at every level. Interior/individual states may include emotional states, meditative states, creative states or Northcutt: Using Heart-Centered Therapies and the Integral Model 73 flow states. Exterior/individual examples are peak performance states, brain wave states, or biological states. Interior/collective states would include interpersonal relationship states, states of shared meaning, states of shared emotion, and communication states. Finally, exterior/collective examples could be economic states, political states, weather states or states of war. One of the most interesting areas of current research is on states. Three primary mind (interior) states are waking, dreaming and deep dreamless sleep. As Heart-Centered therapists, we are aware of brainwave states: beta, alpha, theta, and delta. The Integral Model correlates these measurable (exterior) states to individual interior mind states of gross waking (beta), subtle dream state (theta) and causal dreamless state (delta). Meditative traditions describe additional states that are said to be attained only by very highly developed meditation practitioners. Going beyond the three primary states, the first is called turiya, meaning ‘fourth.’ It is described as being awake and lucid witness of all experience, through all the states. When this witness awareness grows strong, one rests calmly and continuously as awareness, no matter what the body and mind are doing. Turyatita state (’beyond the fourth’) is a state in which the stable witness evolves until all separation between the witness and that which is witnessed dissolves. This state is also known as “non-dual” and is beyond any subject/object division. These two states are likely what the Buddha meant when he said, “I’m awake.” 5. Types In the final key element of the Integral Model, types, rather than being vertical or developmental, describe horizontal differences. It is another way of distinguishing perspectives. For example, there are personality types, gender types, body types, blood types, types of democracy, types of transportation, types of relationships and communication types. Types help us to locate where we are and to navigate life more effectively. Understanding your personality type using, say, Myers-Briggs, can help us see how our choices are influenced by our type. Do you like to talk it out (extravert) or think it through (introvert)? How do you process information, by sensing or by intuition? How do you make decisions, by thinking 474 Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 2 or by feeling? How do you organize your life, by judging or perceiving? When you are aware of your strengths you can apply them to your intentions. Also, by identifying our type, we can see that it influences our perspective. Being able to step outside our type to see other perspectives is an integral action. It is useful to know your weaknesses as well, especially in the area of masculine and feminine qualities. If you go overboard with the feminine, you may feel joined with everyone, and have trouble knowing yourself or asking for what you need. On the other hand, if you are hyper-masculine, striving for autonomy and transcendence may have you lonely, disconnected and ungrounded. Integral Life Practice Core Elements We’ve outlined the core elements of the Integral Model (AQAL) all quadrant, levels, lines, states and types. Integral Life Practice is a way of looking at three kinds of health: horizontal, vertical and essential. Horizontal health is caring for ourselves at our current level of development, fulfilling the possibilities for awareness and aliveness. Vertical health insures our growth and development into greater consciousness, complexity and wisdom. Essential health has to do with our attunement to selfrealization, only-ness/is-ness/unity and the mystery of every moment. The core modules of Integral Life Practice suggest healthy practices for body, mind, spirit and shadow. Body practices such as yoga, dance, strength training, and martial arts are employed to exercise the gross physical, subtle and causal bodies. The practice for the mind includes, among others, reading and study. For the spirit: meditation, prayer and chanting, participation in spiritual community or doing service (seva) in one’s community are some of the practices. Toward the end of the article, we will outline the Integral Life Practice for spirit: the 1-2-3 of God. Practices for shadow work include therapies such as art, music, dance, psychotherapy, dream work, journaling, and transmuting emotions. The practice from the Integral Model for working with shadow material is called the 3-2-1 Shadow process. We will go deeper into this process as we move forward into speculating on Northcutt: Using Heart-Centered Therapies and the Integral Model 75 new ways of using the Integral Model combined with HeartCentered therapies for shadow identification and integration. What Is Shadow? The shadow aspect of the psyche refers to that which is hidden from the light of awareness. It is the part of the self that is split off, rejected, denied or projected. These parts of the self, drives, needs, feelings, and potentials are repressed. These repressed shadow potentials then find their expression as neurosis, or self-defeating behavior. It is this behavior that tends to shape life outcomes, apart from conscious choices. The purpose of shadow work is to undo the repression, to reintegrate the hidden material, improve psychological health, and lead us to better shape life outcomes through greater conscious choice. Some of the benefits of shadow work are freeing energy used to repress and hide, relieve pain and suffering, and make the move from stagnation to growth. Further on in this article, the importance of shadow work will be discussed in relationship to spiritual awakening and integration of an awakened life. Identifying the Shadow Once we have healed the victim part of our psyche and our reactive conditioning, we know we are 100% responsible for our experience of life. It is shadow work from here on out. The shadow can be found any time we become emotionally triggered, strongly attracted or repelled, agitated, frozen, disoriented or withdrawn. It may also be thought of as any situation where you can’t fully, completely and comfortably be yourself. The shadow can have a repressive and a reactive aspect. The authors of the book Integral Life Practice suggest that Shadow is also identified by the symptom that manifests from its original hidden form. For example, being rejected and feeling as if “nobody likes me” could be a manifestation of a rejecting shadow, or “I reject you.” The symptom of sexual dysfunction could manifest from an “I won’t give him/her the satisfaction” shadow. Feeling obligated “I have to” may have a shadow origin of desire “I want to.” “I won’t” manifests from “I can’t”; hatred manifests from self-hatred. 476 Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 2 Secondary, inauthentic, projected emotions and drives are translated to their primary, authentic forms in shadow work. For example, the shadow symptom of ‘resentment of outside pressure’ could manifest from a ‘personal drive.’ Once the shadow material is identified it becomes important to feel and own the authentic emotion that is the root cause of the symptom. Meditation may help to be in touch with the infinite Self, to witness the symptom, and to cognitively see the original shadow form. It is important to note here that meditation alone may not be enough to fully metabolize*, bring into awareness and reduce the emotional charge of the projected shadow. One also needs to be in touch with the raw energy of the primary emotion that has been denied, to transmute that emotion, and see what needs to be shifted and acknowledged. Acknowledgment of the authentic emotion transmutes into the liberated energy. Using the example of a ‘personal drive,’ acknowledged; it may transmute into ‘efficiency and effectiveness.’ Other examples include: ‘sorrow’ transmutes in to ‘care and connection’; ‘fear’ into ‘present, embodied awareness’; ‘anxiety’ into ‘surrender and spaciousness’; ‘rage’ into ‘the energy to overcome obstacles.’ *Incidentally, I’m using the word “metabolize” in more than a metaphoric sense. We are working through our physical and subtle bodies to bring the light of consciousness to our repressed and reactionary selves, and grow our awareness and skill at managing our physical, emotional and mental energies. When we use this embodied life to do our personal shadow work, we are working to free the collective of victim patterns and projections as well. We are metabolizing victim patterns through our physical existence with awareness. 3-2-1 Shadow Process Using Heart-Centered Therapies Look at where you, or your client, can’t be comfortably at home with yourselves. Here is a practical list of questions to help you identify possible shadow areas: • Is there some reality in your life that you refuse to accept? • Are there people you feel really uncomfortable with? • Are there locations to which you are really uncomfortable going? Northcutt: Using Heart-Centered Therapies and the Integral Model 77 • Are there certain conversations you are very uncomfortable, restless or bored with? • Do you feel frustration with big business, government, religion or some other institution? • Do you feel extreme agitation around matters of civil rights, or ecology? • Do you have issues with authority? Power struggles in relationships? • Do unfounded pseudo scientific claims drive you nuts? • Is the subject of death and dying something you avoid? • What are some of the things you avoid? • Identify a dream image that has a strong charge. • Identify a body sensation that is a distraction. Look for polarizing beliefs and decisions about: • Survival/death • Magic/mythic/tribal • Power • Religious tradition (traditional) • Science and achievement (modern) • Ideas of fairness (post-modern) a. Using Hypnotherapy i. Identify the most resent time you (or the client) was feeling polarized or emotionally triggered, attracted or repelled. Pick a “difficult person”, a dream image or body sensation. ii. The aim of the next step is to identify the source experience, feel raw emotional energy at the source and then process the emotions, identify old and new decisions. 1. Perform 3-2-1 Shadow Process a. 3-talk about it - The thing bugging you, the shadow element - hold it in mind and observe, explore, don’t minimize, see and feel it fully. Talk about it in third person pronouns, and say what bothers you about it, ‘him’ or ‘her’ or ‘them’. b. 2-talk to it using second person pronouns (“you” and “yours”) - resonate and be in relationship to 478 Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 2 it. Allow yourself to be surprised by what emerges in the dialog. Ask: i. Who are you? ii. What is your purpose? iii. What do you want? iv. What do you need to tell me? v. What gift do you offer? c. 1-talk as it - Be it. Take its perspective and speak as it. See the world entirely from the perspective of the disturbance. Discover your commonality, in what ways are you the same? Feel the excluded drive or feeling until it resonates as your own. iii. What is the unconscious reactivity (old decision)? What is the new conscious responsibility (new decision)? iv. Reclaim ‘not me’ by owning denied shadow material. v. Choose new freeing, unity-based decision, allowing the previously excluded reality. Then, transmuting emotions: state how the new, freed energy previously taken up by denial, will be used creatively. b. Psychodrama i. Use similar process as for hypnotherapy, using all the steps outlined above. ii. In psychodrama, the group helps to metabolize the shadow material with movement and role playing. Use group members as shadow voice, and as the voice of one’s self speaking to the shadow. iii. Integration - After new decisions have been made and anchored, test the original triggering source for healthy response. 1. Check to see if original trigger is no longer polarizing 2. Can fully be oneself (empowered) around it (shadow object) 3. See it as part of Self/Divine – Transmuting Emotions, i.e, what is the gift in the denied emotion. c. Breathwork Facilitation i. Identify the triggering shadow element ii. Facilitate the client in the 3-2-1 process (see above under hypnotherapy). Briefly, 3) See it and describe it Northcutt: Using Heart-Centered Therapies and the Integral Model 79 completely, 2) Speak and relate to it, and then 1) Speak as it. This can be done before breathwork or during. iii. Use the breathwork to express and release the hidden feelings, and repressed raw emotion. iv. After the breathwork, process with the client what new decisions and behaviors are possible. Toward a Stable Awakening and Self-Realization Saniel Bonder is a spiritual teacher and founder of Waking Down in Mutuality. He is also a founding member of the Integral Spiritual Center. We talked about the importance of working with shadow material as it arises in the process of selfrealization. He speaks of shadow material becoming activated in the transmission field. This transmission field is the “we” space, or communal field between an adept self-realized therapist or teacher, and the seeker or client. He describes transmission in the book Waking Down as, “effortless and spontaneous radiation of the bodily realization of Being.” In a personal interview with Saniel in January 2010, he stated, (and it is printed here with his permission): (In mutuality) the transmission field activates more shadow material...a spontaneous, mysterious activation that releases sequences of previous shadow identity fragments in to the “light” of participating conscious awareness. The more that is released, the person goes through the process of not just working on shadow material, but becomes those qualities in themselves in a relatively unbuffered way. That very dynamic releases energy, attention and awareness in ways that have been cut off, numbed out or frozen in the psychic and cellular life of that individual. The process that they then go through can be quite challenging, and at other times isn’t. What winds up happening, the energy, attention and awareness, as if frozen out of the individual’s resource reservoir, becomes part of them and flows in their life. One of the primary factors that is so critical here, and part of why the awakenings in our work are so authentic and stable, they are qualities of non-separate participation in everyday reality. The essence of what is happening as more attention, energy and awareness is released into this flow, the conscious principle is empowered, allowed and permitted to recognize its natural status. It just realized, “Oh, I’m here.” The whole thing has a feeling of a kind of dropping down, because we’ve been lifted off and out, up to that point, by our dissociations and a fragmentation of our soul life, psychic life, identity life. This doesn’t say that these awakenings always conform to traditional standards of what “seamless non-dual” might mean, in many cases they do. The individual has the solid realization, “I’m here, and I am this, all this” in a paradoxical way. So, shadow work is of utmost importance in that fundamental liberation or awakening process. 480 Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 2 Recognition of “Onlyness”: Non-separate Participation This recognition of non-separate participation in all our experience allows us to acknowledge and use everything that arises, externally and internally, in a conscious way. This stage of development may also include a relaxing of the witness awareness, having de-conditioned the victim, and moving more into spontaneous being. This level of trust in being becomes possible within the context of healthy community, teachers, and the cultivation of personal resources to navigate the passage. Saniel speaks about the importance of shadow work in a post-awakened stage. He outlines a process for metabolizing the shadow material in day-to-day living, called 6-step recognition yoga. The shadow material is not something to avoid, but “ride out” with awareness of who you are at the core and, ultimately, transcend the effects. See heartgazing.com for more information. Then, beyond the establishment of that awakened presence, that’s when the shadow work gets even more interesting and important. That’s just a preliminary unification of the spiritual material or consciousness and phenomenal principles. The much more complete healing of the spirit matter split occurs in the post-awakened life. There is a much more, in many ways challenging, and in many ways less frightening or difficult passage after awakening that goes on for some years. You are that much more released into instinctive identification with whatever is coming up. You have much less buffer or distance, than the previous (dissociated) way of being. Now that the distance is gone, you are just in it. You also get that who you are at the core cannot be compromised by any quality that comes up and is identified with, felt into fully and lived out. My wife, (and teaching partner) Linda’s six step recognition yoga is a genius revelation insight, because it is so simple. It gets right to it: 1) see it, 2) feel it, 3) live it, 4) be it, 5) transcend the effects of it, and I added 6) “speak it” at appropriate moments along the way. Your relationship to that shadow material changes, especially to the constricting past patterning material. You have less desire to “get over” and be beyond the new you that is coming in from the future. Six-step recognition yoga describes what you instinctually and rapidly do, more and more, in your awakened participation. In this quote from Senior Waking Down teacher, C.C. Leigh (italics added), she speaks of the shift from transcendent witnessing to embodied awakening, and the ability to experience multiple perspectives. In the fullness of a timing we can neither predict nor control, and sometimes after a prolonged phase of transcendent witnessing, those who are destined for an embodied awakening sooner or later experience a remarkable shift. Instead of being able to experience only one perspective at a time, the awakening person discovers something they could never have understood Northcutt: Using Heart-Centered Therapies and the Integral Model 81 until they experienced it directly: the paradox of simultaneity. As if there were a split screen, the perspective of infinite consciousness exists at the same time as the finite human one complete with all its feelings, sensations, thoughts, and emotions. Rather than stabilize in a transcendent sort of awakening, they begin to experience the merger of infinite and finite, consciousness and matter, divine and human. They are becoming divinely human. Regardless of which aspect of Consciousness is awakened first, embodied awakening is said to have occurred when the paradoxical experience of being both impersonal consciousness and personal human being fuses into a seamless unity, or sense of “onlyness”, that includes all of life and creation. While your self-sense or identity as you continues to function, it is simultaneously transcended by a recognition that you are made of the same essence as everything else and are an integral part of something far greater than your limited human perspective. This is realized both experientially through various possible types of revelatory experience, and also tacitly, as a continual background knowing that effortlessly co-exists with whatever else is in the foreground of one’s attention, and inaugurates a new stage (not a state) of evolution. Although this shift is permanent and irreversible, (it) requires integration for its full potential to be realized. Another way to describe this shift is that unbound impersonal Consciousness has landed or taken birth in and as your human body-mind and is beginning to function in a new way. Inexplicably, the subjective experience is not one of being taken over by something foreign, but of your true Self finally becoming fully awake and free to be who you most truly are. Integral Life Practice: Spirit and The 1-2-3 of God The Integral Model’s suggested practice for spirit is the 1-23 of God. In this practice, knowing and feeling the ultimate mystery of existence, whatever your spiritual connection, is acknowledging that we are related to the spirit through perspectives. The perspectives through which we are related to each other are no different from the perspectives through which we are related to the ultimate. We contemplate and think about the ultimate; a third person relationship (It). We relate to, listen and commune with spirit; a second person relationship (Thou). We also (often through meditation) feel the boundaries dissolve, awaken as inseparable from spirit, and know ourselves as divine; a first person awareness (I Am). Conclusion The Integral Model provides a synthesis of many frameworks for understanding human development. It also offers a map of consciousness that allows us to see from many perspectives. Shadow work is about transcending a stuck perspective, and making the unconscious conscious. The Integral Model is a powerful framework to recognize our transformative potential as Heart-Centered therapists. We all know that Heart- 482 Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 2 Centered therapy is a great vehicle for getting to, and releasing the raw emotion under the stuck perspective and creating new possibilities. This metabolization of the shadow allows us to move through the world and let emotions flow through us like air through a hollow flute. Ultimately, nothing is refused, denied, or repressed, but transformed in alchemical process relatively easily and effortlessly as we go along. We have a recognition of our non-separate participation with everything that is arising. This recognition leads to an identification with a larger (infinite) consciousness, beyond the finite self, and a trust in being as our finite self that allows for spontaneous creative freedom in each moment. References Bonder, S. (1998). Waking Down: Beyond Hypermasculine Dharmas - A Breakthrough Way of Self-Realization in the Sanctuary of Mutuality, Mt. Tam Awakenings, Inc., San Anselmo, California. Leigh, C.C. (n.d.). Waking Down in Mutuality, Map of Embodied Awakening, Retrieved August 29, 2010, from http://www.wakingdown.org/teacher_content.asp?PageID=140&typ=T McIntosh, S. (2007). Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution; How the Integral Worldview is Transforming Politics, Culture and Spirituality. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House. Wilber, K. (2000). Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution, Second Edition, Revised. Boston & London: Shambhala. Wilber, K. (2005). The Integral Operating System: Version 1. 0 [Illustrated] [Audio CD]. Boulder, CO: Sounds True, Inc. Wilber, K., Patten, T., Leonard A., & Morelli, M. (2008). Integral Life Practice: A 21stCentury Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity and Spiritual Awakening. Boston & London: Integral Books. Biography Louise Northcutt has Masters Degrees in both counseling and education. She is an Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapist, Release Therapist and a member of Heart-Centered Therapies Association and the American Association of Professional Hypnotherapists. Since 2004, she continues advanced clinical hypnotherapy training with the Wellness Institute in Issaquah, WA and assists in teaching therapists. Louise is a certified yoga instructor. She is co-facilitator of the Atlanta Integral Salon, a group that meets regularly since 2005 to discuss the ideas of Integral Philosophy. Louise lives and practices in Atlanta, Georgia. You can find parts 1-7 of Louise’s interviews with Saniel Bonder, commenting on his book Waking Down, on her YouTube channel, MayaNarayani.