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An Overview of the HEP Tradition
Prepared by Jim McNamara and Caroline Mardon, March 2008, in
response a request from the Alliance of Psychotherapy Training
Institutes (APTI) for each member institution to give input re
developing a common curriculum for psychotherapy training
Edited Version
History
The Living Institute Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy Diploma (LIEIPD) is a
training in the Holistic Experiential Process Method (HEP). HEP has been
developing as a specific tradition since the 1970’s, but draws on psychological
traditions going back to the early part of the century, philosophical traditions from
the last 200 years and spiritual traditions from the last two millennia in both
Western and Eastern culture. HEP draws on humanistic, existential,
phenomenological, transpersonal, psychodynamic, archetypal and somatic depth
psychologies, as well as the new sciences of holism, chaos theory and selforganizing systems theory. HEP is a twenty-first century, embodied,
psychodynamic psychology that locates itself in a cultural, ecological and
cosmological context. With its roots in the nineteenth century romantic existential
tradition and twentieth century humanistic depth psychologies, HEP is also
participating in the current re-emergence of spiritual models that draw on ancient
cosmologies, from both eastern and western mystical traditions, where nature is
seen to embody patterns of integration that link the part with the whole, so that
everything is understood to be interconnected. This includes a complex
understanding of the ‘norm of nature’ and the ‘healing power of nature’ as
expressed in Naturphilosophie, homeopathy and naturopathy. It also includes a
focus on Thomas Berry’s geocentric theology, with its implicit ecopsychological
and ecospiritual approach to the study of earth stewardship, and its account of
the interrelationship of spirituality, ecology and health. HEP also draws on the
19th century Romantic and late 20th century postmodern traditions in philosophy
and culture, 20th century modernist art and literature, and also on continental
philosophy as a way of understanding human relationship and the place of
individuality in culture and cosmos.
The Humanistic-Existential-Phenomenological tradition, which HEP
considers itself to be primarily a part of in the broadest sense, has been a part of
Western psychology and psychotherapy for a long time, most prominently since
World War II, in the form of humanistic and existential psychology, which have
been mainly mediated via the Association for Humanistic Psychology (AHP) and
the Journal of Humanistic Psychology (JHP). The AHP was formed in 1961
under the sponsorship of Brandeis University. Maslow, May and Rogers were
important early theoreticians. The first international conference on humanistic
psychology was held in Old Saybrook, Connecticut in 1964. Attendees included
Allport, Bugental, Buhler, Murphy and Murray. Moustakos had been a colleague
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of Maslow’s in the ‘50’s as humanism began to formulate as a force in
psychology. Humanistic psychology became known as “the Third Force” in
psychology to distinguish it from psychoanalysis and behaviourism. Although
this development was primarily taking place in North America, European and
world wide professional organizations for Humanistic Psychology soon
developed. Later, the Association for Transpersonal Psychology split off from
AHP, and transpersonal psychology has become a tradition in its own right, with
a journal and training institutions
Through the ‘30’s to the ‘50’s, in both Europe and America, a number of
philosopher-psychiatrists and psychologists attempted to incorporate ideas from
existential and phenomenological philosophy into their work. The philosophical
works of Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Husserl (1859-1938) and Heidegger (18841976) are considered fundamental in this philosophical background.
Kierkegaard’s questions, “What is the point of a person’s life?” and “What is the
purpose of human events?” are basic to the Humanistic-ExistentialPhenomenological tradition, although his Christian orientation in attempting to
answer them has been rejected. Husserl is responsible for establishing the
‘phenomenological method’ of conducting enquiries into the human condition by
enquiring in terms that are defined by, and arise out of, being human, with
particular focus on the unique individuality of each person. Heidegger brings a
transpersonal theme into his quest for authentic existence (Ek-sistenz) in the
context of simply “being here” (Dasein) through caring for the “things-that-are.”
Hegel’s (1770-1831) dialectic model of complex holism in human experience and
history also contributed to the existential idea of individual and cultural evolution
as being mediated by the active dynamic between conflictual yet complementary
polarities.
Throughout the ‘40’s and ‘50’s, in both America and Europe, the existentialphenomenological theme took root in the fertile soil of a burgeoning field of
reaction against the fascistic right wing political agenda that culminated in the
horrors of World War II. The ground for this in America had been prepared by
William James (and others) from around the turn of the century, through his
psychology modelled on empirical observation of individual experience, oriented
toward action in the world.
The somewhat abstract, discursive, dispassionate aspect of psychoanalysis was
unable to integrate the experiential embodiment theme inherent in the existential
tradition, especially the work of Heidegger. The elaborate metamodelling, and
somewhat rigid theoretical construction, of psychoanalysis also mitigated against
a full phenomenological focus on individualism and embodied emergent
experience as the basic data of psychotherapeutic process. It was not until the
explosion onto the psychology scene in America of the so called “Third Force” of
Humanistic psychology in the late ‘50’s and ‘60’s that the experiential approach
to psychotherapy began to be developed, and various therapeutic models
emerged that permitted a practical, methodological, technique-oriented
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incorporation of existential and phenomenological principles. These models
included for the first time in the history of psychotherapy, a complexly elaborated
operative focus on bodily experience and emerging self awareness as defining
themes in therapeutic technique, extending in fundamental ways the already
existing focus on these themes in the psychoanalytic tradition.
The Humanistic-Existential-Phenomenological tradition has passed from
elaboration of psychoanalysis by philosopher-psychiatrist into a diverse and
eclectic range of therapies. Many modalities that are not part of this tradition
share similar goals and therapeutic attitudes. The person/client-centred attitude
of Rogers, for example, is especially widespread, not only in psychotherapy but
also in education. Jungian psychologists Brookes and Mindel draw significantly
on phenomenology, as do archetypal psychologists such as Sardello, whose
Institute for the Humanities in Dallas, Texas is concerned with not just the
psyche, but with how people actually live their lives. Gendlin, one of Rogers’
original collaborators, has integrated themes from Heidegger’s existential
philosophy with client-centred therapy utilizing a technique he calls “focusing” to
reveal an individual’s embodied felt sense of self.
Existential psychotherapy continues, mediated by such people as Schnieder (a
guest faculty of the Living Institute and presenter at the Human Dimension of
Psychotherapy conference sponsored by the Living Institute), Bugental, van
Deuzen, Spinelli and others. Grof’s holotropic breathwork is now internationally
taught and standards are maintained by the Association for Holotopic Breathwork
International. The International Primal Association supports the practice of
primal therapy as regressive emotional work (including back to birth and
intrauterine life) with the APPPAH (Association for Pre and Perinatal Psychology
and Health) carrying the general theme of the importance of gestational and birth
history in determining subsequent healthy functioning. Gestalt centres
throughout the world teach Gestalt methodology to psychotherapists, educators
and organizational developers. Encounter groups have moved from the intensive
immersion style to be integrated into ongoing, long-term therapeutic models,
along with other techniques. Lowen’s bioenergetics and Pierrakos’ core
energetics continue as viable practices. Dusquesne University psychology
department for twenty-five years has extensively researched and taught
phenomenological psychology, which they have published as the “Duquesne
Studies in Phenomenological Psychology”. The Humanistic-ExistentialPhenomenological tradition has an academic tradition dating from 1970’s through
accredited free standing graduate schools such as Saybrook, Fielding Institute,
and university psychology departments such as West Georgia, Seattle, Dallas.
Its professional tradition is carried through the Association for Humanistic
Psychology and the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, who’s current editor,
Schneider, is guest faculty of the Living Institute. The American Psychological
Association recognizes humanistic, existential, phenomenological and
transpersonal psychology through its Division 32 (Humanistic Psychology) and
their peer review journal. Individuals are active in a number of other universities,
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and practitioners are active, prominent members of professional associations.
May, for example, was recently publicly honoured by the American Psychological
Association for his contribution, and Rogers has been awarded several
distinctions by the same body. Greenberg, a graduate of the Gestalt Institute of
Toronto who teaches at York University, has developed, in conjunction with
others, a model he initially called Focused Emotional Psychotherapy, which
draws on the gestalt, Rogerian and existential traditions (including an operative
focus on the body). It has gone on to become an internationally recognized form
of experiential psychotherapy, a form which Ottawa’s Mahrer has also
developed.
The transpersonal tradition branched out from the humanistic tradition starting
in the 1970’s through figures such as Vich, Suttich, Grof, Wilber, Almaas,
Welwood, Washburn, Vaughan, Walsh. Academic institutions founded in the
1970’s include the accredited Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, California
Institute of Integral studies, and Naropa (a Buddhist university founded by Ven.
Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche). The International Transpersonal Association,
founded by Grof in the 70’s (?date), includes the work of Tarnas, Ferrer, Metzner,
McDermott and Kelly (all located at the California Institute of Integral Studies),
Mack (until recently located at Harvard), Laszlo (through his evolutionary
paradigm and systems theory promoting foundation, The Club of Budapest/
Worldshift Network), Groblin (and his Multidisciplinary Association for
Psychedelic Studies, which sponsors research into the clinical use of agents
such as peyote, ahayuasca, LSD, marihuana). They hold conferences every few
years and publish a general interest journal. The tradition’s peer reviewed,
professional journals are the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology and the
journal of Division 32 (Humanistic Psychology) of the APA which carries
transpersonal, as well as humanistic and existential, themes. The AHP and ATP
have recently recombined to form a joint organization. The Living Institute is
sponsoring a Canadian chapter to be formed at its Human Dimension of
Psychotherapy conference, July 18-20, 2008.
The HEP psychodynamic tradition draws on psychanalysis for its basic
formulation. The psychodynamic tradition is a defining feature of twentieth
century western culture. It originated as psychoanalysis with Freud’s work on
understanding and treating psychological and psychosomatic disturbances, what
he came to call neurosis, in fin de siècle Vienna, particularly as it manifested in
female patients. The theoretical and clinical model that developed drew on his
attempt to reframe elements of German Romanticism in a scientific mode, based
on his neuropsychiatric background, and combining Breur’s ‘talking cure’ model
of treating hysteria with Charcot’s clinical experience in hypnosis, and drawing on
sexology studies. Freud was joined by Adler, Jung, Ferenczi, Rank and others in
the early 20th century. Reich’s Character Analysis of the 1930’s is particularly
significant fro HEP. The original topographic,economic and epigenetic drive
theory models have expanded to include ego psychology by mid century and, in
the latter half of the 20th century, object relations, self psychology and relational
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psychoanalysis. HEP retains the basic psychoanalytic formulation, with some
elaborations and refinements. HEP is developing a particular focus on the
mystical theme in psychoanalysis through the work of Merkur, Grotstein, Eigen,
Bion, Loewald, Winnicot, et al. In addition, the psychodynamic model itself has
inspired humanistic and existential psychology, been incorporated into
transpersonal psychology, and is reflected in the dynamic model of Gestalt, all
fundamental to HEP. Reichian and neo-Riechian therapy, bioenergetics and core
energetics, beginning in the 1930’s and 40’s, all especially relevant to HEP, are
based in the psychodynamic tradition extended to include a significant typological
and methodological focus on the body. From Jungian psychology, HEP has
taken a psychodynamic model that has incorporated spiritual elements from
Alchemy and Gnosticism. Jungian psychology became a distinct tradition in the
early part of the 20th century, separating out from psychoanalysis starting in
1912. It does, however, retain a full psychodynamic model of the psyche and the
working through of resistance.
The psychodynamic tradition has arisen within a field of parallel cultural
activation and that it has, in turn, had extensive impact on Western culture in
general. This includes such academic areas as religious studies, anthropology,
child studies, political thought and cultural studies (including the Frankfurt
School, critical theory and postmodernism), as well as art and literary criticism. It
has also impacted on popular culture through literature (e.g. the existential
absurd tradition and post modernism), art (e.g. surrealism and abstract
expressionism), theatre (e.g. experiential theatre and happenings) and movies
(e.g. film noire). These are all referenced in the HEP tradition.
The HEP archetypal tradition draws on Hillman’s archetypal psychology, which
began to delineate itself as a post-Jungian, postmodern, phenomenological
tradition in the 1970’s, and on the work of Jung, Corbin’s Sufi writings and
Plotinus’s Neoplatonism, with their tripartite cosmology of spirit, soul, body, and
their fundamental (re)valuing of the mediating imaginal world of the soul as
having a reality different from, but equal with, the empirical world of the senses,
and being as subtly powerful in a patterning manner as the transcendental world
of spirit. Other writers in this tradition important to HEP include Miller, Moore,
Lopez-Pedraza, Avens, Romanyshyn, Goodchild, Brookes. Pacifica Graduate
Institute (PGI) and the international archetypal psychology conference, held from
time to time (the last being in 2000), carry the academic theme in this tradition,
with many peer reviewed international Jungian and post-Jungian/archetypal
journals. PGI, an accredited free standing graduate school, grants Ma’s and
PhD’s in archetypal depth psychology. There are many Jungian/post-Jungian
training schools around the world.
HEP is a body oriented psychotherapy. A bodily orientation and a
psychosomatic awareness has been a part of psychotherapy since its inception
approximately one hundred years ago. Body oriented psychotherapy is a term
covering a range of attitudes to and instrumental involvement of the body in a
psychotherapy process. The field of body oriented psychotherapy is a part of
psychoanalysis, Jungian psychology, psychoenergetic models (such as Reichian
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and neo-Reichian, bionergetics and core energetics), psychophysical enactment
techniques (such as psychodrama and psychomotor therapy), the humanisticexistential-phenomenological tradition (in itself, and as part of traditions such as
gestalt, primal and Focused Emotional Psychotherapy), transpersonal
psychology, psychosomatic medicine. The humanistic, existential and
transpersonal traditions have, however, been the main carriers of this orientation
with their fundamental focus on the experience of being an embodied subject.
Early body oriented psychotherapies have generally developed outside university
settings, but within a professional practice that has subsequently resulted in the
formulation of a psychotherapy model and method, which is then offered in
training to practitioners through free standing schools. The HEP body orientation
draws on bioenergetics (Lowen et al) and core energetics (Peirakos et al), gestalt
(Perls et al), encounter (Schutz et al), primal therapy, and psychodrama (Moreno
et al). Since the 1970’s, somatic psychology degrees are granted by California
Institute for Integral Studies, Saybrook, Naropa University, Santa Barbara
Graduate Institute and others. The US Association for Body Psychotherapy,
formed in 1995, is a professional organization, with a peer reviewed journal.
Spirituality is as fundamental to HEP as psychology is. In this integration, HEP
draws on spiritual themes in the humanistic, existential and transpersonal
traditions, as well as Jungian and archetypal psychology, and mythology as given
by figures such as Campbell, Jung, Hillman, Eliade, Scholem, Corbin, Sells and
the Eranos Conferences. HEP draws on the Romantic tradition and post
modernism (including romantic irony and the mis-en-abyme of the nouveau
roman tradition), relating it to divine-human union and apophatic mysticism,
seeing the world in the Hegelian sense as a place of spiritual evolution, based in
a romantic model of the ‘eternal return’. This also integrates the esoteric theme in
surrealism and the mystical theme in existential absurdism. The crossfertilizing
interrelationship between the Hermetic, Gnostic, Kabbalistic and Rosicrucian
traditions is reflected in the syncretic nature of HEP spirituality. This particularly
draws on the theme of the presence of the divine in the experience of individual
humanness, and in the natural world. The shamanistic aspect of HEP is
correlated with the deity work of Vajrayana Buddhism, the ‘body of light’ tradition
in Sufism and related themes in other Western theurgic mysticisms.
HEP draws on the traditions of ecopsychology and ecospirituality. The recent
advent of the new cosmology, articulated by such authors as Thomas Berry and
Sally McFague, has argued that the universe has had a psychic-spiritual
dimension from its beginning 13.7 billion years ago, not just a physical-material
manifestation. Adopting this new epic of evolution transforms our understanding
of spirituality. Providing an Earth-centred understanding of ourselves and
spirituality, it reintegrates the human into a sacred universe and redefines our
understanding of human and ecosystem health. This has clear implications for an
archetypal and transpersonal psychotherapy, including cultural implications.
HEP also draws on the spiritual emergence model. The inclusion in the DSM
IV of a new diagnostic category “Religious or Spiritual Problem” marked a
significant breakthrough. For the first time, there was an acknowledgment of
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distressing religious and spiritual experiences, including spiritual emergencies, as
non-pathological problems. Spiritual emergencies are crises in which the
process of growth and change becomes chaotic and overwhelming as spiritual
material begins to emerge. The proposal for this new diagnostic category came
from transpersonal clinicians concerned with the misdiagnosis and mistreatment
of persons in the midst of spiritual emergencies. It was co-sponsored by Living
Institute adjunct faculty David Lukoff. This tradition adresses the history of
pathologizing theory in the mental health field, including the work of Stan and
Christina Grof, Perry, Mack, Laing, and many other clinical approaches for
working with religious and spiritual problems.
The advent of systems theory in the latter half of the 20th century revolutionized
the way in which professionals approached therapy. Instead of working only with
the individuals, systemic thinking allowed psychotherapists to begin to work with
entire family systems. The family, once seen as the problem, became the unit of
analysis and entire schools grew up devoted to treating not just the so-called
‘identified patient’ or symptom bearer in the family, but the family as a whole.
Systems theory can also be applied to the individual psyche, both in its dynamic
function of integrating competing psychic demands, including how this can
manifest psychopathology, and in the more long term process of individuation,
the integrating of these competing, disparate elements over time into a whole
person. The HEP tradition specifically draws on: Stamps’ holonomy, which
relates existentialism and systems theory in a model of consciousness that is
holistic and evolutionary; the self-organizing systems tradition, which highlights
the naturally emergent nature of consciousness in any sentient system, using
scientific language; dynamical systems theory, a scientific paradigm that
highlights subtle order in apparently disordered, chaotically random systems, and
how dynamic, stable identity is maintained, despite, and even through,
(sometimes) catastrophic change in complex, sentient, self regulating systems;
systems theory and chaos and self-organization theory as it relates to models of
therapy such as family and couples therapy.
HEP also critically explores the usefulness and limitations of the traditional
'medical model' of psychiatry, which views so much unusual human behaviour
and experience as 'signs' and 'symptoms' of 'mental illness'. Here we look at the
work of R. D. Laing, a controversial existential psychiatrist, who challenged the
conceptual foundations of psychiatry, seeking alternative approaches to the
‘diagnosis’ and 'treatment' of severe 'mental disorder', that are, nevertheless,
clinically responsible.
Structure & function of mind/psyche/spirit, in relation
to body & culture
The key defining feature of the HEP psychodynamic model is the observation
that there is a hidden variable (the ‘unconscious’) which affects our everyday
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conscious thoughts, feelings, emotions, imagination, intentions, motivations and
behaviour and is in conflict with our everyday conscious sense of self. The
original essence of this model is the idea that the human being mentally
experiences life, and functions in life, based on the interaction of competing
conscious goal directed and unconscious instinctual tendencies, called the
topographic model. More recently this model suggests that mental phenomena
(such as thoughts and images), body phenomena (such as sensation) and
intermediate phenomena (such as feeling and emotion) are created by the
conflictual interplay of conscious and unconscious factors with environmental and
interpersonal stimuli on a basis of physiology. The model for the management of
competing, conflictual drives, demands or tendencies is dialectic i.e. the
evocation of the conflict, the holding of the dualistic tension rather than striving to
collapse the tension into a single dominant polarity, dialogue or negotiation
between the warring opposites, and the eventual compromise that gives rise to
an integrating dialectic third which highlights the comlementary, rather than just
conflictual, nature of the opposites. This requires the acceptance of paradox and
ambivalence as basic to mature adult functioning. This draws on the Romantic
tradition, particularly Hegel, and is a part of the psychodynamic tradition that is
shared by many of the diverse examples. It has also become a prominent part of
various cultural criticism traditions, such as Critical Theory and postmodernism,
as these are incorporated into HEP.
The traumatic remnants, developmental deficits, dynamic conflicts and relational
issues that are carried into adult identity are encoded in the unconscious and are
managed through modulating barriers between the everyday consciousness and
the unconscious. Various psychodynamic traditions identify these modulating
barriers with terms such as defenses, resistance, ego structure and all suggest
that functionality and dysfunctionality are significantly related to the age and
situation specific apropriatness of this modulation. In some psychodynamic
traditions, the dynamic structure of the psyche is also said to be a way for
spiritual or archetypal influences to enter everyday conscious life, e.g. the
neurotic, psychopathological ‘complex’ is said to contain an archetypal seed or
organizing/structuring essence, which can provide access to spiritual experience.
It is thus said to have both a personal historical component and a transpersonal
(spiritual or archetypal) ahistoric component. The unconscious is variously
experienced as a deep, interior, subtle, hidden, yet complexly powerful, organizer
of everyday consciousness and behaviour. It is sometimes felt to be mysterious,
threatening, dangerous and forbiding. It is thus laden with cultural taboos and
controlled by moralistic, personal preferences or values.
There is a typicality to how any individual manages the everyday
conscious/unconscious relationship that is more or less consistent over time.
Though for an individual this typicality may change somewhat due to life
circumstances or through modalities such as psychotherapy, there are
considered to be a limited number of personality or character types and an
individual’s typicality tends to be globally consistent over the life span. What
changes through psychotherapy is the dysfunctionality of the personality, with
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symptomatic amelioration and a lessening of the ways in which the individual’s
life possibilities are limited. The various personality or character types have been
defined based on stages of developmental arrest (e.g. oral, anal) and typicality of
psychodynamic style (e.g. histrionic, schizoid) or relational style (e.g. borderline,
narcissistic). Body oriented psychotherapies, such as bioenergetics, also include
somatic characteristics in this typicality. Some transpersonal psychodynamic
therapies employ a psychospiritual typology based on, for example, mythological
correlations, such as in Jungian and archetypal psychotherapies. The
Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual is the basis of HEP typological and symptom
picture formulations.
HEP is a transpersonal psychology that is a “psychologically-informed spirituality
and a spiritually-based psychology” (D.Lukoff, F. Lu, “History of Transpersonal
Psychotherapy”, p1, ATP website). HEP sees the spiritual not as an abstract,
idealistic regulatory function, but as a vital part of daily life that expresses a deep
part of what it is to be human, including qualities of mind such as compassion
and caring, the capacity to bring meaning and purpose into focus and an
awareness of the transcendent function. In this, HEP values the conscious
capacity to develop through choice and intentionality by responsibly taking up the
circumstances of our life and history. This calls for courage, insight, creativity,
wonder, skill, wisdom and the willingness to surrender into the complex
connectivity of our individual human subjectivity.
HEP Jungian psychology deemphasizes a narrow focus on the sexual aspect of
libido, including both aggression and spiritual issues, extending the idea of the
unconscious to include a collective aspect through which archetypal or spiritual
influences can be experienced. It has a Romantic structure and character,
including the Hegelian dialectic model of evolution and, in its understanding of
synchronicity, the ‘doctrine of correspondences’ originally enunciated by
Paracelsus, then Goethe. In HEP, we particularly value the dream as a focus of
psychotherapeutic work and as a model for understanding the Mundus
Imaginalis. A key Jungian focus in HEP psychotherapy is ‘individuation’, the
innate evolutionary tendency toward full manifestation of the whole being.
Related themes are integration of the ‘shadow’ (forbidden and dangerous
elements of identity that have been excluded in the formation of the ego), going
beyond the ‘persona’ (the mask we wear to cope with the everyday world) and
integration of the ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ aspects of an individual in both
women and men.
HEP archetypal psychology suggests that we are an imaginal activity. Instead of
viewing the human psyche through a biochemical, sociohistorical or behaviourist
lens, it develops a consciousness that attempts the uncovering of meaning
through engagement with soul and the imaginal world. Archetypes and mythic
figures model the poetic characteristics of thought and feeling that underlie our
relationships, our moods, events in personal and cultural history, expressive
possibilities, and what these mean for us. Psychological disturbances are seen
as messages from the unconscious, and the work of therapy is to provide soul
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with an account of itself, to enact a mythic engagement with this material, rather
than cure pathology. In this way, experiences of weakness and mortification are
seen as modes by which soul relativizes conscious intentionality and draws us
into a deeper relationship with our being and destiny.
More body oriented material.
Abhidhamma is a collection of the higher teachings of the Buddha, forming the
deeper underlying basis of the Dharma. A detailed analysis of states of
consciousness and cognitive processes, its study both sharpens understanding
of the daily mental processes and enhances the meditative experience when
combined with an over view of the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra, how it relates to
the Abhidhamma, especially to the process of cognition and ultimately to the
direct experience of insight meditation.
The Living Institute recognizes the importance of spiritual and human values in
institutional and organizational functions that serve society and culture, based on
the interdependence of humans with each other and the natural world, so that
our future is not compromised for the sake of short term consumer satisfaction,
greed and a desire for power.
Personality & relational typology
There is a typicality to how any individual manages the everyday
conscious/unconscious relationship. Though this may change due to life
circumstances or psychotherapy, an individual’s typology tends to be consistent
over time. What changes through HEP psychotherapy is the dysfunctionality of
the personality, with symptomatic amelioration and a lessening of the ways in
which the individual’s life possibilities are limited. The various personality or
character types have been defined based on stages of developmental arrest and
typicality of psychodynamic style or relational style. Body oriented
psychotherapies, such as bioenergetics, also include somatic characteristics in
this typicality. The transpersonal therapies use a psychospiritual typology based
on mythological/archetypal correlations.
The Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual is the basis of HEP typological and
symptom picture formulations. Using the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual
(published by the Alliance of Psychoanalytic Organizations in 2006) as the basis
for typology, HEP extends this to include a bioenergetic based psychosomatic
typology, and a Jungian/archetypal based psychospiritual typology. There is also
an experiential typology based in the HEP focus of integrating spirit/matter,
inner/outer, masculine/feminine experiential qualities and the Jungian focus of
integrating polarized styles of perception and action (as given in the MyersBriggs typology). Reference is made to the DSM diagnostic system throughout,
though diagnosis itself is not taught.
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The restriction of diagnosis communication to other licensed health professionals
raises the issue of the legitimate use of such instruments as the Psychodynamic
Diagnostic Manual, Beck depression inventory and standardized psychological
tests (such as 16PF, Meyers-Briggs). Does communicating a bioenergetic
typology constitute a diagnosis? The enneagram? Obviously, the use of the DSM
diagnostic system is restricted by current regulations, but where and how is the
line to be drawn? Does telling someone that anxiety or depression or suicidality
is part of their problem presentation and will have to be addressed in therapy
constitute communicating a diagnosis? Could failing to assess and communicate
this be malpractice?
Assessment
Practitioners in HEP are taught an intake and assessment system that enables
them to make a psychodynamic, psychosomatic, psychospiritual and experiential
formulation of client’s presenting problems. This enables them to create a
provisional treatment/management plan, highlighting salient features such as
psychological mindedness, commitment and transference issues, potential
somatization problems, social support network, functionality/dysfunctionality,
acting out tendency, suicidality risk and a prognosis. This plan highlights client’s
strengths as well as potential problems and risk factors, including a review of
their personal and family history, health concerns, addiction potential,
relationship issues, career and finance issues, lifestyle issues and social
functioning.
Theory of change
HEP is a model for understanding systemic management and growth that is both
social and personal, providing a method for facilitating the evolutionary
emergence of self-organizing complexity from apparently chaotic disorder. It
provides a container for transformational growth based on dialectic integration of
emergent dualities. The HEP view of evolution as existential self organization is
applicable to group, business and cultural life, as well as individual development.
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HEP is a model for the facilitation of the evolution of complex, holistic identity.
This theme is based in the drive for personal freedom via the intense,
unmediated desire to know one’s self and to be known by the other, beyond the
boundaries of the socially sanctioned and personally validated self. This gives
rise to an awareness of unlimited possibilities for evolution, but also of finitude,
limitation, adversity, and death. This is the transpersonal basis of deep, complex
individual identity, and the evolution of that identity in Western culture, the
defining archetypal theme of individuality in HEP.
It is holistic in its focus on the body, mind and soul of the individual in the context
of culture, nature and cosmos. Clients learn how to access authentic experience
and process it emotionally, cognitively and spiritually. Clients also learn how to
reflect on what their experience means, and how their actions stem from it in the
world. HEP psychotherapy opens up a new way of thinking about oneself and
about life. It not only changes people’s lives but also facilitates them making a
difference in the world around them that is socially and spiritually satisfying. This
is not just talk therapy, but a lively, emotionally evocative process of self
discovery, leading to living a full life that is an expression of one’s true nature.
The HEP psychotherapy relationship is not distant and coldly clinical, but a vital
relationship with connection, compassion and challenge that provides a model for
relationship in the world.
Many people have created a public self to adapt, but this can get in the way of
genuine intimacy and self understanding, preventing people from realizing their
full potential in life. HEP psychotherapy helps people get in touch with what’s
really going on inside, and then to take that out into the world. The beginning
focus might be an issue from everyday life or a feeling in the moment. This is
then deepened into an experience of origin, reflection, insight and action. From a
felt sense of meaning created through this experiential spiral, a felt sense of
purpose emerges. HEP psychotherapy provides a structure of accountability and
support to help people generate the life they want in the context of their own
evolving nature and the culture of the times. This may bring about a change in
how they treat themselves, a lifestyle change or a change in relationship or
career, all toward the goal of living a life that is fully one’s own and of service.
HEP psychotherapy helps clients to change dysfunctional patterns and heal the
wounds that block them from achieving their full potential in life. The work
focuses through issues in personal growth, stress management, relationship,
sexuality, career, finances, health and creativity. People become stronger by
embracing the full intensity of their authentic being. Through experience,
meaning and action, people come to understand how they create their life
through self-conception in every moment. The life they live then becomes the life
they want because they begin from wanting the life they have. This profound self
acceptance is true healing.
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The psychodynamic psyche is a dynamically structured, energetic, economic and
relational phenomena that gives rise to typical thoughts, feelings, images,
behaviour – a personality or character type - and under certain conditions of
trauma, stress or developmental problems can give rise to signs of
dysfunctionality. Changes to this dysfuncionality, both symptomatic and
characterological, are said to come through insight into how unconscious factors
play into the everyday conscious self. Insight is mediated through the actuality of
the therapeutic relationship as expressive of these unconscious factors, which,
with proper attention to things such as characterological tendencies and timing in
the process, can be brought to consciousness. Sometimes this is done through
direct feedback offered by the psychotherapist, such as ‘intepretation’ in
psychoanalysis, or through experiential exercises, as in the humanistic traditions.
In gestalt this is called an ‘aha’ experience. They are all part of HEP.
This constellation of a patient’s unconscious factors in a therapeutic relationship
is called transference. The evocation and working through of the transference is
an essence of psychodynamic psychotherapy. This is a therapeutically
modulated enactment that provides the possibility to correct early life negative
experiences i.e. for old, distorted, self limiting conclusions that the patient has
come to regarding themselves, relationships, life in general to be reviewed and a
new, more healthy, realistic point of view established. This requires the
psychotherapist to strive to be consciously aware of his or her own unconscious
projections into the therapeutic relationship, called countertransference. This
means that they themselves need to undergo the same program of treatment and
to have reached a minimal level of personal maturation before beginning
unsupervised practice. It also means seeking ongoing supervision from peers
where necessary. This theme is particularly fundamental to HEP.
Within every therapeutic session, as well as therapist and client, there are the
shadowy unconscious contents of an imaginal field that manifests the presence
of characters from personal history, the collective unconscious and archetypal
influences. As delineated in Jungian and archetypal psychology, HEP
psychodynamics involves an attunement to these complex and interacting
factors, and multiple levels of being. Practitioners learn perspectives from the
existential and phenomenological tradition that facilitate the aim of accessing the
deepest possible level of consciousness available in the therapeutic moment.
HEP draws on transpersonal, mystical and shamanistic methods in this
hermeneutic endeavour.
There is a significant focus on embodied experience in the HEP tradition rather
than a prohibitive, regulatory fear of the body with the concomitant priorizing of
transcendent spiritual and cognitive mental phenomenon at the expense of the
body. This means both working with psychosomatic psychodynamics and
facilitating alive energetic physical dynamism, so that the whole spectrum of the
experiential range is available, positing this as a definition of healthy human
functioning. The body is seen to reflect the psyche, and by working directly on
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the body the psyche is affected in a unique way, not available via verbal and
interpersonal techniques.
Even though psychoanalysis never developed an actively body focused
methodology, it has shown a decidedly psychosomatic and psychoenergetic
orientation. In addition a number of its practitioners have developed
psychotherapy models in which direct work on and with the body is significant in
their methodology. Jungian psychology, arising out of psychoanalysis and
retaining key elements, is a significant carrier of a body orientation. The main
repository, however, of a thoroughgoing, integrated body orientation and
methodology is found in the humanistic, existential and transpersonal traditions,
with their general focus on the facilitation of a patient’s awareness of being an
embodied, experiencing subject. In addition there are a number of specific
disciplines from these traditions that utilize an extensive and intensive focus on
the body as a means of psychotherapy.
Methodology varies across a spectrum from simple focused body awareness
techniques through expressive psychotherapy, movement/dance therapy and
psychodrama, to direct hands on approaches utilizing breathing, postural
exercises and massage techniques. These function in the service of both
working with psychosomatic psychodynamics and facilitating alive, energetic
physical dynamism. Quite often in body oriented psychotherapies, the focus on
bodily experience is part of an overall holistic and experiential theme i.e. a desire
to facilitate fully alive activated human potential in each person so that the whole
spectrum of their experiential range is available to them (thoughts, images,
feelings, emotions, intuition, sensation), positing this as a goal of therapy and a
definition of healthy human functioning. Thus in these traditions the body is seen
to reflect the psyche and, by working on it, the psyche is affected in a unique
way, not readily available by verbal and interpersonal techniques i.e. the body
orientation is fundamental and not incidental. The holistic theme in these
traditions then says that it is not just the psyche that is important, but the whole
organismic mind-body functioning. This is the attitude that informs a number of
holistic health modalities that HEP draws on - where the mind body functional
unit is seen as the focus of psychodynamic and psychophysical techniques.
The key existential-humanistic methodological features of the HEP theory of
change are: a valuing of subjective experience and personally derived meaning;
the valuing of authenticity as a defining theme in the therapeutic relationship and
as a goal of therapy; an appreciation of the body as a necessary focus in
considering the whole person; a focus on the conscious capacity to develop
goals and purpose through intentionality; a focus on potential rather than just
limitations and pathology; an appreciation of the individual as a whole life and of
the irreducible interdependence of all life, including nature; the capacity for self
transcendence in the exercise of freedom of choice; the limitlessness of human
potential; the innate desire for transformation; and the necessity for an embodied
integration of psycho-spiritual experiences; the necessity for moral, democratic
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social institutions; an appreciation of the arts, philosophy and spirituality, as well
as science, as means for developing human knowledge.
HEP draws on the symbolic and metaphoric powers of the human imagination in
addressing individual, cultural and planetary evolutionary challenges. HEP
recognizes the co-creative evolutionary relationship of nature and psyche,
locating the psychological within the natural as an expression of the
differentiating tendency of the living cosmos, where creativity and
interdependence are the foundation, the process and the goal. In this, individual
human nature is seen to be also in a co-creative relationship with the existential
divine as manifest in the natural world and in the community of subjects that is
human relationships. There is no concept of ‘sin’ or ‘evil’ in the HEP tradition.
Rather, there is a concern for holism and reconciliation to otherness, and an
appreciation of the evolutionary function of adversity and alterity. The model is
one of education and healing – providing complex care for restoring the
wholeness of the subject, both individually and communally
HEP supports humanistic research that values qualitative, as well as quantitative,
models and the phenomenological method for studying and developing theories
of change, where enquiry is conducted in relationship with the subject of enquiry
rather than through objectification. Recent developments in this field include
critical psychology, derived from critical theory and post modernism.
Therapist client relationship
The role of the HEP therapist includes active listening , mirroring, paraphrasing,
interviewing, open questioning, deepening the client’s awareness or feelings,
opening and closing a session, presenting issues, working with silence,
concretizing.
The constellation of a patient’s unconscious factors in a therapeutic relationship
is called transference. The evocation and working through of the transference is
an essence of psychotherapy. This is a therapeutically modulated enactment that
provides the possibility to correct early life negative experiences and establish a
new, more healthy and realistic point of view. This requires the psychotherapist
to strive to be consciously aware of his or her own unconscious projections into
the therapeutic relationship, called countertransference. This means that they
themselves need to undergo the same program of treatment and to have
reached a minimal level of personal maturation before beginning unsupervised
practice. It also means seeking ongoing supervision from peers where
necessary.
Expand this section.
16
Goals of treatment – specific & overall
The underlying theme of HEP is the unfolding of individual human nature as soul
within the community of World Soul. This may be experienced as a surrender to
the self-organizing nature of the authentic, evolving self. The central guiding
question is, “What is your experience, what is its meaning and purpose for you,
and how is it to be enacted in the world, in the service of life?” The goal of HEP is
for individuals to be fully alive and enacting their own unique potential while
contributing to the culture, in a respectful and wondrous relationship with nature,
responsibly aware of their place in the living cosmos. This also includes,
however, a sobering reflection on the goals and outcome of HEP – not to
idealistically strive to go beyond the pain and suffering of life, but to accept it as
part of life, an ecstatic limitation through which we realize a unique individuality,
the central theme in the apophatic mystical tradition. HEP recognizes this as the
hidden mystical theme in the twentieth century post modern tradition of ironic,
relativistic, indefinite identity, an identity forever in search of itself, a dérive of
never arriving that is paradoxically a “sovereign self consciousness that,
precisely no longer turns away from itself… a self-consciousness that does not
turn away when it is time to explore possibility to the limit.” (Bataille). This
‘sovereign self consciousness’ is the foundation and the goal in the HEP
facilitation of individual evolution.
Instead of trying to just control the emotions of painful life events, HEP
psychotherapy helps people face them by moving from an anxious holding
against to an alive, spirited dancing with these experiences. This opens up the
capacity to feel more of everything and to think clearly. There can also be
spiritual bliss in accepting all aspects of who one really is. Problems and
symptoms become doorways to self knowledge. They can be indicators as to
what a person’s real identity is asking them to envision and act upon, in the
service of life. The satisfaction of living an authentic life is priceless. When we
connect to our true self, we find powerful guidance and the energy to manifest full
potential in our life. Client’s capacity for clear thinking opens up and blocks to
planning and follow through are addressed. People discover inspiration,
direction, meaning and purpose.
Spirituality fuelled by self-knowledge and focused on contributing something of
value to the world adds richness and depth to life. HEP psychotherapy provides a
non-religious approach to spirituality that draws on all of who we are – body,
soul, spirit, mind, emotions, action. The approach is one of full participation in the
dream like nature of life, uncovering the wisdom that is already there. With an
intensive, eclectic background in spiritual methods from Western, Buddhist, yogic
and shamanistic traditions, HEP psychotherapy helps people through spiritual
crises and facilitates mystical experience.
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The ongoing committed weekly group is the most intense and rewarding crucible
for depth work in this approach. It provides the opportunity for healing and
transformation of the deepest life issues that are central to a person's
evolutionary soul journey. The HEP core group builds an environment of
connection, compassion and challenge, in which it is possible to confront both
deep shadow material and our most positive potential. The core group may be a
place where incomplete family issues and dynamics can constellate and be
worked through in the context of interpersonal relationships. Because of the
containment and depth experience in this context, existential, archetypal and
transpersonal material also arises. The group can also work as a 'buddy system'
to support individuals with personal habit and lifestyle changes, and help people
who are going through a difficult time.
HEP couples therapy addresses challenges with closeness, distancing, sharing
of responsibility, and communication issues such as negotiation and
compromise. It can help people flourish in the fiery challenge of genuine
intimacy. With communication tools, support and structure, HEP helps a couple’s
relationship grow in ways they might not have thought possible. Love and
relationship are vehicles for growth and challenge in achieving a life that is an
expression of a person’s deep soul calling.
Working with our authentic, embodied self opens up the erotic dimension of
identity. With proper respect for boundaries in place, this can be a powerful,
enlivening experience that is not just about sex, but about the radiant openness
of being. This includes awareness of the archetypal dimension of eros and the
tantric divine-human encounter that is possible.
The existential-humanistic alternative involves a move away from idealized goals
that one works towards with resolute commitment through skill and means,
toward a model of surrender into what is being called forth at the level of
individual humanness, in a cultural, natural and cosmological context. This
surrender facilitates the evolutionary drive to manifest our full potential, what
Jung calls the process of individuation. While this involves stepping beyond the
limitations of received enculturation, it also calls for a return to cultural
involvement and contribution. What Paul H. Ray calls ‘integral culture’.
Record keeping
Record keeping should involve the use of an appointment book, financial records
and a patient/client chart. In addition to maintaining basic factual records for the
practitioner’s own use and for tax purposes, record keeping involves providing
sufficient information that another practitioner would be able to continue a
therapy with any client in the event of the therapist’s absence for an extended
period of time. It also should support the practitioner’s own therapeutic plans, and
chart the progress of the therapy in a way that provides for review of assessment
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formulations, therapeutic strategy, prognostic and precautionary signs, as well as
therapeutic issues constellation and resolution and non therapy related themes,
such as other health practitioner contact, career and finance issues, social
concerns and such. This would enable an intermittent review of progress and
evaluation of treatment plans, including commitment and termination issues.