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As part of my training for the past year, I have been using play therapy as a modality in working with traumatized young children. Play is to children as talk is to adults; the natural way they communicate and resolve difficulties. The Association for Play Therapy (ATP) has defined play [...]
The transcendent function is the psyche’s way to bring the consciousness and the unconscious into a dialogue with each other towards individuation and psychological growth. Carl Jung believed that we each have this function, which yearns to evolve and transcend. This is an archetypal process, which mediates opposites and enables the transition from one attitude [...]
One of the distinct features of depth psychology, as compared to more behavioral approaches to therapy, is the time we (therapist and client) spend in the dark corners of the psyche. By that I mean looking at our shadows and undesirable characteristics within, so that we bring them to consciousness. Carl Jung referred to the [...]
How many of us are comfortable with silence? The silence from a partner, the waiting period before a response, the quiet of solitude?
Do you wait anxiously by the phone, hoping to hear from a loved one, a job interview, or upon meeting a new client? Are we honestly okay with the “not hearing back” without [...]
In today’s climate of uncertainty, it is normal to feel unstable about our jobs, kids, the education system, credit scores, global warming, stimulus plan… the list continues. I believe that as our lives get busier, our tendency to “worry” increases. Excessive worry can lead to an inability to function in daily life. Similar to terms [...]
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In a recent conversation with a friend, I was asked if I was happy. This was a simple question; one that friends often ask, one that we may ask ourselves from time to time. But as a student of depth psychology, there are no simple questions. All of life experiences, whether effortless or [...]
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I have recently come to ask myself whether our wounds really heal. As a student of depth psychology, the learning is never ending. The layers of the psyche are complex, not only on an individual but a collective level. How do I differentiate my wounds from my partner’s? What belongs to my history, [...]
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Modern psychology is predominantly one of linear relationships and evidence-based approaches. We have grown suspicious of subjective experiences, however powerful, that cannot be quantifiable. We distrust the language of reverence, intuition, and mystical connection. Clients are provided treatment plans and medications and 8 sessions to feel better. In today’s model [...]
