Jungian Depth Therapy

W hen caterpillar emerges f rom its dark cocoon as butterfly , is it a brand new miracle or a transformation that nature always intended? It is, in fact, both – wondrous as well as meant-to-be. We can’t know what exactly the butterfly experiences when it first spreads its fragile wings, but as human beings, our imaginations are sparked. Who among us does not want to find and use his symbolic wings, and live as her unique nature intended?

Depth psychotherapy serves not only the purpose of healing and strengthening the broken places so that we may function more effectively in our lives (no small thing), it views healing as simultaneously a process of inner development. Jung called that process “individuation,” and he postulated that human beings have an instinct toward individuation, an inner drive to self-actualize, which also can be viewed as “becoming whole,” “becoming yourself, ” and “becoming aware / conscious.” Jung also believed that every individual who takes on the task of inner development contributes towards a larger-scale, collective transformation. Changing the world begins with changing “me,” not into something ideal or perfect, but into the truest possible expression of my own nature.

This journey toward wholeness is not for the faint of heart, because it can be a struggle to meet up with our blind spots and hidden aspects. Usually it is taken up after early adulthood, often in mid-life, when we begin to have to reckon with both our unlived potential and our very real human limitations.

Jung describes the process of individuation as occurring via encounters with our unknown depths, the depths of the unconscious. The unconscious, in the Jungian sense, contains both personal-historical material and a storehouse of more mysterious “memories” that belong to previous generations, to our ancestors, and to the collective history of humanity.

An important assumption of Jungian depth therapy is that our unconscious shows us the areas with which we most need to come into relationship for our own health and wholeness. There is, Jung strongly believed, a guiding center in the unconscious which works to move the individuation process forward.

• primitive emotions you have “left behind” to survive childhood or cultural demands, (which can be understood as “the cry of your soul.”)
• your blind spots, the things you truly may not be able to see about yourself (your “shadow”)
• your unused talents and gifts;
• unassimilated personal trauma;
• transmitted trauma that belongs to a previous generation or ancestral tribe;
• making meaning of revelations or experiences of a spiritual/transpersonal nature.

The unconscious speaks to us in multiple ways , through dreams, visions, fantasy and imagination, as well as through every day events and patterns, and often powerfully through the body. It is not possible in one lifetime to become conscious of everything that lives in our deep psyche.

To live with an intention toward wholeness is to make the effort to say yes to the encounters with which you are presented in your life. We can love in ourselves and others what we did not love before. We can learn to take responsibility for our most difficult (unwanted) attributes, and –importantly -- to recognize them as part of the complexities of being human; in so doing we accept our humanity. If it is our fate to encounter things that feel bigger than life, such as trauma, war, or the imprinted history of our parents or ancestors, we can do our human best to make meaning of that too.

Sometimes people enter therapy because the path of individuation is calling. (Suffering is one form such a call may take.) Whether or not you hear such a call, as your therapist, I will be listening for the communications from your unknown depths. Are there unopened wings waiting to fly? Is there a dark journey to undertake with courage and trepidation? Is there a beautiful, compassionate soul waiting to emerge from a dark cocoon?

“Transformation leads people to become more deeply and completely who they are and have always potentially been. …Transformation is realization, revelation, and emergence, not self-improvement, change for the better, or becoming a more ideal person. “