Walking the Path of Individuation
Jung dedicated his life to understanding the nuances of the psyche, the typical patterns and dynamics that influence each of us on personal, collective and archetypal levels. Like the psychopomps of mythology, Jung’s work guided me deeper to my soul, and I believe he can for others as well.
The Head and the Heart
Join master psychotherapist and spiritual mentor John Prendergast in the course Sense of Inner Knowing, where he will gently help you open your own heart. In seven vibrant sessions, John guides us back to the deep intelligence available through our bodies. Every class includes a guided meditation based on somatic ways of inner knowing. You’ll experience how to recognize subtle signals of resonance or dissonance. These signals can guide your choices and help you navigate life’s challenges.
Jung, Astrology and the Structure of the Psyche
Each one of us is a completely unique mix of characteristics and conflicts, wounds and abilities. Many of those traits and tensions are opaque and slippery. Carl Jung found that consulting a patient’s astrological birth chart helped him see exactly which tensions were at play and what larger archetypal forces were coloring them.
Reflections on a Worry
Often, we imagine our natures as tainted, and that somewhere lies a norm or ideal, to which we must conform if we wish to be made whole. We can learn the “right choice,” and turn away from the voice of the suffering soul. This turn is however almost invariably outward. Seldom do we consider that the difficulties and struggles that we endure in the process of living and becoming, the wounds that we bear, are a part of the process of life forging a new reality through us.
Why Coaching Requires Continuous Personal Development
Coaching teaches us about true companionship. It asks us to: be present, open and inquisitive, and embody the experience with the client so that the Soul can reveal itself. Tending to this process of personal development—individuation—of the client and the coach is the biggest gift that coaching offers.
How to Overcome Codependency?
‘Working in the helping profession—as a psychology lecturer, trainer, and coach—has helped me to recognize and deal with my codependency. But it has been a long journey to give up the role of the ‘savior’. Luckily this journey has brought a great sense of freedom in no longer feeling a need to help others all the time.’
Three Archetypes You’re Likely to Meet as a Mother
Carl Jung coined the term “archetype” to refer to innate patterns of human experience. Images of such patterns can be found in myths, fairy tales, and other ancient stories. When we have children, we find ourselves living out one of the great archetypes – that of The Mother. Mothering is an enormously complex psychological experience. It confronts us with a range of emotions that we might not encounter elsewhere in our lives.
Keeping Appointments
According to Hollis our individuation process is indeed our calling, it is that which serves the soul, not the world around us. Discernment and the courage to risk will help us find the answers to the Big Question: What is wanting to express through me? What is wanting to enter the world through me?
The Eco-Heroine’s Journey
For a good number of centuries now, Western civilisation has been living according to a myth founded on a belief in humanity’s dominion over nature, along with the relentless pursuit of unending growth. We have become separate from the world around us; we’ve abandoned our roots in nature and the land. In Western societies we are seeing more calls for a return to native wisdom and they are deeply rooted in the heart of our own native landscapes.
Experience What is Implicit
In any good crossing, the cumulative effect is always greater than the sum of its constituent parts, and I have found this to be the case in combining Jungian and Focusing-oriented therapy. The methods complement, enrich and deepen each other: Gendlin brings experiential depth and ‘life-forward’ movement with his focus on the body, while Jung brings imaginative richness and numinosity with his deep fascination with the image.
The Fearsome Creature in the Mirror
Cast upon this planet so many aeons ago, imperiled, sensitive, semi-conscious, and vulnerable, humankind learned fear. Their fears were not imagined; their perils were real as ours remain.If Jung is right, then the fear that I would have to face is not in my opponent, or my neighbor; it is in me, the one who stares back from the mirror.
Open Your Heart for Love
Learning about the barriers we’ve built against pain and love is how a heartbreaking experience can serve as a valuable teacher. By accepting the invitations of heartbreak, we learn about ourselves, about letting go and allowing renewal to take place so that we open ourselves up for love again.’ What are some of these inner barriers that we construct to protect ourselves against pain?