Transpersonal Counseling Psychology is the integration of spirituality and psychology.

 

The term “transpersonal” literally means “beyond the personal/self.” The core concept of transpersonal psychology is nonduality, which is the recognition that each person is fundamentally and ultimately a part of the whole (cosmos). This core concept of nonduality brings insights to the intrinsic health and basic goodness of the whole and self-transcendence from the conditioned and conditional personality to a deeper, broader, and more unified sense of identity with the whole.

    

The field of transpersonal psychology has broad interests that include spiritual experiences, mystical states of consciousness, mindfulness and meditative practices, shamanic states, ritual, the overlap of spiritual experiences with disturbed states such as psychosis and depression and the transpersonal dimensions of interpersonal relationships, service, and encounters with the natural world.

An Historical Review
Transpersonal dimensions are not new. It has strong connections to the meditative traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism, shamanic traditions, esoteric and Gnostic European systems such as alchemy and Celtic mysticism, indigenous African wisdom and Native American spirituality. Transpersonal psychology has been influenced at least as much by Asian and indigenous spiritual systems as European psychological and philosophical traditions. From its origins, transpersonal psychology has been strongly multicultural. 

 Carl Jung is one of the earliest theorists to create a theory of transpersonal psychology using the collective unconscious which contains archetypes shared by all humans. He combined the theory of depth psychology with his Christian spiritual background.
 

Abraham Maslow’s concept of transpersonal psychology is the combining of humanistic-existential psychology and peak experiences of healthy people evolving into spiritual beings. He believed that there was a linear progression from psychological health to spirituality. Although later in his life he concluded spiritual happenings can occur at any time during a person’s psychospiritual evolution.  

 As transpersonal psychology continued to progress in the Western culture, Assagioli established that the personal self and conscious awareness were centered in a 3-dimensional construct supported by the lower, middle and upper unconscious and surrounded by the collective unconscious. He believed the transpersonal self could be accessed via the personal self by working in, around and through the other constructs using any of the existing psychological processes such as guided imagery, Gestalt, cognitive-behavioral, etc. 

Ken Wilber is presently the most prolific writer and philosopher on transpersonal psychology. His philosophy, Integral Psychology, is based on a synthesis of cognitive developmental theories and the Eastern spiritual philosophy of Buddhism. His philosophy is built on the premise that people spiral up and down developmental levels from the first level of birth to the last level, which is the reality of all states, where the Self vanishes.  If you are more curious about this most modern philosopher of the transpersonal world, look at his website: http://www.integralinstitute.org/public/
   

What are the primary topics of transpersonal psychology?
In addition to the more common topics of psychotherapy such as anxiety, trauma and abuse, and personal growth, the transpersonal psychologist is prepared to work with less common topics of spiritual emergence, spiritual emergencies, Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness, out of body experiences, dreams, near death experiences, and other mystical experiences. Often topics of a transpersonal nature are not immediately obvious in the content of the material from a client. More commonly the complaint may be one of “going crazy” or unresolved problems from traditional psychotherapy. It is only after a period of discovery that the true nature of the client’s concern is connected to the more spiritual level of the transpersonal self.

How does transpersonal psychology differ from traditional psychology?
Traditional psychology attributes problems to post-natal biographical traumas. The source of client information is derived primarily from verbal means and typically describes the part of us that is aware of ourselves as separate, distinct and unique unto ourselves. The experience is given a voice and subjected to intellectual analysis.

Transpersonal psychology accounts for the context, content and process of both the client and the therapist. 

• The context is the attitudes and assumptions of the counselor toward counseling, suffering, healing, and psychological health. Aspects of a transpersonal context include holding in view the client’s intrinsic health, being mindful and present-centered regardless of the particular content or processes, recognizing the ground of nonduality in the counseling situation. 
      
• The content refers to the subject matter presented by the client.

• The process can be described as the movement between stages of identification, disidentification and self-transcendence in a non-linear progression. The successful completion of identification implies an awareness of freedom and a shift from other-directedness to self-determination. Disidentification is when the individual confronts the basic questions of meaning and purpose in life and begins to disidentify from role, possessions, activities and relationships. Self-transcendence occurs when one no longer experiences oneself as totally isolated, but as part of something larger, inherently connected and related to every thing.
  

   

  Why am I in this field?
  My relationship with the natural world has been a primary aspect of my life since childhood. Each extended trip into the wilder lands of the earth seemed to have a deep effect on how I choose to be in the world. Experiences included daydreams into other time and space, ending with an enhanced sensory experience. I could see with more clarity and felt at one and at peace with the natural world.

   

   For others, I want to share the bliss of being as a way to heal and grow.

   

   For myself, I want to hold on to natural world experiences in the chaos of day-to-day life, as nature is an avenue of entry into the transpersonal realm. I use this knowledge to help others grow personally and spiritually.

   

  I can use nature, including the horses, as an avenue of learning through experience. Or, I can use other points of entry as avenues of learning for the less adventurous, such as Gestalt, meditation, art or ritual.
  

   

  What do we hope to achieve in a transpersonal psychotherapeutic experience? 
  Successful transpersonal psychotherapy may be described as an expanded sense of identity for the client. A goal is to be more accepting of all life experience and develop increased tolerance for paradox and ambiguity; and, as a result, inner and outer experience in life will become harmonious and congruent. I am interested in the embodiment and integration of these states into clients’ everyday lives, as well as in… the personal and transpersonal dimensions of interpersonal relationships, community, service, and encounters with the natural world.