Then psychosynthesis goes a step further into the transpersonal, “which offers the possibility of realising ones higher nature and purpose in life.” (Whitmore, 1991, pp4-h). Transpersonal psychosynthesis is the heart of the approach and a great emphasis and value is placed on it. Transpersonal psychology goes one step further than the integrated personality, to the experience of human interconnectedness and an awareness of the “…social conditions most conducive to fostering potential.” (Whitmore, 1991, pp3-4-i). In psychosynthesis, the transpersonal is likened to spiritual growth, or an awakening of the spiritual, but this does not necessarily have religious connotations. It goes beyond a persons immediate sense of who they are, like, our name, likes and dislikes or opinions, in a sense it’s like saying there is more to a person than meets the eye.
So the transpersonal is thought to go beyond our everyday sense of identity and individuality, which is referred to as the ‘I’ or ‘self’ and is found in our middle unconscious, central to our field of consciousness, although the ‘self’ is distinct from our consciousness that has contents which change, and the identification of the ‘self’ is central to the personal psychosynthesis stage of counselling. But the transpersonal goes beyond our perception of our everyday living, “working tranpersonally goes beyond the boundaries of a clients individuality.” (Whitmore, 1991, pp13-j). This ‘I’ or ‘self’ that we are conscious of, is seen as only a reflection of the ‘higher’ or ‘transpersonal’ self that can be recognised and connected to through the process of counselling.
In the transpersonal dimension, through connecting with our ‘higher’ self, we also find unity, which according to psychosynthesis is a yearning we all have. “Without the experience of unity, life is liable to become increasingly fragmented and meaningless.” (Whitmore, 1991,pp12-k).
Transpersonal psychosynthesis responds to a persons search for rightness, the evoking of a persons inner authority. It’s when the client becomes aware of what’s right for him/her and the need for outer validation is no longer important.
I feel it is important to mention that entering the transpersonal dimension, does not ensure a more effective psychological functioning and if this state is not handled properly; it can cause a variety of psychological problems. “If the personality is not stable and integrated, superconscious experience can lead to mental imbalance.” (Whitmore, 199 , pp15-l).
Is this transpersonal in anyway comparable to the PCA? According to the psychosynthesis theory, Carl Rogers, sought to include it by claiming to have worked with the ‘organismic self’. This puzzled me, as when reading person-centred counselling in action by Mearns and Thorne, I came across, a discussion about the authors who have searched for the ‘organismic self’ in the work of Rogers. Through their research they have come across references to the ‘organismic self’ by person-centred writers, but have not been able to find a reference made to it by Rogers, there is an international prize on offer should anyone find such a reference, so I am not sure if Rogers ‘organismic self’ would be relevant! I do however think that becoming an actualised person who is more fully functioning, may be comparable to the ‘higher’ self. There are characteristics that Rogers postulated in his theory of self and theory of change that are similar to those of the person who has connected with their ‘higher’ self; “Have no conditions of worth and experience unconditional self regard. Be open to experience. Be open to feedback from his or her environment and make realistic changes resulting from this feedback. Live in harmony with others and experience the rewards of mutual positive regard.” (Merry, 1999, pp40-a).
There are a wealth of models, concepts, techniques and strategies available in psychosynthesis, which aid and enhance not only the processes of synthesis and the connection to the ‘higher self’, but also a persons understanding of aspects within the approach.
The egg diagram is “Assagioli’s model of the human psyche and helps to clarify the distinction between the personal self and the transpersonal self.” (Whitmore, 1991,pp 126-m), a map marking the levels of awareness. The centre of the diagram, represented by a dot, is the centre of the personality, around which is an inner circle that is a person’s reality at any given moment, it consists of data coming in and current feelings and thoughts. The ‘self’ is in the middle unconscious, which contains the personality elements that are forgotten but easily accessible, like, recent memories and skills which are not in use, “It points not to what we have been or could be, but to the evolutionary state that we have actually reached.” (Whitmore, 1991,pp127-n). The lower and higher unconsciouses are the repressed aspects of the individual, the lower unconscious contains personal history and is representative of the past and traumatic experiences. It seems equivalent to the bottom drawer, I was introduced to in the introductory workshop. The higher unconscious is where a person’s potentials and talents lie, this includes such things as artistic abilities, according to Assagioli, the “…source of the higher feelings…” (Whitmore, 1991, pp127-o), like, compassion and joy. At the top of the diagram, is the radiant point, which is the ‘higher self’, this represents the inner source of the drive towards growth and self actualisation, I liken it to a symbolisation of the fully functioning person, a conscious state that can be recognised when a person has become aware they have they resources to achieve their potential! Surrounding the egg is the collective unconscious, which is defined as the “…accumulated psychic environment that surrounds us.” (Whitmore, 1991, pp128-p).
The ‘self’, is viewed as the centre of our awareness and will, the centre of personal identity, and is known as the ‘personal self’. It has two central functions, consciousness and will.
The will which is another central concept in psychosynthesis, is a key resource in all the phases of psychosynthesis and is “…understood as the capacity for decision, planning and purpose…” (Growth resources in psychosynthesis, ). It is the muscle-like part of the personality, which, with the use of will-training exercises, can be strengthened and developed. The will is “…essential to psychspiritual health.” (Whitmore, 1991, pp78-q), and, is therefore placed at the centre of counselling along with the therapeutic relationship.
Now that I have gone through some of the central concepts and models of the approach I think it would be appropriate to have a look at the therapeutic relationship.
One of the immediate differences is that in psychosynthesis, the counselling is divided into phases and as a consequence, I feel, has a lot more structure than the PCA, which has no such structure, there is a beginning, middle and end, but to me, this is more in terms of what is happening in the therapeutic relationship and the client’s process.
Psychosynthesis, starts with diagnosis and assessment, this begins on the first meeting with an interview, which has two main principles; one, “…is to confront the obvious.” (Whitmore, 1991,pp64-r), which may include questions like, how do you feel about being here?, and the second principle is to make the purpose of the interview clear to the client and make him/her aware of what will happen in the hour. This is followed by the counsellor finding out as much information as possible about the clients background, this is done by questioning the client about a range of things. The client then has the opportunity to question the counsellor, on the approach, models and counsellor’s background and experience. This stage does not exist in the PCA, as Rogers felt that it did not contribute to successful counselling, and the use of diagnosis and assessments were useful only, in providing counsellors “…with a sense of security, and thereby enabled them to be more empathic and acceptant of their clients.” (Merry, 1999,pp51-b).
This leads to drawing up a contract, which is also done in the PCA. After the interview, a plan is developed, with participation from the counsellor and the client. Again the PCA, differs here, it holds the belief that any sort of treatment plan is unnecessary, the only ‘treatment’, that is anyhow encouraged in the PCA, is using the necessary and sufficient conditions to develop a counselling relationship.
The aims of the initial phase of counselling are to, continue establishing the relationship, which in turn builds trust. This is achieved by the counsellor providing a temporary external unifying centre, which is used as a means of psychological mirroring and is thought to create an empathic relationship with the client. The counsellor builds the therapeutic relationship and trust “…primarily through the quality of her presence.” (Whitmore, 1991,pp78-s). In this phase the counsellor is indicating her acceptance of the client by actively listening, paraphrasing and reflecting, what the client communicates, and most importantly by letting the client know that his/her experiences are valid. The initial phase usually focuses on; chronic life problems, subpersonality conflicts and limited identities and self identification and psychological freedom. The work done with chronic life patterns and subpersonalities is believed to lead “…to the client’s recognition that her true identity is beyond the contents of her consciousness and her subpersonalities.” (Whitmore, 1991, pp97-t). The work done with disidentifying from subpersonalities is said to lead to the emergence of the personal self.
There are a lot of techniques used in the initial phase. When working with chronic life patterns, the counsellor would use active dialogue, guided imagery, which would “…encourage the client to enter into the physical and emotional experience of her difficulties.” (Whitmore, 1991,pp83-u). Grounding and creative expression would be used as part of transforming the pattern, and ideal model work would be used to enable the client to “…enable the client to visualize doing what previously felt impossible.” (Whitmore, 1991,pp85-v). In working with subpersonalities, there are three stages, recognition, acceptance and integration. For recognition the techniques used are; active dialogue, structured exercises- which evoke recognition, such as the Door exercise or the Evening Review, also used are mental-imagery techniques, like guided day-dreams. In the acceptance stage of subpersonality work, “The client must first accept that negative aspects are there in order to begin the process of change and eventually to integrate a subpersonality within the personality as a whole.” (Whitmore, 1991,pp90-w). For the integration of subpersonalities many techniques are used, like; mental imagery, gestalt identification and dialogue and free drawing.
The middle phase is when apparently the “…honeymoon is over.” (Whitmore, 1991,pp101-x). This is when the client is encouraged to use what he/she has learnt and experienced in the counselling environment, in their everyday life, at this point the counsellor is trying to deepen the process by shifting the level at which the client works. There is an emphasis on the client finding a deeper sense of identity and recognising that he/she is becoming a whole. There is a lot of work with self-identification, which will enhance the ‘I’-Self connection, but this will happen developmentally, through the process of therapy regardless of techniques used. It is what naturally occurs as a result of the client knowing himself/herself more fully. It is likely that transference will also present itself at this stage, and it will be worked with, through reframing.
After this the focus will be on the transpersonal dimension. I will briefly go through the techniques used at this stage of work. There is inner dialogue, which aids in addressing the clients existential difficulties and meditation, which “…can contribute to mental development, a clearer sense of identity and transpersonal exploration.” (Whitmore, 1991,pp141-y), in psychosynthesis counselling, meditation is defined as inner action. So what would be the successful outcome of transpersonal work? “…an expanded sense of identity, an increased acceptance of all life experiences, an integration between inner and outer worlds, a revelation of meaning and the discovery of purpose.” (Whitmore, 1991,pp155-z). It is wise; I feel to mention that transpersonal experiences can take place at any time during the course of counselling and the techniques can also be used throughout. This then leads to the final phase of counselling.
Psychosynthesis believes that there is no real end point to be reached, much like the PCA, and it also recognises that it is a continuing process, again this is similar. Although the counsellor in psychosynthesis will determine if the final phase has been reached by, looking at a few questions. Has the client’s presenting issues been adequately resolved? Has the client achieved what he/she wanted? And the time that would be chosen to end the counselling, is when the needs presented by the client have been fulfilled, relatively so! This will involve the following; issues that are incomplete and unresolved for the client, the client’s future direction in life, a final assessment of counselling and the separation and parting from the counsellor.
I have already mentioned a few similarities and differences and I will now explore these a little further. There are similarities in that, there is a focus on building the therapeutic relationship, or making psychological contact and building trust, and I think it’s important to say here that the PCA belief is that“…the relationship is the therapy” (Mearns and Thorne, 2000,pp85-a). Also I feel it is appropriate to mention that new developments by Dave Mearns, have recognised ‘configurations of self’, which can be likened to the subpersonalities, although there are no techniques to working with them and they are not actively searched for in the counselling relationship. For me, the biggest difference is the fact there are no techniques used in the person centred approach, as they are seen as unnecessary. In the PCA, Rogers held the belief that there are six necessary and conditions which, “…if present in a relationship would result in constructive personality change.” (Merry, 1999,pp49-c). So I would say that this makes the PCA a lot less complicated and easier to understand than Psychosynthesis, which, I feel, is wrapped up in too many different layers. I can not emphasis enough the importance of the core conditions in the person-centred counselling relationship, and the impact that they have. “To be with a person who is unconditionally accepting, empathically attuned and in touch with his or her own flow of experience is the gift received by the client of a person-centred therapist.” (Mearns and Thorne, 2000,pp88-b). But I have to say that when referring to the core conditions the PCA is not talking about techniques that are used in counselling, they are a set of values and attitudes that are held by the counsellor, “Sadly those who falsely conceptualise the core conditions as techniques to be deployed are perhaps the most culpable deceivers, for their shallowness leads to a prostitution of a life-enhancing gift.” (Mearns and Thorne, 2000,pp88-c).
I think that there is another major and important difference and this is that the PCA, is non-directive, to the point that it was once called non-directive counselling. This means that the client is seen “…as the ‘expert’ in his or life, and the counsellor is intent only on creating the kind of relationship in which this expertise can be expressed.” (Merry, 1999,pp90-d). The client chooses their own path, and the counsellor does not control the process. In contrast, psychosynthesis, seems quite directive to me, although it does claim that the client has control of their process and can direct the counselling journey, I feel that this is somehow a contradiction.
Relational depth is something that is present in the person centred counselling relationship that is not a part of the psychosynthesis relationship.
I think it is fair to mention that they both use mirroring, paraphrasing and reflection.
At this point although I could carry on, I am aware that I have word limit to adhere to, so I shall move on to the topic of culture and diversity.
Both the approaches that I have researched were developed in the western world, by ‘white people’, and perhaps at the time they were developed, for white people. This could possibly make the approaches foreign to people and seen as not being for them. From the books I have read there isn’t much written in terms of culture, so maybe this could be seen as unwillingness to include other cultures? In my culture and family, I would not sit in front of an older member of my family and make eye contact with them for a length of time, as this would seem disrespectful, although this is encouraged in a counselling relationship, to show availability. There is also the gender issue, which is not addressed fully, I feel, some cultures would be aware that it is not respectful to sit alone in a room with a man if you are a woman. In some cultures and this is quite widespread, I feel, men are seen to be weak if they talk about feelings, there is a sense of pride, that would be lost if they were to admit to wanting to talk about their problems. I feel that the very fact that the group at college is so diverse shows things are moving on and counselling is becoming more widespread through different cultures. I can only imagine what the future holds for the approaches. Maybe there will be a point where there is input from people from different backgrounds and this may bring a different dimension to the field.
I found psychosynthesis, a challenging approach to research as there are many different perspectives, from a lot of different people. There is so much influence from so many different fields I am wondering how strong the theory would be if all of this were to be removed, what would be left? I have to say I found it daunting as an approach and I may be biased but, to me, the person-centred approach seems a lot more simple, yet effective. I think there is too much structure and I am unsure that the approach fits into any one force of psychology, I find it hypocritical and contradictory that it is classed as humanistic yet there is, what I experienced as quite a lot of direction from the therapist. How does this portray, value and trust in the client?
Assagioli, said “the limit of psychosynthesisis is that it has no limits.” (http:two.not2.org/psychosynthesis/articles/model.htm), I feel this is true as psychosynthesis, seems adaptable and open to interpretation. Yet I am questioning how effective it is as an approach and wondering if it would be better used not as a theory in itself, but alongside another approach.
I must say that I am relieved I no longer have to pretend to be interested in psychosynthesis. It became a struggle to digest the approach and I was never fully into it, and I was balancing on the edge the whole time. It has aided my understanding of the PCA, if nothing else and I have a much greater appreciation of it now than I did previously. Some of the questioning I was doing, about the person centred ‘way of being’ have been answered through this journey, I feel that I will take something positive from the experience. I am aware that with other things going on in my life, it’s difficult for me to do work such as this, as my understanding and perceptions change, along with my emotion, and I do feel that the pressure of fulfilling criteria, took the enjoyment out of the essay for me, as it became something I had to do, as oppose to something I wanted to do. But yet it is done and the relief is immense!
Reference list for essay;
Books;
Mearns D and Thorne B (1988) Person-centred Counselling in Action London: Sage.
Mearns D and Thorne B (2000) Person-centred Therapy Today London: Sage
Merry T (1999) Learning and Being in Person-centred Counselling Bath:PCCS
Whitmore D (1991) Psychsynthesis Counselling in Action London: Sage
Internet;
Psychosynthesis-uk.com
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Growth resources in psychosynthesis by
Howard. J. Clinebell,Jr.
Abington press 1981
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A basic psychosynthesis model of counselling and psychotherapy by
David Earl Platts, Ph.D
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