What is transpersonal therapy?
“Transpersonal” means “beyond the personal”, which reflects the core aim of this style of therapy – to help people discover a deeper and more enduring essential self that exists beyond the conditioned ego, also known as one’s authentic self or soul.
On a day-to-day level this is experienced as living one’s truth or living authentically. It is holistic – addressing all aspects of our being, and integrative – able to incorporate any therapeutic methods appropriate to the client’s needs.
Concerned with building a strong and healthy sense of self and bringing balance to the personality, transpersonal therapy aims to facilitate the transformation from being an unconscious victim of one’s own desires and fears to having an open and fulfilling relationship with life. The client-therapist relationship is key as we work with aspects of the unconscious mind to confront these hidden fears and release them. Only when the ego is relatively balanced and healthy do we have the possibility of safely going beyond it into states of more transcendent awareness.
The concept of “integrative” is controversial. People who are strongly aligned with one tradition often challenge the validity of taking aspects of philosophy or technique and transplanting them into other styles of working. Witness the impassioned plea of Chris Molyneux recently for the continued purity of the person-centred approach (Therapy Today, May 2014, p.32-33). However, for integrative therapists, like myself, we are perhaps more persuaded that, as Sir Thomas More said, “Tradition is the passing on of the flame…”.
To find out more about this style of therapy, visit Karen Williams′ website.