NAMES FOR
THINGS psychological
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NAMES FOR THINGS TERMS
Vocabulary Words GLOSSARY
List of Definitions Names for
Thoughts Feelings States of Being
Meditation Psychological and Spiritual
By George A. Boyd
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Unsorted Terminology Counseling Psychotherapy Spirituality Natural Applications
Techniques Meditation Philosophy Science Modern Hypnosis Arts of Counseling
Therapy Priests Shamans Gurus Different Cultures Prayer Invocation Entering
Altered States Healing Process Meditation Treatment Physically Mentally Ill
Individual Meditation Re-Emerged Field Psychology Transpersonal Psychology
Spiritual Noetic Experiences Uncover Integrate Deeper Aspects Human
Psychological Growth Actualization Whole Person Transmutation Transpersonal Transformational Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah....
more to come...
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The fields of Counseling and Psychotherapy are natural
applications of the techniques of Meditation. In fact, before psychology
separated itself from philosophy as a distinct science, and before Anton Mesmer
popularized animal magnetism (a forerunner of modern hypnosis), the arts of
counseling and therapy were practiced by priests, shamans, and gurus of
different cultures. Prayer, invocation, entering altered states in the healing
process, and meditation were part and parcel of the treatment of the physically
or mentally ill individual. Meditation has now re-emerged in the field of
psychology in the infant discipline of Transpersonal Psychology, which regards
human spiritual (noetic) experiences as entirely germane to the practice of
psychotherapy, aiming to uncover and integrate the deeper aspects of human
psychological growth and bring about actualization of the whole person.
Counseling is a symbiotic subset of therapy. For
psychotherapy to begin, a good therapist must use the skills of counseling to
engage the inner life of the client. Only after the trust of the client has
been gained and rapport established can the deeper cognitive restructuring and
personality change that effective therapy brings take place. Too, counseling is
often fulfilled by psychotherapy, for the advisement, teaching, and client
insight brought by skilled counseling is often wasted when the client's
personality is bent by trauma, addiction, negative self image, or poor
parenting practices, and cannot utilize the counselor's guidance.
Psychotherapy rehabilitates the cognitive, volitional and
affective skills of the client, and allows the client to act on guidance that
can bring successful results, without the client getting in his or her own way.
Counseling
Counseling seeks an understanding of the needs of the
client and a facilitation of his or her achieving personal needs and goals
through the use the following skills:
Assessment - gathering of information from the client to
facilitate treatment planning.
Reflection - listening to the feelings underneath the
verbal communication of the client, and communicating back the essence of what
the client means.
Clarification - pointing out conflicting desires,
identifying values, elaborating alternatives, and facilitating choice about
life issues with the client.
Empathy - the willingness of the counselor to take the
client's point of view, to understand the client's experienced world without
losing him or herself in it.
Teaching or advisement - the instruction of the client in a
relevant life skill, the informing of the client about appropriate community
resources to fulfill expressed needs, and advising the client about probable
consequences of his or her behavior.
Self disclosure - the willingness of a counselor to reveal
his or her own similar life experiences to instruct the client, to create an
atmosphere of safety for client disclosure, and to give the client feedback on
his or her perceptions and feelings.
Confrontation - pointing out the consequences of the
client's behavior on the counselor, on other people, and upon the client's own
life.
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy aims at a restructuring of the client's
personality to overcome hindrances to successful coping with the demands of his
or her own organism, with other people and the requirements of society. These
hindrances may be constitutional or genetic conditions that limit functioning,
may be due to traumatic life circumstances, the client's own limiting or
destructive beliefs, or the action of self-sabotaging defense mechanisms that
work below awareness, or other causes. The work of psychotherapy includes:
Modifying behavior - aiding the client to change unwanted
and unproductive patterns of behavior through techniques of the behavioral
therapies, assertiveness training, and hypnosis.
Modifying thinking or beliefs - aiding the client to
restructure his or her cognitive map of reality and to overcome irrational
beliefs through cognitive therapeutic methods such as Rational Emotive Therapy.
Facilitating insight and uncovering of trauma - assisting
the client to trace back feelings and memories through the personal unconscious
and to overcome defenses covering the painful core of traumatic experience to
allow catharsis of the repressed emotions. This is done by free association and
interpretation in psychodynamic therapies, or through process meditation in
groups like Scientology or Insight Training Seminars.
Facilitating re-experience, release and re-creation -
assisting the client to deeply experience the blockages in the body-mind, to
re-live them, to uncover the beliefs and memories stored in them and to
reprogram these beliefs to allow achievement of desired conditions. This is
done using methods of body-mind therapies such as Reichian Therapy, through
Rebirthing, or Primal Screaming. Re-owning these buried aspects of the mind may
also be done using dialogue methods such as Gestalt Therapy, Voice Dialogue and
Psychosynthesis.
Facilitating breakthrough and empowerment - assisting the
client to transcend limiting self-concepts and re-own the power of his or her
will and ability. This leads the client beyond the original developmental
trauma that occurred early in childhood, at birth, or even ante-natally to the
state of the Self as Will, the creator of his or her own destiny. This is
achieved by the creation of peak experiences in "transformational
therapies", through training in the martial arts, through process
meditation and rebirthing, and analysis of the original trauma of the client.
Promoting synthesis and integration - assisting the client
to explore his or her feelings, values, meanings, and layers of the unconscious
mind as revealed through dreams and active imagination techniques to reveal the
true nature of the Self and the Transpersonal Self, and to own and live this
authentic nature. This is achieved through the Humanistic therapeutic
approaches such as Focusing and Client-centered therapy, through Existential
therapy, Jungian therapy and Psychosynthesis.
Catalyzing transformation and change - assisting the client
to integrate the meanings of the process of inner and outer change, to
comprehend the messages of his or her subconscious and Superconscious Mind, and
to make the next step in his or her personal growth or spiritual evolution.
This is achieved through the approaches of Transpersonal therapies, through
Yoga therapy and meditation practice.
Psychotherapy is much more ambitious than counseling in
that it endeavors to do more, to enable the human being to change, and to
profoundly experience him or herself in a new way. Counseling may clarify a
client's choices, listen to the client's feelings, render feedback to his or
her behavior, and to inform him or her of options or resources, or teach the
client new skills, but it does not seek individual healing and reformation as
does psychotherapy.
In the actual practice of psychotherapy, counseling skills
and therapeutic skills appear to be closely intertwined.
The
active skills of
a
psychotherapist
include ~
Reassurance and the giving of hope
education and skills training
advisement and recommendation
empathic listening and reflection
acknowledgment and validation
clarification analysis and diagnosis
interpretation self-disclosure and
feedback,
challenge and confrontation
feedback,
challenge and confrontation
guidance and suggestion
giving permission and allowing
the client to be authentic,
genuine
and to freely express him or herself.
Group Psychotherapy
Paralleling the goals of individual psychotherapy are group
therapy approaches. Group therapy can be said to comprise the following types:
Behavioral Group Therapy - the therapist trains the group
in a new behavior, teaches them assertiveness, and actively models a successful
behavior for the group members. The group practices the behavior, and homework
may be given.
Cognitive Group Therapy - The group as a whole examines
their beliefs, values and goals. The therapist may actively refute irrational
beliefs, may clarify values and consequences of behavior, and assist in setting
goals. The therapist presents a theoretical construct to the group, the group
discusses the ideas, and then the group practices an evocative exercise to
explore the ideas as they are applied to each individual's personal situation.
Psychodynamic and Family Systems Group Therapy - The group
explores through discussion, guided meditations or process meditations the
individual traumas or difficulties that group members underwent in their
personal development, and/or the impact of the behavior of significant others
in their family they grew up in on their subsequent development. The group
dynamic examines the impact of past experiences on the present life of the
individual.
Perceptual, Creative and Integrative Group Therapy - The
group uses psychodrama, art, movement, and Gestalt-type dialogue methods to
allow integration of disowned aspects of the individual group members'
personalities. The therapist inteprets the meaning of evocative material
produced in the exercises to aid the group members in understanding their
experiences, and may guide in and set up dialogue experiences between aspects
of an individual member's personality, or between members of the group.
Confrontation and Breakthrough Group Therapy - The group
uses a confrontational approach to actively attack the defenses of group
members, to break down the masquerades and get at genuine feelings. The
emphasis is on visceral and direct expression of emotion. The therapist
empowers individuals in having them take responsibility for their lives and to
make choices.
Non-directive or Synthetic Group Therapy - The group
maintains a here-and-now orientation. Members express their feelings and
concerns, and are given feedback by other group members. The therapist gives
both content and process feedback to the group, and helps focus group members
back on the immediacy of their experience. Content feedback reflects the
meaning of what a group member says. Process feedback brings into the group
awareness the meaning of what a behavior implies between two individuals or how
the group as a whole is reacting. The group dynamic results in the members of
the group having an experience of their authentic selves in relationship with
others.
Transformational Group Therapy - The therapist guides the
group members in a series of evocative visualizations, guided meditations,
process meditations, breathing exercises and other techniques to enable them to
experience their Transpersonal Self. The group members move from having the
strong motivation to change, to experience of their barriers to change, to
transcendence of their limitations, to the experience of the Higher Self as an
empowered creator of their own reality.
Models
of the Psyche
Science gives humankind several boons: the ability to classify and organize information to predict future behavior given knowledge of past behavior
to explain and give meaning to phenomena that occur, and
make sense of the patterns of Nature to control phenomena using a physical or cognitive
technology together with a comprehensive system of management to increase human knowledge and the quality of human life to provide a series of self-checking mechanisms to correct
errors and thereby avoid false conclusions to arrive at an understanding of the fundamental laws or
principles of Nature.
Psychology tries to explain, predict and control the
complex workings of mind and behavior, as any scientific enterprise endeavors
to do in its own sphere. Psychologists venture to explain, classify, and create
a comprehensive model of the human being are contained in the theories of its
multiple schools. Psychologists' efforts at research are embodied in their
ceaseless pursuit to control errors and predict future behaviors.
Psychologists' motivation to improve the quality of human life and to control
the workings of the human mind and behavior are expressed in its therapeutic
interventions in the lives of troubled human beings. Psychologists' quest to
inform each new generation of its accumulation of knowledge, principles and
methods are demonstrated by its commitment to education of young and old in the
science of Psychology.
Each school of psychology, in delineating the subjective
experience of human beings and their relationship to the immediate environment
and the larger human society, has come up with a distinct model of the psyche.
To be accurate, there are probably as many schools of psychology as there are
individual therapists and counselors, because each individual practitioner
comes up with his or her unique understanding of human nature and capacity. But
broadly considered, there are seven major models of therapy that can be
correlated to the seven rays.
1st ray (Volitional Therapy) - this model assumes that
human beings are responsible for their behavior, that they transcend obstacles
and difficulties as an act of choice or Will. These types of therapy may use
contracts, insist upon commitment and responsibility, confront or attack
defenses, break through and transcend unconscious barriers, and require mastery
of tasks and excellence of performance.
2nd ray (Transpersonal or Transformational Therapy) - this
model assumes that human experience is ultimately grounded in spiritual union
with the Cosmos, and the aim of therapy is to discover, and empower this core
of Essential Divinity. This core of spirituality is capable of exercising
higher will, expressing unconditional love and compassion, is innately wise and
virtuous, and is part and parcel of Universal Life. These types of therapy
utilize meditation, visualization, affirmation and dialogue work.
3rd ray (Cognitive Therapy) - this model assumes that human
beings govern their behavior by creating cognitive maps or goal images of what
they want to achieve. These goal images for achievement serve as the internal
standard for behavior; failure to achieve these goals results in a negative
self image or failure (inferiority) complex. These complexes consist of
beliefs, learned from experience or from other's judgement and evaluations.
These types of therapies frequently use goal setting, activity planning, discussing
and clarifying expectations, and refuting or reprogramming irrational or
limiting beliefs.
4th Ray (Perceptual-Integrative Therapy) - this model
assumes that the apparent dualities in a human being are really a unified
whole. For example, mind and body are seen as a body-mind unity; conscious and
unconscious mind, as the unitary mind of the organism. The apparent
figure/ground dualities seen in Nature are merely artifacts of perception. For
example, light, a unified phenomena, appears to take the nature of particles or
waves, depending on how it is perceived. These therapies seek to bring about
re-ownership of psychic material that has been excluded from the domain of the
ego. They use dialogue between intrapsychic elements, or deep tissue bodywork that
breaks through the muscular armor and releases the repression of buried
feelings, allowing the individual to become fully aware of the needs and
feelings of his or her whole organism.
5th Ray (Psychodynamic/Developmental Therapy) - this model
assumes that the present experience of an individual is conditioned by his or
her past traumatic experiences, that continue to affect one's life though they
are buried beneath the surface of awareness in the unconscious mind. Also
postulated in this model is that the experience of the family in childhood
affect the styles of relating to other people throughout life, and deficits in
that primary relationship result in compromised and inadequate functioning in
adulthood. These trauma or shameful secrets are protected by psychological
defenses, and the goal of therapy is to break through these resistances and
allow these experiences to be relived and the emotion bound up in them
discharged. These types of therapies may use free association, process
meditation, and hypnosis. They assist the client to re-own his or her
projections onto the therapist, analyzing dreams, interpreting the material
that the client produces in therapy to rebuild the strength of the adult ego,
to rehabilitate rational thinking, to re-establish mature emotional
relationship skills, and restore normal sexual functioning.
6th Ray (Humanistic/Existential Therapy) - this model
assumes there is a unique human core within each individual that is more than
his or her observed behavior, thoughts and feelings; his or her developmental
experiences; and his or her achievements in life and contributions to the
larger society. For this unique individual to become actualized, to fully bring
out his or her unique abilities and personality, he or she requires to be truly
known by another. The conditions under which his or her authentic person are
expressed is when there is a non-judgmental and empathic attitude on the part
of the listener, a respect and unconditional positive regard toward his or her
person, and a genuineness and congruence on the part of the listener. The model
further assumes that the listener does not have the answers for the client's
deep existential questions (that define his or her core of personal meaning,
his or her philosophy, and his or her definition of his or her place in the
universe and purpose in life). But by being a mirror and sounding board for the
client's quest, the listener facilitates the client to encounter his or her own
authentic self and with it, the freedom to choose. These therapies use
reflection, therapist feedback and self-disclosure to facilitate the client
discovering his or her authentic humanness.
7th Ray (Behavioral Therapy) - this model assumes that a
human being is the observable organism that can be seen by the senses. Behavior
can be explained by the operation of known physiological and neurological
mechanisms within the organism, and by the learning theory. Learning theory
postulates that, in essence, organisms gravitate toward experiences that are
pleasurable, satisfy their biological and socially learned drives, and try to
avoid experiences that are painful or aversive and that threaten their
survival. In therapy, new behaviors are practiced, with feedback from a
trainer, until a new response is learned. Responses formerly learned that now
hinder an organism from achieving what it desires can be unlearned or
deconditioned. These therapies train in assertiveness skills, use systematic
desensitization, aversive conditioning to rid the client of unwanted behavior,
and other methods.
Each of these therapy types makes certain assumptions about
a human being. Out of the general models elaborated by the founders of and
important thinkers in these movements, and modified in countless minor ways by
their students and those that were in turn trained by them, these therapies
developed research to learn more about their way of seeing human beings. These
models were written about in books, taught to students in classrooms, discussed
in psychology seminars, applied in workshops, until this knowledge was widely
disseminated to the public. These models also gave rise to the experiments and
studies that reified their worldview. New studies and new research gradually
modified the original theses and corrected theories of each successive era
until the current paradigms emerged.
Despite each of these changes in the original model, the
context of how a human being is viewed in each of these models is consistent.
That is to say, the metabelief remains the same. A metabelief may be viewed as
the larger philosophy about what a human being is what he or she is capable of knowing, doing, having, being,
or experiencing,
what his or her relationship with the environment what is
his or her relationship with other people what is his or her place in the larger cosmos.
This metabelief of each of these models strongly influences
what is accepted as relevant data to be studied and attended to during therapy.
This metabelief also influences the interventions and techniques which are
practiced in therapy.
Layers of the Psyche
In the table below, it can be seen that each therapy admits
successively more information about what is possible to know about a human
being. This in turn colors the goals that each therapy attempts to achieve.
Therapy and Layers of the Psyche
TYPE
OF THERAPY
ADMITS AS RELEVANT
THERAPEUTIC GOAL
BEHAVIORAL
Observable behavior, habits, learning, stimuli and responses
Obtain symptomatic
relief, change habits and behavior.
COGNITIVE
The above, plus
attitude, belief, cognitive maps or goal images, thinking and emotion
Change of belief and
attitude, resulting in changed affect and behavior.
PSYCHODYNAMIC
The above, plus the
entire personal experience: that which can be recalled and that which remains
unconscious
Insight and
catharsis, leading to a stronger ego, greater rationality, and enhanced
emotional maturity.
PERCEPTUAL-INTEGRATIVE
The above, plus the
non-dual experience of the whole organism & its consciousness Free flow of energy
through the body, and the ownership of all repressed emotions and desires.
VOLITIONAL
The above, plus the
awareness of oneself as Will, responsible for one's actions, commitments, and
ultimately, one's life.
The ability to take
charge of one's life and destiny; to create successful outcomes in life and
relationships.
HUMANISTIC-EXISTENTIAL
The above, plus the
experience of one's essential person in itself, and in relation to others
Genuineness,
congruence, integrity. Synthesis of a coherent structure of meaning and value,
ability to freely choose between options available.
TRANSPERSONAL
The above, plus a
spiritual or Transpersonal essence, which is evolving towards greater Wisdom,
Love & Mastery
Integration of the
lower, middle and higher unconscious. Successive integration around the
Centered or personal Self, the Transpersonal Self or Soul, and ultimately union
and communion with the Universal Self, or God.
Each of these therapies takes a leap of faith beyond the
readily observable behavior and the verbal self-report of the client in the
counseling or therapeutic interview. This operating model influences questions
these therapists ask, the techniques they utilize, the beliefs about what the
information the client gives them means, and their assessment of what the
client needs and what to do about it. Also contingent on this larger vision of
what a human being is influences decisions on what must be included as a
therapeutic intervention, and what is germane to psychological healing.
Bands of
Consciousness
We can consider, then, that these layers of the psyche, or
bands of consciousness, if you will, represent a successive discovery about
what a human being is by psychologists. These bands of consciousness can be
described as follows:
Body - the body and its appearance, behavior, emotion and
sensations that can by sensed and measured by an objective observer. Known
physiological and neurological mechanisms substand this observable data. This
includes the entire nervous system, which has known adaptational responses and
is capable of learning from the environment, other people, and by its own past,
remembered experience.
Cognition - in the same way the programming software in a
computer actually governs the operation of the computer hardware, cognition
(thoughts, attitudes, beliefs and feelings) govern the actual observable
behavior of the body. These cognitions can be known by interviewing a human
being and asking him or her what his or her thoughts or feelings are about a
matter. The human being is a goal-creating and goal-seeking mechanism that has
innate intelligence to solve problems, can elaborate plans and strategies to
achieve these goals, can utilize visualization and imagination to design, and
can engage in other creative forms of thought. The human being can auto-program
the subconscious mind, and can change irrational or limiting beliefs.
Personal History - all of the experiences that have ever
been undergone by the ego are stored in this subconscious or personal
unconscious. The ego is the self-conscious individual whom must deal with the
demands of his or her organism, of the environment, of other people and the
larger society in which he or she lives. Some of this life experience cannot be
readily recalled in waking consciousness by the ego because active defense
mechanisms shield the ego from painful or shameful traumatic incidents, which
have been consciously forgotten. This record of experience goes back to birth.
Body-Mind (Organism) - the entire remembered experience of
the personal history is but a small portion of the total experience of the
organism. The organism includes in addition to the verbal, conscious experience
of the ego, non-verbal pre-conscious experience, embryonic experience, and has
its roots in phylogenetic experience, going back to the distant origins of life
on this planet. The ego and its associated cognitive functions create false
dualities that in reality do not exist. For example, there is really no
conscious mind and unconscious mind, or no duality between body and mind. They
are really a unity.
Will - in addition to being an organism, a human being is a
spiritual or causal entity, capable of creating, directing, and manifesting the
things of thought into actualization. A human being, as Will, transcends the
union with nature that is experienced as organism.
Person - the essential person is expressed in the
environment by behavior through the intelligence of cognition, recorded by
personal history, embodied by organism, and made real by Will, but the Person
is more than the sum of these parts. The Person is the core of experience,
meaning, and existence that is the real Self behind or within these
expressions.
Transpersonal Self - in addition to the Person (Centered
Self) by which a human being experiences his or her unique humanness, there is
also a higher, spiritual essence in which human beings participate in the
Divine Mind; within this Transpersonal Self (Soul) is the experience of innate
divinity. A human being is not only a Person, living in the human world, but is
also a god or goddess as this Transpersonal Self, living in the kingdom of the
Soul. Once activated and made conscious in a human being, this Transpersonal
Self embarks on a journey of growth and unfoldment, a spiritual evolution toward
the ultimate Godhead.
Techniques Associated With the Bands of Consciousness
Each of these bands of consciousness imposes certain limits
on the therapist, who is both participant and observer in the therapeutic
process. The therapist as Participant actively communicates with the client,
establishes rapport and forms a relationship, and initiates an intervention
into the client's psychological process.
This intervention by the therapist takes both active and
passive forms. Active interventions include direction, confrontation, guidance,
self-disclosure, and training. Passive interventions include reflection, being
with the client in silence, and establishing an atmosphere of safety and
empathy.
The therapist as Observer includes interpretation, formulation
of diagnosis, treatment planning, observation of behavior and body language,
monitoring one's own reactions to the client's statements and behaviors, the
inner cognitive and affective processes that take place in the therapist. It
also relates to the larger context from which the therapist views the client
and the work of therapy. This meta-observation influences the types of
techniques that will be used, and also the level of work at which the client's
presenting problem will be addressed.
There are five types of techniques in therapy:
Cognitive techniques - these are ways of understanding the
client's behavior through a particular theoretical model, ways of assessing and
diagnosing the client's condition, and establishing inner plans for treatment and
intervention.
Training techniques - these are strategies or methods in
which the therapist actively educates the client about the theory involved, and
teaches, guides or models for the client how to do the behavior or method.
Training techniques aim to assist the client utilize the information, behavior
or method on his or her own, away from the therapeutic session.
Counseling techniques - these are strategies by which a
therapist interviews a client for an initial assessment, establishes empathic
rapport with the client's situation, listens to the client's concerns, and
assists the client to find solutions or alternatives within the client's
resources and perceived situation.
Experiential techniques - the therapist, by laying on of
hands or through suggestive verbal guiding, leads the client into an altered
state of consciousness. It can be differentiated from training techniques in
that training techniques do not require the client enter an altered state of
consciousness.
Noetic techniques - these are less formal techniques than a
kind of contagion, resonance or wordless transmission between two human beings.
It occurs when the transference relationship between client and therapist stops
being a projective one, that is, the seeing of therapist as father, mother,
past lover, sister, brother, or other person from the client's past, and the
relationship transforms into an existential one. In the existential
relationship, the therapist and client are present as their authentic selves,
and share from their inner core. In Transpersonal therapies, the Transpersonal
Self and spiritual heart can also be shared and fully received in the deepest
aspects of the therapeutic relationship.
To better understand the application of these four types of
techniques, we can begin to assign these techniques to the bands of
consciousness.
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In the section below, each level within the band of
consciousness will be assigned a number in parentheses. The types of therapy
will be referred to by codes: cognitive (COG), training (TRN), counseling
(CNS), experiential (EXP) and noetic (NOE).
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BAND ONE - Body
(1) The theory of conditioning is applied as aversive
conditioning or reward conditioning to extinguish unwanted habits and to
establish desired ones. COG, TRN
(2) The client is taught how to relax, and how to pair a
relaxation response with a successively greater fear or anxiety-producing
stimuli. TRN
(3) The client is confronted with the object of his or her
discomfort all at once, to discharge the negative emotions. Repeated exposure
to this object produces less and less response until there is no longer any
response. TRN
(4) The client is rewarded for following a suggested line
of behavior with a gift (incentive) or item that can be exchanged for something
desired (token). TRN
(5) The client is taught how to set verbal limits, how to
be consistent in behavior when setting limits, and how to communicate to ask
for what one needs and wants without devaluing or insulting the person from
whom it is requested. These methods are used in assertiveness training and
parent effectiveness training. COG, TRN
(6) The client is hypnotized to remove an unwanted symptom
by the therapist. The client may be also trained in self-hypnosis, or how to
use a biofeedback device, to better to control physiological functions governed
by the autonomic nervous system, to motivate him or herself to perform desired
behaviors, and to extinguish unwanted habits. TRN, EXP
(7) The whole of human behavior can be viewed through the
model of the learning theory: how one learns, responds and adapts to
environmental stimuli. These principles form a coherent explanation of human
behavior and guide to therapeutic practice. COG
BAND 2 - Cognition
(8) The therapist instructs the client in how to more
effectively study and utilize his or her memory through learning encoding
strategies and forming new study habits. COG, TRN
(9) The therapist interviews the client eliciting specific
information for purposes of assessment, case history, diagnosis and treatment
planning. The therapist teaches the client how to ask questions and to listen
for the answers (inner dialogue) instead of looking to the therapist for
advisement or direction. This also may be formalized as a written log or
journal and done as an exercise in session, or assigned as homework. COG, TRN,
CNS
(10) The client trains the client on how to identify his or
her beliefs, and to actively refute or reprogram those beliefs that are
irrational or limiting. COG, TRN
(11) The process of communication between two people are
analyzed and broken down into their essential components. The therapist identifies
the client's expectations, strategies, and motivations in his or her
communications with the client's significant others. The client is trained in
more effective communication, putting aside ulterior motives and ineffective
interpersonal strategies (games), and leaving behind unfulfilling habitual
patterns of behavior. The therapist can also extend this analysis to a family
or other grouping, identifying the expectations, strategies and motivations in
each member of this larger unit. This analysis of communications has given been
influential in Transactional Analysis and Family Systems Therapy, by
identifying the roles and games that individuals and families perpetuate. COG,
TRN
(12) The analysis of language and the meaning of words, and
how language shapes perception, thought and behavior has been instrumental in
developing educational, cybernetic, and therapeutic applications, such as
speech training and overcoming dyslexia. COG, TRN
(13) The active intelligence of humans can be measured in
terms of general knowledge, aptitude for particular skills or jobs, and areas
of proficient and deficient academic performance by psychological and
educational testing. Tests have also been adapted to measure people's present
emotional state, psychopathology, perception, memory, self-esteem, unconscious
motivations, and in many more areas. The techniques of problem solving can be
taught to clients to improve performance on academic tests or board exams, and
in situations of their everyday lives. COG, TRN, CNS
(14) Goals underlay human endeavors. Once goals have been
identified for a client, a specific plan or strategy can be developed to carry
it out. The client is trained in scheduling his or her time, procuring and
managing necessary resources, organizing his or her thoughts and ideas, and
systemizing methods efficiently so that each step of the journey to the goal is
cognitively mapped beforehand. The client learns to visualize the goal clearly,
and to actively problem solve for whatever unexpected contingencies may arise.
The client assembles needed help, learns to relate to and negotiate with people
instrumental in procuring resources or carrying out the plan. The client
persists in taking action and continues to motivate him or her self until the
goal is achieved. Cognitive mapping and goal setting, the organizing of
knowledge and behavior is an essential underpinning of cognitive theory.
COG,TRN, CNS
BAND 3 - Personal History
(15) The client is led to talk about whatever is on his or
her mind (free association). The therapist points out to the client the
defenses and resistances that he or she is using to avoid telling the truth
about what is really bothering him or her, or covering up some painful or
shameful personal secret or unpleasant memory. COG, CNS
(16) The client is led through the therapist's feedback to
uncover, relive, and release the painful emotions stored within these sensitive
personal areas (catharsis). COG, EXP, CNS
(17) The client is taught to understand and integrate the
material that was brought up during the session, and to learn coping
mechanisms. The client is educated in alternative strategies to achieve what
one desires, in more effective ways to deal with other people in relationship,
to understand what the experience means, and ways to accept and cope with the
loss of the object or person desired, or other frustrations and
disappointments. COG, TRN, CNS
(18) The client is led to examine his or her relationships
with the significant people in his or her life. The therapist provides feedback
by pointing out to the client when the client is projecting feelings and
beliefs onto the therapist (transference). This helps the client to recognize
when he or she is projecting ghosts of his or her past onto the therapist and
other present life relationships. Alternately, the client may be asked to say
what he or she feels to these significant people in his or her life to complete
the cycle of communication. This further assists the client to let go of
longstanding resentments, disappointments and frustrations. COG, TRN, CNS
(19) While the session is going on, the therapist maintains
an outer silence, being with the client in their journey through their past,
interrupting the client's reverie only when necessary to say a few words to
facilitate the client's awareness of resistance, to avoid distractions, or to
maintain the client's attention. However, the therapist is very active
inwardly, interpreting the meaning of what the client is saying and his or her
body language, analyzing the meaning of dreams or other session material, and
formulating a diagnosis and forming a hypothesis about the origin of the
client's problems. The therapist may communicate to the client, at an opportune
time, and gleaned insight or interpretation of the client's experience. COG,
CNS
(20) The time track of personal history is a record of
every experience that a human being has had. Some of this experience is
unconscious, not readily recalled into consciousness. The aim of therapy is to
uncover the precursors of the problems of present day life, by finding their
causes in this unconscious portion of the mind. Psychodynamic theory and
developmental psychology recognize certain discrete landmarks of development.
Successful or unsuccessful resolutions of these developmental challenges affect
sexual identity and ability to establish and maintain a sexual and parental
relationship. They influence emotional styles of relating to and defending from
others, moral maturation, and cognitive growth. Meeting these time-specific
developmental challenges allows formation of a stable ego identity, with an
ability to cope with the responsibilities of school, work, society, and the
problems inherent in daily life and throughout the life span. COG
(21) The present time experience of the ego is vulnerable,
sensitive, and fragile. The ego experiences fear and anxiety when it encounters
an event, person, experience or thing that it has not yet encountered, cannot
predict, and cannot control or defend against. The ego attempts to optimize the
survival of the organism to shield against the physical enemies of pain,
illness, and death; the emotional enemies of terror, abandonment, and despair;
the social enemies of betrayal, disgrace, and failure; the mental enemies of
self-doubt, uncertainty, and ignorance. The ego strives for nothing less than
total control of the body, the environment and other people, to create safety
and predictability for itself and its loved ones. It is in this state of
awareness that the client encounters his or her ego. With the therapist's help,
the client's ego is able to let go of this tenacious strangle hold on its
world, and learn to live with more acceptance, humor, and grace. COG, CNS, EXP
BAND 4 - Organism
(22) The stored pain of human experience is locked in the
body, creating a muscular armor over trauma. By massaging the muscles or using
firm finger pressure on deep tissues, the therapist is able to release the
energy and stored emotion that is locked in the muscles and tissues. This
brings about total relaxation of the body, a release of stress and tension, and
catharsis of emotional pain. COG, EXP
(23) The client can be guided to consciously get in touch
with a source of physical and emotional pain within the body through creatively
combining movement, breathing, massage, and focusing of attention. Once the
client has recognized this pain for what it symbolizes and remembers its
causes, he or she can make a choice to release it and relinquish the patterns
connected with it. Whereas catharsis is a passive, spontaneous release of
emotion, release is an active, chosen process. Release brings together physical
unburdening, emotional catharsis, mental integration, and conscious choosing in
a single, dynamic process. This focused work on specific issues is often seen in
"transformational workshops" or other "New Age" therapy
groups. COG, TRN, EXP
(24) Through process meditation, the client can learn to
access the entire reservoir of the subconscious mind, and release the deepest
recesses of pain in human consciousness. Through process meditation, the client
is able to release whole areas in the subconscious that were formerly blocked,
thereby regaining awareness, rehabilitating ability, and experiencing greater
self esteem. Process meditation involves repeating a question over and over
again, eliciting data directly from the subconscious mind. Processing the
subconscious mind is normally done in an altered state of awareness. If
sustained for enough time, process meditation will lead to the experience of
breakthrough, leading to ecstatic glimpses into the Superconscious Mind.
Process meditation is widely used in "New Age" therapies and other
groups such as Scientology. COG, TRN, EXP
(25) Through the technique of repetitive or rhythmic
breathing, or rebirthing, the client is guided to re-experience and relive his
or her deepest traumas. The client is instructed to monitor his or her belief
statements arising from these traumatic experiences. The client is then
instructed to consciously formulate affirmations, to re-create a positive,
life-affirming belief system. This re-creation reframes the client's experience
of past events and reconstructs his or her self-image, allowing the client to
function freely in areas that were formerly blocked by inhibition or fear.
Rebirthing ultimately leads the client to the experience of
"rebirth", the conscious recognition of his or her spiritual essence.
COG, TRN, EXP
(26) The pain of human trauma can also be expressed as
sound, by screaming and directly expressing emotions. "Primal screaming",
as this method is sometimes called, rehabilitates the ability to fully
experience emotion, and to communicate emotion as sound. Primal screaming
enables the client to access the pre-verbal domain of the unconscious mind, and
ultimately gives the client ability to use the full range of his or her voice
express any level of his or her organism or his or her past or present
experience. COG, TRN, EXP
(27) The aspects of the whole self can be viewed as
subpersonalities. Each subpersonality has a form and character of its own,
embodies intelligence, represents unfulfilled needs of the organism, and has a
unique voice. By dialoguing with subpersonalities, these split-off aspects of
the self can be accessed. The therapist can directly interview them (Voice Dialogue
method), or the client can role-play them by taking different postures or
sitting in different locations (Gestalt Therapy method). This dialogue between
the ego and a subpersonality creates a higher synthesis, resulting in the
emergence of the organismic intelligence of the Self. COG, TRN, EXP
(28) The laws of perception enable the organism to be aware
of discrete objects in the environment, to recognize language, other people,
and to form a global perception of reality. The duality imposed by perception
creates apparent splits or divisions in the Self, when in fact, the body-mind
of the organism is a unified whole. COG
BAND 5 - Will
(29) Through martial arts, dancing, sports, and body
building, the client can learn new self-confidence, self-discipline, and
mastery over movement. TRN, EXP
(30) The discipline that was exerted on the body to master
movement is now directed onto the inner host of subpersonalities that personify
one's bad habits, laziness and resistance. The client learns how to confront
the enemy within and vanquish it, using the Will. TRN, EXP
(31) The discipline and rigorous honesty that the client
used to bring his or her inner house of the mind in order is directed outward
in confrontation with others. Having overcome a weakness in him or herself, the
client is strengthened to confront it and attack it in others, in an
encounter-style therapy. TRN, EXP
(32) The client realizes the meaning of commitment and
contract with him or herself and with others. The client learns to value his or
her promises, and to keep them. TRN, EXP
(33) The client begins to gain a comprehensive concept of
responsibility, and insures that every commitment, contract, obligation, and
agreement is carried out with efficiency and excellence. TRN, EXP
(34) The client comes to understand reality as the nexus of
real consequences, actual events, and agreements between people and within the
framework of the larger society. COG, EXP
(35) The client comes to know him or herself as a being at
cause, a point of will, the creator of his or her human experience. EXP
BAND 6 - Person
(36) Through the therapist's creation of a therapeutic
environment of safety and trust, a client is able to relate his or her present
time emotional stream of consciousness to the therapist, ultimately revealing
the client's genuine feelings. CNS, EXP
(37) Through the therapist's authentic presentation of
honesty and integrity, a client is able to relate his or her present time
mental stream of consciousness to the therapist, ultimately arriving at a state
of mental calmness and clarity. CNS, EXP
(38) Through the client's recounting his or her life
experiences to the therapist, the client comes to recognize the consequences of
his or her choices, and begins to develop undersrtanding. CNS, EXP
(39) The client comes to experience love within him or
herself, directly as a spiritual essence. The client learns how to
differentiate love from lust, attachment, and dependency. CNS, EXP
(40) The client's quest for meaning, value and authenticity
is expressed by a ceaseless questioning process: questioning the knowledge he
or she has learned; the values that have inculcated by parents, at work, at
school, and at church; what life means; what is the self; and what is God. The
therapist's challenge is not impose his or her own values and understanding
upon the client, but to allow the client to discover his or her own inner voice
of intuition and truth. CNS, EXP
(41) As a result of questioning, the flow of intuitive
knowledge fills the mind. One by one the questions of the mind settle out, and
the client becomes able simply to be aware. Awareness confers on the client the
ability to be mindful, to be attentive, and to meditate. This conscious
self-monitoring, witnessing, and self-inquiry creates a state of spaciousness,
detachment and serenity. EXP
(42) Through the process of meditation and mindfulness, the
client comes to recognize an integral center, an essential Person, a Centered
Self. The client discovers that the essential Person has the qualities of
awareness, intelligence, love, wisdom, serenity, and genuineness. The client
also sees that the Centered Self has the thread of all other aspects of
personality. It has the masterful power of will. It holds the keys to the
subconscious mind and the mirror of perception. It can feel, and relate to
other people. It possesses the ability to set goals and to direct destiny. It
can use the intellect to problem solve and reflect. It has the capacity to
utilize the senses and respond to the environment. EXP, NOE
BAND 7 - Transpersonal Self
(43) The client's rehabilitated ability to meditate allows
the therapist to guide the client into contact with the organismic collective
unconscious. The client experiences ancestral, cellular, genetic, molecular,
atomic, and subatomic strata of the collective unconscious. EXP
(44) The client's further journeys into the collective
reveal the cultural archetypes and myths, and the client beholds the great
ideas and symbols that have shaped cultural experience throughout history. EXP
(45) The client discovers the archetypes of power, and
discovers the innate abilities of the Soul. The client may encounter the
dawning of psychic abilities, healing or channeling gifts, the emergence of
hidden artistic or scientific talents, remembrances of past incarnations, or
mystic experiences of the spiritual worlds. EXP
(46) The client encounters the spirit, and the spiritual
stream (Nada), with its celestial strains of unstruck music. He or she comes
into contact with the unbounded, Unconditional Love of the Soul, and of that
Great Life that has been called God. EXP
(47) The client comes to recognize a series of vehicles of
consciousness that mirror the multiple planes of existence, and plumbs the
height and the depth of his or her Superconscious Mind. EXP
(48) The client contacts the Illumined Mind within, and
discovers the inner Teacher and Master. The Illumined Mind conveys exact
intuitive knowledge of the nature of every level of nature and consciousness.
EXP
(49) These mystic experiences culminate in the direct
realization (Gnosis) of the Transpersonal Self. EXP, NOE
Ultimately, the applied techniques of therapy, as practiced
by a skilled therapist or counselor, lead the client to open up successive
bands of consciousness. Techniques taken from meditation such as [those
utilized in the Mudrashram® System of Integral Meditation] are useful tools for
therapy. Indeed, meditation provides essential techniques for experiential
therapy to explore the realms of the Transpersonal band..
Inspection of bands four through seven, moreover, will
reveal that much of the therapeutic work is accomplished through experiential
methods. Experiential methods require that a therapist possess a familiarity
with techniques of meditation. The therapist needs to be able to gently guide
the client into an appropriate altered state of consciousness, to rouse the
client from these inward journeys, and to assist him or her to integrate the
experience.
Meditation
for Therapists
There are certain guidelines for using meditation in
therapy that should be observed to facilitate the integration of a new
technique into the therapist's repertoire, and for the well being and safety of
the client.
1) Therapy, and meditation, is more effective when it is
matched to the level of development of the client. The dictum, "start
where the client is", applies here.
2) Therapy is suitable as a precursor, preparatory to the
meditation work for many individuals. The client's unprocessed personal issues
become hindrances to transcendence into the higher domains of the
Superconscious Mind. When clients try to meditate before they are ready, their
unfinished personal business rises to haunt them in the form of nightmarish
inner visions, haunting dreams, and feelings of fear, anxiety and discomfort
after a meditation experience. Their ego has not been sufficiently strengthened
to face the tidal forces of the unconscious that can emerge with overwhelming
intensity, and yield puzzling, cryptic messages.
3) Meditation is not appropriate for individuals who have
extremely fragile egos, for borderline and psychotic individuals. Meditation
leads to greater detachment; these individuals need ownership of the issues of
their life. Meditation leads to transcendence; what these individuals need is
groundedness, to be brought back to earth. Meditation leads to a mature
integration with the Transpersonal Self; these individuals must first complete
their maturation into healthy adulthood and integration with human society
before setting out on voyages into the Beyond.
4) When guiding a client into an altered state of
consciousness, always guide him or her back into his or her normal state of
waking consciousness, in full orientation with the environment and with his or
her body.
If you leave a client in an altered state of consciousness,
you run the risk of your client not being properly attentive to the environment
around him or her and having accidents. Left in an altered state, a client may
act in bizarre or inappropriate ways. The client may get into compromising,
embarrassing, or dangerous situations that he or she would not consider doing
in normal awareness. No more than you would give a drunken person keys to his
or her car, you should not send out an individual who is intoxicated on the ecstasy
of his or her own mind out on to the streets and freeways, into the
supermarkets and shopping malls, either.
Another reason for this admonition is that the client may
be overly trusting, and lack discrimination and judgement while in an altered
state of consciousness. Many of the people in religious cults are trained to
remain in a highly suggestible altered state of consciousness as much as
possible; meanwhile they are indoctrinated and controlled by the cult
leadership while in this state.
4) Be aware of transference issues when guiding a client
into an altered state of consciousness. The client may make you into a godlike
being, much the way a young child sees his or her parents. The client may
project other archaic and collective material on to you in deeper meditations.
These will need to be discussed, interpreted and integrated.
5) Unless you are aware of the effects of a meditation
technique yourself, it is not wise to try to guide a client using that
technique of meditation. Meditation techniques, like skillful therapeutic
intervention, require training and experience.
6) You will find that, on occasion, meditation techniques
you give to your client will not work. The client will not experience anything,
gain any insights, or feel anything. He or she will sit in his or her chair or
lay on your couch, bored, frustrated and confused, peering into the blackness
behind his or her closed eyes, waiting for it all to end. Do not despair. It
happens to the best of us. You should not too be attached to your tool of
meditation. If it doesn't work, try something else that does.
7) In deeper therapeutic work, especially in the
Transpersonal band, the client may have an awakening of the kundalini. This may
be manifested by various physical sensations such as heat rising in the spine
or tingling of the extremities; spontaneous movement, jerking or vocalization;
and a deep immersion into Superconscious levels of awareness. If you have never
seen this happen, it may frighten you and lead you to believe your client has
had a psychotic break. This is not the case, but this a special symptom of
kundalini meditation.
When the kundalini rises up, it may keep your client in a
sustained altered state, beyond when you need to terminate the session. If this
happens you will need to decide whether (1) the client can be permitted to
remain and enjoy his or her Samadhi in a safe place such as a meditation room
or a spare office with supervision while you attend to your next client, or
(2) to terminate the experience using a grounding
technique.
If you elect the former, you will need to check in from
time to time to see how your client is doing. The kundalini experience is
normally self-terminating, but the client may require your assistance in
re-grounding, especially if this is a beginning experience of meditation.
For work at the Body band, using a behavioral therapy, you
will find that autohypnosis and relaxation with imagery techniques will be
helpful.
Cognitive work would benefit from using self dialogue
methods or journaling in conjunction with the reflective meditation methods,
especially the little sun technique, the mandala technique, and stepping stones
technique. These can also be used in aiding creative problem solving and for
determining and elaborating the client's personal goals.
Focusing on the feeling center in the solar plexus with
gentle, relaxed breathing, may aid exploration of the issues of the Personal
History band, and facilitate the free associative thinking that allows
catharsis, insight and integration of this material.
Vipassana on the sensations in the body, process
meditation, affirmation, rebirthing, movement meditation and opening (both
sound and movement), and dialogue with subpersonalities can prove fruitful to
assist work on the Organismic band.
Clients on the Will band can be encouraged to use tratakam
methods (basic and advanced) to strengthen their will power.
Personal band work can be supported by vipassana of the
feelings, thoughts, I AM statements, and voidness of consciousness. A dialogue
with the Higher Self, together with receptive meditations on ideas, or inquiry,
would be useful in the quest for meaning stage. Awareness can be promoted by
either watching the breath, or tratakam of the point between the two eyebrows.
The technique of reflection, followed by disidentification would be helpful in
identifying the Centered Self. Indeed, any of the centering techniques of
chapter one can be used to contact the Centered Self once the essential Person
within has been identified and fully realized.
Any of the transcendence techniques of Kundalini, Nada,
Mantra, Raja, Guru Kripa, Jnana, and Agni Yogas can be utilized to lead to a
full Realization and expression of the potentials of the Transpersonal Band.
Transformation and Therapy: the Larger Perspective
We have said before that the limits of therapy are often
conditioned by the state of conscious evolution of the therapist. A therapist
who inhabits in a psychodynamic or personal history frame of reference, for
example, may have difficulty in accepting concepts like energy trapped in the
muscles or tissues of the body, (whether it is called Orgone, Chi, or Prana),
and may question the relevance of massage to therapy. The schools that teach
therapy may further engrain their own version of therapeutic
"reality" in those therapists they train, and intellectual prejudices
can be even harder to eradicate than social ones.
Personal growth (maturation) in many ways parallels
Transpersonal evolution. For example, a client in therapy gains a progressive
insight into the nature of the Self. The meditation practitioner unfolds his or
her Transpersonal Self and opens the potentials of his or her Superconscious
Mind to reveal new strata of the continuum of possible consciousness, drawing
closer to the Divine through the process of transformation and initiation.
Personal growth deals with integrating the material of the
conscious, subconscious, personal unconscious, and metaconscious minds, only at
the last stage reaching into the Superconscious realms to integrate the
"higher unconscious". Transpersonal evolution, on the other hand,
begins and ends in Superconscious realms.
Therapy is a specialized tool kit of techniques designed to
facilitate personal growth, whereas meditation does its best work when it leads
the human attention and awareness into transcendence. This is because therapy
requires the focusing of attention on immediate human experience, whereas
meditation ultimately leads the attention to detachment from human experience,
training the attentional principle in the techniques of witnessing, suggesting,
transcending into Superconscious states, and ministering the healing forces of
Spirit.
Viewed from its larger perspective, however, the work of
therapy continues, no matter to what level of the continuum of consciousness
the Soul evolves, Planetary, Cosmic, Supracosmic, or Transcendental.
Represented in the form of Being are four eternal principles: the focal point
of attention, the conscious witness; spirit, in its quiet dedication and devotion;
the Superconscious with its multiple forms and vehicles; and the Soul itself,
ever-evolving towards its grand destiny. Ever co-existing with these principles
is the representation of a fifth principle, the human life and personality,
which is shaped and modeled by the vision of the evolving Soul. Out of this
evolving vision arise a thousand therapies, and a thousand religions.
It is not that the vision is so different, but the approach
varies between therapy and religion. When the human self and its unfolding life
are seen as good and valuable, the work of the Higher Self is to heal and
develop the potentials of its frail humanity: this is called therapy. When the
human self is seen as evil or depraved, a wretched sinner enslaved to passion
or ignorance, the relationship of the spirit with the human principle is one
of, at best, tolerance, and at worst, contempt and repugnance: these less
compassionate viewpoints have given rise to religion. Therapy sees the beauty
of the creature and wants to promote its life; Religion wants to reign in the
creature to strict moral observances and austerities, to re-enact ancient
rituals endlessly, to rule it with vigilance, discipline and detachment, from
afar. Therapy brings love and healing to the creature and person; Religion
brings love, guidance and transformation to the spirit, the attentional
principle, and the Soul.
I believe that it is when religion can respond to the
"lower self" with the compassion and understanding of therapy that it
can become a tool to heal the whole individual: the bodhisattwa must return
from the mountaintop cave to chop water and carry wood. I believe religion can
inform therapy with a conscience, an attention to ethics. When therapy, has
become decapitated, blindly groping in neurons and protoplasm for the essence
of humanity, religion can remind it that the Soul yet lives. It is when therapy
can lead us again to reclaim the Transpersonal Self, and that the Illumined and
Christ-like Being that religion endeavors to bring forth can minister to the
least among us, that is, the human part, that we shall see this rift healed.
Then the lower and the Higher shall become as one, and a human being, at long
last, can be Whole.
end
Meditation in Psychology
Applications of Meditation in Psychology
By George A. Boyd ©1989
Excerpted from The Yoga of the Seven Mudras:
The Mudrashram System of Integral Meditation