The focus of Transpersonal Psychotherapy is to help clients to achieve psycho-spiritual healing and growth through the teaching and coaching of transformative knowledge and practices.
As you may already know, or will know soon come across, research on mental health psychopharmacology medication is advanced in utilising microdoses of psychedelics to achieve, chemically, psycho-spiritual transformative experiences. It seems to be a case of back to the sixties and seventies for both psychopharmacology and psychotherapy. Transpersonal Psychology has been around long before that. Its tradition includes the work of William James and Carl Jung at the beginning of the 20th century.
Transpersonal psychology is the application of knowledge from exceptional human experiences and the transformative capacities of psycho-spiritual practices. These include but are not limited to meditation, holotropic breathing, hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis, creative imagination and art as therapy. Transpersonal psychotherapy is inclined towards action and the developing life-styles that are reflective of the full complexity of the human being.
The creative practices and rituals assist people to achieve levels of well-being beyond standard therapies in often surprising short periods of time. The transformative experiences and psycho-spiritual wellbeing achieved by the application of transpersonal psychology knowledge and practices are not accounted by mainstream cognitive behavioural, emotion focused, humanistic or psychoanalytical therapies.
Transpersonal Psychology derives its power from its position; the intersection where psychology and the wisdom traditions of humanity meet. Transpersonal Psychologists study and research knowledge, postulations and practices from any spiritual discipline; from east, west or pre-modern shamanic traditions from around the word. It studies any practice that may have a growth capacity for people without getting bogged down in neither religious or psychological dogma and literal narrow interpretations of texts.
A number of Transpersonal Psychology practices have been incorporated to psychotherapies such as Cognitive, Behavioural, Dialectical Behavioural and particularly Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Positive Psychology. Chief among these practices is mindfulness; a very effective practice that now has become a component of not only psychological but also physical therapies. However Transpersonal Psychologists use their knowledge with the intention of instituting healing and growth well beyond symptom remediation.
As a clinician I have ample experience in working within the parameters of standard psychological therapies. I also have a lifelong interest and experience in working from a perspective that assists clients to understand themselves as beings that are much more than a collection of cells. Also, to understand their experiences to be something broader than caused by a chemical imbalance.
However, a central value of mine is being client centred. Therefore your needs and preference are primary. I am just as committed to assisting clients from a symptom based therapy such as CBT; if this is what they require and want. These therapies are supported by Medicare, unlike Transpersonal Therapy, and often are very helpful and sufficient to help you regain psychological well being.