Analytical Psychology | Brian Collinson

Entries Tagged as 'analytical psychology'

Jungian Therapy, Loneliness and Life Transitions

January 11th, 2012 · 5 Comments · Jungian, Jungian therapy, life transitions, loneliness, Transitions

Recently, I’ve been struck by the number of clients who have come to see me in the course of undergoing very significant life transitions. The situations of these clients bring home to me a lot of significant truths about the loneliness experienced at such times

Jungian Therapy, Time and the New Year: 4 Reflections

January 5th, 2012 · No Comments · Jungian, Jungian therapy, New Year, therapy, Time

If life is limited and finite, I need to live in the ways that are most meaningful to me. To do that, I must know what it is that I really value. And to know what it is that I really value, I will have to encounter those parts of myself that I do not usually encounter or acknowledge — the undiscovered unconscious self.

Jungian Therapy, Individuation & Dealing with Feeling

November 24th, 2011 · 6 Comments · Feeling, Individuation, Jungian, Jungian therapy, therapy

In Jungian therapy, discovering feeling is often a key to individuation, the discovery of our individual identity. Feeling is one of the things that makes us human; discovering our own unique feeling is often an important path to ourselves.

Psychotherapy, Jungian Analysis and Creativity

March 30th, 2011 · 2 Comments · collective consciousness, creativity, depth psychology, image, imagination, inner life, Jungian analysis, Psychotherapy, unconscious

Some fear that psychotherapy, even Jungian psychotherapy will lack creativity. They are concerned that it will be a difficult process of dredging up things from the past, a net energy drain. Often they envisage talking endlessly to a minimally responsive therapist who records everything, but shows little of his or her reaction. They even fear that it will be overly rational, and distant from feeling. But it doesn’t have to be so. Proper therapeutic work can bring genuinely creative possibilities into being.

Jungian Psychotherapy, and Our “Typical”, Atypical Self

March 13th, 2011 · 2 Comments · analytical psychology, Identity, Individuation, inner life, journey, Jungian analysis, Jungian psychology, personal growth, Psychology and Suburban Life, psychotherapist, Psychotherapy, Self, self-knowledge, The Self

How do you compare to the “most typical person” in this video? When it comes to the categories the video looks at, perhaps your conclusion, like mine is that “The most typical person in the world is not like me, in many respects.” But might there be some deeper ways, which don’t fit into the categories in the video, in which you and any one of these “typical people” are alike? At another level, what is it that gives you your particular identity, that makes any of these “typical” people and you both unique individuals?

Jungian Psychotherapy and the Reality of Grief

March 4th, 2011 · 3 Comments · analytical psychology, archetypal experience, depth psychology, grief, Jungian analysis, Jungian psychology, life journey, Meaning, parent-child interactions, psychological crisis, Psychology and Suburban Life, psychotherapist, Psychotherapy, symbolism, wholeness

The intensity of grief as an experience is something shared by almost all human beings. Its devastating character echoes down through the aeons, affecting nearly every life in every generation. Clearly, anyone who has a grief reaction of any intensity is never going to forget the loved one, in any emotional sense. The yearning for their presence is always going to be a part of the bereaved person’s life. To find a place of security and acceptance to process these feelings is essential.

Psychotherapy and Instinct: Saving Our Inner Sled Dogs

February 15th, 2011 · No Comments · animal nature, body, C. G. Jung, depth psychology, instinct, Psychotherapy, symbol, symbolism, therapy, unconscious

From a Jungian symbolic perspective, animals, and dogs in particular, often symbolize the bodily and instinctual dimensions of human life. When they appear in our dreams, for instance, dogs can often symbolize our instinctual side. This may relate to the sexual side of our nature, but it more often relates to the basic need for affiliation and companionship that humans share with dogs, and that we see mirrored in them.

Saying No: Jungian Psychotherapy, the Self, and Compliance

February 9th, 2011 · 5 Comments · analytical psychology, archetypal experience, boundaries, C. G. Jung, depression, depth psychology, ego, Existential crisis, Identity, Individuation, life journey, Lifestyle, parental complex, personal growth, psychological crisis, Psychology and Suburban Life, Self, The Self, therapy, unconscious, unlived life, wholeness

The self is something greater than, and distinct from, the ego,and it is something that plays a very active role in the psychological life of the individual. I often see it at work when I have the experience of working with individuals who have simply reached the point where they cannot accommodate the inappropriate needs of others any further.

Shadow Identity: Inside You Someone Waits to Emerge

February 4th, 2011 · No Comments · analytical psychology, Jungian analysis, Self, self-knowledge, Shadow

The calling of the depth psychotherapist is to assist in the encounter of the one who wishes to emerge with the already established identity of the person who starts to hear the call of their inner self, in whatever form that call takes. The depth psychotherapist recognizes that these are elements of one and the same person. and that, for a person to love, accept and acknowledge him or herself, the known self and the undiscovered or emerging self must embrace each other. Then the person will live in the awareness of his or her true self, and her or his own real life.

Psychotherapy, Self and a Snow Day

February 2nd, 2011 · No Comments · analytical psychology, Anxiety, depression, inner life, life journey, Lifestyle, Meaning, Mississauga, Oakville, Peel Region, personal story, Psychology and Suburban Life, Psychotherapy, reflection, Self, soul, The Self, therapy

In this open space of time, you have the opportunity to learn something about yourself, about relationship, and about your feelings about your own real life. This day, seeming empty, may prove to be a doorway, if you take the opportunity it provides to look within yourself.

Brian Collinson

Journeying Toward Wholeness