Life Passages | Brian Collinson

Entries Tagged as 'life passages'

Psychotherapy and Renewal: Persephone’s Big Comeback

April 5th, 2011 · No Comments · analytical psychology, archetypal experience, Carl Jung, depth psychology, inner life, Introversion, journey, Jungian, Jungian analysis, life passages, mythology, personal myth, personal story, psychological crisis, Psychology and Suburban Life, psychotherapist, Psychotherapy, renewal, Self, soul, therapist, therapy, unconscious

The Persephone myth conveys a natural movement in psychological life For Persephone, it is only as she is detached from her familiar world, and descends to the Underworld that she can bring the blessing and the gift of the seasons, of new green life, and fecundity. Sometimes the encounter with life’s circumstances and with the unconscious can seem like a sudden plunge into darkness and descent into the underworld. But the underworld has its own gifts that it brings. Only those who can accept those gifts, and eat the food of the underworld, can bring the gift of life and fertility back to the “surface world” of their everyday lives.

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.

The Psychological Meaning of the Chilean Miners

October 15th, 2010 · 4 Comments · archetypal experience, Current Affairs, Hope, inner life, mine rescue, Psychology, Psychology and Suburban Life, psychotherapist, Psychotherapy, resilience, symbolism, therapy

The story of rescue of the miners trapped at the bottom of the mine at Copiapo, Chile embodies resilience,to a remarkable degree. The world’s media have been following the fortunes of the miners with tremendous verve and intensity. From a psychological point of view, why is it that this story grips us so?

Persisting Imprints of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

September 16th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, psychological crisis, psychotherapist, Psychotherapy, stress, Trauma

There has been a considerable amount of valuable recent research on changes to the brains of Americans as the result of 9/11, as a recent article on the Discovery website reports. The article relies on the research of Judith Richman and colleagues published in 2008 in the American Journal of Public Health , which concluded, among [...]

Jungian Psychology, Caregiving and the Self

August 31st, 2010 · No Comments · aging, Jungian psychology, Psychology and Suburban Life, psychotherapist, Psychotherapy, Self

Studies like Supporting Informal Caregivers – The Heart of Home Care and Caring for Seniors With Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Forms of Dementia show us an important aspect of a social reality that impacts our society, and in Jungian terms, has a huge impact on the individuation processes of very large numbers of individuals.

Escaping the Grip of Regret, Part 3: Through Phoenix Gate

August 11th, 2010 · 4 Comments · complexes, depression, depth psychology, guilt, Individuation, inner life, Jungian analysis, Jungian psychology, Psychology and Suburban Life, regret, Shadow, soul, therapy, unconscious, unlived life, wholeness

Hopefully I have succeeded in making one very central thing clear: regret is not some peripheral thing in our lives that is going to be cleared away by simply improving our thinking. It strikes deeper. It is much more fundamental. How then are we to deal with the presence of regret in our lives? To answer this question in our own personal way, we have to meet this question for ourselves head on.

Escaping the Grip of Regret, Part 2: The Power of Regret

July 29th, 2010 · 2 Comments · complexes, compulsion, decision, depression, depth psychology, guilt, Hope, Individuation, inner life, Jungian analysis, Jungian psychology, life passages, midlife, Psychology, Psychology and Suburban Life, Psychotherapy, regret, soul, The Self, therapy, unconscious, wholeness

In my last posting, I tried to open up the whole subject of regret, and the powerful and sometimes crippling place that it can occupy in our lives, and how we can be held in slavery to regret of all the choices we could have made differently, or courses of events that could have turned out differently. In this posting, I’d [...]

Trust and Betrayal, Part 2: 4 Simple, Difficult Truths

June 2nd, 2010 · No Comments · depth psychology, Hope, Meaning, parent-child interactions, psychological crisis, Psychotherapy, Relationships, The Self, therapy, trust

Following on from my last blog post on trust and betrayal, the following are four truths about the experience of betrayal of trust. They are surprisingly easy to state. However, really taking in what they mean for our lives is likely a much bigger psychological task. 1. An Experience of Betrayal Can Deeply Impact A Person’s Ability [...]

Stuck

April 4th, 2010 · No Comments · complexes, compulsion, depth psychology, Hope, Identity, Individuation, inner life, Jungian analysis, Psychology and Suburban Life, soul, wholeness

One of the common experiences that brings people into therapy is the feeling of being “stuck”. This is an expression that people commonly use to describe the experience of being brought up again and again against some psychological issue that seems incredibly difficult or even impossible to resolve. Sometimes this sense of “stuckness” can concern some aspect [...]

When You Hit a Brick Wall

July 9th, 2009 · No Comments · Carl Jung, depression, depth psychology, Jungian analysis, Jungian psychology, life passages, midlife, psychological crisis, Psychology and Suburban Life, Psychotherapy, soul, stress, The Self, unconscious, wholeness

Often people get to the point in life where they reach an impasse, and they don’t know how to solve a particular situation in their lives. There doesn’t seem to be a way forward and there doesn’t seem to be a solution. Although this can happen at any point in life, it seems particularly prevalent at mid-life. Often, the way one becomes [...]

Brian Collinson

Journeying Toward Wholeness