Wholeness | Brian Collinson

Entries Tagged as 'wholeness'

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.

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.

The Self as Hidden Treasure in Jungian Psychotherapy

January 27th, 2011 · No Comments · alchemy, art, C. G. Jung, collective consciousness, depth psychology, False self, Identity, parent-child interactions, Psychology and Suburban Life, Psychotherapy, Relationships, religious symbolism, Self, self-knowledge, symbolism

Jungian psychotherapy and Jungian analysis put a high value on the uniqueness of the individual, and on the treasure that is the inmost Self. Jungians see symbollic reflection of the value of the Self as hidden treasure in many texts from the world’s artistic, religious, spiritual and philosophical traditions. At the base of all this symbolization there lies a profound and precious truth about human existence. It is a truth about the nature of the human self. At the core of each of us, there is that element in us, an awareness, that is unique and precious, that defines what we most fundamentally are. Sometimes that is represented symbollically as a hidden treasure, sometimes as a gemstone, sometimes in a variety of other ways.

In January, with Mind, Body, and Instinct

January 20th, 2011 · No Comments · archetypal experience, archetypes, body, Carl Jung, consciousness, cravings, dreams, inner life, instinct, Jungian analysis, Psychology and Suburban Life, psychotherapist, Psychotherapy, seasonal affective disorder, self-knowledge, The Self, unconscious, wholeness

This post is much more directly concerned with the subjective experience of mind, and especially of body and instinct…. Modern humans can be very cut off from the instinctual basis of life, and even from being aware of our bodily existence…. But, even so, as Jung tells us, the instinctual side continues to function, along with the whole broad psychic processing of of inner and outer experience. It’s always with us, and one important way to move closer to wholeness is to work actively to be aware of that.

Jungian Psychotherapy, the Dream and the New Year

January 1st, 2011 · 4 Comments · archetypal experience, Carl Jung, depth psychology, dreams, Identity, Individuation, inner life, life journey, Meaning, personal myth, personal story, Psychology and Suburban Life, therapy

As individuals, we at New Year are confronted with the problem of the death and renewal of our own conscious attitude, with the very deep level question of “What is meaningful for me now?” and “On what foundation can I base my life, as I move forward into it?” There was a time when the answers to these questions were ready-made for many in our culture. In our time, for many, pre-made answers will not suffice. Many of us need a personal connection to realities that will sustain us through the journey.

Dream Interpretation in Jungian Psychotherapy: The Roadblock

December 22nd, 2010 · 6 Comments · dreams, inner life, journey, Jungian, Jungian analysis, life journey, Mississauga, Oakville, Peel Region, persona, Psychology and Suburban Life, Psychotherapy, The Self, therapy, unconscious, wholeness

I thought that I would try and say a little bit in this post about how a Jungian approach to dream interpretation might look like “in action”. Here’s a dream motif that appears sometimes in psychotherapy, in one form or another, the motif of “the roadblock”. It’s one that at times will appear in the dreams of my clients, land, I believe, appears commonly enough in the dream life of people in general.

Life Crisis, Meaning and Psychotherapy

December 9th, 2010 · 1 Comment · analytical psychology, crisis, depression, depth psychology, Existential crisis, Individuation, Meaning, wholeness

When a psychotherapist, and especially a Jungian analyst uses the expression “life crisis” today, he or she means something specific. It’s something different from a “major crisis”, which might be some major change and disruption in a person’s life due to changes in external events or relationships. A life crisis is a crisis about the roots of a person’s life.

Brian Collinson

Journeying Toward Wholeness