Facilitating the experience of soul in supervision and …...Facilitating the experience of soul in supervision and therapy. Dr Els van Ooijen Ass/ u / me Structure 1. Brief talk-

Facilitating the experience of soul in supervision and therapy.

Dr Els van Ooijen

Ass/ u / me

Structure

1. Brief talk- examples from personal experience and work with supervisees and clients.

2. Active imagination, followed by discussion.

3. Comments and questions.

My soul, where are you?

“Do you hear me? I speak, I call you –are you there? I have returned, I am here again. I have shaken the dust of all the lands from my feet, and I have come to you, I am with you. After long years of long wandering, I have come to you again.”

Carl Jung

Soul loss

• Modern world – Left brain dominance

• Movement away from soul in therapy

• Focus on symptoms, techniques, strategies,

• Evidence based practice

• Efficiency Etc.

A therapist’s first concern is always with the health of the client’s soul.

Paraphrased from Hillman (1992:21)

We need to contact our own soul

Enter the depths, the abyss, the underground sea (Jung)

Dark night of the soul

Unconscious ………..Conscious

How to bridge the gap - Carl Jung

• Dreams

• Active Imagination

• Art, creativity – drawing, painting, clay, collage

stones, objects, etc. etc.

Questions to ask ourselves

• Why is it relevant to make soul an integral part of my therapy and supervision practice?

• How am I currently integrating soul and spirituality in my work with clients and supervisees?

• How can I facilitate supervisees to help clients engage with soul?

Client’s spiritual history

Place of spirituality in childhood? How was that?

Is spirituality relevant to client?

Current beliefs – Helpful? Not helpful?

Current member of a community/church?

Current spiritual support?

Current spiritual issues?

How might current views/beliefs influence therapy?

(Powell, 2017)

How can we integrate soul in our practice -through, for example:

• Our consulting room?

• How we prepare before sessions?

• How we are with supervisees and clients

• Allowing a soul to soul connection?

• Our own experience of soul?

• Our own therapy/ support?

• What else?

BibliographyBrewi, J. And Brennan, A. (1999) Mid-Life Spirituality and Jungian Archetypes. York Beach, Maine: Nicolas-Hays.Hillman, J. (1992) Suicide and the Soul. 2nd Ed. Woodstock, Ct, Spring Publications, Inc.Hillman, J. (1996) The Soul’s Code. London: Bantam Books.Hollis, J. 1996) Swamplands of the Soul. New Life in Dismal Places. Toronto, Inner City Books.Jung, C.G. (2009) The Red Book. A Reader’s Edition. London: W.W. Norton & Co. Kalsched, D. (2013) Trauma and the Soul. London: Routledge.Powell, D. (2017) The Ways of the Soul. A Psychiatrist Reflects: Essays on Life, Death and Beyond. London: Muswell Hill Press.Robertson, C. and van Gogh, S. (Eds.) (2018) Transformation in Troubled Times. Re-Vision’s Soulful Approach to Therapeutic Work. Forres, Scotland: Transpersonal Press. Moore, T. (2004) Dark Nights of the Soul. A guide to finding your way through life’s ordeals. London, Piatkus books Ltd.Moore, T. ((1992) Care of he Soul. London: Piatkus Books Lt.Mulhern, A. (2012) Healing Intelligence. London: Karnac Books Ltd.

Useful contacts

Transpersonal Psychology Section, BPS.

Non psychologists can subscribe to the journal Transpersonal Psychology Review. The annual conference is also open to non members.

Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group,

Royal college of Psychiatrists (free resources on website)

https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk

Dr Els van Ooijen

[email protected]