“I walked with integrity out of a marriage that didn’t work, healed a history of sexual trauma and have come to know and embrace myself. I now feel self-actualized and am becoming all that I can be.”
Jungian Therapy is a direct hotline to consciousness.
Jungian Therapy emphasizes wholistic view of your individual psyche categorized into different inner aspects. These operate at different levels of consciousness. In Jung’s model, each individual psyche is composed of various modes of functioning: The persona engages with the material world of relationships and objects. Ego operates through the individual’s conscious awareness. Personal unconscious involves the automatic processes of the mind that are beyond introspection – memories, suppressed motivations.
The deepest level of the psyche is the collective unconscious, which comprises inherited constructs or “archetypes.” Unlimited in scope and scale, archetypes are universal ideas operating through individuals and the world. They may manifest as cultural symbols, characters or roles; mother, father, witch, warrior, heroine, devil, angel, trickster, victim and hero. Archetypes are powerful and can wreck havoc with individual lives when unconscious. An understanding of these archetypal forces can help us see aspects within self, others, and the world.
“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
— Carl Jung
Dreamwork
Often written about as a source of mystery and inspiration, dreams shape our lives by offering us a direct conduit to the unconscious and its knowledge. Dreams present us with images which, when explored, offer guidance and understanding. Dreams often reflect the movements of our lives– times of turmoil or emotional intensity– helping us gain a deeper understanding of our inner states, and in them we may encounter mythic archetypes.
Carl Jung, the Swiss psychologist whose work is the basis of Jungian Psychotherapy, held that Dreams were “a dialogue between ego and the self,” wherein people, animals and even objects represent aspects of the dreamer’s psyche.
The subjects of dreams issued forth from a collective unconscious that could be interpreted – objectively or subjectively – and used to derive meaning and understanding of experiences in the dreamer’s waking life. Dreamwork approaches dreams as a source of wholeness. Entering into the language of dreams and symbolism, we can derive a depth of meaning that informs our waking awareness.
Through integrating the disparate parts of her psyche – ego, personal unconscious and collective unconscious–into a cohesive, well-understood whole, this work enables the individual to have a deeper understanding of her unconscious motivations, desires and the effects of life traumas experienced, thus achieving greater efficacy.
Sand Tray Therapy
Sand tray therapy allows an individual to spontaneously express their present emotional experience by creating a sand box world of symbolic imagery. Akin to the world creation process at work in night time dreaming, the sand tray process takes place without conscious intent or preconceived ideas. In both processes, myriad characters and objects spontaneously form an environment that expresses the feeling sense of the dreamer’s deep inner world. In a session, with a felt sense of something you want to explore, you select a basketful of characters and objects that feel animated by resonance, attraction or repulsion. You place these in the sand where they find their “right place.” Together, we invite them to speak, telling us who they are and what they would say to you and to each other. Emphasizing your individual experience in the moment, sand tray therapy encourages deeper parts of you to open up, to let themselves be heard and known emotionally, and also seen in an interactive context that reveals unconscious patterns.
Sand tray therapy can also serve as a way of exploring relationship dynamics. You can play-act relationships in the past, present and future to feel and deal in new ways, add needed resources to heal, and re-pattern new relational possibility in the imaginal world. Or actual interactions between a parent and child can be facilitated by variations of sand tray play. These methods often result in the freedom to express what was previously inexpressible within the context of a particular relationship or situation. Sand tray therapy primarily serves individual adults and children, with occasional parent-child or family relations applications. All creative and expressive processes takes place in a safe, non-judgmental therapeutic environment.
“I love sand tray therapy. When I don’t want to talk, or engage with my mind Kristen asks that I express creatively. Making a sand tray world always reveals more than my mind could know. Through dialogue and interaction with the characters, I know and feel more direct access to what is really going on inside. The process is powerfully healing.”
Creativity & Play
Creativity and play allow for a client’s self-expression that is at once opening, healing, revealing and fun! Expressive therapy methods such as drawing, left and right hand dialogue, coloring and spontaneous ritual help clients better know themselves, resolve conflicts, remove inner blocks and gain confidence in their unique expression. The world of symbol and imagery opens the doorway between the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious which supports the client to access deeper resources in the Soul Work process.
Adults feeling “stuckness” in a session are invited to pick and object or creative method of channeling in an inner state. Working with children, play is their primary means of expression and healing. Through play a child will intuitively explore concepts or emotions, process their feelings, gain awareness of their capabilities and draw connections between their internal and external lives. Creative outlets such as drawing can be used to bring a child’s unconscious to the surface, facilitating a better understanding of the child’s experiences and mental health needs. Used as therapeutic technique, creativity can improve insight into a child’s psychological state, resolve conflicts, reduce stress, work through trauma, release blocks and communicate a child’s inner state – helping the child to heal.
