Transpersonal Therapy
Holistic approach
Transpersonal work takes an all-encompassing look at you, and encourages you to look within and source your own inner wisdom. At its most practical level is simply an umbrella term that encompasses a wide variety of humanistic, client-centered, relational approaches.
"Transpersonal" can be defined simply as transcending the personal.
The “personal” here refers to the physical realm. The tangible, concrete world that we live in. In psychology, this is the domain of the personality, or the ego. In therapy, personality-based work would include problem solving, setting goals, making changes in lifestyle choices, etc.--do I stay at my current job, or do I need to start looking in a new direction? What can I do to incorporate more self-care into my busy schedule?...
So, what does it mean to go beyond the personal, or beyond the ego in therapy?
Transpersonal-based work would mean taking the question, “do I stay at my job, or do I need to start looking in a new direction?” a step further, asking questions such as, “what is my path or true calling? Is my current job, or lifestyle, in alignment with that? Am I truly happy?”
Transpersonal work includes making meaning of our difficult life experiences, exploring our life purpose, contacting and connecting with our intuition, and sometimes includes asking the big existential questions like, why am I here? or what happens when we die?
Through a transpersonal lens, all of our experiences are valuable and potentially growth enhancing. Every experience we have, even the darkest and most devastating, are seen to be important, and all emotional experience is welcomed and seen as an integral part of being alive.
From a transpersonal perspective our mind, body and spirit are intricately connected, therefore in order to address psychological symptoms we often have to address the body and spirit as well.
At it’s core, “transpersonal” signifies an approach and philosophy that highly values wholeness, relationship, and connection to Self.
