"The Self is relatedness; the Self doesn't exist without relationship. Only when the Self mirrors itself in so many mirrors does it really exist... You can never come to your Self by building a meditation hut on top of Mount Everest; you will only be visited by your own ghosts and that is not individuation... You are alone with yourself and the Self doesn't exist... Not that you are, but that you do is the Self. The Self appears in your deeds, and deeds always mean relationship." C.G. Jung

My approach to counseling and psychotherapy is based on the principles of depth psychology. Modern depth psychology originated with Freud and Jung. It is a psychological approach that aims for greater understanding of ourselves by peering beneath the surface of our behaviors and feelings and into the depths of the psyche and its inner workings.

Archetypal themes, which in antiquity used to be projected onto God(s), and in various ways play out in mythology and fairy tales, often play out within us as our life unfolds. It seems that when we are presented with life crises we are most drawn to discover the themes running through the course of our lives in order to find meaning and purpose in our unique, individual life.

It was C.G. Jung that laid the groundwork for a psychology of the spirit. Jung's theories were derived through delving deeply into his own depression and suffering. Through his life long attention to the study of the workings of the psyche, Jung discovered that there is a spontaneous religious and spiritual function within us. He called this inner center the Self. In his studies he came to discover that the Self is the religion making function in man and is responsible for the sense of direction and meaning in our lives.

In following the call of the "God within" we begin to sense that there is something more to us than what we know ourselves to be, something greater and more powerful and joyous than that available by our ego functioning alone. In fact much of our pain and suffering is "Self" chosen. It is quite often through pain and suffering of some sort, including symptoms of depression, irritability, anxiety, anger and frustration that the Self talks to us.

Even science now has begun to attend to the deeper aspects of the unconscious Self within. Some scientists are even beginning to define stress as "spiritual heart disease". More and more physicians are prescribing yoga and meditation. When we learn a deeper process of listening to the voice within, going into our symptoms rather than trying to avoid them through drugs and hyperactivity, a process can begin in which our will becomes more aligned with "divine will". Quite often this passage into our deeper selves comes only through listening to our pain. It is quite common that we would rather avoid this "dark night of the soul" rather than embrace a life that would really be more suited to us.

Just as there are periods of physical growth of the body during childhood and adolescence, there are various stages of "psychic growth" all through our adult lives. These transitions usually create some degree of pain for us and quite often offer us increased opportunities for learning more about ourselves. Our consciousness of Self and our world expands. In these transitional stages we often have to let go of our old point of view, which often feels like a death, in order to embrace more and more of what we didn't know about ourselves previously. There are transitions from adolescence to early adulthood, from early adulthood to settling in and acquiring career skills and experience, from being single to finding a mate, adjusting to career changes, raising family, from early adulthood to midlife, deepening spiritually after midlife, retirement and transition into older age.

Interspersed among these typical transitions are any number of individual crises that can emerge in life. Infertility, pain and/or medical disability, grief or loss of a loved one, divorce, marital discord, and lack of direction and meaning in life.

Counseling in Jungian depth psychology strives to assist the individual to find meaning and balance in their lives by going deeply into psychological or physical symptoms. The approach is akin to homeopathy in that from this point of view, it is the darkness of our pain and symptoms that holds the key to our health and wholeness. From a Jungian point of view the individual is encouraged to listen more deeply to their pain and symptoms rather than symply trying to get away from them. Jungian counseling emphasizes keeping an openness to the "unknown Self within" so that we can establish a healthier relationship to our deeper nature and develop a more balanced personality. Within this approach then, it is not as important to discuss what we know about our problems, but what we don't know about them. Thus,counseling will include not only a discussion of the presenting situation or problem, but a discussion of dreams, fantasies, moods, and other such "products of the unconscious". The attempt is always to strive for a deeper Self understanding and a more balanced, meaningful life.

Within this process, the psyche is trusted to guide the process of counseling rather than the psychologist diagnosing and treating the individual as in the medical model. In a sense, the unconscious, our Higher Self, knows more than our concscious will. We have a certain wisdom within us that often does not accord with our conscious attitudes or point of view. Thus, working with the unconscious often shows us where we need to expand or change so that we can heal and realize our full potential.