On this page I hope to provide you with some further and regularly updated information regarding Positive psychology and Transpersonal psychology. I hope to also provide some useful website links and recommended reading.

I hope that with the therapy I offer I am able to work with a particular focus towards Transpersonal psychology and positive psychology.

In my own therapy practice I work with Hypnosis and encourage self hypnosis, meditation, self compassion and other ‘pieces of the wellbeing jigsaw’ to enhance therapy and as a way of maintaining well being once issues have been resolved, enabling the client to access resourceful states and acknowledge their strengths, abilities, and capabilities- this is where my focus on Positive psychology comes into play. I also encourage transpersonal techniques such as yoga, and diet, being mindful of mind/body interconnectedness and the value of the whole person, whilst  taking care not to advise and to be mindful of the clients own world view.

Transpersonal  concepts are also an essential feature within the transpersonal approach- to be explored and utilised, such as compassion, and forgiveness, for example towards’ one’s parents or those they have had difficult relationships with, where they find they are unable to let go of the emotional attachment from the memory. Anecdotally, I have seen people respond well and feel better with this approach which is non confrontational and not time limited.

Although I work within an integrated approach to therapy, I believe that my work is essentially solution focused and working towards the Transpersonal.

There are important Transpersonal assumptions that are important to me as a therapist, as people work through their issues, including:

“A trusting in the client’s inherent ability to heal themselves” (McAleer 2009, p30).

‘Deep empathy’

I agree with Puhakka (2000, cited in McAleer, 2009, p33)

“What facilitates deep empathy is full emotional responsiveness to another and being able to resonate with the other”

Reference:

MCALEER, E. (2009). Transpersonal therapy, the transpersonal encounter, and deep empathy. Transpersonal Psychology Review, 13(1), 3-28. 

Psychosynthesis courses to look out for in 2011

For personal and professional development you may really enjoy attending the excellent psychotherapy courses that are run by the Didsbury Therapy Partnership at The Synthesise Centre in Didsbury.

As part of the MSc I am currently undertaking, I decided to explore Psychosynthesis further, for personal development and experiential learning. I was truly awakened and amazed at the power of the course to open up ideas , thoughts and feelings of such a beneficial nature that I truly believe it has strengthened me personally and I can pass on the benefits within my therapy practice.

John Shiers and Louis Taeijon are without doubt superb teachers and therapists, both are extremely compassionate, intuitive, and knowledgeable

Psychosynthesis is Transpersonal Psychotherapy

“CORE PRINCIPLES OF INTEGRAL PSYCHOSYNTHESIS

Core to psychosynthesis is the understanding that human beings do, at the deepest level of our being, have a sense of our interconnectedness to one another, to the planet and to life. The question "who am I" is an unavoidable one. It is at the heart of the evolutionary process of growth and development The pain, emotional wounding and trauma that we may experience in life creates a sense of being separate and alone in the universe. Not knowing ourselves and our potential causes the most profound suffering in our relationship with self, others and the planet.

In psychosynthesis symptoms which cause pain and suffering carry within them emergent possibilities for growth and development. At the heart of every symptom is a call to trust that we are part of the Great Mystery of life, however this mystery may be understood. We are not ultimately the separate, divided self we may think we are.

In recent years, particularly through the work of the transpersonal researcher Ken Wilber, there has been growing interest in what is becoming known as the integral approach. The integral approach recognises the interconnection of body, mind and spirit within an evolutionary process that we, as human beings, can influence through our consciousness and awareness.”The Didsbury therapy partnership

For further information about courses and the work at the Psychosynthesis centre visit

www.didsburytherapy.co.uk  or telephone 0161 434 444

I would like to share a helpful practice that William Bloom shared in his e- newsletter recently. This will be particularly useful in the winter months

“SUN-SOAKING

As we move deeper into the winter months some of you may begin to miss the sunlight and even go into that form of melancholy and low energy, known as SAD — Seasonal Affective Disorder. There is a natural remedy for this, which might work for you — it works for me — and which also teaches some useful lessons for other areas of our lives, personal and spiritual.

I am sure that many of you will be familiar with these strategies, but this is what I do.   It does not matter what else is going on in my life, if the sun is out, I make sure that I go and sit in the sunlight for fifteen minutes every day, my face directly towards it. I wrap up warmly, plonk myself in a garden chair and absorb the rays. I learned this years ago from a young Norwegian friend who told me that this was the way that he survived the long Scandinavian winters. I do it first thing in the morning or during work-breaks.

When I write ‘absorb the rays’, that is exactly what I do. Using my imagination and visualisation, I work with my body’s subtle sensations so that I imagine and feel that my flesh, muscles and bones are absorbing the sunlight. I breathe it in. In particular, I feel it coming into my eyes and travelling down the optic nerve and into my brain. I absorb the sunlight into my brain cells and then visualise it going down my spinal cord and into the rest of my nervous system.

This is not simple sun-bathing. It is sun-soaking.

Even when it is hidden by cloud or during the night, the sun is always there. This is a bit like a pantomime when the audience shouts, ‘It’s behind you!’ Whether you can see the sun or not, we are always part of the solar system and the great golden disc, the solar deity, is ever present.”

For more information about William’s work and newsletters visit:

http://williambloom.com.

Positive Psychology

"Positive psychology is a recent branch of psychology whose purpose was summed up in 2000 by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: "We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise that achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving in individuals, families, and communities."^[1] Positive psychologists seek "to find and nurture genius and talent", and "to make normal life more fulfilling",^[2] not simply to treat mental illness. The emerging field of Positive Psychology is intended to complement, not to replace traditional psychology. By scientifically studying what has gone right, rather than wrong in both individuals and societies, Positive Psychology hopes to achieve a renaissance of sorts. This approach has created a lot of interest around the subject, and around 2002, college courses on positive psychology taught by Martin Seligman, Michael Frisch, and others arrived. Little attention was given by the general public until 2006 when using the same framework, a course at Harvard University became particularly popular.^[3]

Several humanistic psychologists—such as Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Erich Fromm—developed theories and practices that involved human happiness. Recently the theories of human flourishing developed by these humanistic psychologists have found empirical support from studies by positive psychologists. Positive psychology has also moved ahead in a number of new directions.

Current researchers in positive psychology include Martin Seligman,^[2] Ed Diener,^[2] Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,^[2] Christopher Peterson,^[2] Carol Dweck, Barbara Fredrickson,^[2] Sonja Lyubomirsky,^[4][5] Kennon Sheldon,^[6] Jonathan Haidt, Shelley Taylor, C. R. Snyder,^[2] Robert Biswas-Diener,^[7] Albert Bandura, Charles S. Carver, Robert Emmons, Michael McCullough, and Phil Zimbardo. Each of these scientists has published influential and well-cited articles. Furthermore, these scientists are considered producers of high quality work outside of the positive psychology guild who publish in mainstream, top-tier psychology journals. This is important as positive psychology, in the end, is another topic in psychological science".

(Wikipedia definition)

"Positive Psychology is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The Positive Psychology Center promotes research, training, education, and the dissemination of Positive Psychology. This field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play.

Positive Psychology has three central concerns: positive emotions, positive individual traits, and positive institutions. Understanding positive emotions entails the study of contentment with the past, happiness in the present, and hope for the future. Understanding positive individual traits consists of the study of the strengths and virtues, such as the capacity for love and work, courage, compassion, resilience, creativity, curiosity, integrity, self-knowledge, moderation, self-control, and wisdom. Understanding positive institutions entails the study of the strengths that foster better communities, such as justice, responsibility, civility, parenting, nurturance, work ethic, leadership, teamwork, purpose, and tolerance.

Some of the goals of Positive Psychology are to build a science that supports:

• Families and schools that allow children to flourish
• Workplaces that foster satisfaction and high productivity
• Communities that encourage civic engagement
• Therapists who identify and nurture their patients' strengths
• The teaching of Positive Psychology
• Dissemination of Positive Psychology interventions in organizations & communities"

(Definition taken from the University of Pennsylvania positive psychology centre website)

For further information on the subject I recommend you visit the website for the Centre for Applied Positive psychology (CAPP) here you will find interesting information about personal strengths and how positive psychology can work for you. Also the strengths website full of resources tips and tools to promote a positive sense of self “Strengths 2020-realising the best of you”

www.cappeu.com

www.strengths2020.com

Recommended reading:

From the founders of positive psychology

“Flow- the classic work on how to achieve happiness” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

ISBN: 0-71265759-2

The New York Times best seller “Authentic happiness” Martin Seligman

ISBN: 1-85788-329-2

Also

“Positive Psychology in a nutshell” by Iona Boniwell is an excellent short introduction to Positive psychology.

ISBN: 0-9548387-8-5

“The strengths book” by Alex Linley, Janet Willars, and Robert Biswas-Diener. “Reveals the sixty strengths that make us who we are”

ISBN: 978-1-906366-09-4

Transpersonal Psychology

Introduction- something to think about (excerpts taken from the LJMU MSc course)

What is Transpersonal?

What is Transpersonal psychology?

"The word transpersonal means: beyond (or through) the personal. It refers to experiences in which there is an expansion of our ordinary limiting sense of self and a feeling of connection to a larger, more meaningful reality. Religious or spiritual experience is often seen as central to the transpersonal agenda, although the transpersonal can also be about extending our concern for (or our sense of identification with) other people, humankind, life, the planet, or nature". (British Psychological Association Transpersonal Association website homepage)

"Despite being influenced by religious ideas and practices, transpersonal psychology is essentially an applied science and not a religion or spiritual ideology. It is also rather different from most traditional approaches to the psychology of religion. Transpersonal psychology, for example, includes a concern with "non-religious" phenomena such as dreaming and the "flow" experience. It is also distinct in its primary emphasis on experience (rather than beliefs, attitudes or social behaviours) and its insistence that the psychologist must participate in (rather than simply observe) the process of spiritual-transformation. In this way personal spiritual experience and practice serve to inform ground and enrich the transpersonal psychologist's research.

Transpersonal psychology is also to be distinguished from parapsychology and psychical research, although they share many important interests (e.g., in lucid dreaming, out-of-body and near-death experiences, reincarnation, mediumistic phenomena and telepathy). The primary emphasis in parapsychology and psychical research is upon seeking objective evidence for the reality of paranormal phenomena, whereas transpersonal psychology is more interested in the subjective meaning that these experiences have for the individual, and in their capacity for promoting psychological and spiritual transformation". (M Daniels- introduction to course module)

Key figures: Jung, Assagioli, Wilber, Maslow

Resources:

Websites:

 www.transpersonalpsychology.org.uk The Transpersonal section of the British Psychological society

www.lamp.ac.uk  for The Alister Hardy Society- The Alister Hardy Society

The Society supports the work of the Alister Hardy Trust and provides a focal point for people interested in the nature and study of spiritual, religious and psychic experiences.

www.transpersonalscience.org Professor Michael Daniels' website for spirituality and transpersonal research.(Michael Daniels phD is editor of The Transpersonal Psychology review - the journal for The Transpersonal Psychology section of The British Psychological society and Professor of Transpersonal Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University. 

www.transpersonalhypnotherapy.co.uk website for the transpersonal hypnotherapy association

www.williambloom.com – William’s spirituality website

www.self-compassion.org A beautiful and helpful website with useful links on this subject and also some very good self help tools that you can put into practice.

Another useful website for compassion is the website for The Compassionate Mind Foundation whose objectives are:

"To promote wellbeing through the scientific understanding and application of compassion" www.compassionatemind.co.uk 

Books:

       Daniels, M. (2005). Shadow, Self, Spirit: Essays in Transpersonal Psychology. Imprint Academic.

       Scotton, B. W., Chinen, A. B., & Battista, J. R. (eds.) (1996). Textbook of Transpersonal Psychiatry and Psychology. Basic Books.

       Walsh, R. & Vaughan, F. (eds.). (1993). Paths Beyond Ego: The Transpersonal Vision. Tarcher/Perigee. Assagioli, R. (2000). Psychosynthesis: A Collection of Basic Writings. The Synthesis Center.

       Firman, J. & Gila, A. (1997). The Primal Wound: A Transpersonal View of Trauma, Addiction and Growth. State University of New York (SUNY)

       James, W. (1997). The Varieties of Religious Experience. Touchstone Books.

       Jung, C.G. (1989). Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Vintage Books.

"The compassionate mind" Professor Paul Gilbert       

As of November 2010 I am currently in the second year undertaking an MSc in Consciousness and Transpersonal psychology at Liverpool John Moore’s University. I hope to complete a thesis in compassion.