Psychoanalytical Therapy - Jungian Psychology

The Individuation Process!

We live in a fast-paced world today where the individual has almost become extinct in terms of society, which refers to people collectively for example school children, the elderly, the unemployed, youth or single parents, the poor, the rich etc.

Being labelled helps us to fade away as an individual and labels can impact; some more intensely then others; and impact upon our self-worth and the way we value our self as the collective becomes more important than the individual, you’ve heard the saying “think of others before yourself” this in itself is not a bad thing, it is healthy to think about others. However, we as individuals are equally important not less than or more than another but equally important and of value to our world and the collective world we live in.

It does seem in this modern world both the ‘disease to please’ and its counterpart me, me, me syndromes have become the expected norms neither of these two bode well for a healthy society, but then we don’t seem to be that healthy or balanced for that matter. Otherwise we would all be living in harmony with each other, greed, selfishness, wars wouldn’t exist, there would be no disgruntled people saying “I was only trying to help” but not helping at all!

No rich or poorer but all equal with enough to live by happily, in contentment and peace!

This is where the Individuation Process has a very important and valued role to play for the collective in our modern-day societies.

So, what is the Individuation process?

Carl Gustave Jung spent most of his adult life exploring and advocating for the Individuation process. What it means is becoming aware of our self at the deepest levels of who we are as a human being. It means becoming aware of what makes us as an individual Human Being ‘tick’, what makes us individual and unique and to discover our true, inner, authentic Self.

The Individuation process is about the quest for searching for and achieving the knowing of our authentic Self. Its about answering those questions of ‘Who am I’? “What am I”; It’s about everyone reaching for and achieving their fullest potential which in turn helps the world around us and the world at large.

Most of us wear a mask to the outside world, we don’t offer our true authentic vulnerable self to the world for fear of being swallowed up or lost. Many are lost, dissatisfied with the world they live in but have to join the rat race in order to survive; yet life is so much more than surviving! Wearing our mask for almost all of the day is exhausting and uses up a lot of our energy needlessly.

The Individuation process is a discovery of the real true Self, Self-realization and all that which we are and can be! This means making the unconscious, conscious in order to know thy Self well, from the inside out rather than from the outside in! Individuation process doesn’t negate either the unconscious or conscious mind it integrates the two and does justice to both!

To explore and discover this central whole Self Jung used the ideas of free associations, dream analysis and active imagination of the individual and the collective ideas from symbols, fairy tales, superstitions and beliefs about supernatural powers. The collective entities he called The Complexes, which he believed were the basis of psycho-neurosis i.e. anxieties, phobia’s, OCD and panic for example.

“I use the term individuation to denote the process by which a person becomes a psychological; individual, that is, a separate, indivisible unity or ‘whole’ (The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Collected Works, Vol,9, p.275)

Carl G Jung

All that is in the world is energy and the human is no different we are energetic systems which flow, get blocked or stay stuck; if we choose to undertake the Individuation process we learn to become all that which we can become; we also learn how to self-regulating our psyche energies, tame the furious unknown, the unhealthy patterns on automatic repeat , the energy sappers and reveal to our self all that we are capable of being. Once this has been achieved you've be surprised at how much more energy you have available to enjoy your life and living in the here and now.

In therapy in partnership we look at the opposing attitudes of our ego and the unconscious; Jung believed these two to be opposing and as such the cause of our neurosis! We look at the collective, the personal through parts of our personality such as our Persona which represents the mask, our Shadow that which pricks, stabs and holds us back by hiding, denying, exuding unreal fantasies and anxieties for example. The Anima and Animus the feminine and masculine sides both sexes have within and the significance of the Archetypes and Associations as they play out in our everyday living.

We learn how to slow the pendulum of our own mind from its erratic swing from one psyche extremity to the other and we learn to slow our pendulum towards and achieve balance and peace.

Jungian therapy is a creative, imaginative and thorough therapy it utilise and develops the whole person which includes the mind, body and soul by exploring conscious content, mental patterns, memories, thoughts, feelings, beliefs, intuitions, life experiences and to tap into unconscious free association, active imagination, synchronicity, the archetypes and symbols.

Jung defines the 'Self' as the centre of the whole Human Being which regulates the center of the ‘psyche’

If this is something you are interest in achieving then contact me to start the walk to your wholeness and path of contentment and peace!

YOU can heal your life!