Your persona is the role that you play in social settings. It is how you want to be known or perceived by other people. As your “public face,” your persona represents only a part of who you are. The rest of you is hidden in its shadow, out of public view. In your dreams your…
Betty is 82 years-old and developing dementia. The clock that hangs on the wall of her room kept dropping its minute hand so I fixed it for her. Now the hands stay on but the time is off, sometimes by hours. Helen is 85 and lives down the hall from Betty. Her battery-operated clock is…
My last article in this series introduced readers to the work of Arnold Mindell, A Jungian-trained psychologist who has developed ways of working with body symptoms for personality growth. This article discusses two of Dr. Mindell’s techniques that may help you utilize your body symptoms/illnesses for personal transformation. The first technique involves approaching the symptom(s) as…
A young blue jay clung to the branch of the oak tree outside my window, wrestling a still-green acorn from its stem. The stem eventually relented and he took his prize to some nearby rocks where he laid it in a crevice and tried, with much determination but little success, to crack it open. I…
Has life lost its meaning? There are a lot of discouraged people in the world. They have stopped trying, stopped taking risks, stopped feeling, and stopped living. Some have been discouraged so often or so deeply, that they now discourage themselves almost without thinking. Negativity and cynicism color their world. They come to therapy in…
Speaking on the subject of recurring psychological struggles, Carl Jung once noted that, “we don’t solve our problems, we outgrow them.” If this is true, then therapy is really about helping people to grow and, eventually, to outgrow certain issues or unhelpful life patterns. But what, exactly, does it mean to outgrow something? Growth is…
“A terrifying symptom is usually your greatest dream trying to come through.” Arnold Mindell, PhD When people draw a connection between their wounds/illnesses and God, it is often by viewing their physical ailments as a form of punishment for real or imagined sins and failings. Much more rarely are wounds and illnesses seen as constructive…
Have you had enough of the ego’s way? Are you tired of the boredom, loneliness, depression and anxiety that characterize a life built around the ego? Are you ready to move beyond the surface of things to discover a deeper source of meaning, value and purpose in life? Perhaps it is time to start doing…
A woman dreamed, “Some women are picking out drab and uninspiring clothes for me to wear. I would feel pretty much invisible if I wore them. I get angry and tell them I won’t wear those clothes. They get angry in return, rip the clothes off of me, and smear green and black paint on…
For plants and animals summer is a time of quickened growth and development. The flowers of spring become the seeds, fruits, and vegetables of fall’s harvest. Likewise, most animal young achieve their greatest growth during this time of abundance and warmth. Your personal psychology also has its seasons. The summers of your life are times…