Beyond Transference and Countertransference

I’d like to bring your attention to a new workshop as part of the 40 Days – Alchemy of Tranquility series. This one, specifically for psychotherapists addresses bringing the perspective of ultimate reality to relativity of the intersubjective field. The main presenter, as always, is Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali Kianfar, a bona fide Sufi master from an ancient, venerable lineage. He will be joined by a team of therapists and healing professionals, me among them, who have taken on the work of integrating his traditional teachings with contemporary modalities, to offer a secular-spiritual approach to the deeply compassionate work of healing.

This workshop will be offered at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto on the weekend of March 5th & 6th. You can register or find more information here.

1. On Sunday, October 24th, I will be presenting, along with Dr. Amineh Pryor and Dr. Arife Hammerle at the Science and Nonduality Conference at the Embassy Suites in San Rafael, CA.  Our panel, entitled The Unity of Ancient Wisdom and Current Research is from 3-4 pm. My talk will be on my favorite subject (and the topic of my doctoral research)  Presence in Psychotherapy.
2. On Saturday and Sunday, October 23rd – 24th, we will have the first 40 Days workshop of this year’s series at Dominican University, also in San Rafael -details to follow.

Both programs are part of  40 Days: The Alchemy of Tranquility® program offered by the Community Healing Centers in collaboration with the International Association of Sufism (IAS).

This year promises a very exciting program. The presentations, moderated by Dr. Amineh Amelia Pryor will include:

• Mary Toth Granick, LMFT – Sufi Psychology: An Integration of Mind, Heart, Body, and Spirit
• Michelle Ritterman Ph.D. – Stance, Trance, and Transmission: Responding to This Moment
• Robert Walters, Ph.D. – The Deep Spiritual Wisdom Hiding Within Psychoanalytic Texts

The panel is from 3 – 5 pm at the Embassy Suites Hotel in San Rafael. Cost is $30 and there are CEUs available for MFTs.  AND you can register online!

• this event is about me
• this event reflects something about me
• this event reflects something about my nature
• this event is about something I’ve done
• this other person is aware that their action is having an effect on me
• this other person is aware of what effect their action is having on me
• this other person intends to have the effect on me they are having
• this other person is aware of how I am feeling
• this other person wants me to feel the way I am feeling
• this other person is responding to something they attribute to me
• this other person’s attribution is accurate
• this other person’s action is because of something I’ve done
• this other person’s action is because of something I’ve said
• this other person’s action is because of something about my nature
• this other person knows I exist
• I deserve to be treated the way the other person is treating me
• I should feel the way the other person wants me to feel

These aren’t necessarily inaccurate. However,  if we automatically accept them as true, we set ourselves up to carry an unnecessary burden of responsibility. Simply stepping back and noticing gives us the opportunity to consciously evaluate the situation and determine for ourselves what is so.

The Alchemy of Tranquility

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

Dominican University, Guzman Hall, Room 302

9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

This is the fourth in a series of workshops for psychological balance and spiritual development with Sufi Master Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali Kianfar. The Spring workshop is entitled “Are you ready for practice?”

Call  415 499-1115 or go to www.ias.org/events.html for more information.

Both psychology and spirituality have pointed out that we live in a very limited internal world. Not just our behavior, but even our identities, have been shaped by our environmental conditions. For the most part, what we think of as ourselves is largely a set of psychological habits. It is as if we are living in a trance.

The promise of this story is that we potentially have a much larger domain of experience available to us if we can find a way to break the spell.

Ryan proposed the following five seminal contributions of Meyers’ work:

1. The application of rigorous empirical methods to the study of subjective experience.
2. The assertion of the reality of spiritual experience and the inadequacy of materialism to address it.
3. An extensive map of the psyche as a spectrum of consciousness.
4. A view of the unconscious as an avenue to transcendent experience and higher human potential.
5. Belief in the evolution of consciousness.

In recent years there has been a rediscovery of Meyers’ work and a deepening appreciation of his contribution to psychology in general, and Transpersonal Psychology specifically. A comprehensive review of his work and integration with current developments in the field can be found in the encyclopedic Irreducible Mind (Kelly et al, 2007). Thanks go to Mark Ryan for presenting this voluminous topic in a clear and accessible manner.

Kelly, E. F., Kelly, E. W., Crabtree, A., Gauld, A., Grosso, M., & Greyson, B. (2007). Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

I find that when I am the closest to my inner, intuitive self –when perhaps I am somehow in touch with the unknown in me–when perhaps I am in a slightly altered state of consciousness in the relationship, then whatever I do seems to be full of healing. Then simply my presence is releasing and helpful. At those moments, it seems that my inner spirit has reached out and touched the inner spirit of the other. Our relationship transcends itself, and has become part of something larger. Profound growth and healing are present. (p. 36)

In the same interview he said, “I recognize that when I am intensely focused on a client, just my presence is healing”, and then went on to say, “I think this is probably true of any good therapist [italics added]” (p. 29).

If this is true, then I find myself wondering how many good therapists there are out there. Presence is the subject of my doctoral research, so it’s something I’ve spend a fair amount of time thinking about over the last few years.

Rogers’ quote suggests that beyond training, theory, or technique the quality of a therapist’s being may be an essential ingredient in the healing process that psychotherapy potentially offers. And it further implies that there can be elements of this relationship that are profoundly spiritual.

Baldwin, M. (2000). Interview with Carl Rogers on the use of self in therapy. In M. Baldwin [Ed.] The use of self in therapy (pp. 29-38). NY: Haworth.

The theme of the conference is Spirituality in Action. It will be at Menlo College in Atherton, CA from February 12-14.