OBSERVATIONS OF THERAPY Holotropic
Stanislav Grof
This chapter is based in nearly three decades of systematic exploration of the therapeutic potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness induced by psychedelic substances and other non-pharmacological techniques. Approximately the first twenty years were devoted to clinical work with psychedelics and the last ten powerful experimentation with alternative techniques without the use of drugs.
A modern method of inducing shamanic
Throughout this decade, my wife Christina and I have developed a psychotherapeutic technique that we call integration holonomic Holotropic or therapy. At the same combines controlled breathing, evocative music and other forms of sound technology, focused body work and drawings of mandalas. With this approach devoid of drug use, it is possible to provide the entire range of experiences characteristic of psychedelic sessions and shamanic journeys.
Their goal is not gradual exploration of the various levels of the individual unconscious, as in psychotherapy "verbal" Western, but provide a powerful transformative experience of transcendental nature. Therefore, in many ways our therapeutic goals are more about shamanic healing traditions psychophysiological that of most Western verbal psychotherapies, although our approach is consistent with that of Carl Gustav Jung, in that our goal is to facilitate self-healing of the patient, helping them become aware and to reintegrate the fragmented elements of mind-body complex.
Using Holotropic therapy, may induce phenomena often indistinguishable from the psychedelic states without using pharmacological agents, but simply increasing the rate of respiration, using sound technology and certain technical body exercise that will describe later. When the phenomena described in this chapter can be triggered by something as physiological and hyperventilation, there can be no doubt that they reflect genuine properties of the psyche.
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The Holotropic therapy principles are quite simple. Asks the patient to lie down with eyes closed, to concentrate on breathing and body sensations, and maintain a rhythm of breathing faster and more efficient than usual. During the previous psychological preparation, is encouraged to suspend all analytical work and to accept any experience that emerges, with confidence and without prejudice. In this context it is recommended to refrain from using techniques designed or otherwise attempt to modify the spontaneous experience and influence it. The general approach should be similar to certain Buddhist meditation methods, noting only emerging experience, register and do not retain them.
After an interval which varies from one person to another, the individual begins to experience strong emotions and develops stereotyped patterns of muscle tension. With the continued rapid breathing, increases the emotional and physical stress to reach the release and spontaneous resolution. In general, the physical strain corresponds to areas where the Indian system of kundalini yoga displays the psychic energy centers, or chakras.Estas tensions are manifested in the form of intense pressure circular or even severe pain in the forehead or eyes, constriction throat and jaw locking, and pressure in the chest, navel and lower abdomen. It is also common tension in hands and arms, feet and legs, neck, shoulders and kidneys. This is obviously a synoptic and statistical description. In practice, the subjects do not manifest all the symptoms described, but individual frames distribution of these tensions, in which certain areas are dramatically represented and others not suffer any effect.
In the context of traditional psychiatry influenced by the medical model, the response to hyperventilation and in particular the famous "carpopedal spasm (contraction of the muscles of the hands and feet) has been regarded as the physiological response required a rapid and intense breathing, known as "hyperventilation syndrome." Estimated to be somewhat alarming as occasionally happens in a spontaneous way with neurotic patients (particularly hysterical), usually treated with tranquilizers, intravenous calcium and a paper bag over his face.
The use of hyperventilation for therapeutic and autoexploratorios shows how wrong that view. In all groups with whom we worked, several people have responded to hyperventilation with a progressive relaxation, a sense of expansion and visions of a light of unearthly beauty. They finished the session in a profound transcendental experience of cosmic unity. Those who develop physical stress and difficult emotions, they continued breathing typically leads to a state of resolution, followed in turn by a deep relaxation, peace and serenity. Often the final result session is a deeply mystical state, which can bring lasting benefits and to be personally meaningful for the subject. Paradoxically, the normally repressive approach of traditional psychiatry to the spontaneous occasional episodes of hyperventilation disrupts a potentially therapeutic hyperventilation neuróticos.Durante some patients, as increased physical and emotional tensions, and resolve, the individual may have a number of powerful experiences, which are described in more detail later. Important autobiographical events can relive childhood, adolescence or adulthood and experience various other types of transpersonal phenomena. In particular, there is usually a confrontation with various aspects of the memory of biological birth and a profound encounter with death experiences phenomena characterized as "death and rebirth" in shamanic initiation rites.
In the context of Holotropic therapy, the effect of its own powerful hyperventilation adds evocative music or sound technology, developed by various cultures with the specific purpose of altering consciousness, such as drums shamanic. Another aspect that enhances the effect of this technique is its use in group, so that participants alternate their role as experimenters with of experienced, under the supervision of terapeuta.Idealmente, active breathing itself leads to resolution of all that has been released and emerged into consciousness. If the subject ends with residual stress or unpleasant emotions, can facilitate their resolution through a concentrated body exercise technique that originally developed for the concluding session of psychedelic sessions. The basic principle in this case, is to encourage the subject to not offer any resistance to the emotions, feelings and physical energy economies, and to find an appropriate way to express them through sounds, faces, postures and movements without judging or analyzing the experience. The role of facilitators is to follow the flow of energy and encourage their full externalization. It persists in this work until the subject reached a state of resolution and relaxation.
sensory barrier and standard biographical-
reminder techniques that provide access to the unconscious experiential initially tend to activate the sense organs. Therefore, deep exploration in many cases begins with a series of indeterminate sensory experiences such as visions basic colors and geometric patterns, or ringing bells sounds, tactile sensations in various parts of the body, or experience different tastes or odors. These are of a more or less abstract, with no deeper symbolic meaning, and its contribution to self-exploration and self-understanding is negligible. Appear to represent a sensory barrier that must be crossed, before embarking on the journey into the psyche.
as the process, the next realm of the psyche is often more affordable biographical-level recall and the individual unconscious. Although events in this category are of considerable theoretical and practical importance, it is not necessary to devote much time to his description, as most psychotherapeutic approaches traditional verbal limited to this level of the psyche. Professional literature available which discusses the subtleties of the psychodynamics of the kingdoms biographical. Unfortunately, different schools contradict each other and there is no unanimity on the significant factors in the psyche, the reason for the development of effective psychotherapy. A fundamental difference between verbal and experiential psychotherapy is the meaning of direct physical traumatization in the history of the individual. In psychiatry, psychology and psychotherapy exclusively traditional psychological trauma stress. Not considered physical trauma directly influence the psychological development of individual nor participate in the psychogenesis of emotional and psychosomatic disorders. This contrasts sharply with the observations of deep experiential work, in which memories of physical trauma seem to be of utmost importance. At work psychedelic therapy and other powerful Holotropic experiential approaches, the fact revive serious illnesses, injuries, operations, or situations similar to suffocation, is quite common and much more meaningful than the usual Psychotrauma. The residual emotions and physical sensations of situations have been a danger to life or integrity of the organism appear to play a significant role in the development of various forms of psychopathology, not yet recognized by science académica.Las experiences of severe physical trauma represent a natural transition between the level and the next realm biography whose main constituents are the twin phenomena of birth and death. The events that compose refer to postnatal life of the individual and, therefore, they are essentially biographical. However, the fact that the individual brought to the gates of death and have been characterized by some discomfort and extreme pain, are associated with birth trauma. For obvious reasons, the memories of traumas and diseases that have severely hampered breathing, such as pneumonia, diphtheria, pertussis or having been on the verge of drowning, are particularly significant in this context.
Meeting with the birth and death dynamics of basic perinatal matrices
The most characteristic aspect of the experiences that have their origin at this level of the psyche is his approach to physical and emotional pain, disease and decrepit, aging, and death last breaths. The awareness of death finds expression not only in the eschatological content of the ideas and visions of people and animals dying, bodies and rotting corpses, skeletons, cemeteries and funerals, but in an experiential encounter deep in the process of dying and death itself, with concomitant biological and highly convincing emotional. Deep confrontation with death, experiential feature of these sequences, it tends to be closely intertwined with a series of events clearly related to the process of biological birth. When faced with the agony and death, individuals having both the experience of struggling to be born and / or giving birth. Also, many of the acts and physiological manifestations of these experiences are easily explained as resulting from the process of nacimiento.Es quite common in this context to identify with a fetus and revive various aspects of their own biological birth, with specific details and fully verifiable. The element of death can be represented by simultaneous or alternative identification with sick individuals, elderly or dying. Although the entire range of such experiences can not be reduced solely to the fact revive the biological birth, birth trauma seems to be a fundamental aspect of the experiential process at this level. For this reason I call this level of unconscious perinatal.Perinatal is a compound of Latin and Greek origin, whose prefix peri meaning "around" or "near" and the root refers to the birth natalis. Is commonly used in medicine to describe immediately preceding the birth processes associated with it, or immediately following, as well as in medical texts speak of bleeding, infection or perinatal brain injury. In contrast to the traditional use of this term in obstetrics, perinatal word used in this chapter with regard to experiences.
above described connection between biological birth and perinatal experiences is very deep and specific. Enables use of the clinical stages of labor for the construction of a conceptual model that helps us understand the dynamics of the perinatal level of the unconscious or even make specific predictions regarding the death-rebirth process individuos.Las different experiences of death and rebirth perinatal reflected in the level of the unconscious are extremely complex and rich. The sequences related to different stages and aspects of biological birth tend to be of a nature typically mythological, mystical, archetypal, historical, sociopolitical, anthropological, or phylogenetic. They usually appear in five patterns or constellations experiential characteristics.
seems to be a deep connection between the thematic and clinical stages of childbirth, which occur as follows.
1) The experience of cosmic unity: the amniotic universe
perinatal
This important experience seems to be related to the primal union with the mother, the original state of existence in utero, during which mother and child are a symbiotic union. If not hinder any noxious stimulus, the child's situation can be almost ideal as it provides safety and continued satisfaction of all needs. The basic characteristics of this experience are the importance of the subject-object dichotomy, a strongly positive mood (of peace, serenity, tranquility and ecstasy ocean), a sense of holiness, the importance of space and time, and rich insights of cosmic significance. The specific content of these experiences can be drawn from situations that share the same borders and lack of obstructions, such as an identification with the ocean and aquatic life, or interstellar space. The images of the best aspects of nature (Mother Nature) and archetypal visions of heaven and paradise belong to this category. It is important to emphasize that only episodes of embryonic life devoid of disturbances are accompanied by such experiences. Disruption of the uterine existence are dangers associated with underwater images, pollution, nature and insidious demons inhospitable cultures.
2) The experience of cosmic embayment
experiential
This pattern seems to be related to the onset of labor, when harmony is disrupted earlier. At first, this occurs as a result of alarming chemical signals and then by mechanical contractions of the uterine musculature. This situation is experienced subjectively as a vital danger imminent. An overwhelming sense of free-floating anxiety leads to paranoid ideas and perceptions. The intensification of this state typically resolves on the experience of a vortex or monstrous storm, whose center inevitably engulfs the individual and the common experiential mundo.Una variation of this theme is to be swallowed by an archetypal beast, caught by an octopus or captured by a giant spider. A less dramatic the same experience is the descent into the underworld and an encounter with demonic creatures. Classic show grounds of shamanism shamans familiarity with that realm.
3) The experience of impasse or hell
This experience is logically connected to the first clinical stage of delivery, fully developed. During that period, the fetus is periodically constrained by uterine spasms, while the cervix closed with no way out. The person feels trapped, caged and stuck in a claustrophobic nightmare, which lost contact with the linear time. The situation seems quite unbearable, endless and hopeless. It is therefore logical that the individual is often experientially feel identified with prisoners in dungeons or concentration camps, victims of the Inquisition, patients in mental hospitals, or sinners in hell and archetypal figures representing eternal damnation. During the deep existential crisis that this state is typically accompanied existence seems a farce devoid of meaning or a theater of the absurd.
4) The experience of the struggle of death-rebirth
Many important aspects of the experiential matrix are understandable from their association with the second clinical stage of labor. At this stage, uterine contractions continue, but now the cervix is \u200b\u200bdilated, allowing a gradual propulsion of the fetus through the birth canal. This implies a huge struggle for survival, a crushing mechanical pressures and often, some degree of anoxia and suffocation. In the terminal stages of childbirth, the fetus may come in close contact with biological materials as blood, mucus, heces.Desde urine and experiential point of view, this pattern is quite intense and branched. In addition to reviving realistic aspects of the fight in the channel sequences occur in Plia variety of phenomena, typical themes, linked by a deep experiential logic with anatomical, physiological and biochemical process of labor. Among them, the most important are the elements of a titanic struggle, sadomasochistic experiences, strong sexual arousal episodes demonic eschatological aspects and an encounter with fire. All this happens in the context of a particular death-rebirth struggle. The specific images include mythological battles of enormous proportions, involving angels and demons, or gods and titans, violent elements of nature, sequences of bloody revolutions and wars, which involved images of pornography and sexual deviance, violence, orgies and satanic coven nights , crucifixions and ritual sacrifices.
5) The death-rebirth experience
perinatal
This matrix is \u200b\u200bsignificantly related to the third stage of clinical delivery, or the birth itself. In this last stage, the dying process of the birth struggle comes to an end, culminating in the propulsion through the birth canal, and accumulation pain, stress and sexual excitement suddenly turns into relief and relaxation. By cutting the umbilical cord completes the preparation of the mother and the child begins his new life as an individual anatomically independent.
As with the other parent, some of the experiences of this stage are faithful reproduction of the biological events of childbirth, as well as certain interventions obstetrician. The corresponding symbolic of this final stage of labor is the death-rebirth experience. Paradoxically, only a step away from a phenomenal release, the individual has a sense of impending catastrophe of enormous proportions. This often leads to a painstaking struggle to end the experience. If allowed to proceed, this experience includes a sense of annihilation at every imaginable level: physical destruction debacle emotional, intellectual defeat, ultimate moral failure and an absolute condemnation of enormous proportions. This experience of "ego death" seems to involve instant, merciless destruction of all previous reference points in the life of the individual. At this stage, you may refer to shamans dismembered by demons or animals feroces.A the experience of total annihilation of "falling into the lowest of the cosmos", followed immediately visions a powerful white and gold light, a supernatural brightness and beauty, which may be related to a breathtaking exhibition of divine archetypal entities, the spectrum of the rainbow, or intricate designs of a peacock's tail. The subject experiences a deep sense of emotional and spiritual liberation, redemption and salvation. Usually, he is freed from all anxiety, depression and guilt, clean and redeemed. This was accompanied by a flood of positive emotions to himself, others and life in general. The world seems to be a beautiful and safe, and clearly increases the desire to live. The shaman returns from his search visionary initiatory loaded with a new sense of purpose and meaning. Travel
beyond the brain: transpersonal dimensions of the psyche
experiential sequences of death and rebirth tend to open the door to a domain transbiográfico in the human psyche, whose best description is that of transpersonal. The perinatal level of the unconscious is clearly a link between the biographical and transpersonal realms, or individual and collective unconscious. In most cases, transpersonal experiences are preceded by a dramatic encounter with the birth and death. However, there is an important alternative, which sometimes allows direct experiential access transpersonal and various items related issues, without facing the level perinatal.El common denominator of this abundant and branched group of phenomena is the feeling, by the subject, that his consciousness has expanded beyond the usual limitations of his ego and has transcended the boundaries of time and space. In ordinary states or "normal" consciousness, we feel exist within the limitations of the physical body (body image) and our perception of the environment physically and physiologically determined by the range of our bodies sensoriales.Tanto our internal perception ( interoception) and external (exteroception) are limited by the usual spatial and temporal boundaries. Under ordinary circumstances, we can only fully experience our senses and all the events of this and the surrounding environment. We remember the past and anticipate the future event or fantasize about them, but neither the past nor the future are available to directa.En experience transpersonal experiences, as occurring in psychedelic sessions with autoexploratorias techniques without the use of drugs , or spontaneously, it seems to transcend one or more of the above limitations. Such experiences can be divided into three broad categories. Some involve the transcendence of linear time and are interpreted by the subjects as historical regression and exploration of its past biological, cultural and spiritual, or historical progression toward the future. The second category is characterized primarily by experience the importance of regular spatial barriers, rather than temporary. The third group is characterized by the exploration of domains that Western culture does not consider that part of objective reality. Shamanic traditions have been described and cataloged many ranges of non-ordinary realities accessible in those states.
In non-ordinary states of consciousness, many subjects are quite specific and realistic experiences of episodes identified as fetal and embryonic memories. Not rare, in these circumstances, in a cell awareness, to identify fully with the sperm and egg at the moment of conception. Sometimes goes beyond historical regression and the individual has the compelling sense of reliving memories of the lives of their ancestors, or even access files or collective racial unconscious. In some cases, the subjects claim to have identified with various animals of the evolutionary ladder, or have had the distinct feeling of reliving the dramatic episodes of an embodiment anterior.Las transpersonal experiences that include the importance of spatial barriers suggest that the boundaries between the individual and the rest of the universe are not final and absolute. In special circumstances can identify with anything in the universe, including the entire cosmos itself. These include the experiences of merging with another person in a state of dual unity, or assuming the identity of another person; "tune" with the awareness of a specific group of people, or feel the expansion of consciousness to such an point that seems to embrace all humanity. Similarly, one can transcend the limits of human experience and specifically identified with the consciousness of animals, plants or even inorganic objects and processes. In an extreme case, you may experience the entire biosphere of our planet or the whole material universe. In a large number of transpersonal experiences, the extension of consciousness seems to go beyond the phenomenal world and the space-time continuum, as we perceive in everyday life. At that actually belong numerous visions of archetypal characters and themes, meetings with gods and demons of various cultures and mythological complex sequences. They are also fairly common occurrences reports of spirits of the dead, superhuman bodies and inhabitants of other universes.
archetypal visions of abstract patterns, intuitive understanding of universal symbols (cross, ankh, yin yang, swastika, pentagram, or six-pointed star) the experience of the meridians and the flow of ch'i energy described by the philosophy and Chinese medicine, or the awakening of the serpent power (kundalini) and activation of various psychic energy centers or chakras, are additional examples of this such phenomena. In the most extreme cases, individual consciousness can come to identify with the cosmic consciousness or universal mind. The epitome of the experience seems to be the identification and metacósmico supracosmic vacuum, the primordial and mysterious absence nothing self-conscious, which contains in germinal form all the potential existence.
and transpersonal experiences la visión chamánica del mundo
Las experiencias transpersonales tienen muchas características extrañas que destruyen los supuestos más fundamentales de la ciencia materialista y del punto de vista mecanicista del mundo, que apuntan a un paradigma más cercano a los que caracterizan los sistemas de creencias chamánicas y diversas ramas de la filosofía mística o "perenne".
Los investigadores que han estudiado seriamente y/o experimentado estos fascinantes fenómenos comprenden que todo intento por parte de la psiquiatría tradicional de desecharlos como productos insignificantes de la imaginación, o como fantasías erráticas generadas por procesos cerebrales patológicos, is superficial and inadequate. Any study of the transpersonal domain of the psyche will be without prejudice to the inevitable conclusion that his remarks represent a critical challenge to the Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm of science occidental.A Although transpersonal experiences occur in a deeply personal self-exploration process, not be interpreted simply as intrapsychic phenomena in a conventional sense. On the one hand, form a continuous uninterrupted existential-biographical experiences and perinatal reminder. On the other, appear to have direct access, unmediated by the sensory organs, sources of information that are clearly outside the scope of individual, as conventionally defined.
Among the reports of subjects who experienced episodes of their embryonic existence, the moment of conception and have experienced elements of cellular and organic consciousness abound of highly accurate medical details regarding the processes of anatomical, physiological and biochemical. Also, the ancestral experiences, racial and collective memories in the Jungian sense, and memories from previous incarnations, often provide specific details of the architecture, dress, weapons, art, social structure and religious practices of the culture and the period in question, or even historical events concretos.Los subjects experiencing phylogenetic sequences or identify with forms of life, not only are authentic and compelling, but at the same time acquire an extraordinary insight of psychology, ethology, specific customs or unusual reproductive cycles animals. In some cases, the experience is accompanied by muscle innervation archaic unbecoming a human being, or even complex representations that reproduce apareamiento.Los dances of individuals who experience episodes of conscious identification with plants or parts thereof, from time then claim to have acquired a deep insight of botanical processes such as seed germination, photosynthesis of the leaves, the role of auxin in plant growth, the exchange of water and minerals in the roots, and pollination. Equally common is the compelling sense of conscious identity with inanimate matter or inorganic processes, ocean water, fire, lightning, volcanic activity, hurricanes, gold, diamonds, granite, and even the stars , galaxies, atoms and molecules. From the point of view of a paradigm that recognizes the existence of the transpersonal realm, references to communication with other species or even objects "inanimate", as in the If shamans can no longer be regarded as psychopathological symptoms.
There is another interesting group of transpersonal phenomena, often susceptible validation and even be investigated experimentally. Belong to the same telepathy, psychic diagnosis, clairvoyance, clairaudience, precognition, psychometry, body experiences, traveling clairvoyants and other cases of extrasensory perception. Obviously, they have been thoroughly studied and used in shamanism and other mystical and magical traditions. Despite representing the only group of transpersonal phenomena which academics Westerners have come to deal with occasionally, unfortunately their focus has always been decidedly negative.
From a broader perspective, there is no reason not to classify the so-called paranormal phenomena in a special category. Since other types of transpersonal experiences often provide access to new information on the extra-channel universe, the boundary between the psychology of parapsychology disappears, or at least becomes quite arbitrary, from the time of supports and recognizes the existence of the transpersonal domain. The philosophical challenge of the observations described in itself impressive, is still increased by the fact that non-ordinary states of consciousness, transpersonal experiences that reflect correctly the material world appear on the same continuum, intimately linked to other content, according to the Western view of the world, not part of objective reality. It is worth mentioning in this context the Jungian archetypes, gods, demons, demigods, superheroes and mythological complex sequences, shamanic legends and fairy tales. Even these experiences can provide precise information on the religious symbolism, folklore and mythic structures of various cultures previously unknown to the subject.
transpersonal experiences dealing a very special position in our attempt to build a reliable map of the territory of the human psyche. Analytic level and the individual unconscious reminder is clearly a biographical nature. Perinatal dynamics seems to represent an intersection or boundary between the personal and the transpersonal, as reflected in its deep association with the birth and death, beginning and end of individual human existence. Transpersonal phenomena provided by Holotropic therapy or traditional shamanic methods reveal connections between the individual and the cosmos incomprehensible now. All we can say is that somewhere in the perinatal process, seems a strange qualitative leap in the style of a Mobius strip, in which the individual unconscious deep self-examination becomes a process of experiential adventures in the breadth of the universe, which would be the best qualifier of cosmic consciousness or superconscious mind.
Therapeutic Importance death-rebirth process
extended mapping just described is of fundamental importance for all serious approach to the phenomena such as psychedelic states, shamanism, religion, mysticism, rites of passage, mythology, parapsychology, thanatology and psychosis. It is not simply a matter of intellectual interest, but its implications are profound and revolutionary for the understanding of psychopathology, and offer new therapeutic options unimagined by traditional psychiatry. In general, the architecture of psychopathology manifested in the daily work is infinitely more complex and intricate than suggested by current theories of personality. According to these new observations, few or no emotional and psychosomatic syndromes that can be explained solely from the dynamics of the individual unconscious. Are significantly related to birth trauma and fear of death, and its resolution requires a vivid confrontation with death-rebirth process. Therefore, we concluded that our theoretical model of the human psyche is compatible with the old shamanic belief systems, which also integrates the experiences of death and rebirth.
work every day reveals that the dynamic structure of symptoms psychogenetic physical and emotional energy involved extremely powerful. Therefore, any attempt to influence them by purely verbal means, as in traditional therapy, is highly questionable value. You need a therapeutic context that enables and facilitates the direct experience for significant results in a reasonable amount of time. In addition, due to the multiple levels of the nature of the symptoms psychogenetic, the therapist's conceptual framework should include perinatal and transpersonal levels of the psyche, so that the therapy is fully effective. While the process of therapy is limited to the biographical level, the therapeutic results are generally quite limited, unless the material to be unfinished gestalts belongs to severe physical trauma. Both produced immediate results as the long term are much more dramatic when the self-examination and includes sequences deepens deeper, well known to our ancestors shamanic, until now they have gone largely unnoticed by Western verbal psychotherapists. However, we have found that perinatal nature experiences can profoundly affect the claustrophobia and other types of states of anxiety or depression, suicidal tendencies, alcoholism, drug addiction, asthma, migraine, and sadomasochistic inclinations many other problems, whether they are facilitated by means holotropic, shamanic or otros.Pero where the roots of the problem are anchored in the transpersonal domain, you can only reach a final settlement when the patient allow a confrontation to take place with the specific type of transpersonal experience with the problem is related. This can be an intense experience of a previous incarnation, an identification with an animal form, a sequence archetypal or mythological theme of racial or collective unconscious, or many others. Open-mindedness and confidence in the process are very important requirements-both by the therapist as the patient - for successful therapy.
As mentioned above, the deepest work experiences also support the therapeutic strategy of self-exploration and first suggested by Carl Gustav Jung, who acknowledged that the psyche is endowed a powerful self-healing potential and the power of self-healing forces is in the collective unconscious. From this perspective, the work of the therapist should not consist, therefore, rationally understand the patient's problem, to use some specific technique to change the situation according to a preconceived plan, but to mediate and facilitate patient access to deeper levels of the psyche. Then, healing occurs as a result of a dialectical relationship between the individual and the collective unconscious. Here we must draw a parallel with the shaman's traditional role as mediator between the human and spiritual realms.
Therefore, a psychotherapeutic technique based on observations of modern research on consciousness, as Holotropic therapy is based primarily on direct experience as an essential instrument of transformation. Verbal approaches are used only during the preparation period, and again at a later meeting, to facilitate the integration of experience. The therapist creates a supportive framework, establishing a good working relationship with the patient and provides a technique capable of activating the unconscious, breathing, music, shamanic drumming, meditation or psychedelic drugs. In these circumstances reinforce pre-existing symptoms and other previously latent emerge into consciousness. The therapist's role is then to encourage and fully support the sequences springs, with full confidence in the autonomy and spontaneity of the healing process. The symptoms represent blocked energy and ultimately condensed experience. In this context, a symptom represents both an opportunity and a problem.
By releasing the energy, the symptom becomes conscious experience and consumed. It is important that the therapist supports the basic deployment without interfering or intervening in the nature of experience, whether biographical, perinatal, and transpersonal. The unconditional support should continue, although the therapist not understand the process or make a way unknown to him. Instead of trying to interpret all the material emerging in terms of a closed theoretical system, as in psychoanalysis and other similar approaches, the therapist becomes a partner in this adventure, you can learn something new each session.
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