Profile
Counseling and Psychotherapy
Seminars & Workshops
About Process Work
About Thanatology
Coma and Brain Injury Recovery
Counseling and Psychotherapy
Seminars & Workshops
About Process Work
About Thanatology
Coma and Brain Injury Recovery
About Process Work
Process-oriented Psychology (Process Work) is a cross-disciplinary, awareness-based approach that helps facilitate individual and collective growth. It was developed in the 1970's and 1980's in Zurich, Switzerland, when Dr. Arnold Mindell, a Jungian analyst and a physicist, began researching illness as a meaningful expression of unconscious mind. Dr. Mindell later found that not only illness and body symptoms, but other everyday experience that are often disturbing or unfamiliar to us, such as relationship conflicts, addiction, day-dreaming, various physical sensations, altered and extreme states of consciousness, group conflicts, etc., are also "dream-like" expressions of unconscious. Process Work assumes that such experience, when approached with curiosity and respect, reveals to us valuable information and messages to facilitate our wholeness and growth.
Process Work offers practical and creative approaches for various personal and collective issues. Because it has the methods to closely follow the modes of expression and feedback other than those expressed verbally, Process Work has also been beneficial for a wide range of population including children, artists, people who are dying, minimally responsive, or in coma. The same principles are applicable with the work with couples, families, large and small groups and organizations.
(for more, please go to Coma and Brain Injury Recovery, Process Work Institute)
Process-Oriented Counseling and Consultation
Process-Oriented Psychology (Process Work) believes that each client has unique ways of experiencing the issue, which has its own unique mode of expression that cannot be worked with a preconceived program. A Process Work therapist also believes in and tries to facilitate the innate wisdom and creativity of each client.
In a typical Process Work session, the client is encouraged to refrain from pathologizing the issue or judging its meaning immediately, but to regard it as a beginning of an unknown but an important process. The therapist and the client then work together to find the exact nature of each experience with the attitude of curiosity and respect. They proceed to unfold it in ways and paces that are best suited for the expression of the process at hand. Using art, imagery, movement, dream work, role-play, meditating on the inner body sensations, as well as simply listening to and discussing the issues are among the many methods of unfolding in a Process Work session. A moment of insight and shift in perspectives often follows when the client feels she/he is in touch with the deeper meaning and wisdom of the issue, which can then be applied as a solution to the original issue and to other aspects of life.
Process Work sessions will also assist clients to cultivate awareness that will allow them to approach what life brings from wider perspectives. For some people, this may lead to a sense of well-being, and for others, a sense of meaning in life. Process Work sessions are not only suitable for people who have identified issues or problems but also for people who would like to gain deeper understanding of themselves and their lives. The sessions also provide valuable opportunities for people in helping professions for their professional training and personal growth.
Because process work also follows different styles of expression the clients may show in different moments, it is also suitable for people who are not comfortable with or unable to use verbal mode of communication. For this reason, Process Work can also be beneficial for the work with people who are dying, minimally responsive, or in coma. An innovative approach called Coma Work has been developed by Drs. Amy and Arnold Mindell, which involves the special methods of following the most subtle feedback from the clients in deeply altered or extreme states of consciousness. Process Work also offers creative ways to work with couples, families, large and small groups and organizations.
For making appointments for process work sessions and group facilitation, please contact me at above number or email address.
