Life Centered Psychotherapy

In the Tao of life all things are in relationship, all things interrelated.  These interdependent relationships define who we are.  They are what give shape and form to our lives.  These relationships are not only with people, they are also with places, things, activities, animals, dreams, or experiences, and potentially, with the essences behind these manifest forms.  These essences are the “gods” or “archetypes” of our existence.  To achieve a life in harmony, it is important to ask not only, “What do I want?”  But, “What do these essences that define my being need from me?”   Through entertaining the imaginative fantasies that may guide us to the essences behind what is happening to us, we may begin to see “who” is attempting to speak to us through these happenings.   “Gods” dwell in the core of the symptoms that afflict us.

Where there is difficulty, there is misunderstanding.  Life seeks and is always in harmony.  Following the work of Carl Jung, James Hillman, and Arnie Mindell among others, Life Centered Psychotherapy focuses upon the self-realization that may occur where harmony with the archetypes of existence is imaginatively and actively sought.  In the work we seek to move from self-centered ego to life-centered soul, from little you, to Big You.  That which stands in the way is misapprehension and misunderstanding.  The very problems that one is stuck in are there to hold psyche in place until seeing through those attachments can take place.  By becoming more conscious of the marginalized aspects of what is taking place, we open a much more complete picture of our difficulty and discover “who” is behind what is happening.  Within this larger picture lies wholeness and healing.

Wholeness and healing bring with them a deep trust in life.  Where one trusts life, one feels equal to the task of living.  Where one feels equal to the task of living, life itself becomes once again the center and purpose of existence.