A brief history of shamanism and the use of the altered states of consciousness and imagination in healing, given in Section One, Chapter Two, page 59, will serve as a foundation for an exploration of ordinary and alternative consciousness. While consciousness in one form or another is experienced by all humans at all times, it is presently little noticed, understood, appreciated, and utilized by the layperson, psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, academic, or researcher. It is usually not considered a meaningful, let alone crucial, variable in comprehending the human being and devising strategies for improving and healing the human condition. A particular type of consciousness, named the therapeutic state of consciousness and based on the shamanic and meditative states of consciousness, will be offered as an optimum consciousness for the psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, and healer. This therapeutic state of consciousness can serve as balance to the counterproductive effects of an overly rational western society as well as model for a way of life in which the scientific, intellectual mind is but one, albeit important, aspect of the whole person. Principles for training in the therapeutic state of consciousness will be outlined and discussed along with guidelines for implementing a personal training program in what will be called 21st Century Therapy. A specific set of experientially based techniques will be offered as a way to carry perception and knowledge gained from the therapeutic state of consciousness into the psychotherapist’s office.
I have personal experience with each of the four modalities, allowing me to offer first hand knowledge, heartfelt examples, and hands on description of the phenomenology associated with each discipline. In the interest of relevancy, accuracy, depth, meaningfulness, and vitality, I have used myself as the primary case study for this paper.
A fulfilling journey in the counseling and psychotherapy process begins with a safe, caring relationship between my client and myself. My first task as a therapist is creating a secure environment that encourages and develops hope, respect, introspection, honesty, and self-responsibility in the therapy room. In this context, each client may begin to contact his/her own inner wisdom that knows what is in his/her highest good. I believe that the “real therapist” in the room is the client’s “higher self.” Therefore, my second responsibility is to help develop my client’s relationship with this inner wisdom ,not to be the source of his/her wisdom.
Within this safe, creative environment and with my client’s ever developing relationship with his/her inner self, the course of therapy takes as many forms as the 1,000s of clients I have had the honor to work. Length of treatment varies from a few sessions to years of deep exploration and growth. Some individuals and families have had three or four series of sessions with me focused around different concern that reflect different developmental stages of life. In fact I have clients that I see today that I first met when they were children in family therapy that returned a decade later for premarital counseling and then came back again more than two decades later as parents with their own “relating to teenager” issues.
I value creativity and flexibility in the therapeutic process, including the use of techniques as diverse as goal setting and dream work, sensitivity and humor, science and metaphor, compassionate listening and straightforward honesty, cognitive understanding and intuitive knowing, behavioral change and exploring the meaning of life; all within an atmosphere of beauty and genuineness.