The Jungian Approach in the Therapeutic Process

The Jungian Approach in the Therapeutic Process

Dreams, fantasies, images we love, or those that haunt us, including the intense emotional moments triggered by a scene from a movie, book, or daily life may stay with us for days or weeks, or even months. They speak in direct or symbolic ways of our unconscious desires and experiences from earlier times, often transporting us back to childhood. To become aware of one's inner life and to explore how over-adaptive patterns come into being is a large part of therapy.

Unconscious patterning can induce destructive modes of behavior, i.e. the addictions - drugs, food, love and aggression. Therefore we have an intense need to expand our understanding by exploring unconscious sources. Pathological symptoms like panic attacks, eating disorders, anxiety and depression reveal a deeper spiritual meaning. When unrelated to these sources we live in opposition to both nature and self. This gives rise to emotional, psychological, and physical distress, and even severe illness. It also results in difficulties in relationship. Once we start taking the unconscious seriously and begin relating to it, it will respond. Dream images reveal a new direction and restorative themes in which we can see the process of change.

In viewing the unconscious through the Jungian lens of the collective human psyche we find the forgotten and repressed experiences not only of the individual, but universal themes that involve us all: they are made manifest through cultural conflicts, body-image and more encompassing images of the self. They become accessible through dramatic projections onto friends and lovers (etc.) and can be integrated, allowing us to be closer to wholeness.