Become the Best Version of You

The mind utilizes psychological defenses (such as repression, avoidance, dissociation, displacement, sublimation, etc.) to suppress intolerable emotions into the unconscious to protect the mind from fragmenting. This survivalist tendency temporarily safeguards against overwhelming emotions that tend to be derived from traumatic experiences; however, when psychological defenses are the primary coping mechanism, the long-term effect can cause disconnection from soul. Suffering may ensue when soul becomes submerged under the neurosis of fear and detachment from self and others. Soulful Psychology® theorizes that psychological symptoms arise from ego’s detachment from soul.

Our Approach

Our approach analyzes meaning within symptoms, to understand and heal the root causes of symptoms rather than focus solely on coping with symptoms. Soulful Psychology® believes the fundamental role of therapists is to see a patient’s soul underneath their symptoms; to observe, empathize, and value the person within the problem. We train therapists to engage therapy as a soulful connection between two people (i.e., therapist and patient), encouraging both people to show up vulnerable and authentic, allowing for soulful expression from both parties to guide the session. Our clinicians are deeply compassionate, kind, and caring towards each patient, as we feel the tremendous honor for patients allowing us to walk by their side in the therapeutic journey; we feel privileged to align with patients in their struggles and successes. We are extremely invested in each patient that we have the profound opportunity to work with.

We recognize patients are the experts of their own truth; our approach is to help patients access, validate, and apply their truth. Therefore, our therapists approach each session with immense presence to allow for soulful attunement, which entails paying meticulous attention to the emotions, thoughts, intuitions, metaphors, nonverbals, symbols, dreams, and associations that arise in patients, while the therapist simultaneously attunes to the responses that arise within themselves in relation to the patient’s disclosures. The soulful content that emerges is then analyzed and interpreted back to the patient.

Patients tend to split-off parts of themselves they don’t want to see (i.e., uncomfortable emotions, embarrassing thoughts, or shameful characteristics); our therapists empathically sense split-off parts of patient’s personalities and help to reintegrate these parts back into the patient’s conscious. We make links between symptoms and unmet needs, unprocessed emotions, or unfulfilled desires for connection. We identify parallels between a patient’s unresolved conflicts and their associations to previous emotional experiences.

For example, a patient may express feeling intense anger and defensiveness upon receiving feedback from their relationship partner; through soulful exploration, the patient may uncover the parallel between the discomfort they feel from their relationship partner’s feedback and how the feedback activates an unprocessed soulful wound that emerged in childhood from a parent who ridiculed the patient’s innate playful disposition.

We analyze nonverbal cues, dreams, metaphors, symptoms, daydreams, symbols, disassociations, defenses, transferences, enactments, playfulness, and artistic expression to help facilitate access to soulful content. We have found our approach to be successful at helping patients learn more about themselves and become whole. We encourage and support patients in their courageous therapeutic pursuit to face internal unknowns and confront external life adversities as a way to build resilience and grow.

Our therapists approach each session with no agenda other than to allow space for the soul to emerge. Patients will often look to the therapist to lead the direction of conversation, yet our method encourages patients to lead by expressing what organically comes up, which destabilizes the mind and enables for soulful expression; inevitably inward exploration and outward expression emerges from the patient, which propels the soulful exploration and the direction taken by patient and therapist.

Patients are surprised by what comes up and how informative the content is in highlighting the soul’s expression of rooted pain or desire. When prompted with a question by the therapist, patients respond in various, expressive ways that often lead the patient to apologize for “going on a tangent,” and forgetting what the therapist’s original question was; we reassure our patients that in our approach, there is no such thing as a tangent, because every direction the conversation goes in is meaningful, as it unveils soulful insights about topics and emotions that yearn to be attended to.

The Core Phases of Our Approach

The Soulful Psychology® approach to healing and transformation is through soulful connection, which entails:

Presence

Phase one: Presence. Our therapists approach each session with a focused state of presence that allows for the recognition of emotional responses that arise both in the patient and in the therapist. Presence also enables observation of psychological defenses that arise when topics or emotions become threatening to the ego. Presence identifies symptoms used to communicate the soul’s unmet needs, unprocessed emotions, and unfulfilled desires for connection. Being present is a practice of mindfulness that helps clear away distractions to center attention on the activation of soulful content that yearns to be expressed and processed.

Analysis

Phase two: Analysis. Presence enables the observation of psychological defenses, emotions, and various aspects of personality that surface, which then affords the patient and therapist an opportunity to analyze the content that emerges. Analysis is used to identify parallels between a patient’s emotions from current events and the familiarity to emotions that are provoked from past events. Analysis helps to make the unconscious, conscious. Thus, patients can recognize, validate, process, and communicate their emotional wounds, rather than project them onto others, enabling them to become liberated from the constraints of psychological defenses. Protection from psychological fragmentation that psychological defenses protect against, are no longer necessary as a patient can now handle their emotional responses in a stable and secure way.

Soulful Integration

Phase three: Soulful Integration. Liberation from psychological defenses frees-up psychological space that enables an opening for soulful expression to be experienced and integrated. An unearthing of soul becomes the focus of therapy that affords the patient with new opportunities to become curious, intrigued, and inspired to learn about the core aspects of their psyche/soul. Soulful integration includes the incorporation of all aspects within a patient’s soul, including the aspects that have been neglected. To do so, we implement the following approach:

• Introspection and identification of innate characteristics.
• Integration of uncomfortable, undesirable, suppressed aspects of our personality.
• Exploration of insights, emotions, dreams, associations, metaphors, images, symbols, intuitions, talents, and creative expressions as representations of soul.
• Authentic connection with people through seeing ourselves in others and others in ourselves.

Cultural Competency

We also consider and value the role cultural dynamics play in a patient’s life. Cultural norms shape our thoughts and behaviors, which are essential aspects of our identity. Our approach incorporates reflection and respect for the unique ways people experience the world and we use therapy as a method for enhancing one’s cultural consciousness.