Experience A Life Full of Soul

Soulful Psychology® was created to help people reconnect with the innate soul they come into the world with, which can get covered up by emotional wounds, yet still yearns to be unearthed and integrated. We theorize that therapy should be an act of helping people reconnect with the soul. To live a life “full of soul,” is a present, connective experience with self and others. Environmental influences, such as parents, peers, and culture play a significant role in shaping a person, yet we theorize that at the foundational level of humanity, all human-beings are most influenced by our universal need for connection. Our theoretical orientation aims at helping people cultivate their archetypal need for connection with self and others, rather than suppress our archetypal need, which is the foundational method for psychological health and wellbeing.

Our Theoretical Orientation

Soulful Psychology® is a theoretical orientation in psychology that is situated within the Depth Psychology tradition, which is distinguished from other orientations by the claim that unconscious psychological dynamics are always embedded within human behavior, thus, all behavior has meaning.

The history of Depth Psychology has included various waves such as psychoanalysts like S. Freud, A. Freud, Klein, Kohut, Fairbairn, and Winnicott who introduced concepts like the unconscious; Jungian/Analytical/Archetypal psychologists like Jung, Hollis, von Franz, and Hillman who introduced concepts like the collective unconscious and archetypes; and intersubjective psychoanalysts like Stolorow and Atwood who introduced concepts like intersubjectivity.

Soulful Psychology® is a contemporary, new wave of Depth Psychology that advances the tradition by focusing on applicable ways to tend to soul in modern life. Soulful Psychology® integrates the wisdom of relational-psychoanalysis and Jungian psychology, the philosophical exploration of Socratic discovery and insight, and the passionate expressiveness of culture, art, music, and poetry. Additionally, the influences of Intercultural Communication scholars are integrated into Soulful Psychology® concepts.

The word “psychology,” is derived from the Greek words, “psyche,” which means “soul,” and “logos,” which means “to study,” or “to care for.” Therefore, the word “psychology” means, “the study of, and care for, the soul.” The Greek philosopher Aristotle theorized that the soul is the animating force within the body, and is what makes a living thing alive.

Whereas the field of psychology often focuses on empirical therapeutic practices as the widespread intervention method, which can at times overlook the fundamental need for exploring root causes of symptoms as a method for achieving long-term results, Soulful Psychology℠ aims to make depth and soulful exploration more mainstream and pervasive in the field of psychology and the world at large.

Our Theory

We all have a light that shines within us; it is the innate parts of who we are at our core that we come into the world with. This essential aspect of who we are is referred to by various cultural names such as our: essence, spirit, self, soul. These terms symbolize the ineffable aspects of who we are at our core that can only be identified phenomenologically (i.e., only known through one’s own personal lived experience of it). Soulful Psychology® describes “soul” as our authentic, true selves that cannot be fully explained due to the confines of language and limitations of conscious awareness. Soul can’t be literalized or concretized as a “thing,” because soul is an experience. Therefore, we need symbols, metaphors, dreams, intuitions, symptoms, associations, nonverbals, and artistic expression to identify it.

Soul is a phenomenon depicted in religion, music, visual-arts, and media throughout centuries and across cultures; it is difficult for people to define, but a phenomenon that we all understand and can relate to. We know it when we feel it. When someone states, “I feel it in my soul,” we all seem to know what the person means and can relate to it viscerally because we have experienced it ourselves. Soulful Psychology® theorizes that psychological health is attained through living a soulful life, which means living in a present state of being that enables integration of ego and soul resulting in deep connection with self and the world. Furthermore, to live “full-of-soul,” is to be in a constant state of reverie for the complex and magnificent core aspects within us that continuously emerge to enliven our experiences, animate our behaviors, guide our directions, inspire our aspirations, embolden our decisions, impassion our connections, secure our attachments, challenge our insecurities, nurture our wounds, guide our paths, and foster our growth.

To be soulful is to acknowledge that we are vessels that house soul, the catalyst that soul is expressed through. It is a phenomenon akin to a jazz musician who authentically allows the music to be played through them in the form of musical riffs, rather than staying confined to the sheet music. Our ego (conscious awareness) functions as a medium for introspection, observance, and contemplation of soul. Alternatively, disconnection form soul can lead people to experience an existential loneliness, which can parallel detachment from caregivers in our formative years; however, Soulful Psychology® theorizes one is never alone, and does feel desired, when one allows for soulful connection with self and others.

To be soulful involves passion and intrigue for exploring the inner workings of who we are beyond our conscious awareness. A constant state of being in which ego (i.e., our conscious awareness) is in relationship with soul; it entails an intimate engagement with one’s soul and the soul within other people. Soulful Psychology® approaches therapy as an attempt to bring conscious awareness to soul through attempting to access unexplored aspects of who we are below the surface.

Our connection with soul can get neglected and lost due to life’s adversities; at Soulful Psychology®, we believe therapy is meant to unearth the innate parts of who we are, so that we can integrate them in our psyche/soul, which could reduce the suffering that results from suppressing our authentic selves. We can become whole, leading us to learn more about who we are and ultimately letting our light brighten the world.

We at times feel lost, hopeless, depressed, anxious, and don’t know why. We lose connections with ourselves and others, and ultimately feel angry, apathetic, and less joy. The current field of psychology often utilizes psychotherapy interventions to help people cope and manage their symptoms; alternatively, Soulful Psychology® is revolutionizing psychotherapy by helping people understand that symptoms are the soul’s way of communicating its desire to heal unprocessed pain and need for integration of split-off parts of the psyche; when this desire is tended to, we are able to heal and manifest the greatness within us.

We theorize that suffering comes from the suppression and disconnection of ego with soul. As a result, we tend to disregard and avoid our emotions or split-off parts of ourselves that we are ashamed or afraid to see; that’s often why we may habitually direct our attention towards work, food, substances, relationships, or arguments as a way to cope; we seek control as a way to avoid the unbearable truth, which is that we actually feel out of control. Therefore, we theorize that people are not “ill;” rather, people suffer from being ill-informed about their profound nature within. Our theoretical angle posits that when one becomes aware and integrated with soul, one becomes whole and engages in a soulful life of health and wellbeing.

Soulful Psychology® helps us learn how to look inward at our true selves underneath the surface to re-attune with the deeper parts of who we are, our soul, which yearns to be seen, integrated and cared for. Because universally we are communal people by nature, Soulful Psychology® helps us gain the courage to acknowledge our innate need to love and be loved.

Influences like social media, family, or culture, can condition us to see ourselves as the perceptions they project onto us; at times, they can distort conscious awareness of our true selves, which prevents us from seeing the “truth” of who we actually are. Soulful Psychology® theorizes there is “truth” to who we are; it is the innate core essence of our existence, our fundamental disposition. For instance, we can look back to early stages of our childhood and see the same fundamental characteristics of who we were from day one, are still within us to this day. These core, foundational characteristics are representations of soul.

Soulful Psychology® attempts to help people reconnect and nurture the core characteristics of who we are, such as one’s inclination towards caring for others, or one’s need to stand up against injustice, or one’s silly and playful disposition. Surely, these inclinations can be influenced by environmental factors, however these propensities seem to be displayed very early on. We can observe this phenomenon in siblings or cousins; they are of similar biology yet come into the world with very different soulful dispositions. Our “truth” manifests from soul and is the greatest source of strength; our ego is responsible for accessing the truth and channeling it while also recognizing and working on its limitations.

Soulful Psychology® theorizes that woundedness from early life hardships can cover up one’s soul, making it undetectable to the person. Psychological defenses become implemented to protect against the wounds of abandonment or annihilation, which results in becoming preoccupied with survival and thus disconnected from innate soulful disposition. Soulful Psychology® theorizes that healing and transformation comes from rekindling one with their soul by unearthing soul from the woundedness it is buried under.

Gain Resilience, Wholeness, and Soulful Connection

We don’t often realize the multiple ways hardships from our early life experiences impact us in our current lives. Hardships in our upbringing can become suppressed into our unconscious, until they become reactivated by current events in work, relationships, or societal issues. Soulful Psychology® helps people uncover where the original unconscious wounds stem from so that they don’t keep getting re-wounded by things in one’s current life. To do so, Soulful Psychology® values internal exploration as a method for accessing resilience, wholeness, and soulful connection within self and others.