Jungian Depth Psychology
Tending to the Soul
01
Origins
Based on the work of Swiss psychiatrist C.G. Jung and post-Jungian clinicians and researchers such as James Hillman, Marion Woodman, Thomas Moore and others, depth-oriented therapy forefronts the interplay between conscious and unconscious psychological influences. Becoming more conscious about the unconscious patterns, thoughts, paradigms, and undercurrents at play in our lives can be highly beneficial to our self-awareness and well-being, and can lead to deeper, more resonant transformations that feel more satisfying to the soul than short-term behavioural corrections.
02
The Individuation Path
Depth psychotherapy orients around the process of individuation—of becoming our deepest, truest, most aligned and integral selves. This is a lifelong process that involves sorting through ideas, ideologies, thoughts, behaviours, paradigms, and proclivities that have been handed to us over time by those responsible for our care and upbringing. Ultimately, these may not align with our deepest, most authentic sense of who we are at the core. While we may have, over the years, internalized the preferences of our parents, spiritual leaders, educators and other people of influence, it is not necessarily true that these are appropriate for us or will work for our lives long-term. We can get stuck and confused by the myriad loud voices and “influencers” who surround us. Gaining clarity about what we wish to continue accepting and what we wish to let go of brings us closer to individuation and to the part of ourselves that Jung called the (capital-S) Self. Often it is this part, which wants us to individuate, that leads us into therapy, because it becomes too discordant and unsustainable to follow others’ plans for our lives. ​
03
The Process
Attending to the whole person—body, mind, spirit, and soul—paves the way for a sense of integrity and confidence; a deep knowing of our place and purpose in life. This goes beyond merely finding solutions to our problems. As a way of accessing the unconscious, depth psychotherapy might involve bringing dream-tending into the session, or we may work with images, symbols, archetypes, myths and/or somatic information to get closer to what our symptoms are trying to communicate to us. As we bring the rejected, unlived, and unconscious aspects of ourselves more fully into consciousness, we can experience a greater sense of vitality and integration of our entire being.