Heart-and-Soul Centered Therapy
One of my favorite subjects is the human soul. One of my favorite things to talk about when I’m just sitting around hanging out with my friends is that mystical part of you and me that makes us who we are and transcends even what science can tell us, because what I know for sure: We are more than our bodies.”
— Oprah Winfrey —
No problem is purely psychological or purely spiritual; only convention and language separate them. . . When the therapist is aware that he or she is in service to the soul — and this attitude does not need to be spoken — the therapy room becomes sacred space, the hour becomes sacred time, and the process becomes a ritual in the best sense of that word.
- Lionel Corbett, The Sacred Cauldron: Psychotherapy as a Spiritual Practice -
When I speak of the human heart and soul, I’m not necessarily talking about something metaphysical floating above or around your body. It might be that– I’m not sure. I’m talking about the part of you that speaks truth in dreams, the part of you that makes you sad when the world seems hell-bent on selling you a bucket of lies. I’m talking about the part of you that can write transcendental poems and create other transcendental art objects, and is hungry for that, hungry for music, hungry to make some kind of meaning. Hungry, in general, because modern American culture (frankly) doesn’t really have great food for it readily on offer most of the time. I’m talking about the part of you that is unbelievably tender and that has caused you on occasion to feel overwhelmed with love, whatever that is. I want to help you preserve those parts, for the love of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, trees and stars. (I’m not Christian, if that matters. I’m fairly agnostic, but sold on the prophetic and creative power of dreams. I tend to do great work with people with similar leanings.) Another phrase that might be used to describe this aspect of the way I work is spiritually-oriented therapy. Whatever phrase I use will require some explanation due to the nuanced concepts that these words can signify. I am always happy to explain more via email or phone call.
How this plays out in practice is:
- I may ask questions like, “What do you want/need?” followed by, “What does your Deeper Self want/need?”
- I may ask questions like, “What do you know in your heart to be true about this?”
- I may guide you through a meditation or exercise designed to help you feel your heart space, and infuse your entire body with feelings of heart, or feelings of love.
- I may ask you to list music, places, people and things that give you a feeling of Soul, or help you get in touch with your own Soul.
- I may nudge you to incorporate your soulful and “wildish” parts into your life and way of being.
- I may guide you through an exercise or meditation designed to help you access what modern comparative religions scholar, Meggan Watterson would refer to as your “soul-voice,” distinct from the voice of ego, the voice of fear, or the voice of any other part of you.
- I may ask you to bring dreams, if you’ve had any that seem significant.
My intention is to always help align people with their own heart, and soul, and gut, their own intuition, and to find their own “center” as the spiritual authority, or the “soulful” authority of their life, without need of any other person or institution as an intermediary. Here’s a beautiful guided meditation by Meggan Watterson to give you a sense of it: