Transpersonal counseling is a sacred approach to psychotherapy, where the therapist integrates concepts of spirituality, consciousness, and modern psychology to create a truly holistic container. A transpersonal counselor sees their clients as whole, while also seeing the wisdom embedded in their behavioral and mental health symptoms. The interventions used by a transpersonal counselor emphasizes the interconnectedness of the client’s mind, body, and spirit. Every moment of a session honors the client’s innate wisdom and spiritual nature as the guide for their healing.
The word “transpersonal” literally translates to “beyond personal identity,” which means that the therapist is not holding space from their personality. This also means that the therapist is not seeing the client as their personality. We do not try to analyze, fix or change a client. Instead, we support the client in recognizing that who they truly are is not their thoughts or behaviors, and in doing so they reconnect with a deeper, truer aspect of their Self.
The most important contribution a transpersonal counselor can make to the therapeutic container is their own awake awareness. The energy of our presence sets the tone for the container. From this place, every invitation to the client is a reminder to shift into higher states of consciousness–not by teaching or explaining, but by getting more in touch with what is right here, in the present moment. We become keenly aware of noticing the ways in which a client leaves the present moment. Any pattern, thought, impulse, or behavior that disrupts a client’s contact with the present moment is an indicator of a place where unfinished business from the past is aching for presence, love, and healing.
Aside from the importance of the therapist’s state of consciousness, a transpersonal counselor can offer clinical interventions that support clients in differentiating from their thought-based reality and accessing higher levels of awareness. As a relational meditation, transpersonal counseling is a process oriented approach to therapy, where we make room for a client’s natural movement towards health. We do not pathologize a client, but rather we honor the inherent intelligence present in every layer of their patterns.
Here are 5 clinical skills for a transpersonal counselor to support clients in accessing higher levels of awareness:
- Accurate reflections: To accurately reflect a client’s words, thoughts, patterns, emotions, physical expression, and subtle energy to them through our awake awareness is the most effective way to support increasing awareness. When we hold space from our awareness-based knowing (not our thought-based ordinary awareness), our words and reflections illuminate the client’s patterns of contact disruption with accurate clarity. These reflections invite the client into expanded awareness, rather than into their mind where analysis and interpretation live.
- Witness the pattern: Once you accurately reflect the client’s predominant thoughts and patterns to them, invite them to close their eyes and see the thought or pattern. This supports a shift in state of consciousness, where the client is no longer hyper-identified with their mind. Instead, they witness their mind from awake awareness. In essence, you are teaching them to be mindful and aware of their thoughts.
- Ask them what they notice: Once the client can see their pattern with clarity, make more room for their awake awareness by asking them what they are aware of as they witness their thoughts. Clients often have more clarity or even epiphanies about why they loop, where the thought originated from, or how they are leaving their most awake, resourced self from this mindful presence. This also affirms your trust in their innate wisdom and deeper knowing.
- Validate the pattern: Once the client is witnessing their pattern, invite them to self-validate the pattern. The invitation might sound like, “If it’s available to you, I’d like to invite you to validate that pattern…’It makes sense to me that you…'” Validation is the loving presence of awake awareness. When a client can validate their own pattern, they become congruent with the actuality of their experience, rather than resisting themselves and trying to be how they think the should be.
- Ask them what they notice in their body: When a client can see the way their body is holding their inner experience, they can begin to shift into subtle attunement, which is important in the practice of self-regulation. If the client says they don’t feel anything, invite them to notice the absence of feeling. If the client answers with more thoughts, invite them to notice that their energy is in their head. Whatever the client notices, follow that energy–there is no right answer to this question. Attuning to the subtle is a skill to build over time, and the client is learning to open to themselves by honoring what they feel in the here and now.
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