As a form of psychotherapy, Jungian analysis is an approach that honours the whole person, acknowledging both our uniqueness and our common humanity.
Jungian analysis works at a deep level. We begin with an exploration of the current life situation, including challenges as well as desires and goals for the future. We seek to deepen our understanding of the current situation by situating it in the larger context of the client’s history, identifying influences and dynamic patterns alive in the present. Our dreams, when we remember them, are also explored as they provide vital access to the wisdom of the unconscious and enable us to broaden the conscious viewpoint.
Dreams speak in the language of images and to understand them we must explore them symbolically. When we do so, they reveal aspects of our experience that we have overlooked in our waking life. When we are receptive, our dreams offer new insights and perspectives so that we can approach life situations in new ways.
Working with active imagination and art are additional ways to access what is going on in the unconscious. This may include drawing, painting, clay work, collage, body awareness or movement – in short, any creative expression that frees blocked energy and gives form to feelings and experiences that cannot yet be fully expressed in verbal form. Reflection on our images enables us to connect with a sense of our own emergent possibility.
Dreams and active imagination connect the outer world with the inner world by means of images and thus coagulate soul stuff.
Edward Edinger
Working with our personal symbolic material – whether in dreams, fantasy, art or active imagination – opens us up, via the archetypes of the collective unconscious, to an appreciation of the deeper, collective patterns that undergird our individual experience and connects us to a larger whole. Forging a personal connection with the symbolic dimensions of life can be deeply life-affirming, giving rise, for example, to: a conviction that one’s life has meaning; the sense of oneself as an actor in the divine drama; a sense of one’s place in the universe; and, crucially, an ability to stand the hardships of life because we are convinced that they make sense within the world and universe as we understand it.
Starting points for analysis vary, for instance: dissatisfaction with work or personal relationships; a desire to free one’s creative energy or transform negative patterns; a difficult loss or challenging life change; a feeling of restlessness, anxiety, or depression; a sense that one’s life has lost its meaning or is not in accord with who one is. Not infrequently, an experience of crisis, loss or depression can be the catalyst for someone to embark on an inner journey and the discovery of the seeds of new life hidden in the dark.
Jungian analysis is a creative and non-linear process whereby we can come to know ourselves better and experience a renewal of energy, enabling us to live more fruitfully from our own uniqueness. Client and analyst together follow the dynamically evolving relationship between the unconscious and the unique life journey as the client lives it forward.