Integral Therapy

I received my Master's degree from the California Institute of Integral Studies, with a concentration in Integral Counseling Psychology. Integral therapy begins with the assumption that all people are capable of change, and that wholeness is our natural state of being. Within this frame, the process of therapy includes reestablishing a sense of connection to ourselves, to others, and to the world around us.

This stems from a mind-body-soul approach, where everything matters and the approaches are holistic in that everything is considered. I am trained and received my Masters in Integral Counseling Psychology. This includes somatic work, depth psychology, an emphasis on relationship and behavior, and as well as working with meaning and transpersonal themes, an awareness and importance on environmental, systemic factors, and incorporating current neuropsychological understandings.

This style of Freud's "talking cure" is more than words. We explore places in your body that have messages for you, like a constant tension in your chest, or stomach pangs when you think of someone. Perhaps your heart-strings are attached to people in ways that deserve attention and reconsideration. We also look at those thoughts that keep circling, those patterns of cognition that trip you up, and even those deep, core beliefs that may no longer be true. Bringing soul into therapy is a way of connecting with the larger human experience, seeing ourselves as unique while sharing in the collective. Spirit is the lens that shows us there is more to the world than meets the eye. Here we examine questions of meaning and purpose.

Integral psychotherapy proposes that all insights on life contain partial truths and that weaving together a range of cultural, psychological, socioeconomic, biological, spiritual, and behavioral perspectives can offer hope for healing, increased mindfulness, and social and cultural evolution. Integral approach draws from several theoretical orientations, leaning heavily on theories of transpersonal psychology. An integral approach embraces an attitude towards that affirms the inherent value of each individual. It is a unifying psychotherapy that responds appropriately and effectively to the person at the affective, behavioral, cognitive, and physiological levels of functioning, and addresses as well the spiritual dimension of life. Integral refers to the process of integrating the personality: taking disowned, unaware, or unresolved aspects of the self and making them part of a cohesive self. It is the process of making whole.

All our parts make us whole.

I first read Ken Wilber when I was in high school in the 1980s and his way of looking at the world had profound effect on my young mind. It remains one of the most complete and integrated systems of knowledge that exists, that I know about anyway. In many ways it is essentially a rigorously holistic approach to human change and can be a great way to illuminate blind spots on one's own roadmap to positive, lasting change.

Integral means to view from a holistic point of view. We are all biological, social, cultural, subjective, and spiritual creatures. When viewed from a holistic standpoint, a person gains greater agency and less blame. There are things that happen to us that occur from sociocultural and familial trauma, and there are things that happen within us in response to that event. That is where we have the agency to act and change. Meditation, breathwork, dreamwork, and psychedelic integration.

Integral therapy, similar to holistic therapy, is a therapeutic practice that takes an integrative approach and looks at the connections between a client’s mind, body and spirit. Like other types of mindfulness-based therapy, integral therapy is designed to help a client’s attention focus on the present moment and achieve clarity. Integral therapists use multiple approaches to addresses issues and encourage self-awareness and self-acceptance in clients.

I completed my Master's at the California Institute of Integral Psychology with a degree in integral counseling psychology. My training focused on modalities such as transpersonal psychotherapy, sensorimotor psychotherapy, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, and somatic therapy.