In my view, as I look back over the last 20
years of being a therapist, I notice how much more human and humane therapists
have become and how much more personal the therapy process has become. The
momentous impact of more humanistically and transpersonally-oriented therapies
has actually revolutionized the kind of therapy that is offered and the kinds
of therapists who provide it. I believe that, more and more, consumers of
therapy are coming to know that their therapist can only take them as far as
she or he has grown in life themselves. Modern therapists are far more attuned
to the need to work on and resolve their own personal issues, in order to be
effective and helpful with their clients.
Over the last 20 years, God (in the form of Higher Power) has
been let into the therapy room. In the past, there was an artificial and
stilted separation of spirituality from therapeutic growth. Now, there's more
of an understanding of the need to integrate and honor one's spiritual self --
there is a growing diminishment of that sense of split from spirit, soul, and
emotional self. More and more, we are coming to understand that the issues we
face, the problems and dilemmas that we encounter in ourselves and our
relationships, are meant to help us grow -- to grow into the loving beings we
were born as. This process of growth into love is the province of both
therapist and client.
Over the last 20 years, we have come increasingly out of the
closet of denial: therapists and clients alike are more willing and likely to
stop idealizing family of origin relationships. People are more able and
willing to see -- and feel the pain involved in -- the various forms of
physical, sexual, and emotional abuse that is so staggeringly prevalent in our
society. The therapy profession has facilitated this expansion of awareness and
emergence from denial by increasingly embracing the "growth model"
for human development versus the more medically-oriented "pathology
model."
Finally, the emergence and rapid proliferation of the 12-step
recovery movement has helped, and is helping, multitudes of people to emerge
from isolation, to join with others for mutual help and support. The diversity
of 12-step programs are all grounded in a common, optimistic vision of human
development, a development grounded in telling the truth, being true to one's
self, developing community, and actively cultivating one's relationship to
one's Higher Self. The 12-step recovery movement, combined with humanistic and
transpersonal therapies, is encouraging the birth and growth of a new humanity,
a more gentle and compassionate humanity that will be our saving grace.
Jason Saffer is a therapist and Co-Director of the Center for
Creative Growth. Founded in 1982 in Berkeley, the Center provides therapy
services using the Inner Child and shame-reduction perspective and methods
popularized by John Bradshaw. The Center was John Bradshaw's Bay Area
counseling affiliate from 1991-94. For more information about Jason, his
background, experience, and orientation, please click
here.
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