Self Relations Therapy Print E-mail

Self Relations Psychotherapy

The primary therapeutic aim of Self Relations (SR) psychotherapy is one of reestablishing a healthy relationship between the cognitive self and somatic self as a means of re-uniting with the greater universal field.

The cognitive self is your mental identity. It represents the way you’ve developed and organized your life. It is your adult self. Oftentimes we develop coping strategies and/or goal-oriented lifestyles that move us away from our bodies and our deeper feelings selves.

The somatic self is a felt sense in the body that is oftentimes ignored. It may create symptoms as a way of catching your attention. The problem with traditional psychotherapy is that it adds to the problem by seeking to alleviate the symptoms by overcoming them (seeing them as cognitive distortions), medicating them and so forth. Typically the symptoms do not disappear or they may disappear for a short time –and then return. SR therapists see this as something that’s (or rather someone who is) seeking to be listened to, loved, integrated with a sense of belonging.

This psychotherapy is based upon the work of Stephen Gilligan. It utilizes the premises expressed in Ericksonian psychotherapy, Buddhism, Aikido, Martin Luther King and Gandhi’s practices of non-violence.

SR influences both my individual and my couples’ psychotherapy. It offers a “meta-framework in which multiplicity—of form, meaning, presence, and so on—can be contained within an actively adaptive, aware and present relational self.

SR Psychotherapy is build around the following premises:

  • Each person has a center
  • The river of life flows through that center
  • The river brings both happiness and suffering
  • To navigate the river, a second self slowly develops
  • When the two selves harmonize, a third self emerges

This is a path and therapy of the heart. I have been a Self-Relations Psychotherapist since its onset. 

Upcoming training combining SR and Psychospiritual techniques for psychotherapists and wholistic practitioners will be presented in Costa Rica January 2012.

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For more information on Self Relations, read Courage to Love by Stephen Gilligan. For more information on Psychospiritual processes, see my "Publications" menu on this website.