Alan Mulhern
Psychotherapist, Author,
Director of the Quest Series
The psychotherapy I offer
I am a registered psychotherapist and have worked in the profession for 30 years. My training was at the Association of Jungian Analysts in London. I provide short as well as long term therapy. Typical problems I work with include depression, relationship problems, work difficulties, problems of identity, and a wide range of neurotic and character disturbances. I usually work in a one-to-one setting. I can work in the Spanish language and have experience as a psychotherapist and supervisor in Latin America.
Sessions are normally 50 minutes and clients typically come once or twice a week though occasionally more frequently. Distance psychotherapy via Zoom, Skype, FaceTime etc. is also useful if someone is travelling frequently or is lives abroad. An email or a phone call will clarify costs, likely length and the frequency of therapy. This normally leads to a first session in which clients may present their problem in greater detail.
An email or a phone call will clarify costs, likely length and the frequency of therapy.
This normally leads to a first session in which clients may present their problem in greater detail.
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As well as my psychotherapy practice I am occupied in surrounding areas of the profession. I give conference talks 2-3 times a year and I am Director of the Quest Series which deals with many matters connected with psychotherapy, for example the history of Freud and Jung as well as the connection between the collective crisis of the contemporary world, individual suffering, and the search for meaning. I give regular podcasts which have included an exploration of Healing Intelligence as well as the search for vision in an age of crisiis - the Quest. I authored a recent book on Healing Intelligence which is focused on a central concern of the psychotherapy profession – how healing of emotional wounds occurs and the role of the therapist in this process. By way of illustration I now summarize from the book my view of the complete therapy process.
Many clients come to therapy for limited but urgent problems needing resolution in the current period. For example, a relationship crisis may need clarification and the therapy might have a limited time frame or someone may simply wish to understand a particular problem and therefore be content with short-term therapy. But let us first examine the whole process with the understanding that clients may only need to use part of it. A complete therapy, I suggest, is in five stages – though not necessarily in sequential order.
Healing Intelligence
By way of example of how psychotherapy works I would like to give an excerpt from my book, Healing Intelligence. The Spirit in Psychotherapy: Working with Darkness and Light. If you are interested in buying the book please use this link: goo.gl/y4F71r
Part 1 Healing energies are a natural intelligence within the psyche promoting the unconscious state of wholeness we call health. This health is, for the most part, intensely desired by those who suffer pain, division, and conflict within themselves; for some it is the central goal of life to recover it.
Part 2 Healing Intelligence.
The context for healing is outlined in 4 stages:
1. Containment and comprehension
2. Analysis of character
3. Alignment with the deep psyche
4. Integration and emergence of a different centre to the personality
Part 3 Healing Intelligence.
The union of the conscious with the unconscious.
The analytic and the synthetic method.
Techniques to contact the unconscious: dream analysis; immersion in one’s emotional complex; light trance states; active imagination.
Creative elaboration of contents of the unconscious and development of their meaning.
The aim is a healthy ego and the Self. The unconscious is not a repressive storehouse but can be an inner guiding system.
Part 4 Healing Intelligence.
How can we contact the contents of the unconscious and how can we work with them?
1. The analytic method. 2. The synthetic method which is more intuitive, based on feelings, metaphor, and symbol. Jung suggests immersion in the emotional complex and then the use of light trance states to accomplish this. This requires a balance or dialogue between the creative elaboration of these contents and the emergence of their meaning. The unconscious is an inner guiding force in this.
Part 5 Healing Intelligence
The essence of the focusing-awareness process is:
Expressing – Stilling – Awakening – Locating – Approaching - Mobilising
These steps are explained as central to the healing process.