Transpersonal and Experiential Psychotherapy (TEP) is a unique blend of transformative personal growth and therapeutic methods that promote self-awareness, creativity, and the unfolding of the person’s authentic self. TEP embraces a range of therapeutic perspectives including the Transpersonal. Client centred, it offers a full and rich experience in which the client engages with feelings, emotions, mind and body, soul and spirit.
TEP can support people experiencing crisis, trauma, depression, grief, anxiety, relationship issues, life changes, limiting patterns of behaviour, loss of meaning, and is appropriate for clients with stable lives who want support to live consciously. TEP practitioners use methods which support and engage the individual psyche’s inbuilt movement towards growth, healing & wholeness. Self-understanding allows for healthier life choices and the development of a more mature and whole human being.
TEP responds creatively and sensitively to the needs of each person. TEP practitioners are trained in the following modalities: Sandplay, Dreamwork, Transpersonal Breathwork, Voice Dialogue, Symbol work, Emotional Processing work, Body-Focused work, Journalling, Meditation and other Integrative Practices including Art, Movement, Mindfulness and Group sharing.
Principal Modalities & Practices:
Sandplay which originated in the Jungian Institute, is spontaneous play in a Sandtray, with or without symbols. It is a doorway into our deepest inner self and the transpersonal level of the psyche and facilitates healing, self-awareness, growth and guidance.
Voice Dialogue is based on the theory that we are a multi-faceted human personality made up of numerous sub-personalities or internal Selves. These form to protect our innate vulnerability. Developed by Jungian analyst Hal Stone and his wife Sidra, each Self is given expression, which brings about self-awareness, choice and aliveness for the client.
Transpersonal Breathwork facilitates entry into non-ordinary states of consciousness where trauma locked in the body is released for healing, and access becomes available to beneficial inner resources. Breathwork is always conducted in a safe therapeutic environment and was originally developed by Stan Groff.
Dreams: Dreams provide us with access to aspects of ourselves of which we are normally unaware. Working with our dreams puts us in touch with our own deep wisdom and hidden potential, as well as providing guidance around current issues.
Emotional Processing (EP): is a safe, structured, energetic and powerful process used to work with unresolved issues and their accompanying emotions. It uses the breath, movement and sound to consciously work with and release unexpressed energy from present and past reactions to gain clarity, in which the client develops a greater sense of their own identity and self-reliance.
Body Focus: Body Focus is about re-establishing connection to the body and feelings and discovering its defences and holdings in order to release them. The works derives from Alexander Lowen’s Bioenergetics.
Symbol Work: Symbols provide a powerful doorway into our inner world and help us work with both conscious and unconscious material. Symbols act like a bridge between the ego’s everyday position and whatever is unconscious and wanting to be revealed.
Meditation is used as a practice of being fully present in the moment to both inner and outer experience.
For more information about TEP training and professional development opportunities, see the website of the Association of Transpersonal and Experiential Psychotherapists (ATEP).