Jungian therapy – or Jungian analysis as it is also known – is a psychoanalytic approach which focuses particularly on the unconscious mind. While it is primarily a talking therapy which will be tailor made to the individual but commonly uses dream analysis and word association test s well as more active methods of exploration such as painting, drama, dance, sand playing, listening to music, and dream journaling.
Jungian Psychotherapy concepts
Active Imagination describes bridging the gap between unconsciousness and consciousness through use of imagination, fantasy, dreams and meditation. The aim is for the client to summon their unconscious mind into the present through observation of their imagination or dreams.
Collective Unconscious describes an expression of the unconscious seen in all living beings and it is known as the organisation of experiences within a species. The theory is that the collective unconscious was inherited from being part of the human species rather than individuals only possessing experiences and memories from their own personal history..
Individuation is a process by which an individual develops into their true self rather than feeling emotional they are emotionally fragmented and disjointed. Forward progress is often impaired by inner conflict and self-sabotage of this process. This is thought to result from fragmentation of the different selves within a person. Individuation assists integration of the individual’s past positive and negative experiences allowing them to become unique and individual from other humans. Dream interpretation and active imagination are used within this process. “Logos” represent fact or reason and Jung believed that logos was the male version for rationality, where the female counterpart, eros, represented psychic availability or emotion.
Nekyia is a process of delving into the unconscious and Jung felt this deliberate and decisive action, a dark journey into a dangerous place, was required to achieve individuation and commented that those who had made this journey were far better for having done so.
