2. Depth work with subtle energies

I'd like to describe more concretely now my approach to depth work with subtle energy, including reports on client responses. Traditional depth psychology has concerned itself with unconscious material, particularly as represented in dreams, visual imagery, art media, and transference phenomena. More recent therapies such as Gestalt Therapy and Arnold Mindell's Process Oriented Psychology include unconscious body expression as a representational channel of psychic process. I believe that energetic experience is a valuable addition to the depth tradition.

The approach I use to depth energetic work has much in common with the guided imagery method used in the early days of Psychosynthesis (Crampton, 1974, 2005). Both methods have the advantage of integrating the client's conscious viewpoint with the powerful healing resources of the unconscious. The client can interact with the material as it emerges or afterwards, as appropriate. And both depth approaches draw upon the key variables of inner work: attention and intention.

As the client attends to his or her internal experience, with intention to allow the experience to unfold, the healing process is activated. Jung describes this in referring to his method of 'active imagination' as follows: "Looking, psychologically, brings about the activation of the object; it is as if something were emanating from one's spiritual eye that evokes or activates the object of one's vision" (Jung, 1967).

In the case of depth energetic work, the client is paying attention primarily to a kinesthetic sense, though there is often a visual component. The ability to allow one's internal experience to unfold, whether it be visual or kinesthetic/energetic, is crucial to depth work. A prominent Jungian, in speaking of active imagination, said:

"We must be able to let things happen in the psyche. For us this becomes a real art of which few people know anything. Consciousness is forever interfering, helping, correcting, and negating, never leaving the simple growth of the psychic process in peace" (Weaver, l964).

The most important key to this way of working is a particular state of the will. In this state there is a balance of the yang (active) and yin (receptive) aspects. On the one hand, the client holds focus and intention toward what needs healing. On the other hand, the process is turned over to a higher power or field of intelligence beyond the rational mind. George Leonard uses the term 'focused surrender' in his research on the flow state, reported in his book with Michael Murphy, The Life We Are Given (Tarcher, 2005). He describes focused surrender as a paradoxical state that involves trying and not trying, zeroing in and letting go. I find this to be a very apt description of the client's state of will in deep energetic work. In a similar vein, the poet Rumi has spoken of the healing process:

Don't turn your head,
keep looking at the bandaged place.
That is where the light enters you.
And don't believe for a moment
that you are healing yourself.

One of my healer colleagues described his state in the healing process as that of a bridge between realms: the material realm of the condition being healed and the higher dimensional realms from which healing takes place. This is very similar to the process of quantum healing described by Deepak Chopra. In the work I will describe, the client is asked to become such a bridge in his or her own healing process. It should be said that this approach is ordinarily not for a beginning client and requires a certain capacity to tolerate intense affect.

How does the process work? In addition to this dual state of the will, there are two factors of prime importance: the ability to sense subtle energy and the ability to be present to one's experience from a state of pure awareness, often called the 'Witness' state, rather than from the rational mind. In Assagioli's time we tended to work in a more mental way. Trauma had not yet come onto the radar screen in the therapy world and there was little awareness of the need to release energies frozen by trauma. Though we were aware of the need to disidentify from the mind, it seemed more difficult to achieve this in the past than it is today.

In the concrete practice of depth energetic work, the client is seated in a comfortable chair, settling into a state of relaxation, with attention on his or her state of bodily awareness. The person is invited to pay attention to any feelings or sensations, particularly along the central core of the body from the base of the spine to the head. Examples may be given of emotionally tinged sensations such as a physical/energetic constriction in some area, 'butterflies in the stomach,' shortness of breath, etc. These sensations are similar to the 'felt sense' Gendlin describes in his Focusing therapy.

The emotional component of the energetic experience is not always apparent, though it can usually be elicited by questions from the therapist. Therapists with knowledge of the chakra system will observe that issues are held in the body near the chakra centers associated with these particular issues. (Chakras are bioenergy centers in the energy body recognized by energy practitioners in both Western and yogic traditions. There are seven primary chakras along the central axis of the body from the base of the spine to the top of the head. They are thought to mediate various aspects of our life experiences).

There are two basic approaches to starting a session. A particular issue may be targeted for healing or the client may choose to focus on whatever 'next step' emerges. The notion of 'targeting' an issue is central to the approach of Energy Psychology and EMDR. This helps to focus the client's intentionality and, I believe, plays an important role in the process—even with an undefined target such as one's next step in healing.

I have found that certain technologies can play a valuable role in assisting clients to let go of the mind so they can access deeper levels of the healing process. The ones I have found most useful entrain brainwave states to alpha and theta levels through the use of sound. More recently I have used a CD with embedded delta frequencies (the very slow frequencies of the sleep state) with very profound results. In delta a client was able to deeply experience the pain of merged identity with her mother, which opened up a major breakthrough. While some clients are able to shift into the healing state without the use of such technology, most people find the sound helpful in getting started. It is particularly useful for people who identify with their thought process and tend to get lost in their 'stories'. Some clients use the sound technologies as training wheels and eventually learn to work without them. Others prefer to continue with this support.

I began using sound with EMDR tapes and CDs designed to deliver bilateral stimulation to the brain. In this process, the person listens through headphones to sound that moves back and forth between the left and right ears. They might be listening in a background way to ocean waves or simple tones or melodies. Their attention is on their internal experience, especially on what they are feeling in their body. They report out what they're experiencing. The headphones are open so normal conversation can take place. According to EMDR theory, the key element is bilateral processing, whether it be activated through alternating left and right sound, eye movements, or tactile stimulation. I have found similar results, however, without bilateral technology, using sound that induces slower brainwave states. I suspect that the active ingredient may be the relaxation effect and meditative state induced by the sound.

Another technology I find helpful in facilitating Depth Energetic work is a device that emits colored light used in Emotional Transformation Therapy. In this approach, the client is looking at a source of flickering colored light while interacting with the therapist. The flicker rate can be adjusted to entrain a range of brainwave states. The alpha range is used for most processing. Theta is used to access repressed experiences. The colors are chosen by various criteria: presenting issues, areas of bodily tension, or the results of an assessment process. In this system, different colors correspond to particular psychological issues and areas of the body. The premise is that certain frequencies of light stimulate correlated issues and help to resolve them. This system was worked out empirically by Dr. Vazquez (see ETT website) and I find it very powerful.