One of my previous posts gave a brief synopsis of the historical and cultural role of soul in psychology in the West. I received my masters in a program, grounded in depth psychology, an orientation started by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. Jung believed that the psyche or “soul” will move towards wholeness and thus the path to healing is integration of all aspects of Self: mind, body, soul. 

Also in my previous post, we explored how the Western interpretation of Freudian psychological text, attributed mystical and divine aspects of psyche to human mental processes. This was further exacerbated with the Western adaptation of the Cartestian split. The cartesian split is the oversimplified interpretation of Descartes work, the belief that mind and body are separate entities with an emphasis on mind over matter. 

I feel this prioritization of mind above and separate of body, and the exclusion of divine mysticism, has left the majority of Western psychological practice stilted and incomplete. In the last decade we have seen a return to incorporating body processes and wisdom into psychological process with somatic approaches like EMDR, brainspotting and authentic movement. I believe body practice is necessary to full efficacy of any psychological practice.

I am also seeing a consistent seeking for and calling in spirit or psyche into therapeutic practice. I previously shared the prevalence of religious trauma that many clients of my private practice have experienced in the past. We are seeing younger generations and individuals that have turned away from religious and spiritual practice. 

Following the depth tradition for healing, we see a major gap in the healing approach, without incorporating the soul, we lose a complete dimension of the Self. Jung shared that was remains unconscious in the self will seek integration through whatever means are available. I believe that what is unconscious is constantly speaking to us through dream, symbolism, feeling and physical dis-ease. It is no wonder that we see a culture struggling with a healthy sense of Self and deeper meaning. My hope is that as therapists, we bring Soul back into psychology and even when we don’t have the answers, which many times we do not, we can encourage the client’s soulful exploration. Could there be something more at play, less literal and more poetic. 

“When we relate to our bodies as having soul, we attend to their beauty, their poetry and their expressiveness. Our very habit of treating the body as a machine, whose muscles are like pulleys and its organs engines, forces its poetry underground, so that we experience the body as an instrument and see its poetics only in illness.” 

― Thomas Moore, Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life

Elani Nicole Coaching & Therapeutic Services
Coach,Therapist, MA, MFTC, LPCC

To schedule: 

https://elani-engelken.clientsecure.me/303-809-6493

elaninicole.com 

Also in my previous post, we explored how the Western interpretation of Freudian psychological text, attributed mystical and divine aspects of psyche to human mental processes. This was further exacerbated with the Western adaptation of the Cartestian split. The cartesian split is the oversimplified interpretation of Descartes work, the belief that mind and body are separate entities with an emphasis on mind over matter. 

I feel this prioritization of mind above and separate of body, and the exclusion of divine mysticism, has left the majority of Western psychological practice stilted and incomplete. In the last decade we have seen a return to incorporating body processes and wisdom into psychological process with somatic approaches like EMDR, brainspotting and authentic movement. I believe body practice is necessary to full efficacy of any psychological practice. 

I am also seeing a consistent seeking for and calling in spirit or psyche into therapeutic practice. I previously shared the prevalence of religious trauma that many clients of my private practice have experienced in the past.

We are seeing younger generations and individuals that have turned away from religious and spiritual practice. 

Following the depth tradition for healing, we see a major gap in the healing approach, without incorporating the soul, we lose a complete dimension of the Self. Jung shared that was remains unconscious in the self will seek integration through whatever means are available. I believe that what is unconscious is constantly speaking to us through dream, symbolism, feeling and physical dis-ease. It is no wonder that we see a culture struggling with a healthy sense of Self and deeper meaning. My hope is that as therapists, we bring Soul back into psychology and even when we don’t have the answers, which many times we do not, we can encourage the client’s soulful exploration. Could there be something more at play, less literal and more poetic. 

“When we relate to our bodies as having soul, we attend to their beauty, their poetry and their expressiveness. Our very habit of treating the body as a machine, whose muscles are like pulleys and its organs engines, forces its poetry underground, so that we experience the body as an instrument and see its poetics only in illness.” 
― Thomas Moore, Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life

Elani has been working as a life coach since 2012. She began working in this field after completing personal self-development and mindset work that helped her work through her own eating disorder and anxiety issues. When she found herself feeling incomplete with the mindset approach she began working with a yoga and Daoist mentor in New York City and was fascinated by the way our psychology mirrored our physiology and vice versa. Elani would later bring this training into her graduate thesis work and as well as her work with therapy clients. Around this same time, Elani also began working with a spiritual mentor and iridologist. This study led to the inclusion of meditation in both her personal and professional practice.

In 2016, Elani realized she had a great deal to learn about human psychology after witnessing a psychotic episode in a close family member. This experience caused her to seek out her own therapist and through that journey Elani chose to return to school for a masters. She completed her degree in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2021. Pacifica is a graduate school based in the depth psychological approach and this orientation informs Elani’s work with both therapy and coaching clients. She is currently working with individuals, families and couples in Colorado. You can read more about depth work and Elani by visiting her website at ElaniNicole.com. She also offers a complimentary consultation to anyone interested in the potential of working with her and you can book that using this link: https://elani-engelken.clientsecure.me/

Why had I not yet made that connection for myself? It felt right, this is exactly what I wanted but I hadn’t realized I had enrolled myself in a spiritual program! As I began to learn more about the roots of this field, I also began to understand the reason behind my naivete. To understand the Western therapeutic approach, it is important to look at both the professional and academic history of psychology, and the current relationship with religion in Western culture.

            Europe was the leader in the early days of psychology as a field of study and practice. When World War II ravaged much of Europe, both the practice and advancement of psychology was halted, leaving the United States to take the lead. During this time, the only people allowed to practice therapy in the West were medical doctors. We still see a widespread clinical and scientific impact on psychological practice in the West.

Further exacerbating the division of soul and psychological practice, was the translation of Sigmund Freud’s work from German to English. Freud, a psychological leader in Europe, had little regard for America and was not fluent in English. When his field froze in Europe, English translators were left to interpret nuanced psychological text from German to English. In much of Freud’s work he refers to the soul or the unknown but in English translations soul became the “mental apparatus.” What was once attributed to mystical or divine now became a function of the human brain. What was unknowable and expansive became human and limited in scope. 

            This set the stage for what I will refer to as the sterilization of Psyche, or Soul…

Fast forward to today, I am seeing a common thread of what many refer to as religious trauma in my private practice. Clients that choose me as a practitioner typically refer to themselves as spiritual rather than religious. It is important to define the difference between spirituality and religion as many use the two interchangeably. 

            Religion is a “set of practices or beliefs” that can be applied to spirituality or any life area. Daily toothbrushing would be a religious practice as it happens ritually. Spirituality is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.” Because religion is often a set of practices and beliefs applied to spirit and soul, many have rejected the religious practice and sometimes Soul will be thrown out with it. 

I find this particularly striking in the millennial generation and younger. Many in this generation have rejected the dogma that they saw or experienced in previous generation’s religious practice and/or reject organized religion as these practices have become more politically aligned and isolating. Many of my clients do not find themselves wholly aligned with any one religion and thus feel lost in spiritual exploration or practice. So where does psychology, the study of soul fit into this cultural and historical reality? I will explore this further in my next post. 

Elani has been working as a life coach since 2012. She began working in this field after completing personal self-development and mindset work that helped her work through her own eating disorder and anxiety issues. When she found herself feeling incomplete with the mindset approach she began working with a yoga and Daoist mentor in New York City and was fascinated by the way our psychology mirrored our physiology and vice versa. Elani would later bring this training into her graduate thesis work and as well as her work with therapy clients. Around this same time, Elani also began working with a spiritual mentor and iridologist. This study led to the inclusion of meditation in both her personal and professional practice.

In 2016, Elani realized she had a great deal to learn about human psychology after witnessing a psychotic episode in a close family member. This experience caused her to seek out her own therapist and through that journey Elani chose to return to school for a masters. She completed her degree in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2021. Pacifica is a graduate school based in the depth psychological approach and this orientation informs Elani’s work with both therapy and coaching clients. She is currently working with individuals, families and couples in Colorado. You can read more about depth work and Elani by visiting her website at ElaniNicole.com. She also offers a complimentary consultation to anyone interested in the potential of working with her and you can book that using this link: https://elani-engelken.clientsecure.me/

“…cusp and midnight, the year’s threshold and unlocking, where the past lets go of and becomes the future; the place of caught breath.”

The day represents a pause in the cycle of nature, a time to reflect. How many of us will feel that cosmic change in radiant energy around and in us when the sun appears to stop its movement north? Or have we lost that connection between our soul and nature?

The ancients saw this physical event and changed it into an experience with meaning. Cultures have for thousands of years heeded this day’s significance. 

Backward-looking and Forward-looking

In contemporary history, June 21 was declared a Day of Reflection in 2007 for the people of Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Great Britain. As it’s a backward-looking and forward-looking day, they pause to remember the violence that tore its nation apart—the looking back—and also the looking forward to a peaceful new society, asking how and what they can do to rebuild and restore this new society. Inclusivity and sensitivity underpin the day’s honoring. It’s a neutral space, as the day’s significance is related to a naturally occurring event, and nature makes no division between races, creeds, or political viewpoints. 

Cultivate an Hourglass Meditation

Based on one’s spiritual proclivities, many meditations for the Summer Solstice can be found on the web. I prefer focusing on change and light, two primary elements of this day, using the hourglass as a visual soul-crafting symbol. This meditation can be done in five minutes or thirty or more, and brings you into contact with your body’s wisdom—our bodies know things and send us messages, such as where stress makes its home in us. And it’s okay to keep paper and pencil handy to jot down any significant insights, but then move gently back into your breath. Make sure to relegate your ego to the back seat—now’s not the time for it to take control. 

• Begin by moving into a comfortable position, whether that be sitting, walking, or lying down. 
• Take a couple of deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling slowly. 
• Picture the large, upper rim of the hourglass, bringing in your current experiences—such as what your body feels: the air on your skin, how your body feels on whatever surface it is touching. 
• Move into your body with your breath, to where you feel these physical sensations. 
• Feel your lungs rise and fall with each air movement. 
• Reject nothing, welcome all without judgments, including pain. 
• At this place of acceptance, ask your inner light to bring into focus experiences from your past year, month, week, day—again, nonjudgmentally. 
• Let yourself feel any accompanying emotions—emotions are teachers. 
• Let light flood those experiences. 
• Next visualize moving into the narrow neck of the hourglass, focusing on your breath. 
• Stay with that space of non-change; visualize the light and energy of the sun hovering over you. Don’t rush it. 
• Now move into the broad opening of the bottom of the hourglass. Can you sit with this cosmic energy shift and experience it in your body? As this day signifies a solar and energetic change, what surfaces for you? If nothing, that’s okay—something might surface later—or not. Don’t analyze what’s going on through thinking, only experience it and let your soul bring meaning to whatever’s arising. Allow the past to become the future.

Don’t wait for the summer solstice to practice the hourglass meditation. Every hour take five minutes to stop and visualize this vessel. You can sit at your desk with eyes open. Then breathe, open up to your body’s physical sensations, move into the hourglass’s constrictive space with just breathing, and then open back up to emotions, including any energy you feel is stuck in your body, such as stress in your shoulders, forehead, stomach, hips, hands, or arms. Breathe into those areas nonjudgmentally. 

And may the long time Sun shine upon you, love surround you, and the pure light within you guide your way on!

____

Notes & Sources: 

1. Kabat-Zinn, Jon. He defines mindfulness meditation as “the awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally”. For more information, refer to his many published works.

About the Author: Rev. Mary Coday Edwards is a Spiritual Growth Facilitator and People House Minister. A life-long student of spirituality, Mary spent almost 20 years living, working, and sojourning abroad in Asia, Southeast Asia, East Africa, and Latin America before finding her spiritual connection at People House and completing its Ministerial Program. Past studies include postgraduate studies from the University of South Africa in Theological Ethics/Ecological Justice, focusing on the spiritual and physical interconnectedness of all things. With her MA in Environmental Studies from Boston University, abroad she worked and wrote on environmental sustainability issues at both global and local levels, in addition to working in refugee repatriation.

A presidential inauguration is just one type of ritual among many. This post invites readers to consider making ritual a regular part of our everyday lives, wrapping the small, quiet moments of life in sacred meaning and creating a space where the soul waits. “Ritual maintains the world’s holiness. Knowing that everything we do, no matter how simple, has a halo of imagination around it and can serve the soul enriches life and makes the things around us more precious, more worthy of our protection and care.” These are the words of Thomas Moore, from his book Care of the Soul: A Guide to Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life, which inspires us to consider that the soul has requirements for thriving, one of which is ritual. Making ritual accessible is the invitation here, which begs the question; what are the basic ingredients for creating and honoring the sacredness of our daily lives through the practice of ritual?

I spoke with Boulder psychotherapist Merryl Rothaus, MA, LPC (see bio below) about this idea of the basic ingredients for creating ritual. She’s an artist and a believer in the healing potential of ritual and has been practicing the art of ritual with clients and in her personal life for years. In our recent phone conversation, Merryl shared with me what she believes the basic ingredients for ritual might be… remembering that there is so much freedom in it for each of us to explore for ourselves too. 

Intention

Merryl suggests that the first ingredient is to have an intention to make something in your life sacred or special. This could be as simple as intentionally setting a beautiful table for yourself for dinner each night or lighting a candle in the morning to illuminate your day. The options are endless… allowing intention to imbue our daily activities with focus and meaning is the point. Intention also helps us bypass the psyche and move out of the mind. Ask yourself… what do I want to welcome in to honor this moment or this activity? And how do I want to show up in it?

Witnessing

The next ingredient is to bring a spirit of collaboration to the space we intend to create. This means having an understanding of an I-Thou relationship, or as Merryl says “to invoke something outside ourselves… a Thou such as Mother Earth, the land, our ancestors, Spirit, God… there’s a witnessing component that is important here, because we are not alone. It’s important to remember and connect with the unseen realm”. Get quiet and ask yourself who or what would feel helpful to ask to join you in this ritual? 

Action

The third basic ingredient is to take an action. This can be, as suggested earlier, as simple as lighting a candle. Doing so creates a threshold or a bridge, beckoning us to cross from who we’ve been or who we are into a quiet space of not-knowing. In the language of mindfulness study, taking action signals a time to be still and step into presence. Merryl points out that “Ritual, brings presence, it is absolutely not necessary to be present already before engaging in ritual…  the ritual itself can infuse us with presence and connect us with life energy”. With this in mind, what action would feel meaningful to you in order to signal the start of your ritual and offers the possibility of stepping into the Now? Traditional options include burning incense, reading something meaningful, spending time in prayer, honoring a keepsake and connecting to the energy of it or simply sitting in silence. 

Author David Richo says that “a ritual enacts a newfound consciousness, making its deepest reality proximate and palpable. It sanctifies the place we are in and the things we feel by consecrating them to something higher than the transitory”. Try it yourself… explore how incorporating daily rituals opens up possibility and “newfound consciousness” in your life. 

Resources:

Moore, T. (1994). Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life. New York, New York: HarperPerennial.

Richo, D. (2002). How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving (1st ed.). Shambhala.

Merryl E. Rothaus, LPC, LMHC, ATR-BC, CHT, is a licensed psychotherapist, a registered and board-certified art therapist, a certified Hakomi therapist, and a Somatic Experiencing and Brainspotting practitioner. She is also a dedicated Meditation Practitioner and a Shamanic Practitioner. She is currently working on a book about her journey and attempts toward motherhood and what it is like to be a “Mother Without Children”. You can learn more by visiting her website https://www.merrylrothaus.com/ or by following her on Instagram @merrylrothaus.

Michelle is a mother, a partner, a friend, a spiritual seeker, a psychotherapist and someone who enjoys connecting with herself within a mindfulness meditation practice. She has a BA in Communications and Humanities from the University of Colorado and an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a concentration in Mindfulness-based Transpersonal Psychology from Naropa University. Michelle’s practice, Soul Care Counseling, offers mindfulness-based practices that support clients seeking to become less anxious, less stressed, less reactive and more grounded, present and connected with their own inner ally. As a result of their work together, clients are able to communicate with themselves and others with greater clarity, care and compassion.  https://soulcaredenver.com/

My basic definition of anxiety is “fear of the future.” 

Our minds get caught up in a lot of “what ifs” and before long, our bodies are joining in, and we find ourselves having trouble breathing, with hearts racing, feeling very restless, perhaps some nausea or heartburn. 

When this happens, I am in full flight or fight mode, and my nervous system is reacting as if there is a large, hungry lion in the room and I need to run to escape. This is what a panic attack might look like, and most people who experience them develop some method of self soothing to cope. They might go for a walk or run, or listen to calm music, or slow their breathing down.

Other people live with chronic, ongoing daily anxiety that just chews away at their minds, damaging mental and physical well being.  It’s as if the train tracks for anxiety have been laid down in the mind many years ago and that train keeps chugging along on it.

In fact, that is what happens in our minds. Habits of thought repeat themselves over and over, and most of us don’t even realize we are having these thoughts. We are wired to worry and to anticipate trouble- this negative bias has protected humanity for many generations. We need to be able to anticipate problems ahead so that we can plan for them and be prepared. We don’t need to live in them all the time, though. A nervous system that is always set to high alert makes it very difficult to function in the world.

Also, we have the ability to rip these well -traveled tracks up, and to lay down new tracks, with a train carrying new thoughts now running along in our brains.

We start by understanding how those thoughts got there, and then move on to how to replace them.

People with trauma in their pasts often struggle with anxiety. Trauma can “set us up” for anxiety, based on what we have experienced in our pasts. Other people are simply wired to worry more.  Add to this that we do exist in a very challenging world that contains many things worth worrying about.

To take a holistic, spiritual approach to anxious thoughts is to acknowledge that they exist, and to accept that, for all of us, a certain amount of anxiety is simply part of being human. It can help to write down your anxieties, or to say them out loud.  This can help to stop the spiraling thoughts of one anxiety leading to another- all the “what ifs?” Movement is a great way to calm yourself- anxiety creates heat and energy in the body and working off the energy by walking or other movement can be very helpful. So is listening to music that calms you. 

Then there is using the calming breath.

Sometimes I think people downplay the importance of the breath because it seems too simple; and because it has become a catch phrase to tell someone, “Take a breath!”  However, slowed breathing is just what the nervous system needs in order to begin to calm itself, allowing blood to return to the brain so that our reasonable mind can function. There are many types of slow breath techniques; the one I like best for calming anxiety is a “cooling breath.”

Sit in a comfortable position, preferably with spine straight and shoulders relaxed. Begin by breathing in fully through the nose, filling the lungs completely. Pause for a second, and then slowly, slowly breathe out through the mouth. Repeat several times, until you find your heart rate has slowed. Bring your attention to your heart center, and notice what is coming up for you. Notice any feelings in your body. This is just sitting with emotions and allowing them to be. When thoughts come up that are anxious or negative, just let them go. You might even thank them for helping to keep you safe.

Now, get up and do this again the next day, even if this is not an anxious day for you.  With continued practice, it is possible to soothe the mind and the nervous system by tapping into your wider, deeper Selves: your soul and your spirit, your true being.

For learning more about how the brain and nervous system work and guidance with a spiritual perspective, I would recommend reading anything by Mark Waldman and Andrew Newberg. Mark is a psychologist and Andrew is an MD who studies neurobiology. Their writings bring together science and spirituality in a way I find very enlightening.

Faye Maguire, MA, LACC, is a People House private practitioner working with youth and adults, using a transpersonal approach to therapy. Counseling is her second career, after being a business owner for nearly 30 years. She enjoys working with people experiencing life transitions, grief and loss, depression, anxiety, trauma, addictions, relationship issues, and figuring out life’s direction, using a holistic approach. Please contact her at 720-331-2454 or at fayemaguire@gmail.com for more information.

What does the integration of the whole being look like in therapeutic practice? How do we address the separation of self that we have come to accept as the norm, and so begin to function with integration of the whole being as our new norm?

First, let’s look at some definitions. What do we mean when we speak of mind? Let’s see it as consciousness inhabiting a physical brain, or operating from that brain, like a computer that is able to take in and process information. Recent science is showing us that our mind is also working throughout our bodies, and that nerve cells in the digestive system communicate directly with the brain.  In this way, our mind is not only intellectual ability, reasoning capabilities, etc. It is the seat of our consciousness, and it links our bodies and our spirits.

How does mind differ from spirit?

Let’s think of the spirit as our essence, our energetic beings that inhabit the body as the mind inhabits the brain. Our bodies are the houses, a temporary home for that part of us that is eternal. Our bodies, our brains, are temporary dwelling places for spirit and mind, the aspects of our beings that never die.  

Science as of yet, has no explanation of why consciousness exists. Most of us feel that we have a soul or spirit. We know that there is some mysterious energy that motivates us to think, to dream, to create.  We feel there is a connection between this mysterious energy and how we live our lives, how well our health is, how our work, social, and financial lives manifest. Most of us focus our primary attention on our outward lives, finding a career, creating a home, supporting ourselves and our families, making friends, finding interesting things to do. These are the basic necessities of life, and they deserve our attention; without them, we would have no physical life beyond simply survival. This is the basic underpinning of Abraham Maslow’s well known hierarchy of needs, which I brought up in my last blog post.

The hierarchy is usually portrayed as a pyramid, with the bottom being basic physical needs, and the tip of the pyramid being “self-actualization” or a direct knowledge of one’s spiritual essence.

But what if our spirits and our consciousness need more tending?

What if we were to discover that, if we spent more of our precious time tending to these unseen aspects of ourselves, we would find our outer lives improving as well? What would happen if we turned this hierarchy on its head, and decided to prioritize taking care of our spiritual selves?

As the practice of psychotherapy and counseling continues to blend the standard accepted Western models of diagnosis and treatment with Eastern practices such as mindfulness, meditation, and body centered practices such as yoga and tai chi, we find CBT and DBT protocols have emerged as accepted ways to treat human beings.  Both systems incorporate the technique of mindfulness, or staying focused in the present moment, as a method to cope with anxiety and depression. EMDR is widely accepted as a proven treatment for trauma, and it involves treating memories stored in the body and mind, and images that represent these memories.

Practicing mindfulness and meditation are helpful ways to encourage clients to feel their bodies, notice what messages the body may be sending, and noticing when we might get an intuitive “hit.”  Somatic or body centered therapy can help clients focus on what messages pain, illness and discomfort might be trying to send us. These practices acknowledge that “mental disorders” are not truly mental at all, but spring from memories, beliefs, and ideas carried in the body and the mind. 

I am trained in Jungian and transpersonal psychology, and I like to use dreams as a way to work with clients to understand messages from the body, the unconscious mind, the soul and the spirit. We might use a light trance state in a session, in which all aspects of the being are present and engaged: body, spirit, and both conscious and unconscious minds. In this state, it is possible to gain greater insight into how our bodies, minds, and spirits communicate with us. It becomes possible to befriend and therefor, to better understand one’s symptoms. Dream images can be used as a gateway to working through issues. The slowed breath is used to calm the body and to create a relaxed state in which we be more receptive to what our whole being is expressing. From there, we work toward making positive changes in our lives by starting to let go of negative beliefs and transforming them into healthy, integrated actions.

Here are some of my favorite Mind/ Body authors:

Candace Pert

Richard Hanson

Herbert Benson

Andrew Weil

Faye Maguire, MA, LACC, is a People House private practitioner working with youth and adults, using a transpersonal approach to therapy. Counseling is her second career, after being a business owner for nearly 30 years. She enjoys working with people experiencing life transitions, grief and loss, depression, anxiety, trauma, addictions, relationship issues, and figuring out life’s direction, using a holistic approach. Please contact her at 720-331-2454 or at fayemaguire@gmail.com for more information.

We often hear about “treating the whole person”, which is an acknowledgement that modern Western medicine and psychology has, in practice, separated human beings in disparate parts and treated those parts as if they exist in a vacuum, unconnected to the rest of the person. Medicine has become the domain of specialists, highly educated in a specific area of health. In many ways, psychology has also become the domain of specialists, and it can be difficult for clients and patients to untangle the different modalities and discover which treatment will best serve their needs.

It seems as if physicians treat the body and counselors treat the mind and emotions.

Spiritual practices also may have contributed to this separation, as they have often placed the person’s spiritual needs above and beyond the physical and the realm of emotional life, imparting the belief that one’s eternal soul is a more important concern than physical needs and health. Spiritual leaders often give up many quotidian needs in the service of their spiritual well being.  However, Abraham Maslow recognized in his hierarchy of needs that one must have their basic physical needs met before being able to pursue spiritual goals.

It seems that science has taken us apart in order to learn about how we work, and that spirit calls out to put us back together.

How do we “put a person back together”, therapeutically? 

Perhaps I have experienced childhood or adult physical or emotional trauma, neglect, or other life experiences that have taught me that life is to be feared and people, in general, not to be trusted. This may have taught me to “live in my head” by avoiding feeling my body and my emotions. It may have caused me to numb my feelings or misuse my body through drug or alcohol abuse, or by eating disorders, angry outbursts, or self harm. This dissociation from the body is also dissociation from my soul and my spirit. I might be living on auto pilot, disregarding physical symptoms or seeing them as unrelated to my thinking mind. I might struggle to articulate what I am feeling.

I may resist feeling at all.

It can be uncomfortable or frightening to allow myself to feel my body or to let myself acknowledge long buried emotions. Sometimes smothered emotions emerge as chronic depression, uncontrolled anger, physical illness, or ongoing anxiety.

Do I say to myself, “I wonder why I am feeling so sad much of the time?” Or “I don’t know where that panic attack came from.” It is as if I am stuck in a level of depression or anxiety and not willing to bring it up into the light and examine it. It could be that looking at is seems just too overwhelming. I might be caught and never be able to free myself from the despair, pain, or anger I am carrying in my body.

But the body and the heart never lie.

My mind can lie to me, because it may be filled with ideas, beliefs, mental habits, opinions, and negative cognitions that come from my family of origin, my culture, physical and emotional trauma, or my religious upbringing. They may not be my truths. By bringing these mental habits, the feelings and emotions I carry in my body, I can free myself from the weight of unexamined fears, memories, and experiences. I can bring my mind into alignment with my body, my soul, and my spirit.

This is true integrity, the integration of my being into living a life that manifests my deepest beliefs, values, and priorities. I am then able to know that my work, my personal relationships, my daily actions are expressing who I truly am as a human being, body, mind, and spirit.

Here is a list of some of my favorite authors on the subject of body, mind and spirit integration:

 Larry Dossey

Carolyn Myss

Rudolph Ballentine

Christian Nothrup

Deepak Chopra

Faye Maguire, MA, LACC, is a People House private practitioner working with youth and adults, using a transpersonal approach to therapy. Counseling is her second career, after being a business owner for nearly 30 years. She enjoys working with people experiencing life transitions, grief and loss, depression, anxiety, trauma, addictions, relationship issues, and figuring out life’s direction, using a holistic approach. Please contact her at 720-331-2454 or at fayemaguire@gmail.com for more information.