DEALING WITH DUALITY
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” – Carl Jung
Life – and everything that we build or create – rests on an archetypal foundation that ties us all into patterns and movements of consciousness and instinct that are as eternal and common as they seem personal and unique. In addition to personal challenges, goals, and desires, we are inextricably and inescapably woven into the consciousness of culture, history and ancestry – and all of its shadows.
Throughout my career I’ve been fascinated with the dualities that drive disconnection in our modern world and that instigate dissatisfaction in our endeavors. To be successful, we have to learn to contend with both the linearity of commercial growth and the more circuitous realms of meaning-making, and we often find ourselves painfully straddling the strained cultural divide between productivity and soul, between achievement and being, between forward momentum and the wisdom of life’s more inward states and cycles. I bring this point of view to my work.
In this multidisciplinary approach, we learn how to make the connections between circumstance and meaning, to develop our inferior functions, and to tend to the imaginal landscape as a reality to be taken seriously. The benefits are vast for not just the individual, but also the organizations we build, and the culture we co-create.
TOWARD WHOLENESS
A depth approach is imaginal more than it is intellectual. It prioritizes the whole of psychic experience, dark and light. Circular in nature, a depth psychological orientation helps us let go of the fantasy of linear progress and embrace the multivalent and even ambivalent nature of life’s unfolding.
“To get a true sense of who we are, become more complete and integrated human beings, we must go to the unconscious and set up communication with it.” – Robert A. Johnson
When applied to coaching, depth psychological principles aid in the process of gaining critical distance from habits, stories, and blindspots that feel deeply personal and therefore hard to transform. Being able to see oneself as part of a larger story while retaining your unique sense of purpose is part of the aim.
It’s hard to encapsulate into words the affect you have had on my life as you’ve helped me though so many things you will never know. Your words and guidance has stuck with me far past our time in the room or total engagement. There’re tons of things that have made it into my everyday life, and lots I still contemplate. You are truly magical and I can’t thank you enough.
I’m so happy with the work we did together and really tap into it daily for grounding. I feel like I was swimming in despair and unknown mistrusting the universe and myself when I first came to you and with our work together slowly found my footing.
It’s the best investment I’ve made in myself. It has rewarded me several times over. I keep coming back to the work, and I’ve created a life that I absolutely love.
Your strength and clarity have always blown me away. I’m in a good place now and I think, with your help and insight, it can get even better. You’re a fucking beacon of light!