Treatment - Therapeutic Approaches
Finding a therapist
Finding a residential treatment center
Therapeutic Approaches
Online Therapeutic Resources
Finding a therapist
There is also a growing number of therapists with the expertise and experience to treat spiritual emergencies. SEN@CIIS is a referral source for licensed mental health professionals who are competent in this area.
Finding a residential treatment center
Residential Treatment Centers with a Transpersonal Orientation:
Windhorse
Burch House
The San Joaquin Psychotherapy Center
Therapeutic Approaches
Despite some differences in terminology and conceptualization of the underlying dynamics of spiritual emergencies, the major authors in this field (Grofs, Bragdon, Lukoff, Wilber and others) agree on the following approach:
(Adapted from Emma Bragdon, The Call of Spiritual Emergency: From Personal Crisis to Personal Transformation)
1. Medical workup, rule out organic problems, check health behaviors
2. Minimal use of psychiatric drugs
3. Quiet and safe environment
4. Compassionate and knowledgeable companion
5. Education and reassurance about spiritual emergency
6. Help with grounding, centering, and/or catharsis
7. Referral for on-going support, consultation with family
Diabysis, a Jungian-based treatment center started by psychiatrist John Perry in 1975, is a model of sensitive treatment for persons in spiritual emergency. Medications were rarely used. Instead, Perry provided art media for the client to be able to move their process forward. At Diabysis, the client was encouraged and supported in the expression and exploration of the symbolic aspects of their psychotic experiences. In Trials of the Visionary Mind: Spiritual Emergency and the Renewal Process Perry reported that when clients were treated with this model, most came through their psychosis within 6 weeks.
John Perry considers the acute psychotic episode as an attempt to access the energy and images of the archetypal unconscious in order to heal a broken sense of self. He argues that in many cases, it is the prepsychotic personality that is the problem, and the psychosis is a compensatory movement aimed at constructing a more impassioned life.
In cases where the person developed the grandiose delusion that they were god or the messiah, the valid religious/spiritual dimensions of the experience can be salvaged through psychotherapy: "What remains...is an ideal model and a sense of direction which one can use to complete the transformation through his own purposeful methods."
Ken Wilber maintains that at the psychotic level, physiological or pharmacological intervention is the appropriate treatment. However, he agrees that further up the evolutionary pathway of consciousness, psychic pathology can resemble psychosis. At this point of development, he recommends Jungian therapy involving some structure building.
The Grofs contend that the clinical realities are not so pure and clear-cut. They recommend a basic trusting relationship with the client as a foundation for mediating a new understanding of the process the client is undergoing. The therapist needs to convey respect for the healing and transformative nature of the crisis and support the process. Then its positive potential can be realized.
Two interviews with John Perry, M.D.
Mental Breakdown as a Healing Process
Visionary Experience or Psycosis
Online Therapeutic Resoruces
Harvard-based research center founded by John Mack, MD devoted to studying UFO experience Although written for experiences of UFO abductions, this provides a thoughtful overview of value of therapy for persons experiencing spiritual emergencies.
Experiencer's Guide to Therapy
The Suicide Paradigm Guide to Selected Sites on Suicide and Suicide Survivors
Mental Health Net: Alternative Healing Resources
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