Spiritual Threads in Psychotherapeutic Work

Dreaming the Dream that is Dreaming Us. The Lived Experience of High Intensity States in Practice

In this video talk, Dr Angela Cotter explores the lived embodied experience of high intensity states from the therapist’s perspective. Her first experience of high intensity states occurred when she was a nurse, often when people were dying or very seriously ill. It was in part these experiences which led to analysis and training because there was little discussion of them then within the nursing arena. Negotiating these states – deciding whether to stand on the borders of them or enter the country, if and when there is a choice, has been a major aspect of Angela’s clinical work and research since then. Arguably, in some ways these states are unique to each individual client and therapist but there are common threads. The paper is illustrated with theoretical material from the Jungian world, Celtic shamanism and energy psychotherapy. Angela also looks at these states as experienced within a group setting – drawing on systemic ritual, a combination of family and systemic constellations and shamanic approaches.