Theories of Transpersonal Human Development
Transpersonal Coaching, Therapy, and Personal Growth
A major area of application for transpersonal psychology is transpersonally oriented therapy, coaching, and personal growth work. Conventional therapy and counseling address the pre-personal and personal level, including such concerns as self-esteem, relationships, emotional issues, and mental problems. Transpersonal therapy proposes to facilitate the growth of the self toward transformation and transpersonal levels while continuing to look at the personal material. Coaching moves clients into actualization and helps others to work with leadership and individuals for the betterment of self and community. Several assumptions are common to transpersonal growth, coaching and therapy. There is acceptance of the reality of the transcendent levels of experience, and the value of them for human development. Michael Washburn (1988) describes this transpersonal level of growth as reconnecting with the dynamic ground of the self. Ken Wilber (1980, 1995) describes it as turning inward to identify with subtle, causal and ultimate realms of reality. Said in another way, the goal is to increase conscious awareness and move toward enlightenment.
A further assumption is that there is a natural movement toward wholeness. The psyche moves toward a larger sense of self. There is an intrinsic tendency for the person to want to be healthy, to learn, to bring all parts of the self together. The therapist's work is to help remove obstacles and fixations so the individual can move to greater awareness and freedom.
In transpersonal coaching, all levels of the spectrum should be addressed, the egoic, the existential, and the transpersonal. The ego level of the personality is that of work, relationships, everyday living, hopes, fears, and self-identity. The existential level brings forward the values of the choices that we make, our relation to others and to the great issues of meaning, purpose, and authenticity. Transpersonal levels can bring the client to identification with the One Self, to service for others in loving ways, to experiencing interpersonal connections at deeper levels, and to expanded awareness and intuition.
An important assumption is that people have purposes and values in their lives that go deeper than the everyday activities. Frances Vaughan (1992) describes three dimensions to transpersonal therapy: context, content, and process. The context is the attitude of the therapist-the assumptions that have just been described. The therapist can be transpersonal in her or his assumptions even if there is no mention of the transpersonal, and thus set a context for therapeutic work.
In terms of content, transpersonal experiences can be the subject of therapy. and coaching The therapist and coach provides support and guidance in these growth processes. Transpersonal issues such as dilemmas of compassion, truth, loss of limiting ego identity and fears of the transcendent may emerge in therapy/coaching. As the person moves outside of a limited paradigm, there may be experiences of extra-sensory perception, visions, channeling, past life memories, perceptual changes, subtle body energies, out-of-the-body experiences, synchronicities, and mythological projections. The transpersonal therapist would consider these experiences as potential contributors to the growth of the individual-neither rejecting them as fantasy or pathology, nor treating them as signs of enlightenment.
A transpersonal therapist or coach can draw on many processes that come from transpersonal practices. Perhaps the best known is imagery and visualization. Coaching and workshop leaders may also work with dreams, journaling, or suggest meditation. Asking clients to draw or sculpt a feeling or an experience of the self allows powerful expressions through non-verbal modes that bypass the ego and the limitations of language. Working as a therapist with these levels of growth is best done if the therapist has personally explored the transpersonal realm. These three areas-context, content, and process-are not limited to therapy or coaching and they apply to transpersonal facilitation of your own growth, or another's growth.