Process oriented psychology

Process oriented psychology (POP) refers to a body of theory and practice that encompasses a broad range of psychotherapeutic, personal growth, and group process applications. It is more commonly called "process work" in the United States, the longer name being used in Europe and Asia. Although bearing similar names, Process-oriented psychology as developed by Arnold Mindell is distinct from Process psychology derived from Whitehead's Process philosophy.^[1]

Contents 1 Core ideas 2 Levels of experience 3 Applications 4 See also 5 References 6 Additional reading 7 External links

Core ideas

Although Process work has been applied both to therapeutic situations and to others, such as conflict resolution, that are not generally considered therapeutic, the core ideas of Process Work can be understood most clearly from a psychotherapeutic perspective.

Process Work emphasizes awareness – both the client’s and the therapist’s – rather than any specific set of interventions. The “process” in Process Work originally took its name from several sources. One was Jung’s concept of the individuation process (in very general terms, it is the name given to processes whereby the undifferentiated tends to become individual, or to those processes through which differentiated components tend toward becoming a more indivisible whole – the process by which a psychotherapeutic client integrates contents of the unconscious that are presented to him or her through modalities of dream, imagination, fantasy, trance, serendipity and synchronicity, etc. Another came from physics, particularly David Bohm’s formulation of the flux behind all events. Yet another comes from the therapist’s observation of the ebb and flow of signals and communications between therapist and client (refer Virginia Satir).

Experience is found to be of two kinds: that with which the client identifies, and that which is experienced as “other” or alien to the client. Experiences with which the client identifies are called “primary process”, to emphasize their place in the foreground of awareness. Experiences which the client marginalizes as “other” are called “secondary process”, to emphasize their place in the background of awareness. Furthermore, when a client is encouraged to embrace or identify with a secondary process experience, he or she is generally reluctant or even unable to do so, as though a boundary separates the primary from the secondary processes. This boundary is called the “edge”. It is, quite literally, the edge of the person’s identity.

Edges may be categorized according to the source of the particular identity that they define:^[2][3]

• Personal: Someone who has an edge to his or her intelligence may project high intelligence onto others while seeing themselves as stupid or ignorant. Such an edge may have its origins in the person’s early experience with family or school.

• Family: A family system may have a prejudice or rule against a particular type of experience, which the individual family member must violate in order to embrace that experience. For instance, a family that identifies itself as peaceful or friendly may punish or marginalize aggressive or competitive behavior of a particular member. That person may develop an edge to his or her own more aggressive, competitive tendencies, projecting this on others and being disturbed by them.

• Social: Gender, religious, ethnic or other social groups frequently have behavioral and experiential norms that may make it difficult for members to express contrasting experiences. For instance, a man who comes from a culture that emphasizes roughness and insensitivity as desired masculine traits may be severely troubled by his own gentle, sensitive tendencies. He may project these experiences on other men, who he views as “weak” or perhaps homosexual.

• Human: There is a certain range of experience that is commonly thought to be “human nature”, while those experiences that fall outside this range are “inhuman”, “animal” or perhaps “other worldly”. Those individuals with tendencies toward strongly altered states of consciousness and spiritual experience often have an edge to these experiences, thinking them to be inhuman. This view is also supported by social consensus reality. Such experiences may give rise to extreme states of consciousness, that are then treated by psychiatric means.^[2]

Process Work seeks to identify the client’s primary and secondary processes, as well as the edges that separate them. It then facilitates the enrichment of the client’s identity by amplifying and unfolding the secondary process experiences until they make sense – on both a cognitive and somatic level – and become part of the client’s experiential world.^[4]

Deep Democracy is a concept that was developed by Arnold Mindell. Deep Democracy provides an integrated structural framework for working with and for the inclusion of marginalized experiences, roles, and voices (Unlike "classical" democracy, which focuses on majority rule, Deep Democracy suggests that all voices, states of awareness, and frameworks of reality are important. Deep Democracy also suggests that the information carried within these voices, awarenesses, and frameworks are all needed to understand the complete process of the system. Deep Democracy is an attitude that focuses on the awareness of voices that are both central and marginal).^[5]

Levels of experience

Viewing experience on the primary-secondary axis tends to emphasize the polarities in the client’s experience, rather than its unity. On this level, which Process Work refers to as “dreaming”, secondary process experience intrudes into the client’s primary process, threatening its integrity and appearing as “problems” that need to be solved.^[6]

Closer examination of a client’s world of experience reveals a deeper, pre-verbal, pre-conceptual level that unifies experiences that conflict on the dreaming level. This level of experience has been referred to by Arnold Mindell as the level of “sentient essence.” Working with sentient essences can be very helpful to clients who have struggled with strongly polarized dreaming processes over many years who have managed to resolve their polarities on a practical level but still feel divisions and tensions in their worlds of experience.^[7]

Applications

Arnold Mindell, his wife Amy Mindell, and their colleagues have explored the application of process work concepts and methods to a great variety of human situations, including some that are considered beyond the scope of more verbally-based, insight-oriented psychotherapies.^[8] As a few examples:

• Working with physical symptoms as expressions of a dreaming process. By attending to the subjective experience of an illness, the experience of the “symptom maker” often reveals an important and potentially useful range of secondary process experiences. When the client can integrate these experiences, there may be a beneficial effect on the physical symptom.^{[4][9][10][11]}

• Clients in comatose and near-death states of consciousness. Such individuals are commonly thought to have insufficient awareness to be accessible to more verbally-oriented means of communication and therapy.^{[3][12][13][14]}

• People in extreme states of consciousness who have been diagnosed with psychiatric disorders.^[15]

• Conflict facilitation in small and large groups. A group is similar to an individual in that it has an identity, or primary process, as well as secondary process experiences that disturb its identity. Helping a group to integrate its disturbances enriches its identity and helps it to become more deeply democratic.^[16][6][17]

• Worldwork with businesses, non-profit organizations, and government groups. Worldwork is a global theory, with universal categories, that describes and analyzes organizational processes. Many organizations are using this method beyond conflict resolution or dealing with disturbances for leadership development, strategy development, merger-acquisition negotiations, etc.^[5][18]

See also

• IAPOP
• Process Oriented Coma Work

References

Additional reading

• Arye, L., Ph.D., & Audergon, A., Ph.D. (2005). Transforming Conflict into Community: Post-war Reconciliation in Croatia. Psychotherapy and Politics International, 3(2). pdf
• Arye, L. (2001) Unintentional Music: Releasing Your Deepest Creativity. Hampton Roads Publishing Company.
• Audergon, A. (2004) The War Hotel. London: Whurr Publishers.
• Audergon, A. Ph.D. (2004). Collective Trauma: The Nightmare of History. Psychotherapy and Politics International, 2(1), 16-31. pdf
• Audergon, A., Ph.D. (2005). Psychological Dynamics in Violent Conflict: Presentation to Ministry for Peace Meeting, January 18, 2005. Grand Committee Room, House of Commons, London. Retrieved 12 Aug 2005, Ministry for Peace pdf
• Diamond, J. Jones, L. (2005) A Path Made by Walking. Portland, OR: Lao Tse Press.
• Goodbread, J. (1997) Dreambody Toolkit. Portland, OR: Lao Tse Press.
• Menken, D. (2002) Speak Out! Talking About Love, Sex & Eternity. Tempe, AZ: New Falcon.
• Mindell, Amy (1994/2001) Metaskills: the spiritual art of therapy. New Falcon/Lao Tse Press.
• Mindell, Amy (2005) Alternative to Therapy. Portland, OR: Lao Tse Press.
• Mindell, A. (1993) Shaman's Body: A New Shamanism for Transforming Health, Relationships, and the Community. HarperSanFrancisco; 1st HarperCollins Pbk. Ed edition
• Mindell, A. (1982/1998) Dreambody: The Body's Role in Revealing the Self. Sigo Press/Lao Tse Press.
• Mindell, A. (1985/2001) River's Way: The Process Science of the Dreambody. Penguin-Arkana/Lao Tse Press.
• Mindell, A. (1992) The Leader as Martial Artist: An Introduction to Deep Democracy (1st ed.). San Francisco: Harper San Francisco.
• Mindell, A. (1995) Sitting in the Fire: Large Group Transformation using Conflict and Diversity (1st ed.). Portland, OR: Lao Tse Press.
• Mindell, A. (2000) Quantum Mind. Portland, OR: Lao Tse Press.
• Mindell, A. (2002) The Deep Democracy of Open Forums. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads.
• Mindell, A. (2007) Earth Based Psychology. Portland, OR: Lao Tse Press.

External links

• International Association for Process Oriented Psychology website
• Global Process Institute, an international consortium of Process Oriented conflict facilitators