British Psychological Society Transpersonal Section Conference
2006
Dr Rosalind Pearmain
The Transpersonal Section of the British Psychological Society (BPS)
celebrated its 10th year last September in Cober Hill in
Scarborough.
The annual conference now includes four days from Friday to
Monday and has established both a friendly and rigorous domain for
a diverse group of presentations from clinical and counselling
psychologists, psychotherapists and interested others, including
the Transpersonal Psychology and Consciousness Studies department
of John Moores University Liverpool.
It is worth mentioning that in a previous conference, Jyoti
Nanda gave a presentation on her research on meditation and
psychotherapy which was well received, (so please note that the
BPS
Transpersonal Section conference can provide a good opportunity for
SPCP
trainees to present their research in a not too daunting arena.).
There are also sessions on yoga and meditation to start the day and
various creative diversions in which to end them.
I attended presentations by Jill Purce, David Fontana, Professor
Harald Walach and Isobel Clarke among others, and presented a
workshop based on my research with young people on spirituality and
mental health and the possibilities of creative positive
interventions.
Jill Purce
Jill Purce works with Tibetan over-chanting and has had a
lifelong interest in sound which began with the question: ‘How does
form come into being?’ She used a phrase to describe this:
‘sonorous becoming’; she offered many resonant ideas such as how
sound creates boundaries, it also dissolves the boundaries of the
thing it creates and can be a bridge between worlds – as it is
used, for example, in Shamanism. She is well known in offering
sound and toning workshops for individuals and organisations. The
effects of this on the human system alter consciousness and
facilitate healing and community.
Professor Harald Walach
Professor Harald Walach is newly appointed at the University of
Northampton. His paper was entitled: Towards an Epistemology of
Transpersonal Psychology. Narnia is a metaphor for a ‘world behind
the world’. How do we know that Narnia exists? He traced the many
difficulties in research within a post modern world; that there
cannot be one single system that explains itself. All systems of
knowledge are self referential. There is no such thing as reality
and a firm ground of metaphysics in which to place transpersonally
oriented research.
So how can foundations be brought to this field? His proposal is
to develop a methodology of practice. By eliciting effects in
practice – e.g. psychotherapy – the fruits can be known! The aim of
this would be to eventually develop an epistemology for testing
claims about ‘Narnia’. Such an approach avoids the pitfalls of
spiritual narcissism as well as being oriented to questions of how
we can live together and foster community. The question then
becomes ‘ how does ‘it’ help the individual’. He is conducting an
extensive survey based on a questionnaire designed with Professor
Dr Wilfried Belschner, Health and Clinical Psychology, University
of Oldenburg. I have a number of copies of this if anyone would
like to contribute. It is an in depth enquiry into the processes
that are going on within the practitioner and client which can be
linked to a transpersonal context and would be interesting, in any
case, as a tool for heightened reflection.
Isobel Clarke
Isobel Clarke presented her continuing pioneering work in the
NHS drawing on contemporary approaches to CBT, in her approach to
psychosis and spirituality. Drawing on the models of interactive
cognitive systems which access implicational or propositional
memory, her model is based on the notion that change involves
altering a person’s relation to both thought and feeling.. Her
model proposes that instead of psychosis and spirituality, there
are two ways of operating in the world for all of us: The everyday
and the ‘transliminal’ (numinous, unbounded, access to memory
patchy, differences in experience of self, connectedness, emotional
states).
When functioning is good, there is coherent communication
between the implicational/relational aspect of knowing and the
propositional. When a discontinuity arises between the two ways of
knowing, then a person can be in trouble. However, at high or low
arousal, the transliminal/relational becomes dominant. Mindfulness
is a key component in this as a way of managing the threshold
between two ways of knowing and strategies to heighten or lower
arousal states are also helpful. Isobel illustrated how she worked
with patients with paper and pencil and two columns on a page in
helping them to identify, for example, where a difficulty or
‘delusion’ might originate – which side of the two columns. Isobel
has been training professionals within
NHS
over the last few years in
this method and has now working to create a special centre to
support those who are suffering in ‘psychotic’ states in this kind
of way.
David Fontana
David Fontana gave an extensive and well informed presentation
revisiting the contribution of Jung to Transpersonal psychology and
other presentations included a consideration of Terrorism from the
perspective of Ken Wilber’s integrative model.
The above provides some flavour of the conference but is
far from exhaustive. There was a shared interest in establishing
potential collaborative research projects. A number of counselling
and clinical psychologists attending are working in
NHS
settings and increasingly
utilising Transpersonal approaches such as Mindfulness.
A recent paper has been written by the National Institute for Mental Health
has drawn together the research which supports the positive value
of spiritually informed approaches to mental health. There is an
increasing interest in this domain and the links that are being
made with the corrosive effect of materialism on mental well being.
So I hope that this BSP Section on Transpersonal psychology can
increasingly be seen to provide a profound and relevant discourse
within the field of psychotherapeutic enquiry.