Psychology Articles

A Fairy Story for the Chinese Female Single Patient:

Introduction

Often in therapy a story can help the client to understand their own emotions and feelings about their own situation. At first they just hear the story as a narrative but soon as with most good stories the client puts themselves into the action and associates with the plot line, as they try to make sense of how they can assimilate the underlying psychological message to their own lives.

In China many young girls under 27 years old are obsessed with finding Mr. Right, the boy who is from the good family, with a good education, with a good job with good prospects and has a good character. I use the word “good” here many times because it is easily understood by the girls themselves to mean a boy (young man) that can offer them a future that contains security for her, her family and material wealth. Love is always low on the list of requirements prior to marriage in China but woefully regretted later when actually betrothed.

After the age 27 in China girls go into panic mode, Mr. Right has not appeared and the range of available bachelors has narrowed considerably particularly as a myth about baby health in a woman’s 30’s is wide-spread and believed to be true. At this stage many girls despair and find themselves under considerable family pressure (and peers) to get married at any cost. Many rush into loveless marriages to men they hardly know but are willing to “take them on” so to speak.

So why did many of these older girls struggle to find a Mr. Right? Partly the problem was expectations and partly the belief that their purity (virginity) would be attractive to a suitor and that by remaining a good girl they have a better chance of a high alpha male prospect. A second aspect is education, as girls become more educated and so see any man below their own achievements as excluded from their ideal.

The Fairy Tale

The aim of therapy here is to enable girls to be more realistic about what boys actually have to offer. In the story we relate Mr. Right to a Prince Charming and to the girl as the perfect Princess. We see all other men as “frogs” those who are just the everyday normal young men who are starting out in life with average jobs and average ambitions. All stories are, “once upon a time” and end, “they lived happily ever-after” if only real life was so simple!

A Tale about a Princess:

Once upon a time there was a Princess who was looking for a Prince to marry. In the land Princes were rare and hard to find. So many frogs came to call for the Princess to spend time with and consider but none could match her ideal of her Prince (Mr. Right). Although some frogs had some of the attributes of Princes, good looks, money, education, high family connections etcetera none could bring all the gifts of her perfect Prince. After a while many frogs stopped trying to woo the Princess and in fact avoided her as unattainable and not worth wasting time on.

Meanwhile at her castle her parents (the King and Queen) reminded her that only good girls find Princes and that bad girls will fall prey to frogs and bad men. So the Princess held her purity in high esteem and often told frogs how perfect she was.

A long time has passed and now the Princess is over the age of marriage and finds that many Princess’s she knows about are married to other Princess’s and she is still alone. Her parents now constantly berate her for her poor judgment in not accepting earlier offers of marriage. They talk about her not being wanted soon as she reaches thirty and that she should start to consider many of the frogs she had once rejected. Some of those frogs have now changed into Princes and have good posts, material wealth and spoiled wives. How had she not seen these frogs had potential at the time? Her married friends worry about her, they have babies (just one) she will soon only be able to birth a poor sickly child as she ages. The Princess reflects on the wasted years of searching for the Prince that never existed to her standards, that was perhaps a frog in disguise, a frog that became a Prince perhaps.

However not all is well in the Kingdom. Many other Princesses married what they thought was a Prince who offered the good job, with the good prospects, with the good family and appeared to be the good boy for many a Princess. As these young men grew many did not reach their early ambitions, settled for an everyday life, accumulated some possessions and saved some income for the future but never enough for a castle. The girl’s Prince was in fact just a frog. Had always been a frog if she had just realised. Deep down many Princesses knew they married a simple frog but hoped over time they could change them to become a Prince and give them the dream they had been told was theirs by right of passage into marriage and motherhood.

Alas in our story we learn a simple truth, a frog is just a frog and with the best will in the world will probably remain a frog forever and ever until the day they die. So our lonely Princess has passed the magically age and around her are the frogs who are left. The mostly unwanted, discarded (divorced), despicable and unworthy. What is she to do – what happened to that dream of a handsome Prince to whisk her away to security, comfort and happiness? Now she felt regret, how could she had been so foolish to believe that she was so special and above those around her for so many years.

Fairy stories should have happy endings – after all they are meant to give us hope and a positive feeling. However this is real life – not every story has a happy ending and so through change we can only hope to adjust to a new reality that we misjudged our future prospects and around us live many many frogs – content with their lives, maybe not the best, but not alone and forgotten.

Discussion:

In the above tale of course our princess is the girl who is waiting so long for Mr. Right but rejected so many suitors as not ideal. Many of the other Princesses decided to marry the frog in hope that through a kiss and encouragement they could become a Prince but most if not all just wanted to be happy frogs and not become something they were not. So when the girls chose to wait for the cultural ideal they of course missed the thought that some are late developers. Some girls realised that Mr. Right (the Prince) was in fact a myth and decided instead to marry Mr. Good-Enough, someone not perfect but acceptable. When these girls lowered their unrealistic expectations of young men they actually found that a good enough young man (frog) could be the right one for them.

The above story and analysis is a fair reflection of Chinese society as far as young girls from about 22 to 27 years old pursue their likely marriage partner and the post 27 dilemma of being alone and unwanted. It is this cultural outlook that leads to many girls losing out on the chance to find suitable partners and fooling themselves that a Prince actually exists and will rescue them from their dull lives in the castle with baba and mama. What does the girl do when that time has passed, still pure, still at home, still inexperienced in the ways of men, still stubbornly believing that even at this late date a Prince will appear and save the day?

Therapy

In therapy this tale is often told to young women (27+) who complain of no relationships, that there must be something wrong with them. That they see no future now with no marriage and a child. They come to therapy hoping to learn about why they are alone, unhappy, rejected now by men as too old to be wanted. Depression is the usual presenting issue with anxiety brought on by an unsure future. By telling them the fairy story of the lonely Princess we hope to get them to realize that their own unrealistic expectations led to their current position and that cognitive faulty thinking about young men and societies pressures to a material goal was perhaps misplaced and that where love, passion and natural curiosity took no part in their youthful outlook towards what men want and do not want led them to reject many perhaps good enough young men earlier in their 20’s. It is not the therapist place to tell the women directly this but allow her to explore the tale from her own perspective and make her own conclusions. Some patients whole heartedly accept the comparisons other reject the idea (mainly as they still cling to the hope of a Prince) and open up other areas of dialogue that can by the provocation of the tale help them to explore their historical behaviour more objectively than perhaps they had done previously before coming to therapy.

Conclusion:

Although therapy can take many forms the use of mythology, stories, tales, metaphors can all help a client to see more clearly their own story and relate to the characters in the fairy tale and make some sense out of the confusion of depression and anxiety. Of course other tales can also make for good therapy bases, such as the Princess in the Tower, whose long hair dangles down for all the frogs to see. This is the woman who wants rescuing from her dull life thinking that a Prince will save her and give her the life she thinks she deserves, there is the Princess whose finger is pricked and falls into a deep sleep. Here she is the woman once bitten twice shy, that rejects all suitors in case she is hurt again. The lowly girl who lives in a dysfunction family with half sisters who hate her and a mother determined to treat her as a servant. She runs away, lives with several men and hopes that the Prince will come and find her but when she does meet one she is rejected again by his mother as not good enough. (Every Chinese girl’s fear of the mother in law). She perhaps is not so Snow White or a Cinderella, as she leads others to believe?

I hope that Chinese girls will read this article and feel free to comment about its cultural implications and insight. Perhaps there is more to learn here and for some girls they will help themselves by realising that the Prince is just a frog after all and that for a real happy ending then perhaps Mr. Good-Enough is just around the next corner?

End……

Dr. Stephen Myler is from Leicester in England, an industrial town in the Midlands of the United Kingdom. He holds a B.Sc (Honours) in Psychology from the UK’s Open University the largest in the UK; he also has an M.Sc and Ph.D in Psychology from Knightsbridge University in Denmark. In addition to this Stephen holds many diplomas and awards in a variety of academic areas including journalism, finance, teaching and advanced therapy for mental health. Stephen has as a Professor of Psychology many years teaching experience in colleges and universities in England and China to post 16 young adults, instructing in psychology, sociology, English, marketing and business. He has been fortunate to travel extensively from Australia to Africa to the United Sates, South America, Borneo, most of Europe and Russia. Stephen’s favourite hobby is the study of primates and likes to play badminton. He believes that students who enjoy classes with humour and enthusiasm from the teacher always come back eager to learn more. Currently Dr. Myler is head of clinical psychology at St. Michael Hospital, Shanghai.

PsyD degree encompasses four-five years of study and then an internship, resulting in a certification as a doctor in Psychology. One can pursue a degree either as a clinical degree, practical and applied, or a research one. You will find large differences between the two fields of specialization.

You can also find big differences between academic and professional programs, concerning both the coursework and the necessary expenses. Still, a professional school might not be the top option in certain areas of specialization. Considering this, you can find several pros and cons regarding the most appropriate option for a PsyD degree study and people who are interested in the topic should always follow their personal preferences and argumentation so they can have the most suitable solution.

Preferably after getting an MS degree, you can apply for a PsyD degree program by enrolling in a college or university, or in a professional school. It is not mandatory. You can also decide to take your PsyD degree without a MS one, although several people might find this a longer and wasteful process. Yet, if you think you may be able to obtain your PsyD degree sooner than average, not having previously earned an MS should not be a problem.

There are programs that allow you to skip some classes and shorten your PsyD degree study time, even though the process is not always easy and you should submit a syllabi waiver in due time. Not all PsyD programs will accept shorter studies, yet if you manage to finish your syllabi on time, in the first year or two you should be able to skip up to four classes each semester. Another solution could be to transfer few modules from MS, while the type of program you’ve chosen may be major for the information you can transfer, so you must also check the order of the classes in your program.

Usually, universities and professional schools do not agree to transfer of this kind of classes as long as you did not get to attend them. Mostly in the first year, a PsyD degree student may have limited alternatives regarding the course diversity. The students have to always attend the compulsory classes first. Most of the classes that might be skipped in various university programs were Stats I, Adult Psychology, Child Psychopathology and Research Methods. So if you ‘re aiming to do an MS and later enroll in a PsyD program, you can as well choose research-based MS programs that have a good history of getting people into doctoral programs. Furthermore, if you are thinking about shortening your study time in PsyD degree education, check your syllabi in time and submit your waiver as soon as possible, starting with the first years of study.

Adrian is an editor for http://www.psyddegree.com/,a website where you can find more info about a PsyD Degree.

Psychology is a subsystem within a larger socially, politically and historically constructed reality. This is at least my understanding of psychology.

In my mind we need a psychology for us Iranian that enables us comprehend our everyday life, behaviours, thoughts, and emotions. Every culture has their own cultural psychology to define the most significant aspect of mental health within their communities.

I appreciate Western psychology and the mainstream psychology for their hard work in generating knowledge about human mind. Adding the cultural, social, political, and spiritual realities that every community deal with, we may try to understand our multicultural and multifaceted human mind.

Mainstream psychology has found a variety of tools in measuring and explaining human mind; still, this umbrella does not cover all of our heads.

I suggest that in our Iranian way of understanding psychology, we have failed at least in our early attempts up to now, to understand our own mind. To be brief, we do not talk about the obvious reasons, the forces behind this huge wall where knowing the self can become dangerous for those who oppress us.

First of all historically, we have been dealing with external factors that are prohibiting us to enjoy our peace of mind, not talking about the hardships in our mind. Psychology was never explained to us properly. Now it is time. The heavy Freudian language can not capture the reality of our life back in Iran or assist us in understanding our own mind. As much as we Iranian used to study Freud (those of us who studied psychology), we never knew about Adler.

The Adlerian Individual psychology explains neurosis pertinent to the sense of not belonging and not being accounted for in our ecological world.

We Iranian know how it feels to not belong, at least not be part of what we wish to be, the development of our own home country. We Iranian know how it is to not really feel the sense of belonging, because we have been forced to live with the concept of dislocation, a constant battle that we can not win. This is what most Iranian talk about, day after day.

In my work as a counsellor, I meet people who feel they are isolated and unloved. We continue to immigrate as a group of people, however silently, without any noise. We lack resources to help mental health issues that many of us carry with us. Psychology is still not there for us, very distant, very hard to grasp. Or maybe our psychologists in this filed fail to explain the concepts to the public.

The specialized, complicated, and discursive language that is used in psychology does maintain a privileged power position for the professional psychology without being any help for our people to discover the self and the world. For decades, masses have been left out in my mind and still today, psychology only appeals to the intellectual, rational, and upper social class groups.

Today, however, we Iranian have come to a point that we realize the urgency of finding the truth about who we are and how we do what we do. Reason being could be the huge pressure that many of us feel. The stress of losing our homes due to the forced migration, the Diaspora, the separation, and the nostalgia we deal with every single day.

We need to learn how to tackle all the pressure at once. Mental health and emotion regulation issues among us most certainly are pertinent to our living conditions. We just need to have proper tools to find out. We need an all-included psychology that is easy to understand.

Psychology as a medical model is used within the status quo of our Iranian life; however we learn to appreciate and to comprehend a scientific model of body-mind-soul. Using my own critical eyes, I will argue that critical psychology is missing to explain and explore the hard concepts of psychology within the framework of people’s everyday life.

Individuals and families around the world should be able to view the functions of psychology and to be able to utilize the information to the bettering of their lives. When it comes to us, the Iranian population, we could acknowledge that; the established objective and scientific models in Europe also arrived at the door of the institutionalized form of diagnosis and treatment for mental dysfunction in our home country.

We Iranian remember that “crazy” people would get into mental hospital and they would receive electric shock and medications to become “normal” again. Many of those experiences left scars in our collective embodied soul, to not trust psychologists. If we ask most Iranians what they think of psychologists, you will hear this answer: they are crazy themselves!

This answer does not come out of a vacuum and it has a rationale. People have been mistreated by psychologists who have perpetuated the status quo; meaning oppression. We move around and we carry our superstitious beliefs with us. People need explanations, explorations, and healthy talk about psychology.

If you are a mental health worker in Iran or anywhere working with this population, try to break down the concepts into tangible and useful ideas people can take home. Psychology should become culturally adjusted and personally suitable for each one of our needs.

My name is Poran Poregbal and I am a clinical counsellor. I would like to promote peace, happiness, respect for differences, and multiculturalism. I believe that we have to expand our understanding of mental health by viewing the cultural values into our ways of dealing with the world. I like to emphasize on helping our youth as well as our next generations to integrate within whatever cultures they live in.

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic school in psychology. He was born on May 6, 1856 and died on 23 September 1939. During his life time of 83 years, he has found many novel theories in many fields. Dream analysis is one of the most interesting teachings among them. As it is a huge subject, this article is about what we can basically understand about the scientific literature of dream- problems by reading his book “Interpretation of dreams” which was published in1913.

When we hear the word “dream”, a feeling that cannot be expressed in words comes to our mind (mental processes). It is something that we cannot feel in the real world or in our waking state. There is a mysterious feeling about dreams. Because of that, we have become very curious about knowing what actually makes us to see dreams and how it happens.

People who were in the past also had this enigma about dreams. They had their conceptions of universe and of the soul. By mixing the idea of dream with these kinds of conceptions, they believed that dream is something supernatural which predicts the future and also believed it as a message from god. They thought of two classes of dreams. One is the dreams which influenced only by the present or the past. The other one is on the other hand, the ones which determine the future. This belief was there for many centuries.

But in the later periods, the scientific interest in the phenomena of dreams was improved.

There is a problem about the relation of the dream to the waking state. After we woke up, we feel like the dream we saw is from another world, though it is not. We feel like that because the dream is something entirely different and alien from the things that we concern in the waking state. Or else, there can be some few elements we had in the waking state. Our normal behavior and the consciousness are entirely lost in the dreaming state, therefore the dreams brings out the complete unencumbered isolation of the psyche. Also at least a little part of it has to be somewhere in our real experiences.

Sometimes we can see the dreams which we feel that we have never known in the real world. It can be about a place or a person or anything that we cannot reminisce that we have known in the waking state. Not only that, but also there can be so much of knowledge in the dreams that we cannot remember in our actual life. That is the knowledge and the memory of our unconsciousness. The things which we see in our dreams can be the materials which were entered to our memory in our childhood. Most of them are caused to product interesting “hypermnesic” dreams.

When concerning about the stimuli and sources of dreams, it says that a dream is a result of such a disturbance which occurs to disturb our sleep. Dream is a reaction of our mental processes against that disturbance. There are four categories of stimuli.

1) External sensory stimuli.

It means objective stimuli. For an example, a strong light may fall upon eyes while we are in a good sleep. As it disturbs to our sleep, it can be a stimuli for a dream. In our dreams it can be made us see as we walk alone the beach in a sunny day.

Sometimes we can see different dreams for the same stimuli. It is because there are some memory images in our mind at that particular time we get the stimuli and the most suitable image which goes with the objective stimuli is taken to produce the dream.

2) Internal sensory stimuli.

A dream cannot be produced only by the external sensory stimuli, because the entire external sensory stimulus which comes while we sleep, cannot make a dream or support to originate a dream independently. There has to be some internal facts too. Therefore we have to consider about the internal sensory stimuli also. Subjective sensations which we see or hear in our waking state are important in dream illusions. The subjective stimuli are independent of external accidents. They are, so to speak at the disposal of the interpretation whenever they are required. The main proof of this stimuli is that the hypnogogic hallucinations. They are very obstructive but changeable pictures which people see while falling asleep. Some may linger for a while even after we opened our eyes. If someone wakes up shortly after having that kind of an experience, it will be oft possible to trace in the dream pictures, the ones s/he saw before falling to the sleep. It also can take as a “hypnogogic” hallucination. Not only that, but also auditory hallucinations may also occur and then can be in the dreams.

3) Internal (organic) physical stimuli.

Our internal organs are reminds us their existence. That also causes for a creation of a dream. If there is a disease, it can become a source of most painful sensation. Psyche become more conscious of its physicality than the waking state and it receives some stimulating which are originating in the parts of our body. Diseases of heart and lungs may be subject to the nightmares. Stimuli proceeding from the interior of the organism, from the nervous system, apply at most an unconscious affect on our mood during the day time. But, at night, that effect of the impression which was had at the day time is no longer active. The impressions that came up are able to force themselves to get our attention. They are drowned by the other external affects at the day time.

4) Psychic sources of excitation.

People dream of what they do in the waking state and of their interesting things. That interest is not only a psychic bond, but also joining the dream into the real life. If an interest which we have during our waking state, together with the internal and external sensory stimuli that occur during sleep, enough to cover the whole etiology of the dream. But the interests in our waking state are not very influential to say confidently that every one who dreams are continuing these interests of the waking state.

We all have experienced that dreams are forgotten after waking. They fade away when we woke up. We can recall it after waking but most of the times we cannot remember the whole complete exact dream. Sometimes we know that we have dreamed during the sleep but do not remember what we dreamed of. But the dreams manifest a peculiar power to be in the memory. Some dreams are last in the memory for a long time such as for 35 years, without being forget a little part of it. And also without losing the freshness of that dream.

This forgetting is a complex phenomenon. The factors which cause to forget in the waking state are can be the cause to forget the dreams also. In waking state, we forget such a lot of things, may be because they are slight to remember or there can be a slight amount of emotional feelings. But we can remember the strong important things obviously. This is true for the dreams also. In dreams, most of the scenes are lack of order and lack of sense. This also causes to forget because we easily forget the things which are not in an order and lack of sense. The relationship of the dream to the waking state is also important in forget dreams. If that dream has a great relation to the waking state, it will not be forgotten. Also when we are waking, our attention suddenly rushes to the sensations of the real world. Therefore, only few dream-images are capable to be in the memory by force with that rush. But the people who are specially interested in dreaming, can remember the dreams more easily and also they dream more than other people.

As we know, the hypnogogical hallucinations (even in their content) they are identical with dream pictures. Transformation of an idea into a hallucination is not the only departure of the dream from the corresponding waking thought. It can make a suitable situation from a hallucination. It shows us something as in actual.

In this book, “Interpretations of Dreams”, Freud discusses about the ethical sense in dreams too. He considers about the dream as a sub problem, to what extent the feelings and the moral bonds of the waking state affect the dream life. Some writers assert that there is no influence to the dream life from the moral obligations. But some, on the other hand emphasis that the moral bond which are related to man persist even in the dream life. Of course there are such immoral dreams that no one denies. But we have to know how they originate. All the ones who consider about this problem, have recognized a special psychic source for immorality of dreams. We are not responsible for our dreams. Dreams take us to the reality of our lives. But if someone can cleanse his/her mind morally before s/he sleep, that person might not see immoral dreams.

Since dreams have become something biological, there were many incomplete theories about dreams, such as; “Dream is something which was sent by god to the man…” Scientists’ and medical writers’ most favored theory is that only a fragment of psychic activity paralyzed by sleep finds expression in dreams. It can be identified as the most popular theory of dreams.

The relation between dreams and mental diseases is another important section that Freud has discussed here. When we talk about this relation, we have to concern about three things.

1. Etiological and clinical relations as when a dream represents a psychotic condition.
2. The changes that the dream life undergoes in cases of mental illnesses.
3. Inner relations between dreams and psychoses, analogies that point to an intimate relationship.

After having an idea about these things, an abnormal morbid phenomenon can be considered as an increase from time to time recurring normal dream state. The unequivocal agreement between dreams and mental diseases goes to characteristic details also.

According to Freud; “It is very probable, however, that a modified conception of the dream must also influence our views regarding the inner mechanism of mental disorders, and hence we may say that we are working towards the explanation of the psychoses when we endeavor to elucidate the mystery of dreams.” (p.102)

Freud has explained this subject in a really interesting and a broad way with a lot of experiences as examples. When we study about these things, our curiosity and the interest of the subject are developed. It encourages continuing the study.

Luca Bosurgi, a defining voice in the emerging field of mind-spirit therapy, transforms psychoanalysis to spiritual evolution. He has developed an original mind coaching technique: The CognitiveOS Hypnosis. For the first time he has agreed to talk about the power of the CognitiveOS Hypnosis and why it’s the next step in psychoanalytical therapy. – Nadine Aurel

Luca, you and Nadine Aurel are the founders of the Cognitive OS Hypnosis Institute and the initiators of the Hunab-Ku People philosophy. Your friends call you “powerful master” and your clients rave about the miracles you perform. Luca, what is all this about?

The medicine to conquer our own miracles is in each and every one of us. We all have the tools to gain power, love, success and spiritual advancement using our own resources. I am not a master, I am a teacher who helps to prepare and trigger conditions where miracles can happen – and then miracles happen.

The CognitiveOS Institute is a recently formed institution established by Nadine and I to host my 20 years clinical experience and the Hunab-Ku philosophy. Nadine is a young Medicine Woman and has deeply contributed to the development of the Hunab-Ku concept.
What is a mind coach?

In order to understand mind coaching, we first need to agree on a few philosophical concepts:

• The purpose of our life on earth is to develop our spiritual awareness: this is primarily done by acquiring new knowledge through our life’s experiences.

• In order to gather experiences and transform them into spiritual evolution, we have a sophisticated, robotic system, our tool of life, which are our body and mind. They are powerful pieces of equipment that allow our spirit to live and operate on earth.

• Good control and management of this equipment provides us with balance and efficient lives.

• Bad control of this equipment results in depression, addictions, lack of self-esteem, eating disorders, pain and confusion among many other problems. The first step is to help my clients gain control over their mind and body by eliminating past psychological traumas and unhealthy conditional behaviors. I then train their minds to live a more effective life by developing their personal powers to enhance their professional, artistic, social and healing skills. This translates into balance, success, love and spiritual advancement: It changes lives. This is what I do and this is why I am successful.

You founded a new school in mind therapies, the CognitiveOS Hypnosis. How does CognitiveOS Hypnosis compare to the traditional psychotherapy?

CognitiveOS Hypnosis is a way to teach the meaning of life. It explains the value of and how to perform our life journey more efficiently by learning how to manage our body and mind. CognitiveOS Hypnosis is the next step in psychotherapy. It is a mind-spirit therapy that grants permanent and effective results much faster than any classical psychoanalysis. Within a few months I am able to coach my clients to take full control over their mind, clearing past psychological traumas, fear and pain. Most of the teaching is done with guided meditation in hypnosis.

Hypnosis is generally used to quit smoking and for pain management; to many it’s a scary word. What are hypnotism and CognitiveOS Hypnosis in fact?

The word hypnosis is often associated with a process where the hypnotist uses mysterious powers to take control of a person’s mind. This appears to render the patient helpless similar to a marionette. However, that is far from the truth; hypnosis is one of the most powerful and safe mind teaching techniques. During a hypnotherapy session the patient is mentally awake, in full control, and afterwards will remember each moment of the therapy.

Milton Erickson, the MD psychiatrist, father of the clinical hypnosis, was the first to give a medical connotation to hypnotism introducing the concept of a valid alternative to traditional psychotherapy. Unfortunately, he was ahead of his time and his voice remains limited. Traditional hypnosis is a symptom driven therapy and only used to clear specific conditions.

CognitiveOS Hypnosis, instead, is a method of teaching that uses tailor-made, guided meditations within a natural theta trance stage of the mind. CognitiveOS Hypnosis can be divided into two main elements:

Meditation: a natural sensorial language effortlessly absorbed by the mind. CognitiveOS Hypnosis uses this ancient language to teach clients how to take control over body and mind. This is accomplished by clearing past issues and psychological traumas while developing personal powers.

Theta-trance: a natural stage of the mind positioned between awake and asleep. A ‘magic mind’s place’ that happens naturally when we fall asleep or we wake up. We often experience it before getting up in the morning; our mind is awake but our body is still asleep. Our thoughts are similar to dreams but perfectly managed; crisp, brave and incredibly creative. While in this state, everything is still possible as in dreams, but it doesn’t last long because as soon as our body awakens the magic is gone. Hypnosis is the way to artificially open and maintain that ‘magic mind’s place’ for the period of a session.

Is CognitiveOS Hypnosis the only way to do that?

It is the fastest way. The alternative is training, but it takes many years; consider the difficult and demanding process of the eastern meditation schools.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, during one of his teachings, talked about an experiment organized by his team together with a team of hypnotherapists. He personally witnessed untrained minds able to produce similar EEG theta waves under hypnosis like highly trained monks during deep meditation. He found it fascinating that hypnosis could produce the same level of meditation in untrained minds in just a few seconds which his monks achieved after livelong training.

What does CognitiveOS mean?

The Cognitive Operating System is the interface connecting our spirit to our life’s tool, a super structure that we use 24/7 to manage our mind, body, and energies. Imagine a space shuttle, the CognitiveOS would be the interface that the astronaut uses to drive the ship.

In the western world we are rediscovering that each one of our cells has its own intelligence and energetic interaction with the rest of the body. Each cell makes mini decisions that affect the balance of the entire system. Therefore, it becomes obvious that the mind is only a part of the decision making process. CognitiveOS is the frame, the co-coordinator and the conductor of the global intelligence that regulates, motivates and develops our life.

Eastern ancient disciplines such as Kundalini Yoga have been designed to awaken, master and regulate the CognitiveOS. The CognitiveOS Hypnosis is the first psychotherapy school that operates at the CognitiveOS level.

The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung warned that Kundalini Yoga could lead to dissociation in which the mind purposely attempts to separate from its bodily restrictions, which in certain unstable individuals might easily lead to a real psychosis… what you think about that?

Jung was the first psychiatrist that understood the importance of integrating spirituality in our life, therefore he deserves respect. However his theories were developed before the mind revolution that took the western world by storm during the second half of the last century. Prior to the mind revolution, the ability to have free thought and the power to make independent decisions was very limited. Roles imposed by culture, religions, and states were strictly regulating life. Modern life with its many choices, freedom of movement and new technology required people to think and make choices. The focus shifted from physical strength to using our intellect. This shift created, among many others, the women’s movement, one of the most important developments of the last millennium.

To summarize, in my opinion, Jung’s worries are unjustified. I value Kundalini Yoga as a powerful CognitiveOS training and I recommend it to all my clients.

Is this why you opened one of your practices in a Kundalini Yoga center?

Absolutely. Working with the correct energetic environment is important plus it enhances the effects of the CognitiveOS therapy. The Golden Bridge Yoga center in Los Angeles, where I recently opened my new practice, is a sanctuary of vital energy. The owner and lead teacher Gurmukh, her husband, their team and all the Goldenbridge Community constantly create an environment full of light. It is a joy to operate there.

What is the Hunab-Ku and who are the Hunab-ku people?

Hunab-Ku is a powerful Mayan symbol which signifies the God of the Gods, the purest representation of the Big Creator above every religion. We adopted the Hunab-Ku symbol after a dream, as sign of our total commitment to the army of God. An army with no flags or structure, just people working in the name of love.

We are using the Hunab-Ku to define the coming generations who will bring the Earth to the next level. People trained to master their CognitiveOS, “life’s professionals”, working to restore and upgrade our wonderful, however seriously wounded world.

You are also a Medicine Man known as Red Cougar, do you perform shamanic sessions?

No, I integrated my Medicine Man powers within the CognitiveOS therapies. It’s one of the powerful tools that I use in my sessions. I have spent most of my life gathering teachings and techniques around the world and assembling the tools that make CognitiveOS Hypnosis. I remember how excited I was twenty years ago when I first discovered the tremendous healing power of hypnosis; it’s from that point that everything started to make sense.

Does CognitiveOS Hypnosis work for everybody?

Every person can benefit from it, but at this stage I only work with a limited number of clients who demonstrate powerful minds as well as a desire to change.

If I understand correctly, hypnosis only positions the client’s mind in a specific place, but the real therapy is the meditation that you create for them. Consequently, the success of your therapies comes from years of clinical and philosophical studies combined with your natural gifts. Will CognitiveOS Hypnosis become a main stream therapy?

My work defines the new way of healing by managing minds and spirits. It works because the conditions in our society are ready for it. People want to have control over their bodies and mind instead of the other way around.

Imagine that you are riding a horse that is out of control. You need that horse in order to travel your life’s journey; how would you feel? Would you feel afraid, depressed, confused, angry, even hate for the horse? In order to keep you in the saddle and to keep the animal going you might come up with all types of harsh or kind strategies or follow foolish advice. Perhaps you would drug the horse or tire it with endless exercise. What a nightmare! Well, this is the battle most western people are enduring daily.

Imagine the opposite situation. You know and love your horse. Your horse is well trained and responds with joy to all your commands and requests. How would you feel? You would feel happy, safe, relaxed and empowered, knowing that your journey will be efficient, enjoyable and successful.

After a century of preparations we are now ready for the big change. The era of the Aquarius, characterized by the newly balanced male/female mind allows us to take advantage of all the efforts and achievements and learn from the mistakes made by past generations during the “revolution of the mind” and the “new age” movements. We are finally ready to move to the next level, to reassess our priorities, to identify ourselves with our spirit and to allow our spirit to take full control over body and mind. The CognitiveOS is a universal and natural concept that will spread fast and will be taught in schools.

What about mind altering substances like Prozac, alcohol, drugs?

We all have the tools to achieve a powerful life and to defeat addictions, depression, pain and confusion. We all are powerful spirits driving perfect and intelligent mind/body robotics. We need to face our issues and work hard to allow the change to take place by taking charge and learning how to control and trust our tools of life. Life is a gift of God and it is our duty and responsibility to capitalize on each and every moment.

CognitiveOS Hypnosis Institute of California
6322 De Longpre Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90028
http://www.bosurgi.net
info@CognitiveOS.com

What constitutes consciousness? Where does it reside? Is it strictly personal – or also transpersonal? Is there actually a “collective unconscious”? What happens to consciousness when we die? And perhaps most intriguing, why do we have this phenomenon at all?

Consciousness has only become a serious field of study in the scientific community within the past 20 years, though it represents a perennial focus of philosophical and theological inquiry. To define the term itself has proven difficult, alternately having been equated with a wakeful state, attention, spirituality, self-awareness. Others have gone further, suggesting awareness beyond the self, and capacity for experience. Generally, the concept is divided into two categories: phenomenal consciousness, concerning our actual experience of that which occurs in space and time, and access consciousness, the processes within us which act on these experiences.

The formal study of consciousness has resulted in more questions than answers thus far. Scientists cite two key areas of research problems: a category of “easy” ones (still considered quite difficult to adequately address) and the so-called “hard problem of consciousness”.

First, the “easy” problems, called such because one has “only” to determine the mechanisms involved, concern the basic functions of consciousness: how we discriminate among sensory stimuli, integrate information from varied sources to control behavior, verbalize our inner states. While these questions haven’t yet been answered, we assume that science will one day be able to do so.

The “hard problem of consciousness”, however, a phrase coined by the philosopher David Chalmers, is this: why do we have these qualitative phenomenological experiences in the first place? “How” is easy to decipher, relative to “why”.

Three further sets of questions have been presented within the scientific community: To what extent are humans – and other creatures, and even plants – conscious? At what point in individual human development does consciousness begin? And, can machines ever achieve a conscious state?

There are several elements critical to the understanding of consciousness: subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive a relationship between oneself and one’s environment. We each have our own, inherently felt experience of this phenomenon, with a corresponding innate sense of understanding, even if we can’t verbalize what we ‘know’. When anyone proposes to discuss the nature of consciousness, then, or new scientific findings are presented, each person – scientist or not, specialist in this field or otherwise, tends to have opinions formulated on personal experience. That is: we each carry our own unique model of consciousness.

EEG and other measures of brain waves have been used to understand brain response in various states of consciousness, and in turn, electrical stimulation to areas of the brain can produce these states. Some have concluded as a result that consciousness resides entirely within the brain, with no particular “seat” but rather diffuse, the various regions triggering one another dynamically. For others, however, this doesn’t definitively rule out consciousness elsewhere in the body. It has been proposed that, even if the phenomenon of consciousness occurs in the various regions of the brain in interrelated processes, the remainder of the central nervous system (CNS) may also be involved, including not only the brain and brain stem but the spinal cord with its autonomic nervous system (ANS) as well as the ‘body brains’ of the various nerve plexi, most notably the celiac (solar) plexus — where we have the phenomenon of ‘gut instinct’.

Another question that must be raised: if we can deliberately alter our state of consciousness, through processes such as meditation, trance, self-hypnosis or biofeedback, what part of our consciousness is affecting our state of consciousness? Is it simply our cerebrum acting on our brain stem, or something more? At some point, consciousness begins to look quite fragmented, or perhaps mimics a feedback loop of sorts. As Descartes so famously said, “Cogito, ergo sum” – “I think [am thinking], therefore I am.”

Further, if the complete CNS, including the ANS, then why not the PNS, or peripheral nervous system? We understand that the role of the PNS is essentially one of motor function. However, we cannot say for certain that consciousness is not also conveyed by these neural pathways. Indeed, consciousness as we know it may well represent a matrix that is conducted by the entire nervous system – and perhaps even the vascular and / or lymphatic systems as well. Chinese philosophy and medical theory might conceive of consciousness as qi, a nonphysical dynamic substance conveyed by a system of vessels that closely overlays the nervous system as we know it today.

Transpersonal psychology is the study and application of those experiences which seem to take one beyond individual consciousness, to a connection with or as a conduit of a consciousness greater than one’s own experience. Mystical or transcendent as well as near-death experiences provide examples, as does the vast range in states of consciousness. Both transpersonal psychology and physics in the form of quantum mechanics potentially take the concept of consciousness one step further, in terms of interstructural communication at the subatomic level, even at great distances. Carl Jung conceptualized a “collective unconscious”, a matrix of consciousness shared by all members of the human species past, present, and future, which would seem to be supported by the quantum model. Mystical traditions such as Sufism or Shamanism have explored consciousness extending beyond the physical body in ways that science has not yet begun to understand. In general, Asian conceptualizations in this area view ordinary consciousness as limited and narrow, and propose various practices to expand consciousness into something much greater than one’s personal experience of it, toward a goal of enlightenment.

Without even delving into the vast philosophical realm, it is apparent that the concept of consciousness is quite complex, raising more questions than providing answers. There is no denying its existence, for at its core, it is what animates the living and is absent in the dead. But its structure, location, and far more, its very function remain a mystery.

As T.H. Huxley famously said in 1866, “How it is that anything so remarkable as a state of consciousness comes about as a result of irritating nervous tissue, is just as unaccountable as the appearance of the Djin when Aladdin rubbed his lamp.”

Dr Anne Hilty is an health psychologist with a transpersonal orientation; she has a clinical practice in integrative psychotherapy which is additionally influenced by classical Chinese medicine, somatic psychology, and Asian shamanic traditions. Located in the Central district of Hong Kong, she can be contacted at: annehilty at gmail dot com.

Does psychology as an import from Western culture adequately explain Eastern behavior? Are all human brains and thus, development, cognition, and behavioral patterns essentially alike? Are its methods of therapy appropriate or displaced? Are the goals for outcome similar regardless of geography, or must they be modified to reflect the values of the dominant culture? And perhaps most of all: is the overlay of a Western model of the mind effecting change on the cultural psyche of the East?

Psychology as a scientific study has the pathology-driven Western medical model at its foundation, overlaid by the values of ancient Greece, such as individuation, self-control, and self-efficacy. The cultures of Asia have at their core the values of ancient China, such as hierarchy, moral development, achievement, and social responsibility, and a non-dualistic medical system that is based on principles of balance and harmony. Some, such as Richard Nisbett in The Geography of Thought,argue that these phenomenally diverse core systems result in very different processes of cognition. In the West, cognitive process is one of logic, critical analysis, and direct, rational thought, in which the universe is conceptualized as the sum of its parts which can further be categorized, and is generally termed Analytic Cognition. In the East, cognition is abstract, paradoxical, circular and indirect, the universe a web of infinite connections; this is known as Holistic Cognition. If cognition and constructs of illness are phenomenally different, how can the same model for human behavior and development adequately apply to both?

One’s sense of self is also quite differently defined in these two disparate regions of the world: either sociocentric or egocentric. In the former, which describes the cultures in Asia, one’s concept of self is formed within the social context, and defined by it at any given moment; a sense of selfhood requires social connectedness. In the Western world, the egocentric model is dominant; each person’s sense of self is considered autonomous and unique, individuated, and largely consistent regardless of context. Thus, while a primary goal of psychology in Western society is one of self-development, in an Asian setting it would be one of self-transcendence toward enlightenment.

The process of psychotherapy depends upon the orientation of the individual. In Western societies, this is one of dispositionism, in which the internal disposition of the person is the primary consideration. In the East, however, the orientation is one of interactionism, in which the presence of complex causalities is assumed and the focus is on relationships and reactions between persons or the person and the surrounding environment. Of course, neither of these orientations stands alone, but both are present in each setting; however, one takes clear precedent over the other. In each, the approach of psychotherapy would be rather obviously different, in focusing either on internal processes such as self-esteem or internal locus of control, or on relationships, methods and patterns of relating, and one’s place in the grand scheme of society.

Creativity is another area in which these regions of the world differ greatly. While novelty isn’t well suited to Eastern cultures, and can feel threatening to the overall social cohesiveness, it’s inherent in Western modes of thinking and behavior, and deemed crucial to problem-solving. In the West, time and one’s developmental processes are conceived of as linear and finite with a beginning and an end; thus, innovation and breaking with tradition are required to effect change, and to grow. In the East, however, development consists of successive reconfigurations and is dynamic, involving reinterpretation and new uses of tradition rather than a break with it. The spiral, not the line, is a more accurate image of progress, whether personal or societal. Creativity is both a by-product and a necessary component of the former model, while of minimal use in the latter.

It’s often said that psychology with its concepts of mental illness and health is, or was until recently, taboo in Asian cultures, and the mentally ill stigmatized and marginalized as a source of family shame. While the latter has been true at one time or another in all societies, East and West, it’s an oversimplification of the Eastern conception of health. In classical Chinese medicine, which springs primarily from Taoism with influences of Buddhism and Confucianism, health is inclusive of all aspects – physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social – and conceived of as a state of harmony and balance, illnesses termed as ‘patterns of disharmony’. These patterns include symptoms from all aspects of the person. Never having adopted a Cartesian duality of mind and body, Asian cultures thus never conceived of mental illness as a distinction. This too represents a profound dissonance in the Eastern and Western conceptions of and treatment approaches for mental health. Further, various Asian philosophies view the universe, and the person as a microcosm of same, as being in a continual process of change and impermanence, while Western psychology deems the self and the personality to be largely fixed at an early age, with a sense of continuity throughout one’s life.

As the Western, largely American, model of mental health and illness has made its way to Asia, scholars have begun questioning its universal applicability. Geoffrey Blowers, an assistant dean of psychology at Hong Kong University, is one who has written and presented on this subject. Some Asian models of psychology have emerged, based upon the philosophical constructs which have strongly influenced Asian societies and individual psyches. One such example is Buddhist psychology, developed primarily in Japan and other parts of Asia. It differs profoundly from that of the West in several ways, notably in lacking a fixed concept of self but rather one in a constant state of flux; the path to enlightenment is transpersonal, one of moving beyond a sense of personhood and of the self. Some aspects of Buddhism, in particular the concept and practice of “mindfulness”, have been widely adopted within Western psychotherapeutic practices as well. Hybrid models of psychology are also being attempted, and one promising model is Chinese Taoist Cognitive Psychology. Mental health as viewed from a Taoist perspective, another of the pillars of Asian mentality, include a transcendence from self and secularity, the dynamic revertism of nature, integration with the law of nature, and ultimately a high level of transformation and transcendence.

In contrast, a recent article in the New York Times, “The Americanization of Mental Illness” [08 January 2010], identified growing trends in Asia toward not only the Western model of conceptualizing, diagnosing, and treating mental illnesses, but in the incidence of the disease patterns themselves. As an example, eating disorders were unheard of in Asia until recently, and are now fast on the rise, as are schizophrenia and several personality disorders. The concepts behind these disorders are very much a product of Western cultural values and beliefs, yet are appearing now throughout Asia. While mental disorders as conceived of in the West were largely somatized in Asian cultures, this is changing rapidly. And, with increased exposure not only to Western ideals but conceptualizations of mental illness, the manifestation of such illnesses is undergoing substantial change. Along with this, an increasing dependence not only on a pathological model but on pharmacological treatment is widely seen. A growing body of scholars protests this trend, arguing that mental health and illness have never been conceived of in the same way throughout cultures, and that this represents profound cultural alteration.

The argument can be made that science, in the form of western psychology just as in western forms of medicine before it, has made great progress in understanding human illness and treatment. Thus, a conclusion might be drawn that Asian societies would do well to adopt these methods. But a simple adoption of a system which is in many ways antithetical to that of the culture is inadequate at best. It can equally be said that Eastern philosophical systems have contributed greatly to the understanding of human behavior and, in particular, to that of consciousness. More consideration, and more care in its application, is needed, with great cultural sensitivity, and an integration of models is an obvious outcome.

Dr Anne Hilty is an health psychologist with a transpersonal orientation; she has a clinical practice in integrative psychotherapy which is additionally influenced by classical Chinese medicine, somatic psychology, and Asian shamanic traditions. Located in the Central district of Hong Kong, she can be contacted at: annehilty at gmail dot com.

Integrative Psychotherapy is defined in three ways: (1) a blend of psycho-therapeutic approaches based on each client’s uniqueness; (2) an approach that considers the best of both Eastern and Western models of mental health; and, (3) a combination of psychological and somato-energetic therapies for the goal of mental and emotional well-being. Further, the whole person is considered, not only mental and emotional aspects but also physical, spiritual, and social components plus the transpersonal realm. This model is well supported by evidence-based healthcare practices and brings together therapeutic models and methodologies from both ends of the mind-body continuum in order to assist in the restoration of a state of balance.

Integrative Psychotherapy indeed represents the very balance that it’s meant to facilitate. Western psychology is in union with the Eastern Taoist principles of mental health as evidenced in classical Chinese medicine. Meditative and breathing practices – mindfulness – are drawn from Buddhism, and cognitive-behavioral methods from science. Health psychology and its focus on mental-emotional aspects of physical health and illness are combined with transpersonal psychology and an emphasis on consciousness beyond the individual. “Power therapies” are used to treat trauma response, with nutritional approaches and therapeutic exercise to support them.

Physical…mental…emotional…spiritual…metaphysical. Logical-analytical thinking out of ancient Greece coupled with abstract-holistic cognition of ancient China. Yin-within-Yang-within-Yin-within…. And, ‘psyche’ interprets as ’soul’ and relates to ‘pneuma’, meaning ‘breath’.

One of the least understood areas of medical science is that of the human mind, and in particular, emotions. We know that there is cellular memory, that tissue can reflect and even contain emotional content, that fluid levels can fluctuate according to mood, that one can control certain bodily processes by mental focus, and that the celiac (solar) plexus represents a ‘body-brain’. And more. We are not people who have bodies; we are our bodies, every bit as much as the mind that we call ‘Self’. We can’t separate the two. Western philosophy and science made a terrible mistake in doing so, and recently some measure of reintegration has been attempted; in the East, this distinction was never made. Western scientific thinking has also brought great progress to our understanding of human behavior, while the contribution of Eastern philosophies is unquestionable.

Transpersonal Psychology, which emerged 40 years ago, focuses on health and human potential. Spiritual and metaphysical aspects are reintroduced into the study of the mind, and the physical body is equally considered. It integrates the philosophies of Carl Jung and analytical psychology, Abraham Maslow and humanistic psychology, and Eastern philosophies and practices. In so doing, it includes pre-personal, personal, and transpersonal [transcendent] realms of human cognition and experience.

The disease model of Western medicine and psychology is not utilized. Rather, a bio-psycho-socio-spiritual approach is taken, and frameworks such as harmony / disharmony, balance / imbalance, disintegration / reintegration, and fragmentation / wholeness serve to define the human condition. Human development is pursued equally in intellectual, emotional, physical, spiritual, and social realms as well as creative expression. It posits a ’superconscious’ in addition to a subconscious, and the study and exploration of multiple states of consciousness is prioritized. Mystical experience and shamanic healing methods are also considered.

It’s easy to see how this approach to Western psychology is respectful of and strives to include Eastern philosophies, and its premise of balance as the interpretation of health is closely aligned with that of classical Chinese medicine. Practices such as Mindfulness and Breathwork, meditation, and somatic and energetic therapies are included, and the psychology of the body is honored. The primary focus of transpersonal psychology is the realization of our ultimate potential.

It’s time to put the pieces back together. Psyche and Soma… East and West. This is Integrative Psychotherapy.

Dr Anne Hilty is an health psychologist with a transpersonal orientation; she has a clinical practice in integrative psychotherapy which is additionally influenced by classical Chinese medicine, somatic psychology, and Asian shamanic traditions. Located in the Central district of Hong Kong, she can be contacted at: annehilty at gmail dot com.

We all know about intelligence: the kind measured by IQ (and Mensa) tests. A measurement of verbal-linguistic and logical-mathematic skills, this appears on first consideration to be an accurate portrait of intellect. Howard Gardner, a psychologist at Harvard, theorized (and popularized) the concept of “multiple intelligences” during the past two decades, a theory which highlights types of intelligence beyond this measure: musical, kinetic, visual-spatial, and more. While critics suggest that some of these so-called “intelligences” are actually talents, Gardner counters with the proposal that if they are, so are the abilities one might have in the original concept of intelligence – that is, if we are musically talented (rather than having a high musical intellect), then we are also verbally or mathematically talented. The concepts are parallel.

Daniel Goleman, a psychologist at Rutgers and visiting professor at Harvard, developed two aspects of Gardner’s theory – intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences – into what he refers to as emotional intelligence. His book by the same name, published in 1995, was a best-seller for nearly two years. His earliest work was in the field of meditation, and he directs a center dedicated to the study of meditation’s effects on emotional intelligence. Currently, he is working on a concept he calls, social intelligence.

Many scientists are now studying the concept of emotional intelligence, and it is applied to business, education, politics, and many other settings. Unlike the traditional IQ, which is more or less static throughout one’s life, emotional intelligence can be improved with training.

Emotional intelligence [EI] is both innate and learned. Often, the distinction is made between emotional intelligence, which a person has to some degree or another from birth, and emotional quotient [EQ], which is measurable and includes learned skills. Emotional intelligence is given many definitions, but one that I particularly like is: “the innate potential to feel, use, communicate, recognize, remember, describe, identify, learn from, manage, understand and explain emotions” [Steve Hein].

Synonyms for the concept of emotional intelligence might be: emotional sensitivity, emotional memory, emotional processing and problem-solving ability, or emotional learning ability.

There is a generally accepted, 4-branch model of emotional intelligence: emotional perception, (for example, identifying emotions in faces, music, stories), emotional facilitation of thought (such as, relating emotions to other mental sensations, and using emotion in reason and problem-solving), emotional understanding (solving emotional problems – knowing how various emotions are similar or opposite to one another, and what relations they convey), and emotional management (understanding the social implications of one’s emotions and having the ability to regulate them in oneself and in others).

A simpler and more direct version is this: (1) accurately identify emotions; (2) use emotions to help you think; (3) understand what causes emotions; and, (4) manage to stay open to these emotions in order to experience the wisdom of our feelings.

Our brains have three primary regions: the neocortex, by which all cognition occurs; the brain stem, the concern of which is primal, reflexive functions designed for survival (such as breathing and heartbeat); and, the limbic system. The latter, also called the “paleo-mammalian brain”, is what we know to be our emotional center. The brain developed in the primordial human, and develops in each fetus, from the brain stem upward, based on importance for survival; as the limbic system develops after the brain stem and before the neocortex, it may actually be more important to our survival than our conscious thought processes.

There’s a saying in biomedicine: “That to which we give attention grows.” The human species has emphasized the abilities of the neocortex for millenia, and the neocortex in present-day humans is vastly larger and more well-developed than that of our ancestors. However, the limbic system is under-developed, and the argument can be made that we would do well to place more emphasis upon this aspect of our intellect.

This is also culturally based: in Asia, for example, great emphasis is placed upon social harmony and, therefore, emotional intelligence. Connectedness is highly valued, and emotional resonance with one another the basis of society. In Korea, where I made my home for five years, this is called nunchi, “the subtle art of listening and gauging another’s mood” [Hilty, Streetwise in Seoul]. It is such a powerful phenomenon that Korean people feel their thoughts might be able to be read by one another, and they keep their emotions well in check. It’s also one of the cultural difficulties between Koreans and non-Asian foreigners who have no awareness of or experience with this idea.

In our brains, the amygdala is a part of the limbic system that responds quickly and dramatically to perceived threat. Designed to protect the human from harm in a world of constant physical stress, it is now somewhat obsolete in that, except for those in war zones for example, most of us are living in a “complex, symbolic reality with symbolic threats” [Goleman]. The amygdala communicates directly with the pre-frontal cortex [PFC], the “executive center” of the brain which scans all possible intellectual input for this “perceived threat” and then controls, through the left PFC in particular, the over-reaction that the amygdala would otherwise generate. Of course, many other parts of the brain also contribute to emotional intellect.

Scientists have also hypothesized and are studying the possibility of mirror neurons in humans, which are known to exist in primates; these neurons elicit a mirror image of what another organism is doing, feeling, or intending, to synchronize interaction. It seems that human brains interact as a social brain network, attuning and regulating themselves to the circuitry of one another.

The circuitry between the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex isn’t fully developed until one’s mid-20s, so when it comes to emotional regulation, we must teach – and be patient with – youth. All neural circuitry is malleable, able to continue to be altered and developed throughout a person’s life, a quality which is called neuroplasticity. There are many ways to develop our Emotional Quotient, from tools of self-awareness such as mindfulness to a variety of meditative practices which science has shown to strengthen the left prefrontal cortex. Self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and social skills are the four areas in which the development of EQ focuses.

It’s imperative for our own growth and development, as individuals and as societies, that we learn the wisdom of our emotions – necessary for decision-making and for creating a more benevolent and interconnected world.

How’s your emotional intelligence? Would you qualify for a “high EQ society”? For a free test of your own emotional intelligence, I recommend this site: http://www.queendom.com/tests/access_page/index.htm?idRegTest=1121.

Dr Anne Hilty is an health psychologist with a transpersonal orientation; she has a clinical practice in integrative psychotherapy which is additionally influenced by classical Chinese medicine, somatic psychology, and Asian shamanic traditions. Located in the Central district of Hong Kong, she can be contacted at: annehilty at gmail dot com.

A variety of methods were used to help the supervisee develop counseling skills, case conceptualization, her ability to self evaluate, and professional role development. Along with monitoring and evaluating, advising and instructing, I tried to support her and her professional growth and to share my experiences with clients, including mistakes I made.

We worked on developing treatment plans as she needed this skill for her work in the agencies. We went to the bookstore and she purchased one of the excellent treatment planning guides, and I helped her walk through choosing the long-term goals, short-term objectives, and therapeutic interventions. She was resistant to this process because of her postmodern orientation, but as I helped her see that she could choose the goals, objectives, and interventions that she was comfortable with and disregard the others, she became more open to the process. I reviewed her charts throughout our work and am happy to report she developed the ability to write good treatment plans.

Each week she would self-report on cases about which she had questions, and I would attempt to help her conceptualize the case. I helped her with the DSM-IV which she also was adverse to due to her theoretical orientation, but I persisted in helping her understand the efficacy of starting with the descriptive indicators to formulate a case. I used supportive teaching interventions, working to increase her self-confidence at knowing who was sitting in the room with her.

We roleplayed working with one of her conduct disordered teens, trying out different interventions and watching some of them fall flat. I gave her clinical articles on working with antisocial personality disorders, and on how to know which therapies are effective with which clients. I had her research DBT on the Internet. I gave her advice on professional development when she had questions about whether or not to develop her bilingual skills (yes!).

We discussed countertransference and the some of the supervisee’s family of origin issues. At one point, she became demoralized, questioning if she was even cut out to be a therapist, and I highlighted her strengths and normalized this as part of the process. Her use of self was restricted as she tried to turn herself into Michael White, and I attempted to help her understand that she would develop her own way of being a therapist based on her authentic self, including her background as an educator. Unfortunately, her interpretation of postmodern therapy left her alienated from herself as she did not believe in psychotherapy as psychoeducation. I shared research with her that psychoeducation is the preferred treatment for certain populations, e.g. anger management clients. I also had to use confrontation to encourage her to try harder with the court ordered boys and not just shrug and wait until her time was up.

© 2010 Catherine Auman

Catherine Auman, MFT is a CAMFT Certified Supervisor and psychotherapist with over 25 years experience based in Los Angeles, Calfornia. She has advanced training in both traditional and alternative methodologies based on ancient traditions and wisdom teachings. Visit her online at http://www.catherineauman.com.