The method matters

Thankfully, more kinds of therapy, healing, and spiritual modalities are available to us today more than ever before in human history. What a positive sign that our planet as a collective entity is evolving into a higher consciousness, and more of us are actively participating! At the same time, this can become a challenge to know which of the many modalities is right for you. Perhaps you are wondering, "Is Pathwork® right for me?"

You can read a lot more about Pathwork on several organizational websites, such as Pathwork.org (The International Pathwork Foundation), or Pathworkcalifornia.org (Pathwork of California, with whom I am affiliated). While each Pathwork helper is different (as all therapists--and people!--are), here is how I describe it.

Pathwork is a sophisticated blend of psychology and spirituality that is greater than the sum of those two parts. Another term that might be used is spiritual counseling, though that doesn't really capture it either. A one-on-one Pathwork session can look a lot like a therapy session in which personal topics are raised for exploration, understanding, and healing. In a Pathwork session, however, there are more nuances of spirituality, life purpose, the soul, and transcending limited consciousness.

The teachings upon which the methods are based offer a non-dual worldview that helps people view their lives through a non-dual lens that can literally change one's view of reality. This helps create outcomes of self-awareness, compassion, personal power, and deep understanding about people and life. These traits in turn bring harmonious relationships with self and others, and clean experiences of joy, harmony, and rooted happiness that transcends the inevitable ups and downs of our daily human lives.

Many of the core concepts and tools used by Pathwork have overlap with traditional therapy, though the terminology and nuances may be different. Here is a partial list of some of the concepts that we might work with in a Pathwork session, or explore in Pathwork workshops, tutorials, and lecture study programs. (Don't get stuck on anything that might seem like jargon--you will get a sense of the concepts through their words.)

• Recreation to "overcome" childhood hurts and parental influences

• Vicious circles of negative patterns

• Personality types and their common patterns

• Self-responsibility for all (yes, all) life experiences

• Misconceptions, or fales lenses ("images") through which we view life, and how to find truth

• Real and false needs

• Negativity and negative intentionality (two different things)

• The unconscious, subconscious, conscious, and super-conscious

• True self-confidence--what it looks like and how to find it

• Levels of reality/consciousness and recognizing which level we are in

• Personal and global human evolutionary trends

My practice of Pathwork also includes elements of somatic (body awareness) therapy and is trauma-informed.

Pathwork is like psychotherapy in many ways, and also different. Here are a few examples:

PATHWORK	TRADITIONAL THERAPY
Emphasises worker (client) responsibility	Therapist takes more responsibility for client
Primary focus on healthy ego development as a doorway to spirituality, or the Real Self	Primary focus on positive ego development as a means to function productively in the world
Focus on the soul's journey	Focus on personality
Spirit/Universe/God oriented	System and/or clinically-oriented
Helper/therapist relies on intuition, then skills and knowledge	Helper/therapist relies on skills and knowledge, then intuition (if at all)
Primary relationship is between worker (client) and Spirit/Universe/God	Primary relationship is between client and therapist
Good for people with non-clinical issues, though can be a helpful addition to other therapy.	Required for clinical issues such as clinical depression, additions, bi-polar and other so-called personality "disorders"

You can also read about Pathwork methods in my services descriptions of one-on-one sessions, tutorials, and group work. My story is another way of seeing what Pathwork looks like in practice.

Are you intrigued by anything you've read here? Did one of the core concepts in the list ring out like a bell for you? Might Pathwork be a modality that's right for you? If you're wondering, it might be a cue to take the next step. If you have questions about Pathwork, or want more data as you consider working with me, please don't hesitate to reach out!