Practical MA Applications of Jung's Analytical Psychology: Skills, Interventions, and Ideas

Course handout for PSYC632 Advanced Theories: Jungian
School of Applied Psychology, Counseling, and Family Therapy
Antioch University Seattle
Ann B. Blake, Ph.D.
June 15, 2010

Be curious rather than judgmental. Approach your work with clients with an open mind and attitude, bringing no previous assumptions and ideas. Take an initial stance that you do not know.

Take a non-hierarchical relational stance. You and your clients are on a mutual journey.

Hold a wider lens about the range of human nature (e.g., typology, themes, images, symbols, inner characters, archetypal characters).

Monitor recurrent bodily responses, affective responses, images, and words/phrases. After reflecting about your connection with these responses, (1) offer a hypothesis and (2) wonder whether and the degree to which clients resonate with these responses.

Focus on clients’ goals rather than your own. What do clients want from the therapeutic experience; what do clients want for their lives?

Hold clients’ wholeness as your approach to relationship. Assume that clients simultaneously present the totality of themselves as well as specific parts of themselves.

Focus on strengths; focus on moving toward wholeness. Listen for movement toward wholeness. Bring clients’ attention to their strengths and to their movement toward wholeness.

Listen for ambivalence and for tension between opposites: on the one hand, ________, and on the other hand, _________. Inquire about the degree to which clients can accept/integrate both/all sides of situations and of their personalities.

Look for areas of one-sidedness; listen for self-criticism and/or self-blame and/or self-rejection. Offer clients the idea about the possibility of incorporating the other side(s) of situations and/or of their personalities.

Be aware of your typology as well as the strengths and challenges associated with your typology. Make educated guesses about clients’ typology. Brainstorm/consider ways you can genuinely interact from your typology AND include an awareness of clients’ typology in your interactions. Offer ideas about ways clients can expand and integrate other aspects of their typology, for example, moving closer to the center of the continua so that clients can more flexibly respond to the world from a realistic/relevant perspective.

Dreams: facilitate clients’ dream exploration. Explore the context; use associations and active imagination (moving the dream story forward). Only after clients have thoroughly explored the dream images, you can offer furthering questions and associations. Inquire about the degree to which the dream offers compensatory ideas: offering the other side of a one-sided perspective; offering the opposite perspective; widening the viewpoint; offering alternative actions. Be cautious about interpretations.

Active imagination: suggest that clients continue associating to images, dreams, and narratives so that clients can deepen their exploration and understanding of their inner lives.

Perceive countertransference as a gift: after exploring your portion of the response, your human response offers a glimpse into clients’ inner experience and informs your interactions with clients.

Blake, A. B. (2010, Spring Quarter). Practical MA applications of Jung's Analytical Psychology: Skills, interventions, and ideas. Class handout for Advanced Theories: Jungian. Antioch University Seattle.