Frequently asked questions.
What is Depth Counselling?
Depth Counselling combines aspects of traditional counselling such as goal-setting, non-judgement, empathic listening and compassionate inquiry with the soul-centered approach of depth psychologists such as Carl Jung, James Hillman, Thomas Moore, Marion Woodman and others that focuses on uncovering the deep stories of our life in order to discover a sense of meaning, purpose and re-enchantment with the world.
“Depth psychology, the modern field whose interest is in the unconscious levels of the psyche—that is, the deeper meanings of the soul—is itself no modern term. Depth reverberates with a significance, echoing one of the first philosophers of antiquity.
All depth psychology has already been summed up by this fragment of Heraclitus: “You could not discover the limits of the soul (psyche), even if you traveled every road to do so; such is the depth (bathun) of its meaning (logos).” Ever since Heraclitus brought soul and depth together in one formulation, the dimension of soul is depth (not breadth or height) and the dimension of our soul travel is downward.”
— James Hillman
What is your approach to treatment of symptoms?
Conventional psychotherapies generally start with assessing symptoms to form a diagnosis which is then treated with standardized interventions and cognitive-behavioural tools.
This is what is usually meant by a ‘pathologizing’ approach, which treats symptoms as abnormalities and unhealthy.
What the conventional approach misses (just as it misses that the term psychotherapy literally means “care of the soul”) is that psychopathology translates to “suffering of the soul.”
Depth Counselling takes the definitions of psychotherapy and psychopathology quite literally and treats symptoms by listening to them with compassion and curiosity, and taking them seriously as indicators that some aspect of the soul life isn’t being adequately cared for.
In short, we listen to the suffering of the soul (aka symptoms) so that we may better care for it.
Curious?
Book a free consultation to see if Depth Counselling is the right fit for you.
What symptoms or conditions do you treat?
Because Depth Counselling has a soul-oriented approach, it is interested in and capable of treating any of the myriad ways that the soul expresses its sufferings — from depression and anxiety, to addiction and obsessive-compulsive behaviours, to anger issues and self-harming.
Depth Counselling is also very well-suited to people who are more or less psychologically healthy, but may be dealing with a sense of loss, lostness, lack of purpose and meaning, and/or spiritual disillusionment — what has variously been called the malaise of modernity or the meaning crisis.
What are the goals of Depth Counselling?
One of the early depth psychologists, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Depth Counselling is focused on helping people find purpose — not just their individual purpose for being, but the purpose of their symptoms — because that’s what gives our life and our suffering meaning. As the post-Jungian psychologist and spiritual elder of Depth Counselling James Hillman would say, discovering the meaning in our suffering is what makes soul, and soul is what makes life meaningful.
What is soul?
Rather than get mixed up in metaphysics, we prefer to follow James Hillman and Thomas Moore in seeing soul as a particular kind of perspective through which we view our life and engage with the world. Tom writes in his seminal 1992 book Care of the Soul:
“It is impossible to define precisely what the soul is. Definition is an intellectual enterprise anyway; the soul prefers to imagine. We know intuitively that soul has to do with genuineness and depth, as when we say certain music has soul or a remarkable person is soulful.
When you look closely at the image of soulfulness, you see that it is tied to life in all its particulars — good food, satisfying conversation, genuine friends, and experiences that stay in the memory and touch the heart. Soul is revealed in attachment, love, and community, as well as in retreat on behalf of inner communing and intimacy.”