unbeknownst to her, the anchors have all been dropped. No wonder the boat is going nowhere.At present, one therapist is attending to this web site.
Hi! In this section you can get to know a little about me and my background. My name is Greg and I will share with you some of my journey and also try to explain some of my motivation for working as a psychotherapist and offering these free services. Here's a recent photo.
I came to psychotherapy after I had been involved with spiritual practice and study for many years. Psychotherapy turned out to be the missing link in my own psychological and spiritual development. With all the best intentions in the world, I had worked for years to try and live a more spiritual life. I had amassed plenty of spiritual experiences and insights but a part of my being just seemed to resist the journey.
I like to use a sailing image to help explain how I now understand these two streams of personal development. Here it is: Picture a sailboat just off the coast of an island. It is just outside dangerous reefs and aiming to sail out to sea toward other lands. However, the skipper has a little problem. Although she's got a strong steady following breeze that should be scooting her craft along out and away from the reefs, her boat is barely inching forward. And more alarmingly, the tide has turned and is starting to take the boat back toward the reef! What's wrong?
Well, on closer inspection the skipper finds that,
unbeknownst to her, the anchors have all been dropped. No wonder the boat is going nowhere.
Now in this image, the nearby island represents this life that we live in while the boat and skipper are our body and heartmind. The coral reefs stand for the difficulties that are inherent in this level of existence and the changing tide bodes the passage of time--with old age, death and disease akin to being dragged back to the reefs. In the context of all this, the boat's following breeze is much like spiritual practice. Meditation, yoga, service, energy work and right living are all good and proper means to build up a head of psychic and psychological breeze towards spirit--the BREEZE. But, the anchors! Well, you probably have the idea by now, the anchors represent our unconscious mind and all the psychological gunk that gets in the way of our smooth sailing. And that gunk applies to smooth sailing toward the regular needs and desires of this life as well as the goal and wish for spiritual development.
In the metaphysical Kahuna system of the ancient Hawaiians, it was taught that human consciousness consisted of three parts--conscious, unconscious and superconscious. And most importantly, those wise sages said that the unconscious is the gatekeeper to, and guardian of, the superconscious. That is, to reach spirit, we necessarily have to plough through the forest of the unconscious.
So, back to the sailboat. The skipper being a wise lady, has her crew pull in the anchors, and, hoorah, the boat, thanks to its strong following trade wind, easily and smoothly glides forth out from the reefs and into the ocean on its way. The boat and crew are in harmony with their island home, the weather, the islands they may visit and the spirit of the sea.
This simple picture is really very powerful. It turns out that this metaphor appears to be the best model for how to actually progress spiritually. That is, although one can simply work at spiritual practices, the anchors of past conditioning ( early age, birth, pre-birth and even past life [if you believe in that] ) will inevitably distort the purest intents. A more reliable way forward is to include personal psychotherapy along with spiritual practice.
Classically all major spiritual disciplines tried to address this need to meet and align with the unconscious mind. For instance, in the raja yoga tradition, the first two steps of an eight-step formula to achieve spiritual realisation, consist of personal and social ethics. However, a major contribution of western civilisation to the great spiritual and metaphysical traditions is its insight into the unconscious mind. And more importantly, its understanding of how to support and evolve this level of mind through psychotherapy.
So, although the traditional approaches have much in their favour, it now appears that a more certain, powerful and direct way to work with this unconscious aspect of spiritual practice is through psychotherapy. From, many decades of experience, it is well established that years of solid effort are needed before a person can truly and adequately re-experience and develop her or his unconscious processes. Even the very best therapy can take five or more years of steady, methodical work to achieve useful results.
Thus, working with both traditional spiritual practices, such as meditation, and psychotherapy in parallel seems to be the best and steadiest way to proceed along the spiritual path. There are several contemporary traditions that generally embrace this understanding. For instance, the works of A. H. Almaas and much of current transpersonal psychology.
SpiritualBackground:
25+ years reading and research on spiritual topics
20+ years practising yoga
10+ years practising meditation
6 years exclusively practising Christian Prayer of the Heart
Understanding of most metaphysical systems: Sufism, Hindu Yoga, Tibetan Buddhism,
Fourth Way/Gurdjieff, Western Mystery traditions
7+ years practicing Tibetan Buddhist Lamrim, Tantra and Dzogchen
ProfessionalBackground:
Certificate in Gestalt Psychotherapy
Certificate in Counselling Kinesiology
Completing Study for 3-year Diploma in Integrative Psychology (Hakomi)
Training as Osteopathic Doctor on 5-year Master's Degree in Osteopathy
Ongoing personal psychotherapy and supervision
Over 1000 hours of kinesiology training
Member of Australian Kinesiology Association
Master of Science in Statistics
Master of Engineering
Bachelor of Electrical Engineering
If you would like further information about the services offered via this web site, please send me your query and I shall reply promptly.
Also, I am looking to develop a holistic healing centre that integrates work with electronic medicine (such as Mora and Quantum Medicine), Osteopathy (cranial and structural) and psychotherapy. This combined approach leverages the energetic, emotional and physical levels to offer healing at truly deep and profound levels. If you have a background in these areas, or other holistic areas (such as acupuncture, homoeopathy and naturopathy), and might be interested in such a venture, feel free to email me. At present, I am based in Auckland, New Zealand.
And finally, if you have any other comments, questions, or suggestions regarding these pages or their contents, you are also welcome to write.
Please send your email to Greg care of greg.c@ihug.co.nz.
