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This article describes how psychotherapeutic practice can be developed by incorporating the seven energy types into the work, so that all sides of the client are seen, for the joy and benefit of the client and the psychotherapist.
By Kenneth Sorensen
Read the introductory article about energy psychology and the book Energy Psychology – understand your seven energy types, your psychological DNA.
One of the areas where the energy types can be used with great benefit is within the field of psychotherapy. This is especially true if the psychotherapist works from a holistic perspective, where the personal and transpersonal aspects of the person are sought to be integrated. The integrative psychotherapist will always seek to facilitate a holistic development in collaboration with the client, and this can be described, for example, in terms of the four cardinal areas of life that energy psychology uses, including:
The client’s identity and being. The answer to who am I? Here, needs and values are explored on all levels of existence from body, mind, soul and spirit.
The client’s authenticity and autonomy . Here the focus is on the life of will and its development through an independent and authentic identity.
The client’s social skills and community life. Here the focus is on love life and the development of the ability for empathy and committed relationships.
The client’s creative expression. Here the focus is on the development of the client’s special talents and the contribution that the person can make to the whole.
The four lines of development are the overall map that the client travels through, and the energy types are the special talents that must be developed in order to have a meaningful and developing journey. The use of the energy types in psychotherapy via an identity profile ( www.jivayou.com ) provides valuable information about the client’s psychology, which enables the therapist to accommodate and understand the client’s uniqueness to a particular extent.
The identity profile will tell us something about the client’s soul path, which is one of the seven paths by which we realize our essence type. Here, questions about the meaning of life and the soul’s calling will be at the forefront, but also the special quality that the soul seeks to perfect.
The identity profile will also provide important clues about the client’s unique characteristics and the ‘psychological palette’ that the person must learn to fully utilize. The therapist will gain insight into what will be difficult but essential to integrate in order to become a complete person, as is the integrative work with all types. In short, the profile allows for a better understanding of all aspects of the client’s nature and path of development.
“Don’t just follow the road. Go where there is no road and leave a trail.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
The energy types, as seven integrative perspectives and methods
Energy psychology is not only a psychological key to understanding, but also a highly effective therapeutic method for getting all the way around the client’s life situation. Each energy type offers a special perspective and focus area in therapy in accordance with the seven core talents, each of which is sought to be developed. Each core talent requires its own specific perspective and method to develop the client’s leadership, inclusiveness, overview, etc. In the following, we will mainly focus on each of these seven integrative perspectives and methods in psychotherapy, but also encourage you to consider them in other types of practices such as coaching, teaching and parenting.
Leadership development and the dynamic energy type
In Roberto Assagioli’s psychosynthesis, it is stated that a person’s self is ” a center of pure consciousness and will “, which can also be translated as meaning that there is a conscious observer in all people who continuously makes choices. This center is not the same as thoughts, feelings and sensations, but is rather a neutral place “behind” the body, feelings and thoughts. In other words, we have a body, and we have feelings and thoughts, but we are not these states – we rather use them as tools to recognize and act in the world.
Here we will simply state that the discovery of this unbounded observer who chooses and acts in life leads to the realization of the will, that is, our ability to choose what we will identify with and how we will act in the world. From this center of consciousness and will, we can begin to shape our character and life from a more consciously organized intention—in other words, we become the leader and creator of our own lives.
The dynamic energy type is about becoming the master of one’s own house and about establishing one’s identity and expressing it authentically in the world. Through this energy type we develop authority by taking full responsibility for our lives. Here we give up the role of victim and instead step into the sphere of purposeful leadership and into the power of our lives.
In a therapeutic context, one of the primary tasks will be to help the client step into this leadership by training them to disidentify from all the limiting roles and self-concepts they have been engrossed in, and instead identify with the observer. The observer is the inner consciousness that contains and guides all the roles in life – as father, mother, lover, friend, and all the various professional and informal roles we play in life.
There are many methods for this work: dialogue, observer meditation and various visualizations. But one of the most valuable methods is chair work. The therapist says that the central chair that the client sits in most is the director’s chair (or instructor, conductor, captain, etc.), where you are an observer and consciously choose what you want to work with.
Each time a behavior pattern emerges, it is identified as an independent sub-personality that has its own need and strategy for fulfilling the need. A sub-personality is a specific behavior pattern and role that has been developed to fulfill a need, for example, father, mother, man, woman, professional identities, and informal roles such as the victim, the optimist, and the critic.
The role and behavior pattern are given a name and placed on another chair in the room. Now it has become an employee that the director can observe, accommodate and negotiate with. The vision is to make all the sub-personalities active co-creators of life by integrating them around the vision for the good life that the ‘director’ also gets help to formulate through therapy. There is no leadership without a clear vision of where you want to go with your life.
By involving the client in this vision for therapy, the client is guided to integrate their dynamic energy type and develop their core talent of leadership. This reduces dependency on the therapist and strengthens the client’s ability to step into character.
Development of spaciousness and the sensitive energy type
Another and equally important focus area in therapy is to strengthen the client’s ability to accommodate their multiple sides. To accommodate means to accept all the sub-personalities that may arise in consciousness, and subsequently to understand their needs and strategies through empathetic empathy with them. This work develops the compassionate understanding that characterizes the sensitive energy type, not only of oneself, but also of everyone else, because we see the world through our own inner reality. But it also creates a deeper understanding of the qualities and potentials that the sub-personalities have, and how to make them co-creators in life.
The development of spaciousness creates an inner space that becomes larger and larger as the client includes all aspects of themselves, the personal as well as the transpersonal areas. In this way, the ability to be in sensitive contact with the infinite areas of the inner world of consciousness is developed, from body, mind, soul to spirit – personally and collectively. For the developed sensitive energy type, nothing is foreign to humans, regardless of whether it is the destructive elements of the lower unconscious or the universal energies of unity in the higher unconscious, which contain the unrecognized potentials for wisdom, altruistic love and the will to good.
The client will be trained to work with their soul light, ie the ability to transmit light from the soul via one of the chakras to the specific sub-personality, which through this work will reveal its transpersonal potential. The potential is the light and the willingness to cooperate that lives in all the unconscious parts.
The sensitive energy type is developed primarily in the relationship with other people and the world, and therefore the quality of the therapeutic relationship itself is also extremely important. The therapist’s compassion and wisdom become, in a sense, an external image of the soul, which can be internalized through the relationship. The more wisdom, insight and compassion the therapist has, the better a mirror he or she becomes of the client’s soul.
Therefore, the attitude – ‘to love all that is’ – is an attitude that the integrative psychotherapist works with with focus. The actual transformation of the client’s problems occurs when the client can create an inner empathetic relationship to their pain. The therapist helps by transmitting the attitude through their feedback and more directly by letting accepting being flow through their heart center to the client. The therapist’s ability to keep the client in a double focus is also crucial for teaching the client greater spaciousness. That is, to see the client as a soul that grows through life’s challenges and is therefore able to find meaning in all difficult situations. At the same time, this attitude must be combined with a compassionate understanding of what hurts.
In-depth work with the client’s relationships, including family, relationships, friends, colleagues and networks, is of course also in focus in connection with this type of energy.
Development of overview and the mental energy type
Many human problems are often due to the fact that we simply do not have an overview of the many facets of life and how they interact with each other. The integral psychotherapist will openly present his or her inner models of reality and offer perspectives on human growth and change. No psychotherapist can work without a framework of understanding. Therefore, it is important to work with as broad a perspective as possible.
Based on the client’s values, history and current life situation, the client’s overall circumstances will be put into perspective, so that a clear understanding is created of how work, family, interests, finances and visions for the future interact.
The development of the core talent overview ensures that the client builds an ability to maintain a strategic overview of his life, so that the forces are used in the right places and where they are most needed. The mental energy type involves the development of a network awareness, ie an ability to place oneself in a larger social, societal and spiritual context and act from there.
The psychotherapeutic intervention will, in relation to a specific problem, seek to create as many different perspectives on the area as possible, in order to gather what is already known and create space for new insights. The methods are often reflective meditation, brainstorming, speaking from the perspectives of different sub-personalities, creative drawing exercises, and not least an introduction to holistic models of reality, eg energy psychology, psychosynthesis or Ken Wilber’s integral model.
It can be a very transformative experience to see yourself through the eyes of your mother and father, or even God, simply by playing the role and talking to yourself from that position. Another effective technique is what has been called Ken Wilber’s ‘3-2-1 method’, in which you adopt a third-, second- and first-person perspective on a person or problem. In short, this means that you first describe the person and the problem from the outside, then imagine a dialogue with the person, and finally identify with the person by speaking as the person.
The integral psychotherapist will also seek to give the client an experience of the collective content of the client’s conscious life through this energy type perspective. It is extremely liberating to see how many of our thinking habits are a direct reflection of our family roots through several generations and of the culture in which we were raised. It is an open question how much of our inner conscious life is individual and collective, respectively. This energy type perspective will train the client to see themselves as a group, which makes it much easier to relate impersonally and thus unbound to the states that arise in consciousness. Working with systemic therapy, family constellations and role-playing facilitates an awakening to this energy type.
The client’s ability to experience their different sub-personalities and states in an evolutionary perspective is also important. Each sub-personality serves a need that can be attributed to one or another level in, for example, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This insight provides valuable information when we have to choose between different needs in a current situation. It promotes the understanding that we are on a journey towards greater wholeness and continuously have access to states from the inner world of the body, mind, soul and spirit.
” Follow the will and the path that experience confirms is yours.”
~ Carl Gustav Jung
Development of harmony and the creative energy type
Conflict and changeability are part of the existential conditions of all people, so how do you create harmony in a world full of unpredictability? The integral psychotherapist will point out that there is a permanent center in the human being that is always the same, a center of pure consciousness and will – what we called the observer under the dynamic energy type. Regardless of what has happened in our lives and when, it is always the same subject and witness who has experienced the situation. There is never anyone other than me who has the experience. This “I Am-ness” is always the same, even though the interpretation of it changes.
Once we have found this center, an incredible openness and creativity can unfold because we are not afraid of losing ourselves or needing to defend a position, since everything is already changing. The creative energy type knows this intuitively, even though it often has not realized this center. Everything can be combined in new ways, and the beauty and harmony of diversity can be revealed with new creative angles. The vision is first and foremost through this perspective to create a complete personality that includes all facets and talents – a unity in diversity.
The psychotherapeutic approach through this perspective will be to ‘go with the flow’ and to experiment with many different variations of the therapeutic context to create space for surprises. There will also be a focus on identifying conflicts internally between different parts of the personality, and externally to other people and life.
A conflict always arises in the absence of the third balancing factor, which is the holistic observer. Most conflicts can be resolved by identifying the opposing forces from the observer’s position, appreciating the needs involved, and including them to some degree. Often, resistance is elicited in the client in connection with the psychotherapeutic work. This resistance can be made a great partner by identifying it as an internal actor that needs to be heard and included in the overall picture.
However, involvement is only the first stage, as a more profound transformation of the sub-personality’s strategy for need satisfaction often has to take place. This is best done through a dramatization of the sub-personality’s driving forces, either through a concrete role-play or through an inner visualization that plays out the needs in an inner series of images. This ‘play’ releases the energy in the conflict and provides the opportunity to find new creative solutions to the basic need. The use of drawing exercises and other creative tools is also essential to include in this process.
When the client discovers how much creative energy is tied up in conflict, then the very act of entering into conflict becomes the direct path to greater harmony and beauty. Conflicts do not always have to be resolved, however! Often the tension between two people in a group, each with their own position on an issue, is a powerful dynamic force that maintains the creative tension in the field. The balancing factor in this situation will be the appreciation of a shared value of respecting opposites. This is evident in politics, where democracy is the common third.
When we understand that harmony does not mean the absence of conflict, but rather is an attitude towards life where we include life’s polarities in an inner balancing act around the highest value we can embrace, then order, direction and harmony emerge in the midst of chaos.
Development of knowledge and the analytical energy type
One thing is what we experience, another is how we interpret the experience. The analytical energy type is very concerned with what is a true interpretation of reality, what is true knowledge. No one sees reality as it is, but only as we ourselves are, as we look at the world through our interpretations of it. Therefore, it is important that our interpretations are based on as accurate data as possible.
The analytical approach in psychotherapy is about providing as precise, factual and objective information as possible about the client’s inner life and life situation. Therefore, the therapist, working through this perspective, will relate as neutrally as possible to the content of the client’s story. It becomes a balancing act between, on the one hand, listening empathetically to the client’s experience, and at the same time, being neutral to the interpretation of the experience.
One could say that the analytical energy type is interested in ‘calling a spade a spade’. For example, it does not just take the word love for granted, but wants to know what kind of love is being talked about: possessive, altruistic, paternal, maternal, romantic, impersonal, etc. Therefore, the analytical therapist works with very precise questions that uncover a topic from as many different angles as possible in order to penetrate as deeply into the substance as possible.
The analytical energy type knows that the truth sets us free! That is why it wants to see reality as clearly as possible, because the light of revelation itself – the cold clear light of the intellect – has the ability to penetrate all kinds of romanticizations and repressions of reality. All psychotherapists know the magical effect it has when you put the right word on the condition you are working with. An integration occurs between thought and feeling, and you experience something fragmented becoming whole. Words that redeem, they say.
The integral psychotherapist will, for example, work from this perspective with neutral observation and, through meditation, train the client to disidentify from the condition and keep the subject in the light of consciousness for a longer period of time in order to examine the condition in detail.
This neutral observation can move into in-depth reflection , where one examines the thoughts, beliefs, feelings, desires, images, bodily sensations and meaning of the state, and how it is reflected in life circumstances. Based on these precise examinations, the interpretation of the experience – eg ‘mom doesn’t love me’ – can be updated and nuanced.
It is also from this approach that the motivation to use journal writing, data collection of the client’s history, questionnaires and various tests comes. This perspective is very concerned with testing the substance as scientifically as possible before conclusions are established.
The analytical energy type ensures that we develop as professional and scholarly a practice as possible, where the use of supervision, self-therapy and meditation ensures that our own interpretations/projections of the client are as precise and holistic as possible.
“Until you have fully committed yourself, there is always hesitation and a chance to retreat… Whatever you can do, or dream of doing, begin. There is genius, power, and magic in boldness. Begin now!”
~ William Hutchinson Murray
Developing commitment and the dedicated energy type
A person who has a clear direction in life and can feel their burning commitment has the energy to cope with life’s many challenges because they have their priorities in place. They know what is valuable, are in touch with their needs and work purposefully to realize the good, the true and the beautiful life.
From an integral perspective, purposeful interest in life is one of the most stabilizing influences on psychological health and well-being because it gathers psychological energies around a positive focus.
The dedicated perspective and the development of the client’s commitment are about finding the motivation and what the client is passionate about. This type of energy gives direction and meaning to the therapy because the approach focuses on bringing the most important issues into play. Questions like: What do you long for? What do you dream of achieving? What are you truly passionate about? activate the fire of motivation or what Assagioli called the joyful will.
This focus forces the individual to take a stand and take responsibility for their life. It helps the person distinguish between what is important and what is very important. It cuts through the surface to the core of life, which can reveal that deep down you don’t know what you are passionate about. In that case, the journey starts there!
One of the most effective methods in this work is the use of ideal models. Ideal models are realistic images of what we have the potential to become and achieve . They are based on a thorough knowledge of our essential needs and values in a given area. We can develop ideal models for all areas of our lives, but it is important to work with only a few at a time. We can set up ideal models for, for example, our professional role, our company, ourselves as a father, lover, friend or the whole personality.
The ideal model is an internal image that, when thought about and meditated on daily and acted upon, builds an internal reservoir of motivational energy. It makes it easier to direct our thinking and behavior towards a recognized goal, without letting ourselves be diverted by everyday distractions.
It also serves the purpose of bringing internal and external resistance to consciousness, so that we can clear out what is in us that is contrary to our desire. This can be laziness, fear and false self-images that make us less than we have the potential to be. The use of this type of energy in therapy creates a very targeted growth. Instead of ‘digging up the whole backyard’ in search of trauma, we are only interested in those aspects of ourselves that stand in the way of our goals.
Visualization is one of the most important methods we can use to evoke an inner image. It is often a longer process before the image is completely right, and it can often arise spontaneously in everyday life or in dreams. Some images enter the consciousness with such potent force that they become lifelong guides.
The use of ideal models ensures that we use the client’s time and money as purposefully as possible, avoiding floating aimlessly on the surface of consciousness. It also ensures that the client takes responsibility for their life and makes it clear whether they are delivering the goods in relation to themselves and their desires.
Development of efficiency and the practical type of energy
What is it that makes the difference between the world’s practitioners who manage to make their dreams come true, and the ‘hopeful’ ones who wait for ‘something’ to intervene, but without much effect? The answer is knowledge of the magic of manifestation.
The practical energy type knows that it is the organization of all forces and resources around a recognized realistic goal that makes the difference between dream and reality. It is effective because it manages to create a synthesis of the qualities of all the other energy types through directed effort.
In a psychotherapeutic practice, it is the combination of all the perspectives seen in relation to the current client’s unique life situation and level of development that determines whether the therapeutic method works effectively in practice. Some clients will be strong in leadership, but insensitive and lack an eye for detail, and others will have other combinations of strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, the therapeutic approach must necessarily be completely unique for each person.
It is the integral psychotherapist’s ability to embrace the full spectrum of the client and to offer methods to utilize the abilities and strengthen the weaknesses that determines whether a psychotherapeutic work works in practice. By working with all perspectives, we ensure that we get all the way around the client, and that the therapeutic effort becomes an integrated part of the practical life that is lived.
The first three and most important steps in the therapy are to work with leadership, spaciousness and overview. They create, so to speak, the inner foundation for the client to stand on their own. They especially develop the client’s dimension of being , that is, the experience of who am I? The other four steps – harmony, knowledge, commitment and efficiency – are more about ‘what, why and how do I want’?, or in other words the client’s dimension of doing , the practical unfolding of identity and goals.
In practice, this means that the beginning of therapy is about exploring identity, building a trusting therapeutic relationship that includes an empathetic openness to the pain, and creating an overview of the life situation. At some point, the focus shifts more to acting on the insights in practice through a more planned focus. In his book The Psychology of Will, Roberto Assagioli has provided a model he calls the six stages of will, which is an effective method for putting ideas into practice using all types of energy.
The use of the practical type of energy ensures that we avoid keeping the client in a dependent relationship – a therapeutic incubator that aimlessly uncovers endless problems that are not even the client’s own, but collective energies that seep in from the collective unconscious because the gate is constantly kept open.
Instead, this approach seeks to create a synthesis between love, will and practical intelligence, a balance between being and doing, insight and realization. The magic of manifestation.
The possibilities of integral psychotherapy
It is our hope that the above presentation of the use of energy types in therapeutic work provides a powerful tool for seeing the whole client. Experience also shows that the dynamics between the energy types, as shown in the pie chart, are striking. Often the client with a strong creative energy type will need much greater support to find his center (dynamic) than so many others. A client with an overemphasis on the sensitive energy type will often be so identified with his relationships and colored by emotional ties that work with disidentification and impersonality (analytical) is very necessary.
In this way, the combination of energy types becomes a particularly powerful tool for thinking creatively in therapeutic work, and for maintaining a multifaceted perspective on the client.
How to move forward
Here you can receive seven free meditations where you develop different aspects of yourself.
Also read the article Psychosynthesis an Integral Psychology and the biography of Roberto Assagioli
