The process is what is constantly changing. It is like a constantly flowing river. It is the current of life. The flow. The Tao. In this constant movement there is room for everything. For every experience that is part of life. On a daily basis we tend to focus on what we are more familiar with or what occupies us the most. We often overlook what is trying to happen in our lives. Most of us try to carry out plans and want things to happen the way we want them to. But no matter how hard we try, things don't always go our way. That's when we usually struggle and try to do whatever it takes to get what we've planned. This is a great method when it works. But sometimes the more we try, the less it works for us.

In process work we look at what bothers us, at unwanted events and 'problems', assuming that they may be meaningful to us and contain valuable clues about how to go on living our lives. If we treat these events as carriers of information, we can discover the solutions hidden within them. In this way we have a chance to make the changes we need and to understand our own lives better.

What is familiar to us in our life experience and what we identify with on a daily basis is the so-called primary process or our identity. What is less familiar, and sometimes repressed or disliked, is the so-called secondary process. This is a kind of disruptive energy to our identity. On a day-to-day basis, both processes are constantly present in us and affect how we react to other people and events in the world. What we don't identify with is also what we pay most attention to, what fascinates or irritates us in others. It is often through relationships that we can see our secondary processes more clearly. They can also manifest in events in the world that affect us most. They will appear in physical symptoms and in our dreams.

Our secondary process wants to show us something and teach us something, if we let it. We can follow it or ignore it. By following, we can make our lives fuller and more meaningful. Often various beliefs, norms, prohibitions, proscriptions, convictions, etc. stand in the way of accepting the secondary qualities of our experience. These come from our personal experiences as well as from the systems in which we have grown up and live (family, society, religion, culture). The aim of process work is to see and communicate all sides of life experience.

Process work, then, is the discovery of the full nature of things and ourselves. What is this nature? In my opinion it is different for each of us, but I know that by discovering it we can find the deeper meaning of what happens in our lives, become more self-aware and use our full potential to solve the difficulties we encounter along the way.

Process work (process-oriented psychology) arose from the integration of different perspectives on the perception of reality. It is a unique combination of western "white" psychology/psychotherapy and science with indigenous "colour" concepts of life.

Process-oriented psychology is based on C.G. Jung's concepts of relationships and dreams. It is at the same time a development of work with physical symptoms and movement, influenced by Eastern medicine and shamanic traditions. This is complemented by the inclusion of Aboriginal beliefs about the so-called Dreaming, the essence of existence that creates everything around us. Also relevant to process work is the Taoist-based assumption that everything that happens to us is essential and necessary.

The creator of the Process Oriented Psychology concept is Arnold Mindell (1940-2024), trained as a physicist (MIT), doctor of psychology (Union Institute) and Jungian analyst (C.G. Jung Institute).