Process-oriented therapy

The process is what is constantly changing. It is like a constantly flowing river. It is the flow of life. The flow. Tao. In this constant movement, there is room for everything, for every experience that is part of life. Every day, we tend to focus on what is more familiar to us or what concerns us most, often failing to notice what is trying to happen in our lives. Most of us try to follow through with our plans and like it when things go the way we want them to. However, no matter how hard we try, things don't always work out the way we want them to. Then we usually fight and try to achieve our goals at all costs. This is a great method if it works. Sometimes, however, the more we try to do something, the less successful we are or the more resistance we encounter.

When working with the process, we also look at what bothers us, unwanted events, and "problems," because we assume that they may be significant to us and contain valuable clues for further shaping our lives. If we treat these events as carriers of information, we can discover the solutions that lie within them. In this way, we have the opportunity to make the changes we need and better understand our own lives.

What we identify with and what is familiar to us in our everyday experience is called the primary process, or our identity. What is less familiar, and sometimes repressed or rejected, we call the secondary process. It is a kind of energy that disrupts our identity. Both processes are constantly present in us on a daily basis and influence how we react to other people and events in the world. What we do not identify with is also what we most often notice in others; what fascinates or irritates us. It is often through relationships that we can better see our secondary processes. They can also manifest themselves in events in the world that affect us the most. They will appear in physical symptoms and in our dreams.

The secondary process wants to show us something and teach us something, if we allow it to. We can follow it or ignore it. By following it, we can make our lives fuller and more meaningful. Often, various convictions, norms, prohibitions, and beliefs are obstacles to accepting the secondary qualities of our experience. They stem both from our personal experiences and from the systems in which we live (family, society, religion, culture). The goal of working with the process is to see all sides of life experience and connect them with each other.

Working with the process is therefore discovering the full nature of things and ourselves. What is this nature? It is something different for each of us. However, by discovering it, we can find a deeper meaning in what is happening in our lives, become more self-aware, and use our full potential to solve the difficulties we encounter on our path.

Processwork (process psychology) arose as a result of the integration of different perspectives on reality. It is a unique combination of Western, "white" psychology/psychotherapy and science with indigenous, pierot, "colorful" concepts about life.

The psychology of the process is based on the psychology of C.G. Jung, while expanding it to include work with physical symptoms and movement, largely drawing on Eastern medicine and shamanic traditions. This is complemented by the inclusion of Aboriginal beliefs about the so-called Dreaming, or the essence of existence that creates everything around us. Also important for working with the process is the Taoist-based assumption that everything that happens to us is important 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).