Counselling and Psychotherapy are often considered to be interchangeable therapies that overlap in a number of ways. Counselling, in specific situations, is offered as part of the psychotherapy process; whereas a counsellor may work with clients in a psychotherapeutic manner.

The key difference between the two courses of therapeutic communication treatment lies in the recommended time required to see benefits. Counselling usually refers to a brief treatment that centres around behaviour patterns. Psychotherapy focuses on working with clients for a longer-term and draws from insight into emotional problems and difficulties.

It is also recognised that psychotherapy concerns itself with linking present issues to the past, earlier (repressed) childhood experiences. Whereas counselling is more about working with the issue of the “here and now”.

Integrative Counselling allows the practitioner to drawn on mainstream theoretical perspectives, integrating knowledge and skills from different therapies. In Integrative Counselling I believe that each client is uniquely individual and so using just one approach does not suit all.

The term “transpersonal” literally means “beyond the personal/self.” The core concept of transpersonal psychology is non-duality, which is the recognition that each person is fundamentally and ultimately a part of the whole (cosmos). This core concept of nonduality brings insights to the intrinsic health and basic goodness of the whole and self-transcendence from the conditioned and conditional personality to a deeper, broader, and more unified sense of identity with the whole.

The field of transpersonal psychology has broad interests that include spiritual experiences, mystical states of consciousness, mindfulness and meditative practices, shamanic states, ritual, the overlap of spiritual experiences with disturbed states such as psychosis and depression and the transpersonal dimensions of interpersonal relationships, service, and encounters with the natural world.

Transpersonal dimensions are not new. It has strong connections to eastern meditative traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism, shamanism, esoteric and Gnostic European systems such as alchemy and Celtic mysticism, indigenous African wisdom and Native American spirituality. Transpersonal psychology has been influenced at least as much by Asian and indigenous spiritual systems as European psychological and philosophical traditions. From its origins, transpersonal psychology has been strongly multicultural.

Carl Jung is one of the earliest theorists to create a theory of transpersonal psychology using the collective unconscious which contains archetypes shared by all humans. He combined the theory of depth psychology with his Christian spiritual background.

Abraham Maslow’s concept of transpersonal psychology is the combining of humanistic-existential psychology and peak experiences of healthy people evolving into spiritual beings. He believed that there was a linear progression from psychological health to spirituality. Although later in his life he concluded spiritual happenings can occur at any time during a person’s psycho-spiritual evolution.

Traditionally a spiritual/religious system by indigenous people, tribes and societies whereby the shaman enters the unseen realms (other-worlds) to connect with (ancestral) spirits, gods and allies, in order to bring healing to the community and their people. The shaman also known as medicine men or woman acts as clear vessel (hollow bone) a tool for the unseen beings to work through to assist in the participants healing. Plus shamans help to assist the souls of the dead to the afterlife. Shamanic practitioners also deeply connected with the plant world often forming a relationship with them through singing and other forms of communication. It is common practice for them to use plants to assist in their healing practices and journey to other-worlds.

This practice is fast becoming a way being to assist in personal healing on self and of others in this contemporary life. It is suggested from found artifacts and prehistoric cave art that shamanism has been in practice from around 10,000 years ago. It is generally agreed that its origins come from Mongolia, Siberia and hunter gatherers, found all across the world, to include, India, Peru, native south and north America whilst not forgetting England too. Shamanism is likey to be the oldest spiritual healing practice in the world.