The Challenge of Being a Therapist or Coach

According to a survey by The British Psychological Society and New Savoy Partnership amongst therapists, levels of depression rose from 40 per cent to 46 per cent from 2014 to 2015, while the number of respondents feeling like a failure rose from 42 per cent to almost 50 per cent. Seventy per cent said they found their job stressful. [British Psychological Society, 2016]. In the public sector, frontline psychological services in the NHS in the UK are under intolerable pressure to prioritise targets over the well-being of their staff. As one psychological well-being practitioner put it: "There is no emphasis on looking after you as an individual. I have a ridiculous caseload and high-stress levels. When I told my manager how I felt, I was told to " put up and shut up." A recent major American survey published in 1994 found 61 per cent of psychologists clinically depressed and 29 per cent with suicidal thoughts. [Mace, 2016] It is a common fact that Psychotherapists who work with chronic illness tend to disregard their self-care needs when focusing on clients' needs. They commonly suffer from burning out and compassion fatigue. [Figley, 2002]. Against this backdrop, the Certificate In Naturally Being offers an important opportunity for therapists and coaches to support their mental health and well-being and insights into mental health, which will naturally benefit their clients.

Integrative Health Through Realising Oneness

"Integrative Health aims to treat the whole person and to do so within the context of whole systems and practices." [Mills et al., 2020] The experience of oneness can be considered foundational to realising the whole person and achieving a state of optimal well-being. It leads to a powerful, consistent, qualitative sense of wholeness that enables creativity and increases one's general openness to others and life. Well-being based on this experience does not depend on doing anything per se, but it is an innate attribute that arises from the understanding and experience of oneness. For these reasons, the experience of oneness is foundational to realising the whole person and achieving the state of optimal well-being.

What is meant by the “Experience Of Oneness”?

Once we understand and, more importantly, experience oneness, we realise it is a choice we have to live differently. A path that stops seeking happiness in transient experiences based upon an inner sense of lack and fear but finds it instead in the constant context of the experience of an aware self we do not know is limited in any way. Therefore, we can be open to the possibility of it being complete as it is the one 'container' of everything. This means those basing their lives on this experience of oneness do so from a place of established peace of mind and the positive flow of life-affirming qualities that see them through the challenges of daily life, no matter the circumstances. 

Many therapeutic traditions point to this peace of mind, happiness, well-being, and sense of completeness in one way or another. However, most theories of therapeutic change seek to achieve this by focusing on resolving past issues or future achievements. Generally, they pay less heed to the experience of the present moment, arguably the main arena of change. Therefore, much psychotherapy resolves only specific issues in the belief that the progression through these will lead to ever greater well-being. This progressive path to healing compares with an instant direct experience, but for the realisation of it, that recognises the nature of the Self as being whole and complete as it is and the source of powerful life-affirming qualities. Furthermore, this experience is available to us no matter the circumstances.

Realising the experience of oneness has a transformative effect on our lives. It brings a new understanding that relieves the fundamental cause of psychological suffering, which we discover is the belief to be a separate self, and that results in symptoms of anxiety that may build in time to depression, addiction and worse. It also allows us to access an endlessly rich source of life-affirming qualities that, combined with therapeutic insights and methods, provide a powerful context for healing past trauma and other emotional problems. Relieved of psychological fear and a sense of inadequacy and experiencing the life-affirming qualities that comprise our experience of oneness, we are free to use the faculties of our mind and body constructively and enjoy our relationships, work and life as a whole.

Realising The Experience of Oneness

For many people outside the world of consciousness, understanding, let alone applying the experience of oneness, has been confusing. The tendency has been to look for practices and skills as a path to achieving states of mind rather than a direct experiential understanding of oneness, which is the real heart of the matter. In Naturally Being, I present this understanding in straightforward logical ways that are experiential, not simply intellectual. You are left with a lasting experience that will positively impact your life.

Naturally Being is not a replacement for existing practices but a compliment for them. It does not require you to give up any existing faiths or traditions. It does not need you to have a particular level of intellectual ability. It does not discriminate in any way based on any category. It does not require you to do practices that need exceptional fitness, flexibility, clothing and appearance. It does not involve deprivation. It does not include taking substances that suddenly and shockingly alter your consciousness. It does not teach that achieving happiness will take thousands of lifetimes.

If You Could Wave A Magic Wand!

A great deal of modern scientific psychotherapy is solution focused. A common question to the client is, "If you could wave a magic wand and life was fine again, what would be different for you?" In other words, the client is invited to suspend their suffering and visualise a moment of wholeness where life is happy. The understanding and experience of oneness offer us a consistent source of wholeness independent of outcomes from which to act rather than reacting from fear. In this respect, it can be considered the proverbial 'magic wand." of solution focussed therapy.

1. British Psychological Society (BPS). (2016, February 12). Healing the healers. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 6, 2022 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160212200300.htm

2. Watts, J. (2018, February 14). We’re not surprised half our psychologist colleagues are depressed. The Guardian. Retrieved 8 October 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2016/feb/17/were-not-surprised-half-our-psychologist-colleagues-are-depressed

3. Mace, W.L (2016). Depressed Psychologists. Psychology Today. Retrieved 8 October 2022, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/campus-confidential-coping-college/201604/depressed-psychologists

4. Figley C. R. (2002). Compassion fatigue: psychotherapists' chronic lack of self-care. Journal of clinical psychology, 58(11), 1433–1441. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.10090

5. Mills, P. J., Barsotti, T. J., Blackstone, J., Chopra, D., & Josipovic, Z. (2020, January). Nondual Awareness and the Whole Person. Global Advances in Health and Medicine, 9, 216495612091460. https://doi.org/10.1177/2164956120914600