When I first moved to Portland from Northern California, I told someone that I was a “recovering therapist.” I had been a highly paid Mental Health Clinician, funded by the state’s Medi-cal system. In my old job I had to fill out a seven-page assessment for each client, describing everything that was wrong with a person, including their relatives. This felt awful but I did it anyway because it was required. I created the treatment plans with measurable outcomes that addressed parts of their life that were not working. For instance, “Client will reduce crying spells from daily to less than three times per week,” was a perfectly acceptable goal for a depressed adolescent. However I have a poetic soul and harbored fantasies about billing Medi-cal for writing a treatment plan like: “This soulful human being will befriend her tears, expressing through them her deepest longings in order to create a safe place for her grief.” Of course I didn’t do that, I’d be fired or referred for my own therapy. I began to identify with my rebellious adolescent clients who were trying to express themselves and were frustrated by the “system”. What I really wanted was more authentic soul in my work, more God, and more love.
Don’t get me wrong, I am grounded with post-modern psychological theories and use them in my work. I consider myself as much a Jungian as a Cognitive Behaviorist. Both colleagues and clients admired me for my caring professionalism and clinical abilities, but I still felt I was “faking it.” Therapy that honored the mystery of the soul, such as lighting a candle was forbidden; “art therapy” was not on the approved list, and praying was taboo. I worried that I would be “caught” taking ADD/ADHD labeled kids outside to walk in the Redwoods to teach relaxation and deep breathing skills or going to the animal rescue shelter where clients would take care of abandoned and neglected dogs in order to talk about the parents who had abandoned them. These types of interventions bring about emotional and spiritual healing, but proving this to the “system” became tiring.
After leaving that job, I began a personal journey to merge my training in psychology with Eastern and Western wisdom traditions – and what an enchanted journey it has been – I have finally come home! As a licensed therapist I merge spiritual inquiry on the path of discovery and transformation. This merging I am calling “Soulfriending”. For those seeking therapy, Soulfriending can be an alternative to crisis oriented or pathology based work. It merges spiritual inquiry and psychology. Soulfriending comes from the Ancient Celtic tradition where we are given the beautiful legacy of the Anam Cara or “Soul Friend,” Historically this was a spiritual guide, a woman or man, a priest or village elder.
I have my own Soul Friend who lives in the Rocky Mountains named Evan Hodkins who is a master teacher, Celtic Scholar, Christian Mystic and village elder. He is also the Director of Colorado’s School of Alchemy (www.schoolofalchemy.com) where I have continued to play and grow. With Evan’s guiding wisdom, I offer Soulfriending sessions in my Portland Office. Read more about my services and workshops at www.soulfriending.com . I invite you to join a conversation through the site’s forum dedicated to the creating a place where “psychology reclaims its spiritual essence”.
In Anam Cara, A Book of Celtic Wisdom, the late Celtic Scholar and Irish Poet, John O’Donahue wrote, “In everyone’s life there is a great need for an Anam Cara, a soul friend. In this love, you are understood as you are without mask or pretension.” A Soulfriend doesn’t diagnose or fix. There are no “clients” only seekers. No one needs to “change” as much as to experience the sweet longing that brings us together, back to Wholeness. If I am a “recovering therapist” then I am a recovering human Being too.
You can learn more about the Anam Cara from Evan Hodkins who has been offering his services as a Soul Friend longer than anyone can remember. He will be in Portland April 18 and 19 sharing his wisdom about “Celtic Psychology and the Anam Cara” in his uniquely engaging style (I promise that you will emerge deeply and playfully renewed.) You may even find yourself no longer “in recovery” from anything.
When I first moved to Portland from Northern California, I told someone that I was a “recovering therapist.” I had been a highly paid Mental Health Clinician, funded by the state’s Medi-cal system. In my old job I had to fill out a seven-page assessment for each client, describing everything that was wrong with a person, including their relatives. This felt awful but I did it anyway because it was required. I created the treatment plans with measurable outcomes that addressed parts of their life that were not working. For instance, “Client will reduce crying spells from daily to less than three times per week,” was a perfectly acceptable goal for a depressed adolescent. However I have a poetic soul and harbored fantasies about billing Medi-cal for writing a treatment plan like: “This soulful human being will befriend her tears, expressing through them her deepest longings in order to create a safe place for her grief.” Of course I didn’t do that, I’d be fired or referred for my own therapy. I began to identify with my rebellious adolescent clients who were trying to express themselves and were frustrated by the “system”. What I really wanted was more authentic soul in my work, more God, and more love.
Don’t get me wrong, I am grounded with post-modern psychological theories and use them in my work. I consider myself as much a Jungian as a Cognitive Behaviorist. Both colleagues and clients admired me for my caring professionalism and clinical abilities, but I still felt I was “faking it.” Therapy that honored the mystery of the soul, such as lighting a candle was forbidden; “art therapy” was not on the approved list, and praying was taboo. I worried that I would be “caught” taking ADD/ADHD labeled kids outside to walk in the Redwoods to teach relaxation and deep breathing skills or going to the animal rescue shelter where clients would take care of abandoned and neglected dogs in order to talk about the parents who had abandoned them. These types of interventions bring about emotional and spiritual healing, but proving this to the “system” became tiring.
After leaving that job, I began a personal journey to merge my training in psychology with Eastern and Western wisdom traditions – and what an enchanted journey it has been – I have finally come home! As a licensed therapist I merge spiritual inquiry on the path of discovery and transformation. This merging I am calling “Soulfriending”. For those seeking therapy, Soulfriending can be an alternative to crisis oriented or pathology based work. It merges spiritual inquiry and psychology. Soulfriending comes from the Ancient Celtic tradition where we are given the beautiful legacy of the Anam Cara or “Soul Friend,” Historically this was a spiritual guide, a woman or man, a priest or village elder.
I have my own Soul Friend who lives in the Rocky Mountains named Evan Hodkins who is a master teacher, Celtic Scholar, Christian Mystic and village elder. He is also the Director of Colorado’s School of Alchemy (www.schoolofalchemy.com) where I have continued to play and grow. With Evan’s guiding wisdom, I offer Soulfriending sessions in my Portland Office. Read more about my services and workshops at www.soulfriending.com . I invite you to join a conversation through the site’s forum dedicated to the creating a place where “psychology reclaims its spiritual essence”.
In Anam Cara, A Book of Celtic Wisdom, the late Celtic Scholar and Irish Poet, John O’Donahue wrote, “In everyone’s life there is a great need for an Anam Cara, a soul friend. In this love, you are understood as you are without mask or pretension.” A Soulfriend doesn’t diagnose or fix. There are no “clients” only seekers. No one needs to “change” as much as to experience the sweet longing that brings us together, back to Wholeness. If I am a “recovering therapist” then I am a recovering human Being too.
You can learn more about the Anam Cara from Evan Hodkins who has been offering his services as a Soul Friend longer than anyone can remember. He will be in Portland April 18 and 19 sharing his wisdom about “Celtic Psychology and the Anam Cara” in his uniquely engaging style (I promise that you will emerge deeply and playfully renewed.) You may even find yourself no longer “in recovery” from anything.
K