Is the non-dual therapist doing the work of a guru?

Hi All,

To continue from Patrick, who wrote…

“This thing about Guru and therapist is quite tricky I think. I used to be very clear about the boundaries, knowing both worlds (therapy and beeing a disciple). But with time I’m less and less sure of these two kinds of relationship beeing so different.

I think maybe they did also co-evolve in the pas few decades, each one influencing the other:

- Spirituality entering and modifying the realm of psychotherapy
- Psychotherapy entering the realm of spirituality and modifying it.

Will they merge in the end?

Historically I think we all agree to say that psychotherapy appeared when God (or the Gods) was killed by man (Freud, end of the 19th century, age of mind, science and questionning God, the father’s authority and so on). Confessions and healing the soul was taken away from the priests and a non.religious setting was created:psychotherapy.

If we did belittle religion’s authority (Christianism) on us at that time, it certainly came back with a profound interest for eastern models and ways of thinking.

But I’m going astray here..sorry.

Here are some similiarities (not an exhasutive list by any mean) that I see in those two relationships (Guru/disciple and Therapist/client):
- both aim at knowledge of the self and increased harmony
- transferance is part of both processes
- change is a central notion

Psychotherapy, though, was developped to help “sick” people to recover their normal functionning. Spirituality ‘s aim is to help human beeings develop further from normality, or beyond normality. Psychotherapy used to deal with the relative self, the ego: how to strenghten it, make it healthy and capable of functionning in society. Spirituality does not really care about the relative self, or ego.On the opposite, it tends to help us disidentify with it and establish ourselves into another “self” - broader, more encompassing, loving and finally no-self.

So we can say that psychotherapy’s point of focus was the mind. Spirituality’s focus is “beyond mind”, or developing the higher mind (Buddhi) and ultimately go beyond mind.

These are very different area’s of work.

But as I’ve said earlier, Spirituality has fecundated psychotherapy in the last decades (Humanism, transpersonal and so on), and it is now frequent that psychotherapists work not only on the ego, but also help their clients go beyond ego.

So I’d summarize it this way:

1)Psychotherapy —> ego—-> therapist/client
2) Spirituality —–> beyond ego—-> Guru/disciple

As these two disciplines tend now more than ever to blend, the differences between Guru/disciple and Therapist/client relationship start to fade.

I think a redefinition of this new domain should be done.”

Continuing the conversation….

I think when comparing a non -dual therapy work to the work of a guru, it is not psychotherapy that is bing likened to the work of a guru/teacher, but non-dual therapy work.

Psychotherapy is the study of the mind, whereas the non-dual therapits work , like that of the guru is to go beyond the mind. Point people to that , and assist them in finding stability in that.

That doesn’t mean denying the mind and thoughts, there is still awareness of the mind’s activities, but who we are need not be affected by the mind’s activities… we can act from a truer knowing of who we are….

Love ,
Soul

Re: Is the non-dual therapist doing the work of a guru?

The goal of nondual therapy is to discover who we are without our stories and to expand our capacity to embody our True Nature - our Welcoming, Spacious Awareness - in every aspect of our lives.
 
Nondual therapy is rooted in the assumption that our perception of “problems” is itself the problem (which really isn't a problem).  The self-improvement project is a subtle form of self-directed aggression.  Who we are does not need improving. 

By de-constructing our “self and world construct system” (James Bugental's term) we are able to uncover our underlying, unchanging equanimity, or Presence, and strengthen our capacity to embody Awareness in our day-to-day existence.

This therapeutic process occurs in a certain type of relationship - a “holy encounter” in which what is awake in the therapist meets what is awake in the client - thus healing the client's (and therapist's) perception of self, other and world.