The New Psychotherapy – Authentic Process Therapy
Complete recovery is a 2-stage process- recovery from addictions and traumatic histories, and recovery of fulfillment, wisdom, serenity, and emotional, spiritual and sexual wholeness.
As we enter the dawn of a new millennium, traditional psychotherapy-and the therapist’s role-appear caught in the sort of crisis described by Denise Breton and Christopher Largent in their book, The Paradigm Conspiracy.1 The detached, analytical approach often practiced by psychotherapists since the days of Freud no longer makes people well. In fact, this strict therapist-patient/ normal-sick paradigm may actually make them worse, contributing to deeper feelings of alienation and frustration. For our own field of addictions therapy as well as other specialties, it is evident that the time has come for a “”paradigm shift”" toward a more “”soul-sensitive”" 2 approach to psychotherapy. The need for change was championed in recent statements by Dr. Patrick Carnes at the National Council on Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity conference in St. Louis. Fr. Leo Booth echoed the view that spirituality has become the cornerstone of both our individual and collective healing when he stated that as therapists, “”We must open our mind to new ways of seeing our future…and bring to that the energy of creative positivism.”"3