Processes work

Process work was developed in the 1970s by Arnold Mindell.  It evolved out of Jungian Therapy and Transpersonal Therapy which was developed by Stan Groff. The basis of processes work is that all phenomena need to be incorporated into the therapeutic session.  This includes bodily sensations, sounds, thoughts, relationships, and smells.   It also incorporates the 'world channel' which represents those experiences that occur in the world outside the context of the session, such as the phone ringing or a roar of thunder.  It is very similar to how we as yogis look to the body for information as to the state of the individual.  We include breath, bodily sensations and thoughts to inform our awareness as to how we are actually doing. 

Processes work values dreams as meaningful symbols of the state of the individual.  Much like the life systems of the indigenous of the planet, processes work looks to nonrational information such as weather and totems as valuable to informing our lives.  It invites those aspects that are looked upon as being sickness or injury as holding keys to our evolution, rather than problems that need to be fixed. We can value even simple occurrences such as getting the flu as a potential trove of information that we can call on. 

The main premise of process work is that a connected pattern of phenomena is constantly at work in our lives, weaving a comprehensive pattern or processes that can be consciously worked on.  Unlike, traditional psychotherapy, which depends on thoughts and speech, process work takes on a vastly more colorful trove of information.  Everything that comes up in a session is followed to see the natural processes and to see where it will lead.  We do not come in with a 'problem' to be dissected and worked on but to look at the constantly evolving milieu of sensations, thoughts and sounds to see where the session will lead. 

For yogis, who often look beyond the Maya of consensus reality, it provides a welcome framework to dive into those aspects of our consciousness that we view as being less then perfect and evolved.