Discover transpersonal psychology – a discipline concerned with “the study of humanity's highest potential, with the recognition, understanding, and realisation of unitive, spiritual, and transcendent states of consciousness”. Explore the underlying theories and how they are put into practice by therapists, it’s history and related disciplines.
Setting the foundations for the rest of the course, you will first learn what transpersonal psychology really is and how it operates, as you are guided through its five key themes: states of consciousness, highest/ultimate potential, beyond the ego/personal self, transcendence, spirituality. You’ll also discover the discipline’s five guiding principles, as outlined by the International Transpersonal Association: irreducibility of consciousness, integrity in the spiritual path, challenge of transformation, global synergy, forward through exploration.
Your understanding of transpersonal psychology is strengthened, as you are guided through its history. You’ll explore contributions from important figures such as William James, Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, Grof, Sutich, Ken Wilber and Michael Washburn, and see how the discipline developed throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
With the foundations of knowledge set in place, you’ll move on to discover in-depth theories on the stages of development and transformation of the human psyche, as you are guided through the work of Robert Kegan, Susanne Cook-Greuter, and Bill Torbert.
As they include disciplines that use both psychology and spirituality to explain reality and consciousness, psychospiritual traditions and theories are explored in detail. You’ll learn about the importance of psychospiritual traditions in transpersonal psychology, what esoteric schools are, and how modern science is proving the link between psyche and spirit. You’ll also look at psychospiritual theories, focusing on the work of Wilber-Combs Matrix and two of Carl Jung’s ideas: active imagination and shadow work.
Studying this course, you’ll also learn about other disciplines that are related but separate from transpersonal psychology. Broadening your awareness of similar disciplines, you’ll gain a brief overview of humanistic, holistic, and positive psychologies.
In addition to the learning the theories, you’ll also look at how transpersonal psychology is applied in therapy. The course takes you through the role of a transpersonal therapist, the techniques and approaches used, personal qualities needed, qualifications required and the professional organisations that you can become a member of. Giving you a clearer idea of how the discipline is used in therapy, the course concludes with 3 case studies.
