Working with Archetypes

Working with Archetypes

“Within the affliction is a complex, within the complex an archetype, which in turn refers to a god/goddess… by reverting the pathology to a god, we recognise the divinity within the pathology and give the god his/her due.” ~     James Hillman

The understandings of the collective unconscious and the archetypes contained therein are one of the great gifts of Jungian psychotherapy.  Through this work, clients can experience themselves as part of the larger fabric of the world.  There is a universality about their struggles and, often, an archetypal assistance in the remedy.  People can also learn to identify the dominant archetypes which operate within their psyche, to develop conscious relationship and boundaries with those figures, and to actively cultivate other, less dominant, archetypal aspects.