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the recovery of ourselves takes place in a relationship between two or more people,
it's extremely important to choose your practitioners and/or group settings with
care. It's especially important to choose a psychotherapist or other APH practitioner
who has a humanistic approach. Some earnest self-disclosure on the part of the
practitioner (at appropriate times) can go a long way in fostering a supportive
environment. It is essential to anchor the client-practitioner relationship in
a more heart-to-heart and person-to-person orientation. An effective practitioner
administers grace. The practitioner must be generous of spirit, helpful, protective
and sanctifying. These qualities will help foster a trust that leads to a safe
healing environment.
As a practitioner, when I share experiences with my client, my
intention is always centered in the client's growth and well-being.
For example, if a client shares with me that he or she has
uncovered a sexual- spiritual split in the psyche, and is
saddened, frustrated and hopeless, I might respond by telling
that person, "I understand. I remember when I first uncovered
my own." I might also share a healing or humorous vignette
from my own related journey. This is what Authentic Process
for two looks like in community healing. Thus, a here-and-now
relationship is created in community. We discover our uniqueness
in relationship with each other. The human-to- human encounter,
the presence of community spirit, and the authenticity of
the here-and-now are crucial to healing. By continuing to
come back to the here-and-now of the personal experience,
we anchor ourselves in its emotional center. This is where
the healing takes place.
We as practitioners must be on our own journey of personal recovery
from whatever addictions, traumas, or unworkable emotional constructs we may have
encountered, created, inherited or absorbed. We must be ever cognizant of our
own recognized and yet-to-be-overcome psychological and emotional limitations
and difficulties. The practitioner-client dynamic must never imply that the practitioner
is perfect and that the client is sick. Rather, the community dynamic requires
that the client view the practitioner as an advanced traveler or someone who is
specially educated in this adventure of life. The old dynamic that evokes approval-seeking
from an authority figure instead becomes a shared drive toward empowerment. This
takes an ever-growing courage and confidence on the part of the practitioner and
client alike. We therapists learn to trust our own experience and our intuition
as we develop skills to separate our needs from our clients' needs. As healers
we learn to create additional communities for our own needs as they present themselves.
Authentic Process requires the practitioner to come from a place of intuition and flexibility as well as one of structure and understanding-to come from a heart-centered place as well as a clear-minded one. A good practitioner will strive to integrate both approaches. It is from this place of centered, affirmed individual freedom and responsibility that the Authentic Process can unfold. I consider my office a place of community healing, a holy ground on which dedicated individuals have inspired conversations and experiences. We engage in processes to fuse inner opposing energies, melt frozen energy barriers, and design new and personal frameworks for living. Together we birth a whole and more spirited sense of self. APH is nothing less than a re-birthing process. We must set the tone, gently guide the process, and sometimes even help each other with the breathing. The word breath in Latin means spirit; we see and feel the spiritual connection in this process. It is the living, breathing birth of a whole, new person.
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