Spiritual Identity Emerging Through Dreams in the Clients of a Spiritual Counselor

Abstract

People having a spiritually transforming experience perceive mental health professionals as the least helpful group of helpers to them. We counselors and therapists need to respond to this and learn more about how we can be helpful to them. The presenter will present cases from his work as a Spiritual Counselor that demonstrate the ongoing process of change of identity resulting from spiritually transforming experiences (STEs). Experiencing some aspect of the divine through an STE can really shake up our world-view and identity. The STE can lead us to feel weird or even crazy or alternatively can inflate us with a feeling of specialness, either of which can lead us in destructive directions. On the other hand, our self-image can be improved if we can learn to feel worthy of experiencing divine love. Clients’ work is presented as they went through stages of questioning their STEs, then beginning to trust them, then beginning to incorporate the expanded meaning of them for their lives, and in some cases even allowing themselves to identify with those higher states of the light of consciousness as they did in the STE. Dreams are presented that demonstrate the changes in their identity as they integrated their experiences.

Presenter Bio

Ron Jones, Ph.D. has been a Spiritual Counselor and teacher in the San Jose, California area for many years. He studied dreams in a Jungian framework and followed a number of meditation paths, finally choosing a yoga meditation movement with which he has been involved for the last 40 years. He has helped a number of people onto their spiritual journeys and supported others in overcoming hurdles to their next spiritual step. He developed and directed a number of counseling services, including the counseling center at Sophia University (Institute of Transpersonal Psychology) in Palo Alto, California as well as a yoga meditation center in the San Jose area. He has taught numerous meditation classes and workshops in the area of spiritual growth and is an adviser to ACISTE, a national organization serving those who have had spiritually transforming experiences. He is ordained to counsel and teach seekers of all paths through the “Center of Light of AIWP” that he oversees in San Jose. He can be reached at: rjones.1@centeroflightwithin.com or for more information, visit his website at http://www.centeroflightwithin.com