The Act of Imagination: Psychosynthesis Psychotherapy in Experiential Context

Allan is a psychotherapist with a long-term research interest in story and imagination – which came to fruition in his 2021 book, ‘Waking Dreams: Imagination in Psychotherapy & Everyday Life’

This workshop offers a pre-view of material from Allan’s forthcoming book developing the role of imagination in psychosynthesis psychotherapy.

“The imagination…is one of the most important and spontaneously active functions of the human psyche.” (Assagioli, ‘Psychosynthesis’, p143)

While the original presentation of psychosynthesis by Roberto Assagioli (1888-1974) recognised the importance of imagination, offering many image-based methods and techniques, it nevertheless emphasised an approach centred around ‘the will’ as ‘the foundation of all endeavour’ (‘The Act of Will’, p6). And yet, there is one line from Assagioli which suggests, at the very least, a strong connection between imagination and the will, if not also a larger significance to imagination:

“When will and imagination come into conflict, imagination wins” (‘Psychosynthesis’, p143).

This workshop will discuss the further implications of this statement to offer an image-based adaptation of the ‘Stages of Psychosynthesis’ as:

Stage1: story identification

Stage2: story disidentification

Stage3: story emergence

Stage4: living between stories

These stages provide a basis for understanding presenting issue symptoms as an impoverishment of imagination – and for the healing and recovery from those symptoms, not as is often assumed, by the replacement of fantasy with reality, but rather with the cultivation of imaginative life itself. As we shall learn on the workshop, there is no getting away from stories as imaginative experiences, but what we can do is help the client to re-imagine the story being told about self and world, creating a new expanded story better able to incorporate the presenting issue.

Who is it for?

Open to all, also qualified and in-training coaches, counsellors, psychotherapists and anyone interested in working therapeutically with imagination.

What to expect:

The workshop will be a mix of slideshow presentation, discussions, live demonstrations and practicum opportunities.

Learning outcomes:

• Distinguishing the benefits of working with imaginative experiences from the limitations of an interpretative-analytical emphasis upon figuring out what images mean.
• Applying the playful unpredictability and creative adaptability of imagining so as to avoid the deadening and humourless effects of a formulaic scripted approach.
• Understanding how the synthesising capacities of imagination align with psychosynthesis theory and technique.
• Understanding imagination to be in operation all-the-time, not just as ‘pictures inside the mind’, but also in normal everyday life in the physical world.
• Working therapeutically with imagination as a meta-function which includes sensations, feelings, thoughts, intuitions, perceptions and actions.

Ticket Pricing

At the Trust we appreciate that each person has their own unique situation, so we invite you to select the price point that feels like it represents a fair contribution for attending this event.

There are three options to choose from when purchasing tickets: £50; £60; £70

If you have any concerns around affordability, please contact Kajal at events@ptrust.org.uk.