I have had the privilege of working in the field of psychosynthesis my whole adult life. I am now 65, so that’s a long time. I started training when I was an undergraduate, went on for a master’s and a doctorate. I’ve become licensed as mental health counselor and a Board Certified Coach. I am a professor of graduate psychology. AND in all of this time, with all of this training and so many avenues for expression, there has never been a field of study, nor a perspective on psychology, nor a path of any kind, that has called me more than Psychosynthesis has. Every year, as I prepare to teach yet another group of psychosynthesis students, I check back in. Is this still aligned with the Call of Self? And every year the answer is yes. And every year, students come into this training and are transformed. Each and every one becomes more whole, more clear, more true to themselves. If you are reading this, you know something about the power of psychosynthesis to transform.
So I ask myself and I ask others, where are our books, our workshops, our communities? They are here, I know, and I hope to see more and more of them. I’d like to see Psychosynthesis become a household word. It’s not the easiest word to throw around, but my hope is that we do just that. And one of the ways that I see psychosynthesis flourishing is by claiming it as our own. Towards the end of our trainings we do a piece on ownership of psychosynthesis. Your psychosynthesis may not look exactly like mine does. And so it should be. It is not dogmatic, nor did Roberto want it that way. Psychosynthesis, like each of us, is evolving. May it evolve in service of your Self, the Higher self, the Self of the Universe, the Planet and of all Peoples!
So again, I ask myself and I ask others: What part of psychosynthesis makes you come alive? The concepts, all intertwined, are so deep and rich: I & Self; the Will (and its many aspects); Subpersonalities; Psychological Functions; the levels of the Unconscious; The Transpersonal; Presence, Disidentification (and its cohort, identification and Self-identification)… and oh so many more. I find my students lose themselves if they try to grasp the whole of psychosynthesis, as a set of ideas and strategies to be memorized and practiced, a piece of music already written to be learned and repeated. Psychosynthesis counselors and coaches come alive when psychosynthesis feels like an old friend, when it is a life’s practice, not a theory, when some of the theories that fit us so well are what we lead with.
Psychosynthesis is an old friend to me. Even as I have lived my life with various spiritual practices from Zen to mindfulness to years of martial arts, psychosynthesis is still my most alive practice. It is with me every day. I love the work, whether I am in the role of counselor, trainer, coach or educator. I love the practice as I live my every day life, facing all the ups and downs that we all face. I feel called to the truth held within psychosynthesis, to the mystery of life that Assagioli knew so well and to the promise of conscious evolution inherent in this work.
I wish for you that psychosynthesis becomes an old friend to you as well.
May peace and peace and peace be everywhere.
By Dorothy Firman
Dorothy Firman, Ed.D., is a professor of psychology, a psychotherapist and author/editor of many books and articles. Dorothy is director of the Synthesis Center in Massachusetts in the US. Psychosynthesis, as a spiritual psychology, is a life’s path and practice that Dr. Firman has been on for more over 35 years. In addition to Zen Buddhist orientation and a long term practice as martial artist, Dorothy has anchored her life into a 37 year marriage, three children and 4 grandchildren. This life’s work and play is the ground in which living life on purpose unfolds.
www.synthesiscenter.org
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didi@synthesiscenter.org