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Voices Beyond the Threshold

Voices Beyond the Threshold. Isabel Clarke Consultant Clinical Psychologist. The Talk. What threshold – A psychological framework for understanding non ordinary experience Managing the threshold - Therapeutic approaches Understanding the transpersonal aspect

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Voices Beyond the Threshold

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  1. Voices Beyond the Threshold Isabel Clarke Consultant Clinical Psychologist

  2. The Talk • What threshold – A psychological framework for understanding non ordinary experience • Managing the threshold - Therapeutic approaches • Understanding the transpersonal aspect • The transformative dimension.

  3. Different types of experience: psychosis and spirituality revisited. What is the connection between the journey of life: the journey of therapy, and the spiritual journey? • Why can some people manage to adust to difficult transitions • Whereas other people find themselves in a different dimension? • How is it that for some people this experience is creative and transformative? • Whereas for others it is the opposite? • What can we learn about this other dimension – and how can this help us to stand beside the journier?

  4. O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap May who ne’er hung there. Gerald Manley Hopkins (from ‘No worst, there is none, pitched past pitch of grief’)

  5. Travel into the strange places of the mind Not mind safely locked inside the skull; No!: mind that envelopes us; Mind that is sea we swim in Travel across the threshold – the Transliminal – but never to let go of Ariadne’s thread!

  6. Characteristics of the other way of experiencing • Metaphor come to life • Dissolution of boundaries

  7. Cosmic significance – terrible or wonderful • Confusion about the self

  8. Coincidence rules OK • Threat (cosmic) • Link with trauma

  9. Two Views of the person • people are rational beings, with, needs, plans and aspirations, who function more or less well, unless they turn out to have an 'illness' • Static • people are perpetually seeking definition through dreams and symbols, and deeply dependent on important relationships; easily knocked off course by loss of any of these props, and perpetually trying to balance the inner state. • Dynamic and in flux.

  10. Getting a scientific grip on the transliminal The split between realities comes from the split in us! • Interacting Cognitive Subsystems provides a way of making sense of this ‘crack’.(Teasdale & Barnard 1993). • An information processing model of cognition • Developed through extensive research into memory and limitations on processing. • A way into understanding the “Head/Heart split in people.

  11. Interacting Cognitive Subsystems. Body State subsystem Relational subsystem Auditory ss. Implicational Memory Visual ss. Verbal ss. Propositional subsystem Propositional Memory

  12. Linehan’s STATES OF MIND (from Dialectical Behaviour Therapy) – Maps onto Interacting Cognitive Subsystems EMOTION MIND (Implicational subsystem) REASONABLE MIND (Propositional Subsystem) WISE MIND IN THE PRESENT IN CONTROL

  13. Using ICS to understand the Transliminal • Non-ordinary experience: when Emotion Mind/Implicational does not mesh properly with Reasonable Mind/Propositional • This leads to a different quality of experience – fine in the short term – a problem when stuck • Normalising the difference as well as the continuity – shared and unshared reality • Sensitivity and openness to anomalous experience – continuum with normality • Understanding the role of emotion – the feeling is real; the ‘story’ is improbable

  14. Important Features of this model • Our subjective experience is the result of two higher order processing systems interacting – neither is in overall control. • Each has a different character, corresponding to “hot” and “cool” cognition. • The Relational Subsystem manages emotion – and therefore relationship. • The verbal, logical, propositional ss. gives us our sense of individual self. This gives us the two ways of knowing: • The Everyday or Shared Reality (when Relational and Propositional are in synchrony) • The Transliminal or Unshared Reality (when they are in desynchrony). Both of these are available to all human beings. Both are incomplete The transliminal has always both fascinated and spelt potential danger!

  15. Evidence for a new normalisation • Schizotypy – a dimension of experience: Gordon Claridge. • Mike Jackson’s research on the overlap between psychotic and spiritual experience. • Emmanuelle Peter’s research on New Religious Movements. • Caroline Brett’s research: having a context for anomalous experiences makes the difference between • whether they result in diagnosable mental health difficulties • whether the anomalies/symptoms are short lived or persist. • Wider sources of evidence – e.g.Cross cultural perspectives; anthropology. Richard Warner: Recovery from Schizophrenia.

  16. Being Porous: therapeutic approach • Some people are more open to this type of experience than others – cf. Schizotypy • Sensitivity and openness to anomolous experience – continuum with normality • Positive side as well as vulnerability • Validating the experience • Normalising the difference in quality of experience as well as the continuity – understanding the transliminal so that it can be recognized – give choice • Motivation to engage with shared reality • Manage the threshold – mindfulness is key

  17. Linehan’s STATES OF MIND (from Dialectical Behaviour Therapy) – Maps onto Interacting Cognitive Subsystems EMOTION MIND (Implicational subsystem) REASONABLE MIND (Propositional Subsystem) WISE MIND IN THE PRESENT IN CONTROL

  18. Managing the threshold • Awareness of vulnerability – of openness to transliminal experience • Grounding when the experience is overwhelming. Grounding activity. Grounding food. • Mindfulness to manage the threshold • Challenge of facing unshared reality mindfully – both pleasant and unpleasant • Transliminal state of mind = most accessible at high and low arousal • Managing arousal – breathing control to reduce arousal; mindful activity in the present to prevent it slipping.

  19. Psychosis and the Transpersonal Dimension • ICS offers a challenging model of the mind • The human being is a balancing act as the two organising systems pass control back and forth: there is no boss. • The mind is simultaneously individual, and reaches beyond the individual, when the implicational ss. is dominant. • This constant switch between logic and emotion gives us human fallibility • The self sufficient, billiard ball, mind is an illusion • In our implicational/relational mode we are a part of the whole.

  20. ‘That’s How the Light gets in’ (and the dark) • The Relational part of our mind is embedded in relationship; in the whole (the older part) • The newer, self conscious, part holds our individuality • Temporary control passing backwards and forwards between the two organising ss is experienced as normality • When the ‘relational’ takes over for any length of time, the character of experience changes • The person is no longer grounded in their individuality – boundaries dissolve – they are open to any influences – positive and negative.

  21. Web of Relationships In Rel. with earth: non humans etc. In Rel. with wider group etc. primary care-giver Self as experienced in relationship with primary caregiver Sense of value comes from rel. with the spiritual

  22. What does this say about the possible transpersonal dimension of psychosis? • Taking experience seriously – experience of possession • Experience of cross generational healing • On the other hand – the transliminal is governed by a logic of both – and……

  23. Psychosis – Potential for Transformation • Traditions such as Psychosynthesis and Spiritual Emergence/Emergency recognize the transformational potential of the transliminal. • They tend to distinguish between ‘psychosis’ and transformational crises • More and more this is seen as a false dichotomy – Spiritual Crisis Network (.org.uk) • Mike Jackson’s Problem Solving – Paradigm Shifting model. • Click into another dimension for a wider perspective – with the danger of a vicious circle getting set up – getting stuck • Role of stigma in trapping people.

  24. The What is Real and What is Not Programme – designed to combat stigma First : Form an Alliance. • Validate their reality • Introduce the idea that their reality is only one way of looking at it: • shared and unshared reality (negotiate the language). • The individual’s experience is taken seriously and valued – at the same time as working on a better relationship to shared experience • It is possible to get away from illness language – and arguments about diagnosis Normalising openness to unshared reality – idea of the schizotypy spectrum • Advantages and disadvantages of openness to unshared reality • – e.g. of people who have used unshared reality positively.

  25. Characteristics of unshared reality. • Idea of the line/ the threshold. • Importance of being able to manage the line • Motivational aspect – pros and cons. Coping skills to manage the line • When is unshared reality most powerful; in charge? • Arousal as a means of being in control; • Stress management • Being alert and concentrated – watch out for drifting states • Grounding in the present • Wise mind and mindfulness • Focusing/mindfulness v. distraction

  26. Session 2. The role of Arousalshaded area = anomalous experience/symptoms are more accessible. HighArousal - stress

  27. Linehan’s STATES OF MIND applied to PSYCHOSIS Ways of coping suggested by this approach – management of arousal and constructive activity.

  28. Final Session:Making sense of the experience Why do people click into/get lost in unshared reality/the transliminal? Discussion of Different meanings for the experience • Meaning for the individual • Place in their life – what was happening in their life when it all started? • Address and validate the emotion – that is reliable. • 'Problem Solving' idea – Mike Jackson’s research.

  29. Contact details, References and Web addresses • Isabel.Clarke@hantspt-sw.nhs.uk • AMH Woodhaven, Calmore, Totton SO40 2TA. • Clarke, I. (Ed.) (2010 Forthcoming) Psychosis and Spirituality: consolidating the new paradigm. Chichester: Wiley • Clarke, I. ( 2008) Madness, Mystery and the Survival of God. Winchester:'O'Books. • Clarke, I. & Wilson, H.Eds. (2008)Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Acute Inpatient Mental Health Units; working with clients, staff and the milieu. London: Routledge. • www.SpiritualCrisisNetwork.org.uk • www.isabelclarke.org

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