Childhood, Trauma, Personality: How our Coping Mechanisms Affect Us Unconsciously

November 15, 2022 Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.Leave a comment

How and why do our personalities develop the way they do, and what do they have to do with our wounding? Dr. Gabor Mate’ was born in Hungary in 1942 during the Nazi occupation. His grandparents were both killed at Auschwitz and his father was carted off to a forced labor camp, leaving his mother alone with her newborn son. To hear Dr. Mate’, now a medical doctor based in Canada, tell the story, his mother called the doctor at one point and asked him to come because her baby (Gabor) just wouldn’t stop crying and she didn’t know what […]

The Therapy Room and the Interactive Field: Dr. Joseph Cambray on Becoming a Supervisor in Depth

March 27, 2016 Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.

Psychotherapy is pervasive in contemporary culture. Even if you’re not a therapist yourself, if you’re taking the time to read this post, chances are good that either you or someone close to you has been involved in therapy at some point in their lives. And, while you may feel you have a good understanding of what happens in the therapy room, there may be more than meets the eye. Do you ever wonder, for example, what has to occur in the therapeutic process so that the basic experience is what it needs to be for both the client and the […]

Regarding Change: Holding the Tension Even When it Hurts

January 21, 2014 Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.Leave a comment

When challenges arise for each of us, it is easier to turn to denial or distraction rather than holding the tension of what’s arising long enough to allow the self-regulating function of the psyche to take over. C.G. Jung suggested that the opposing attitudes of the ego (which gets us through some tight spots, usually by choosing the path of least resistance) and the unconscious or greater “Self” (which has our personal growth and spiritual awakening at heart) can be mitigated and even transcended if we are willing to regard the reality of our struggle and hold the tension long enough […]

Rediscovering the Authentic Self: Jung’s Concept of Individuation in Depth Psychology

February 19, 2013 Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.

In his fascinating book, Coming to our Senses, historian and social critic Morris Berman introduces the terms alienation or confiscation as a “rupture in the continuum of life.” Alienation is experienced as the feeling of an abyss where a sense of self or self-identity is missing or where the self does not feel safe. Many psychologists have speculated that this abyss or gap in the experience of the self may be increased or intensified by a lack of positive mirroring in the infancy stage. Mirroring, which Berman defines as “the growth of self-recognition through the medium of other people” includes […]