What is Jungian Analysis?

Jungian analysis, one form of depth psychotherapy, is a treatment for emotional distress, a means for working through relationship problems, and a vehicle for cultivating wisdom, compassion, and a bond with our essential Self.

Jungian analysis is based on the principle of individuation, the process by which the Self unfolds in our individual lives, enabling us to become the individuals we were intended to be. The unfolding of the essential Self in the individual personality is a unique aspect of Jungian analysis that differentiates it from other forms of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.

Another way to say this is that Jungian analysis activates a developmental process. The problems that bring people to therapy are resolved as a result of expanding their consciousness and becoming more fully who and what they are. People individuate. They become more mature, more complete human beings. Answers to individual problems emerge from the growth that occurs when we listen to the unconscious mind’s comments about our situation.

C. G. Jung was one of the first depth psychologists to recognize that a collaborative relationship between therapist and client is the most important factor to positive therapeutic outcome. A primary component of this alliance is an emotional bond.

Within that bond, increasingly rich and meaningful conversations between client and therapist are the medium through which growth and healing occur. But this does not mean talking from the surface of the mind, as in ordinary conversations. Jungian analysis is healing to the degree that client and therapist turn their attention toward an inner center for wisdom and guidance. To do so, therapist and client must be open, sincere, and truthful. Moreover, these conversations must be rich with feeling.

Analysts must listen carefully to their clients’ conscious thoughts; they must also discern their clients’ unconscious feelings and beliefs and the ways they unconsciously construct themselves and their relationships. These relationship patterns inevitably unfold in the relationship between client and therapist. Talking about these patterns, as they emerge in the therapeutic relationship, often leads to lasting transformation.

Dreams, active imagination, meditation, somatic techniques, and the use of myths and teaching stories also play important roles in Jungian analysis, and some clients use the old-fashioned but extremely valuable psychoanalytic couch. Certainly an important aspect of Jungian analysis is to uncover the archetypes, or universal mythic patterns, that underlie one’s emotional concerns. The essence of Jungian analysis, however, no matter which techniques are used, is increasingly meaningful conversations within an empathic relationship in which therapist and client orient to the depths to illumine and transform the unconscious feelings and beliefs that shape the client’s life.