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Walking in Two Worlds: The Relational Self in Theory, Practice, and Community

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The Relational Self in Theory Practice and Community
NEW from ZTT publishers!
Stephen Gilligan, Ph.D. & Dvorah Simon, Ph.D.
Self-Relations Therapy is, in part, a synthesis of theory and practice from various prior traditions. However, the approach is more than an amalgam of ideas; rather, SR offers a meta-framework in which multiplicity - of form, meaning, presence, and so on - can be contained within an actively adaptive, aware, and present relational self.

Editors Stephen Gilligan and Dvorah Simon have gathered in a mosaic of content and communication to explain the perspective and to show how it can be applied across contexts. Divided into five broad sections - The Self-Relations Approach, Applications of Self-Relations, Self-Relations and Spiritual Paths, Dimensions of Self-Relations, Self-Relations and Expressive and Somatic Approaches - the book can be dipped into or read from beginning to end. Like a rich and colorful mosaic, the material can inspire or invoke whether you come in very close to follow specific themes or you stand back to take in the whole.
Stephen Gilligan first presented the theory and practice of Self-Relations in his book The Courage to Love in 1997. In the years since, the work has continued to evolve through workshops and presentations, as well as through the dialog and sharing of ideas that he has invited along the way. Just as the approach itself is a kind of collaboration of entities, whether within an individual or between people or in the midst of a community, this new book encourages the multidimensionality of voices. The contributors are not confined by rigid structural or editorial requisites; they are invited to address their topics in the language that befits them. Thus, a sense of the SR ideal of "multiple truths at the same time" is embodied in the work.


The book at glance
Contents
Preface: Words Rise Up from Silence, by Dvorah Simon, Ph.D.
Poem: "Snap" (for Ruth), by Dvorah Simon, Ph.D.
Overview: An Invisible Presence is Awakening: Key Ideas in Self-Relations,
by Stephen Gilligan, Ph.D.

SECTION I: THE SELF-RELATIONS APPROACH
1: Self-Relations Stories
Charles Holton, L.C.S.W.
2: The Problem is the Solution: Return from Exile
David J. Stern, Psy.D.
3: A Personal Narrative of Self-Relations Therapy
Muriel Singer, Ph.D.
4: Self-Relations as a Tantric Spiritual Practice
Cynthia Franklin, M.S.O.D.
5: The Sleeping Angel: Brokenness and Blessing in the Healing Path
Dvorah Simon, Ph.D.
Poetic Interlude 1
"Broken and Perfect," by Cynthia Franklin, M.S.O.D.
"If God Was in the Camps," by Dvorah Simon, Ph.D.

SECTION II: APPLICATIONS OF SELF-RELATIONS
6: Self-Relations, Hypnosis, and Transpersonal Approaches in the
Treatment of Panic Attacks
David Aftergood, M.D.
7: Healing Trauma
Daniel Burow, Ed.D.
8: The Use of Self-Relations Therapy in Pain Management
Jeanne Hernandez, Ph.D.
9: Self-Relations Psychotherapy with Couples
Saralee Kane, M.S.W.
10: Sponsorship in Supervision: Resonance in the Relational Field
Leonard Bohanon, Ph.D.
11: The Business Leader as an Incurable Deviant: A Self-Alignment Approach
to Leadership Development
Julian Russell & Cynthia Indriso, B.A., M.P.H.
Poetic Interlude 2
"Improvisation," by Charles Holton, L.C.S.W.
"Poetry as a Grounding Practice: Truth-telling from Neglected Voices," by
Dvorah Simon, Ph.D.

SECTION III: SELF-RELATIONS AND SPIRITUAL PATHS
12: Immanent Blessings: Sponsorship and the Archetypal Goddess
Celia Bockhoff, M.S.W., L.C.S.W., B.C.D.
13: Applications of Self-Relations in Religious Settings, Healing
Communities,
and Faith Development
Rev. Sandra J. Lydick, M.Div., L.M.S.W.
14: Street Life: Self-Relations and the Call to Healing Ourselves and Others
Kate Marshall, Ph.D.
15: At Every Moment a New Species Rises in the Chest: Self-Relations and
Sufism
Sharon G. Mijares, Ph.D.
16: Witnessing, Naming, and Blessing: Self-Relations in the Life of a Rabbi
Jack H Bloom, Ph.D.
Poetic Interlude 3
"An Entirely Different Angel," by Dvorah Simon, Ph.D.
"A Danger of Angels," by Beverly Voss, L.M.S.W.
"Do This," by Beverly Voss, L.M.S.W.

SECTION IV: DIMENSIONS OF SELF-RELATIONS
17: Kings, Queens, Warriors, Lovers and Magicians: Archetypes of
Transformation
Robert Rossel, Ph.D.
18: A Journey Towards Awakening: Self-Relations and Mindfulness
Ray Cicetti, L.C.S.W.
19: Aliens and the Neglected Self
Carol A. Fitzsimons, M.S., L.P.C.
20: Voices from a Field: The Transformative Presence of the Self-Relations
Community
Mary Massaro, M.S.
21: Change and Non-Change in the Field: From Either/Or to Both/And
Relationships
Ulrich Hoenig
Poetic Interlude 4
"Four," by Dvorah Simon, Ph.D.
"After Four (A Blessing)," by Charles Holton, L.C.S.W.

SECTION V: SELF-RELATIONS AND EXPRESSIVE AND SOMATIC APPROACHES
22: Self-Relations in Holotropic States of Consciousness:
Articulating the Therapeutic Relationship in Holotropic BreathworkTM
Kylea Taylor, M.S., M.F.T.
23: Doorways to Creativity: Art Therapy from the Center
Abbe Miller, M.S., A.T.R.
24: Instant Painful Success and Ongoing Wonderful Failure:
My Personal Experiences with Self-Relations Psychotherapy
Jeff Weakley
25: Creative Expression as a Vehicle for Positive Self-Sponsorship
Molly H. Guzzino, A.T.R., L.P.C., L.M.F.T.
26: Movement Practices for Self-Relations
Selene Vega, M.A., L.M.F.T.
27: Tapping Into Dual Sources of Experience: Self-Relations and Somatic
Process
Charlie Badenhop
28: Therapy as a Dance and Dance as a Therapy: A Cross-pollination
Jessie Shaw & Bill Hedberg
Poetic Interlude 5
"As If," by Dvorah Simon, Ph.D.
"Blessed," by Mary Michele Mulvihill, Ph.D.
"For This One Night," by Bonnie Scot, B.S.

CODA
29: Midnight Musings on the True Nature of the Rose: The Complementary
Approaches
of Carl Whitaker and Self-Relations in Working with Families: A Tale in
Three Parts
Stephen R. Beck, M.S.W.
Index.

Reviews

"Walking in Two Worlds is a rich and stimulating book. It is filled with examples illustrating the profound and wide-reaching applications of Stephen Gilligan's Self Relations work. The many varied articles, written by students and practitioners of the Self Relations approach, demonstrate how generative and deeply healing Self Relations concepts and skills can be for therapists, coaches and consultants. I myself have been deeply influenced by Gilligan and his work and recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn more about how to better bring together heart, mind and spirit in the service of healing and helping others."
Robert Dilts
author of From Coach to Awakener and
Changing Belief Systems With NLP


"This book is a mosaic masterpiece of beauty, heart, and vision. It is a must for clinicians wishing to transcend the mechanics of therapy and open their inner pathways toward becoming healers. Beautifully landscaped, each teaching is a blessing, not only to be read, but more important, to be soulfully experienced."
Joyce C. Mills
author/co-author of seven books, including
Therapeutic Metaphors for Children and the Child Within
and Reconnecting to the Magic of Life

"Steve Gilligan and Dvorah Simon have put together the leading edge theorists and practitioners of Self Relations, an artful blend of Milton Erickson, spirituality, Jungian work, and the best of depth-oriented brief therapy approaches. The contributions are diverse, interesting and, in some cases, provocative. Reading this book will help broaden and deepen your ability to connect with your most challenging clients so that you may help them change more rapidly and effectively. It will touch your head and your heart."
Bill O'Hanlon
author/co-author of 21 books, including
Do One Thing Different
and Thriving Through Crisis

About the authors
Stephen Gilligan, Ph.D., is known internationally as an author, a teacher, a
presenter -- and the creator of the Self-Relations Approach to
Psychotherapy. His work is designed to reconnect mind-body processes and
encourage and support radical change. Steve Gilligan is the author of
numerous articles and books, including The Courage to Love and, most
recently, The Legacy of Milton H. Erickson.

Dvorah Simon, Ph.D., is a psychologist and poet. Since 1985, she has worked
at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine as a researcher and
clinician in the field of brain injury and stroke rehabilitation. Her
primary professional focus is on modes of therapy that begin with the
premise of the inherent resourcefulness of the client. She is the author of
a chapter on "Solution Focused Therapy as a Spiritual Path," which appeared
in the Handbook of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy. For five years, she
published news of the difference, an international newsletter for Solution
Focused, Ericksonian, and related therapies. Self-Relations Therapy
satisfies her quest for a way of working that embraces a robust and generous
definition of the self.

As enjoyable, and in many ways, seductive as the Ericksonian and post-Ericksonian mythos can be, one must be cautious, diligent, iconoclastic, and antinomian to some extent to resist the inevitable gravity of kingdoms of the mind, fairylands, parallel universes, the subtle workings of phantasy and compensation which are latent in the shared images of who and what Erickson was and what his work was ultimately to imply.

Psychologists and therapists from many starting points operate primarily in the world of abstractions (the most egregious being the numerical classification of the DSM series), or case histories presented in such condensed form that they almost seem like narrative implosions, or professional echo chambers. Ultimately the profession becomes, auditorially speaking, an echo chamber, or visually speaking, a hall of mirrors, as much about the collective trance of "therapy" and "therapist", which are some of the deepest identity trances imaginable, both in search of, and in denial of the infinitly complex and unique processes of soul and spirit that each lived life will reveal.

Of course the title Relational Self is suggestive of Winnicott's object relations theory, the good enough mother, the holding environment, the struggle to parse out the false selves from the true selves, and so on.

The figure who has gone missing in all of this is James Hillman and his version of the human mytho poesis. It would appear that there is some degree of unconscious competition between the two Merlin figures, the Hillman as Jung as Merlin ancestral story, and the Erickson-Winnicott-Freud ancestral story with its strong hermeneutic and rabinnic overtones.

Hillman would be amused, and perhaps fascinated to learn that Winnicott's first naval posting was the HMS Lucifer, "the light bearer"...

Which leaves us where ? The mythic warning of course, that the light bearer could be undone by hubris, the fascination with the navel confused with the footprint of the Buddha, the telling of the tale substituted for the living of the life.

Hillman abjures us to attend to "underworlds", and by this he is not referring to a mysterious unconscious, but the sweaty, uncouth, rusted out, tactless, oafish, untamed reality of life's bare earth.

Although there is much to admire, and emulate in the Ericksonian tradition, there is much to be wary of as well, that it not become substitutional, that it not beome a comic book reading of personal truth, and most essentially that it not become a private language or pharmacopaic
jargon that bestows a smug, unspoken elitism upon it's initiates.