What is the value of Transpersonal Psychotherapy, and what does it offer that other theories do not? First of all, it offers a positive and hopeful view of the client. It gives methods for actualizing our full potential, and it supports ego integration and ego transcendence (Small, 1991). TP honors interconnectedness of life, which supports empathy in the relationship between counselor and client. It believes in the underlying goodness and inherent Divine nature of all people (Wellings and McCormick, 2000).

TP honors the spiritual framework of the counseling experience. The counselor and client dialog about existential issues such as the purpose and meaning of life. TP provides a forum to explore the dimensions of consciousness that other therapies do not address. It considers altered states a part of spiritual healing and growth, and it diagnoses them as spiritual emergencies rather than schizophrenia or mental illness. This is not to say that all schizophrenic type episodes are spiritual emergencies, but it is true that some spiritual emergencies look like schizophrenic episodes (Wellings and McCormick, 2000).

TP also offers different methods and viewpoints of healing, which include contemplation, meditation, focusing, and imagery, to name a few. Sometimes a client will heal just by shifting into a transpersonal viewpoint. The shift in viewpoint restructures the individual’s entire mental framework and relationship to life. This aspect is unique to transpersonal psychology and the transpersonal perspective (Wellings and McCormick, 2000).

Boorstein (2000) believes that traditional therapy is pessimistic. Traditional therapy promotes a state of normalcy, meaning that it merely helps the client fit back into the mainstream of society. In this fashion, traditional therapy keeps us on the conventional track where we follow the roles and rules of society. Regular psychotherapy does not generally address the needs and yearnings of the Soul, nor does it address loss of meaning, sense of emptiness, or lack of spiritual connection. Rather it focuses on conflicts and remedies to the client’s unresourceful thinking, feeling, and acting (Karasu, 1999).

TP addresses the areas that traditional psychology neglects. It helps the individual move beyond the conventional realm and into states of the psychic where intuition, ecstasy, joy, and serenity prevail. Transpersonal psychology is unique in that it supports an expansive and optimizing element not found in other psychological theories. It supports the therapeutic value of altered and expanded states of consciousness, and it reframes these altered states as healthy growth promoting experiences when undertaken by individuals with healthy egos. This contrasts sharply with other schools of psychology that consider altered states as pathological (Walsh, 1994).

In the TP model, the client is viewed as the uninitiated human being. This means that the therapist sees the individual as one who has a predisposition for growth, who has potential, and who is unique and unlike any other. The counselor helps the client to find his own unique individuality as well as his potential for transcendence. The therapist is only present to point the way and walk the journey with the individual. The therapist and the client are two people who move together into the sublime (Karasu, 1999).

Walsh states that Western culture has been trapped in a monophasic rather than polyphasic worldview, meaning that the West only recognizes one state of consciousness, the waking state. Polyphasic cultures, by contrast, recognize multiple states such as waking, dreaming, contemplative, ecstatic, etc (Walsh, 1994). Over the last 40 years, transpersonal psychologists have systematically integrated Eastern and Western views.

Ken Wilber has been instrumental in integrating Eastern and Western views. He has linked various states of consciousness into a human development model and has identified the underlying structure that is common to different cultures and spiritual practices. Wilber postulates three distinct transpersonal or higher states, which include the subtle, causal, and ultimate (Walsh, 1999).

Subtle states are produced in contemplative practice when the mind quiets and emotions of love and joy arise. When subtle states deepen and stabilize, then causal states arise. The causal state is an unmanifest realm of pure consciousness devoid of objects or images. In the ultimate state, objects and images reappear, but now they are recognized as expressions of consciousness instead of separate objects. "Now it seems that there is only consciousness manifesting itself as the universe" (Walsh, 1994, p. 117), what one might call Zen Mind. It is a purely transcendent state of awareness.

Transcendent states of consciousness are important to our species, because individuals who pursue and experience such states are more predisposed to enter into a greater sense of compassion and care for others, and for humankind as a whole. Indeed, Matthew Fox believes that the task of transpersonal psychology is to become a force that changes society’s "broader social structures" (1994, p. 101). Fox invites transpersonal psychologists to entertain a prophetic role for humankind. He believes that the mystic must become the prophet and bring a greater understanding and awareness into our society to help contribute to the healing of the Earth and the liberation of the Soul. He believes that we need to spiritualize our view of humankind and our place in the cosmos.

Schippers (1994) expands on this view, saying that traditional psychoanalytic and Western therapy has focused on the individual and the promotion of individualism, which has been a hallmark of Western thought. Indeed, rugged individualism is a trademark of American history. Traditional therapy focuses on the development of the individual and the individual’s identity, and it works to strengthen the individual’s ego.

While a strong ego is necessary for healthy functioning, it keeps us separate and focused on personal concerns. Psychoanalytic theory ends too abruptly and leaves the individual firmly entrenched in ordinary states of consciousness. Transpersonal psychology takes us a step beyond individualism and independence to a sense of interdependence. With the development of interdependence, the individual becomes more concerned about the family of man, more compassionate about social problems, and more committed to contributing to the greater good (Schippers, 1994).

Interpersonal consciousness is a step beyond independent ego consciousness. Interpersonal consciousness fosters a more compassionate and caring worldview. When the individual moves into transpersonal states of consciousness, he or she releases the desire to focus on ego needs and begins to contemplate service to the family of humankind. Indeed, TP may be the force that helps the Western world move from stage three faith to stage five faith. If the majority of our population made that shift, we as a nation would be more appreciative of compassion and care for others rather than focused on protecting our tribal turf. We as a nation would move from a sociocentric view to a world-centric view, which would help heal the Global Community.

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