ENERGY, SOUL-CONNECTING AND AWAKENING CONSCIOUSNESS

Psychotherapy in a New Paradigm

By Ruthie Smith    

(Karnac books 2023)

I just wanted to share a little with you about my new book which is just about to come out. It is about the exciting new planetary ‘awakening’ and introduces the reader to energy methods which can help us to clear our trauma and raise our consciousness – it is a resource which may be of interest to therapists, clients and the general public.

Energy, Soul Connecting and Awakening Consciousness’ – Psychotherapy in a New Paradigm is contextualised within the multi-disciplinary worlds of depth psychotherapy, working with trauma, and aspects of contemporary science and energy, against a backdrop of evolving consciousness. All this is taking place within a bigger shift into a new paradigm. The book provides an introduction to energy psychotherapy, a way of working which integrates energy psychology within relational psychotherapy, using the subtle energy system, the meridians and nervous system to relieve trauma, PTSD and somatic stress. Easy-to-use self-applied energy methods are outlined which can regulate emotions, clear stress and trauma from the body and help people find calm and balance. The reader may like to try these methods out on themselves.

There is so much that we don’t know. While as a non-scientist, I try to avoid making spurious links to other fields, we do nonetheless live in an age of synergy with increasing inter-connections emerging between disciplines – for example, the ways that quantum physics interconnects with consciousness. This tentative exploration broaches humanity’s evolving consciousness, the nature of the unified field and energy psychotherapy and how these come together. A lot of what is explored is subject to interpretation and not necessarily fact. Where it is possible to do so, I offer scientific backup, though such understanding may soon be superseded by new discoveries.

There are two main sections. The first part begins with a personal account of how I came to discover energy psychotherapy, and choose ‘The Path of Joy’ and subsequent chapters look in more detail at overlaps with other disciplines, starting with an overall exploration of energy. We exist on a spectrum from matter (our bodies, or dense energy) to light (the higher frequencies of our consciousness). The healing power and efficacy of frequency medicine is well recognised in the medical field, where for instance laser surgery or infra-red treatments have been used for many years. Working with resonances and vibrations has also been developing within the field of psychology and psychotherapy since the 1970s and is becoming firmly established with an impressive evidence base and many benefits.

In the new paradigm, the book reflects on the changing therapeutic discourse which is expanding to include the idea of releasing the dense ‘heavy’ energies of trauma, to bring more light and wellbeing into what I term the bodymindenergy. I use this word to acknowledge the multi-dimensional aspects of being human. Where previously psychotherapy tended to separate psyche from soma, science and ancient wisdom both show how the subtle energy system (our life force), our mind, body and consciousness are completely interconnected. 

Developmental ‘maps’ for our evolving consciousness include psychoanalytic, energetic, and spiritual frameworks for applying this work, and as a background thread throughout is my comparison between Dzogchen * and energy psychotherapy – two experiential paths of energy and consciousness within the ‘ease and grace’ of quantum ‘flow’.

The second section of the book describes a range of energy psychotherapy practices for working in depth, illustrated by clinical vignettes. This is accompanied by an overview of working with complex trauma and PTSD, and how to work safely with the bodymindenergy so the therapy is appropriately grounded within relational work. The unique benefits of energy psychotherapy are explored, including its capacity to overcome therapeutic blockages, integrate and strengthen the fragmented ego, create healthy resilient ‘energy boundaries’, and work relatively easily to clear all forms of trauma including pre-verbal, attachment trans-generational and transpersonal trauma. Energy work offers many possibilities including depth archetypal and shadow work and working with a ‘higher gauge’ realm – or soul-connecting as I call it. Those working in this way report relief and an experience of real healing.

Underpinning the book is an acknowledgement of the radical change taking place on our planet where humanity is evolving towards a more heart and soul-centred consciousness. As the idea of ‘Awakening’*becomes more mainstream, people seek spiritual practices such as mindfulness, yoga and shamanism to open their hearts and experience the luminosity of their higher consciousness. In this paradigm of energy and vibration, the work of Eckart Tolle and many others describes this change from the egoic world of the ‘third dimension’* – the world of Newtonian physics, duality and cause and effect – to ‘the fifth dimension’*, the multi-dimensional ‘quantum’ world of heart based ‘Unity Consciousness’ and inter-connectedness.

As we live through this ‘Shift’, we are witnessing the break-down of outworn structures and hierarchies all over the world while at the same time, prophets have foretold that humanity is giving birth to a humanitarian ‘Golden Age’, where new technologies and methods are manifesting in the service of the wellbeing of the planet. I see energy psychotherapy as one of these new methods and clients are very much benefiting from these ways of working.

In the evolving clinical terrain of the new paradigm, people increasingly come to therapy to explore confusing experiences as they ‘awaken’, and encounter such states as multi-dimensional timelines, transpersonal consciousness or Kundalini rising. We need to understand how psychotherapy might address this expanded remit in a grounded way, which avoids spiritual bypassing and provides a safe space for clients to work. Therapists may also need to consider their own experiences and what training might help, so that clients’ ‘altered states’ can be held, accepted and understood.

As our states of consciousness evolve, many are recognising how we are waking up from centuries of dis-connection from our souls (our spiritual selves, ‘higher selves’, ‘Source’ or the ‘Self’– or however we wish to name that numinous ‘god within’). For me, expanded consciousness is not about going ‘higher’ but becoming more grounded as we connect deeply with the earth and bring our spiritual essence into our bodies. The simplest message of this book is that of finding our true selves – and helping our clients to find their true selves – through connecting with our hearts and souls and releasing any trauma which blocks us from our light.