She was tired after having worked a long day, but she had still decided to come in for her therapy session. She sat comfortably in the warm, neutrally decorated therapy room, which was quite a contrast to the dark, crisp winter evening on display outside. With questioning eyes and a slightly raised vocal tone, she spoke, “I don’t understand. Why should I consider the bigger picture? What relevance does this have for me? How is it going to help my healing now?”

I stopped for a moment, paused, trying to organise and collect my thoughts. She had asked a valid question. It wasn’t that I didn’t have some understanding of the answer because I’d spent the past thirteen years searching for it myself. It was more a case that I didn’t know how to articulate it concisely enough for it to make a difference. Why should she consider the bigger picture? What relevance did it have for her? How was it going to help her healing now?

*

I am a Psychotherapist. My aim is to help individuals attain a greater sense of inner peace and I get to glimpse (very personally), into the lives of others on a daily basis. I observe their pain and obstacles, and in many cases during the process of therapy, I also witness the beginnings of a shift in their consciousness.

I have found that sometimes using the tools and techniques that I have been trained to use are enough to help a client with their issues. But, I have also observed in some cases that these approaches alone are not enough to help with emotional healing. It’s almost as if the client feels that there’s a deeper purpose to life – something they can feel but yet are not able to describe, an inner yearning or even emptiness at times, that they can’t quite comprehend.

It’s not that these un-named feelings or concepts have not been addressed in the previous psychological theories, but in my opinion, it’s rather a case that they are not always fully understood or considered, and this is because they have (what some may refer to as), a mystical element to them.

Having made the choice to continually work on my own personal development, and to explore other areas of research such as parapsychology and near-death experiences, I feel that I have gained a broader perspective on emotional healing. I have personally experienced both shifts in consciousness and glimpses of the truth, and I feel that this has greatly impacted the way in which I work with clients as a Psychotherapist. Had I not have researched the mind from a multidisciplinary perspective, perhaps I may not have further delved into concepts such as Maslow’s peak experiences, or Jung’s notion of collective unconscious. I personally feel that my psychotherapy training alone did not equip me to fully connect with the depth of some of the theories, but rather it has been my personal inquisition into who I really am that has gifted me this experience. From a personal perspective, I believe that I can only help my clients to the extent of my own experience and understanding.

I would also like to mention here that I am not saying that my choice of method is the only way to facilitate emotional healing. Every therapist and client is different and has his or her own methods of working and responding. What I am sharing with you instead, is my own experience of what I have learned through questioning and researching the nature of consciousness and how this relates to emotional healing. I propose that instead of just looking at an individual’s challenges and behaviour, we start to ask the all-important question of ‘Who Am I?’

When we start to go beyond observing and managing the ego mind, we begin to realise that we are in fact not just this ego mind, but additionally we are something far greater, interconnected with everything else, forming one universal truth. The question, ‘Who am I?’ asks that we entertain the notion that we are more than just the body and ego mind. It asks that we expand our awareness about ourselves and perhaps consider the place where psychology and mysticism meet. 

Sunita Pattani is a psychotherapist and author based in East London, specializing in exploring the link between mind, body, spirit and emotional healing. Since childhood she has been fascinated with science,   spirituality, consciousness and the deeper question of who we really are.She explores this question from a multi-disciplinary perspective, and implements the findings within her therapy practice. Pattani is a graduate of the University of Birmingham, where she obtained a degree in Mathematics, Science and Education in 2003, followed by a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in 2004. Pattani taught for five years before she returned to college to receive an advanced diploma in Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapeutic Counseling. A regular blogger for The Huffington Post, Pattani’ s first book, My Secret Affair with Chocolate Cake: The Emotional Eater’s Guide to Breaking Free was published in 2012. Her second book The Transcendent Mind: The Missing Peace in Emotional Wellbeing will be published in 2015

The Transcendent Mind: The Missing Peace In Emotional Wellbeing, J Publishing March 2015 ISBN-978-1-907989-06-3 available everywhere books are sold.