Coping with extraordinary experiences of consciousness in psychotherapy

Abstract

Clients sometimes consult a psychotherapist because they feel overwhelmed by experiences that are not easily compatible with the generally accepted worldview, their own everyday sense of reality or their personal sense of self. The question that therapists must, sooner or later, ask themselves is that of the client’s sanity. Has he or she perhaps used drugs or even suffered a psychosis? Specifying the client’s suffering and differential diagnostics pose another problem. This article focuses on the kind of help that the client needs in order to better cope with extraordinary experiences or states of consciousness. Ideally, he or she can simply integrate them without identifying with them. Various categories of extraordinary experiences relevant for therapy are described phenomenologically, and therapeutic impulses are suggested.