Jungian Therapy, Analysis & Shadow Work with Melissa LaFlamme, MA

As a Jungian Psychotherapist, in my work with clients, I take to heart the original meaning of the word psyche, which means soul in Greek, and the root word of therapy is therapeia, which means to tend or care for. 

So my work with clients is often about helping to tend to the needs, the questions, all the facets of your soul, of your psyche. Caring for and developing an authentic and fruitful relationship with your Self, with others in your life, your relationships, your work and career, and with the world around you is at the heart of Jungian Psychotherapy and Soulwork.

You will probably find that I am very engaged with you, present, calm and grounded, compassionate, consistent, and real with you. So our work together tends to feel alive and helpful, as we actively sort through your feelings and thoughts, and identify and remove obstacles that keep you from experiencing the sort of life and relationships you want. 

So, together, we can hack and track what's maybe been for you a nagging longing to fully inhabit your life. To be genuinely free, embodied and ensouled. 

SHADOW WORK

Authenticity happens in the guts and bowels of your life. Being authentic is the grunt-work of the soul, of any deeply human, spiritual path. Being half here, half there, half-hearted, faking it to look good, strategizing to make things easier for your self — that's the common way of the unconscious clotted middle, driven by our egoic, addicted culture. It's a way that lacks wholeheartedness. Lacks real courage to let the heart break. Shatter. Broken whole and holy open to finally know compassion for self, for others, and the earth. To live and love — on fire, fully alive, juiced and ready to serve.  

Being authentic and soul-centered costs you your ticket to ride from the collective mainstream to the illusion of safe and secure. And opens the door to your broken open, whole heart -- reveals to you the honey of this wildly messy life. Leaves you and those you touch, feeling radically free. Without choice now. Solid and light. Authenticity strips away all that is NOT real. All that is not made from love, to love. All that is of enriched soul and in-spired Spirit remains. There is no living a soul-centered life without being authentic — without mustering the courage to do the excavating in the dark: the Shadow work.  

The Swiss psychotherapist and mystic, Carl G. Jung said: “People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls.”  

So, I am here to help you explore the question: What will you do?

Doing shadow work — to explore the unconscious motivations behind some of your thoughts, feelings, and struggles — is one of the ways we begin to address that question. And help you become more and more of who you truly are. 

Really enlivened. Present. Free to be yourself and congruent. Grounded. And burning brightly.

As you tell your story, I'll listen with you, valuing and respecting your unique experiences, offering down-to-earth guidance, real-world support, and consistent, caring connection for you along your way. 

With practical observations and some intuitive insights, I'll help you — at your own pace — see through, and transform what's most difficult so that you feel ready and empowered to live authentically—the way you were born to.

In the way I work with people in Jungian psychotherapy and soulwork, I pull from a deep well-spring of psychological, philosophical, and spiritual traditions with many of their roots in indigenous cultures of the world. These traditions include the following:

Jungian Psychology. The gist of which is about our unique development as enlivened individuals, becoming more and more authentic, and who we truly are — guided by our souls, our deepest Self, living out the story of our lives as fully, creatively and uniquely as we are called to; 

Depth Psychology, Shamanism, Ecopsychology, Archetypal Psychology, Existential Psychology, Nature-based Spirituality, Mythology, Fairy tales, Literature, Music and Film to open us to the root-level en-livening, en-souling power of our imagination as well as the unconscious — imagination's deeply rooted connection with our psyche and soul and with the heart and soul of the planet on which we walk. We work this way to lend a sense of universality and objectivity to what's troubling, which often helps to open up a certain depth of understanding into what brings on our suffering and its potential purpose for our life's journey;

Working with otherwise unconscious images, thoughts, dreams, sensations and feelings to awaken new awareness of what our psyche and our body is asking for of us and attempting to tell us; 

Working with the metaphors of what we literally experience as a way to help us see through what's most painful into its deepest meaning for how we live into what we're here for;

Dreamwork to tap into what our soul, our psyche is asking of us and beckoning to us to see — to show us the gifts we came to offer our own souls and the world;

And the matrix of Western culture that so influences our experiences — personally, collectively and professionally.

All these pieces of psyche, soul, and Self help to guide and embody our work together, allowing me to work with you and help you in a way that suits your unique set of experiences so that you can cultivate more of your authentic Self and live your life as fully as you want to. 

As a Jungian Psychotherapist, I act as a naturalist of the psyche, — meeting you right where you are, serving as a highly-attuned, warmly-empathic witness, an active and expert "trail guide" to help guide you through the inner wilderness of your own psyche, and out the other side into a life that is marked by soulfulness, creativity, aliveness, and a love for yourself, others and the world around you. 

Your soul's wildest potential is waiting to be birthed on the solid ground of — what the poet, Mary Oliver called — "your one wild and precious life."