Book Review: The Heart and Soul of Psychotherapy: A Transpersonal Approach Through Theater Arts by Saphira Barbara Linden (Editor)
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Book Review: The Heart and Soul of Psychotherapy: A Transpersonal Approach Through Theater Arts by Saphira Barbara Linden (Editor)
Jessica Bockler
Recommended Citation
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by Saphira Barbara Linden (Editor)
(2013; Bloomington, IN: Trafford)
Reviewed by
Jessica Bockler
Alef Trust
Wirral, UK
I myself do nothing. The Holy Spirit
accomplishes all through me.
—William Blake
H song and art have long provided a vehicle
umans are creative beings. Drama, dance,
for us to communicate our ideas and visions,
and to grow and evolve—as individuals and as a
collective. Throughout the ages, we have used art
in cultural and religious rituals and ceremonies to
affirm and to transform our identity and to express
our relationship with the world beyond the human
sphere. From paleolithic cave paintings to Buddhist
and Hindu mandalas to the works of William Blake,
from the Afro-Brazilian candomblé to the Indian
Kathakali dance-drama to modern dance and
movement therapies—art has served as a healing tool,
a way to engage more profoundly with each other, and
as a pathway to a deeper relationship with that which
one might call the Numinous or Divine. In The Heart
and Soul of Psychotherapy, Saphira Linden and 39 of
her creative colleagues offer in-depth accounts of the
contribution transpersonal theatre arts have made
to this journey of personal and collective spiritual
development.
Linden’s passionate account begins with a
recollection of a Sufi retreat in the mid-1970s, during
which she immersed herself in meditative practices—
mantras, breath work, and prayers—for three weeks,
practicing 14 hours every day. She describes the gift
of the retreat as one in which all “all awareness of
individuality was replaced by a feeling of oneness with
all that exists”
(Linden, 2013, p. xxiii)
. In the following
30 years of personal and professional practice Linden
developed a transpersonal approach to drama therapy,
which at its core aims to attenuate the grip of the
“limited, historical, conditioned self ” and to deepen
a person’s connection with what she calls the “soul
Self, or essential Self ” (p. xxiv). Linden has come to
refer to this journey toward one’s own highest nature
as the Omega Process, referencing the work of French
mystic Teilhard de Chardin who drew on the first
and last letter of the Greek alphabet as a metaphor,
describing the evolution of consciousness towards the
Omega Point, a transcendent and yet attainable and
indeed imperative endpoint of human consciousness.
Linden opens Part 1, Chapter 1 of the book
with a depiction of her own eclectic and experimental
journey towards a Transpersonal Drama Therapy, which
spans environmental, educational, therapeutic and ritual
theatre. Linden describes Jungian and Transpersonal
Psychology as significant sources of inspiration for her
work. She spent time studying with Jacob and Zerka
Moreno, the founders of Psychodrama, and she also
immersed herself in Mystical Judaism and Sufism and
integrated meditative practices into her drama work with
actors and audiences. Early on in her career, Linden felt
drawn to create performances, which would challenge
the conventional actor-spectator relationship and
engage audiences as participants. She became interested
in working with archetypal energies for community
healing—the exploration of which culminated in an
11year interfaith project titled The Cosmic Celebration.
The Cosmic Celebration was devoted to enabling casts
of up to 350 people to explore and express their deepest
authentic Self through the medium of theatre. These
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theatre events with a spiritual and transformational
purpose, propelled Linden to develop her own Omega
Transpersonal Drama Therapy practice.
In Chapter 2, Linden proceeds to describe what
she calls the twelve principles of Omega Transpersonal
Drama Therapy and illustrate them through a case study.
Many of the ideas she describes here are congruent with
other approaches to drama therapy and psychodrama,
such as the principles of "embodying/roleplaying the
therapeutic issues," "making the unconscious conscious
through symbolic/metaphorical approaches," and
"working with archetypes." What stands out is Linden’s
and her colleagues’ openness to the transpersonal
perspective. For example, "assuming health rather than
pathology," a notion which is rooted in the assumption
that, no matter what the client’s problem or challenge,
within a larger, transpersonal context there is innate
health and wholeness. A transpersonal drama therapist
thus has to navigate a journey with a client simultaneously
closer to the wound and beyond it toward healing. The
aim is to enable clients to shift identification from a
conditioned and restricted self, marked by stories of
personal trauma and suffering, to a higher, or soul (...truncated)