ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a selection of themes which illustrate the incommensurability between old and New Paradigm approaches to some of the central concerns of the therapeutic experience. Within the professions in general, however, theoretical expertise is routinely assumed to be an indispensable prerequisite if the professional is to discharge her or his task competently and successfully. The chapter discusses both the inadequacy of the conventional old-paradigm perspective and the potential that New Paradigm philosophy promises for heralding a post-professional era in the unfolding development of human consciousness. Manifestation of New Paradigm philosophy's relevance occurs in the realms of thinking and feeling. Spiritual, holistic, New Paradigm views of human experience, then, challenge quite fundamentally all of our everyday assumptions about the role of so-called "thinking" and "emotion" in experience generally—and, by extension, in the therapeutic change process itself. In the therapy field it is arguably in the realm of intersubjectivity where New Paradigm and spiritual perspectives are most relevant.
