ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the theoretical explication of integral counseling and psychotherapy, addressing states of consciousness, personality types, and the self-system. However, technically, stages and structures are not identical; there are actually structure-stages and state-stages. The chapter introduces the reader to other dimensions of the self, including basic and transitional structures; the distal, proximate, and antecedent selves and their relationships to one another; self-system pathology; repression and five different types of unconsciousness; and subpersonalities. The clinical relevance of queries regarding clients’ moods, feelings, and emotions should be readily apparent to therapists. The Enneagram is a dynamic psychospiritual personality typology system that originated in esoteric Sufi teachings. The self-system also consists of various subpersonalities, which in their benign forms Wilber referred to as “functional self-presentations that navigate particular psychosocial situations”. Although constituting the same self-system, the distal, proximate, and antecedent selves are distinct constructs that bear practical consequences for the practice of counseling and psychotherapy.
