ABSTRACT
The relevance of a transpersonal perspective on the process of psychotherapy lies in the recognition that not all experience can be directly observed and that the whole of a psychotherapeutic meeting (or any other meeting) is likely to be greater than the sum of its parts. While this idea can partly be understood through a neuroscienti®c perspective and linked to affective exchanges and right hemisphere connections, we would also like to create space for something of the spiritual as it might emerge in an integrative psychotherapy. In Point 34 we have drawn attention to a number of rich traditions and an increasingly wide literature on the topic of the transpersonal. In this context we are concerned with how these ideas manifest in the process of psychotherapy. We would argue that while presenting dif®culties of clients can be categorized in a range of psychological formulations, at a more general level clients are often bringing some form of `disconnection' into the room. They appear to be looking for a way to connect with something wider than themselves, to feel more at one with the universe. To this extent we could conceptualize the journey as a search for spiritual meaning. This does not mean `transcending' human relating, but rather grounding our exchanges more deeply within the relationship itself in a way that connects this experience with wider humanity.
