ABSTRACT
Psychotherapy is a sacred act, an I/Thou experience conducted in sacred space. With respect and attentiveness, the clinician listens to her patients in a special way, unconscious to unconscious, cocreating a Third space in which old wounds can heal and new possibilities emerge. Using her spiritual imagination, the psychotherapist helps the dyad enter transitional space, the land of imagination and implicit spirituality – a feeling state located between external reality and inner psychic reality. Creating this space is crucial for establishing trust and hope. Boundaries between patient and therapist loosen; a new intersubjective field emerges, promoting empathy and understanding and cultivating the divine spark within. The psychotherapist’s physical office is sacred as well – Jung’s concept of temenos – an inviting presence, a secure containment, a home for the unconscious – where the work of psychotherapy can take place.
Several spiritual systems are discussed, including the Maskers of sub-Saharan Africa and the teachings of Kabbalah, and how they shed light on the psychotherapy process. Regarding the latter, the meaning of the Kabbalistic creation myth and the potential of the void is explicated in relation to clinical work.
