Processwork encompasses a broad range of psychotherapeutic, personal growth and group process applications.
Processwork is applied both to therapeutic situations and to others, such as conflict resolution and organisational development, that are not generally considered therapeutic.
Processwork emphasises awareness – both the person’s and the facilitator’s – rather than any specific set of interventions.
What is the “process”?
The “process” in Processwork originally took its name from several sources. One was Jung’s concept of the individuation process - the process by which a psychotherapeutic client integrates contents of the unconscious that are presented to him or her through dreams, imagination, fantasy, trance, serendipity and synchronicity.
Another came from physics, particularly David Bohm’s formulation of the flux behind all events. Yet another comes from the therapist’s observation of the ebb and flow of signals and communications between therapist and client.
Experience is found to be of two kinds: that with which the person or group identifies, and that which is experienced as “other” or alien to the them. Experiences with which the person or group identifies are called “primary process”, to emphasise their place in the foreground of awareness. Experiences which the person marginalises as “other” are called “secondary process”, to emphasise their place in the background of awareness. Furthermore, when a person is encouraged to embrace or identify with a secondary process experience, he or she is generally reluctant or even unable to do so, as though a boundary separates the primary from the secondary processes. This boundary is called the “edge”. It is, quite literally, the edge of the person’s identity.