Attending the Soul:
Depth Psychotherapy
Jim Moyers, MA, MFT
CA Marriage & Family Therapist License # MFC21697
Offices in Berkeley & Hayward, California:
(Click on Address for Map)
2424 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94704
(mail address for both offices)
1345 B Street, Hayward, CA 94541
Phone: (510) 843-2424 for both offices
Fax: (510) 843-2423
email: jimmoyers@mac.com
(Please be aware that the confidentiality of email cannot be assured)
I am a psychotherapist practicing in the East San Francisco Bay Area. I work with adult individuals and also do couples counseling. I also supervise graduate students and post-masters degree interns in clinical training at The Psychotherapy Institute and the Berkeley Creative Living Center, a unique day program for mentally ill adults where I am the clinical coordinator.
The Greek word, psyche, translates as "breath, life, or soul" in English. "Therapy" is derived from therapeia, the attendant who served both gods and humanity in the temples of ancient Greece. “Psychotherapy” can thus be described as the sacred work of attending the soul, carefully nurturing the most essential aspects of who and what one is. The idea that the psyche has its own regulatory system that strives for integration and wholeness is at the heart of my work as a psychotherapist, an "attendant of the soul."
According to the great Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, modern culture has lost connection with the psyche and traditional means of honoring it through myth, ritual, and spiritual practice. But, reluctant as we may be to acknowledge it, our secular society continues to suffer affections of the soul. As Jung put it, the gods who shaped the lives of the ancients have become the dis-eases that afflict us.
Psychotherapy as practiced by Jung and those who follow in his footsteps is, at its best, a means for reconnecting with a mysterious Something deep within that gives life purpose and meaning. It springs from much the same place as does religious experience. However, psychotherapy differs from institutionalized religious practice in not imposing a dogmatic structure on human experience. Rather than trying to shape the client to fit some preconceived notion, depth psychotherapy honors the uniqueness of each individual experience of self and the world.
Psychotherapy that looks deep into human experience to find meaning in the things that afflict us is all too rare in these days of quick fixes, measurable outcomes, and cost effectiveness. It takes time and effort to connect with soul. The goal of depth psychotherapy is not so much symptom relief as it is the discovery of meaning in symptoms which, as Jung repeatedly pointed out, are the soul's means for getting our attention. Something special happens in the process of telling one's story to a carefully attuned and caring listener. Change comes not so much through learning new ways of being, connecting past experience to the present, gaining insight, etc. although these things and more do occur. Rather, healing and change come through the experience of being carefully attended to and understood.
In practicing psychotherapy I use a variety of techniques drawn from a wide range of theory and practice , including Eastern and Western spiritual traditions, but more than anything else I very carefully listen to the unique story each client has to tell. Since our personal history shapes who and what we are, current issues in relationships, work, and life often have their origins in what happened in the past. While I don’t approach therapy as a sort of archaeological excavation of the past in hopes of finding the key to everything (which would be nice if possible!), I am very much interested in how past experience influences what is going on here and now. I make suggestions from time to time, ask questions, and share my thoughts as we go along. But always my primary goal is to help each client discover the particular meaning of her/his unique journey while expanding awareness of the range of choices available on that journey. My job is not to be the expert on someone’s life so much as it is to help people discover and connect with their own expertise. It is an honor and a privilege to be asked to attend someone for a little part of the journey through life. It is a work unlike any other.
Some of My Professional Interests
My Training & Professional Affiliations
Religious Studies & Spirituality Links
Resources for Ex-Members of Fundamentalist/Cultic Groups
Original Material & Photographs ©2009 James C. Moyers
May be reproduced with source cited
