In Jungian psychotherapy, we clean what is not us so we can listen to the voice of the Self. The psyche does not move rationally or bow to heroic efforts of will and control. Instead, its expression is teleological—pushing us toward the person we are meant to be.

When cut off from our deeper selves we become unmoored—a state of soul disconnection that makes us anxious, depressed, numb, addicted, and alienated. In this work, the struggles and dilemmas of life are not treated as stains to be removed, but as material for the forge of individuation. The goal of the work is not to fix or create a trouble-free life but to be more fully ourselves. We study our conflicts, defensive patterns, illnesses, complexes, coping mechanisms, and places of stuckness to clean, listen, and accept—not remove.

Psyche works on our lives through feeling, imagination, dreams, reflections, memory, and insight. We ask questions and attempt to learn what the psyche wants of us. We are the problem our dreams, symptoms, and fantasies are trying to solve. As we metabolize our lives, we become clearer and can thus be truer to our nature. In this way, the work is not about addition, but subtraction. It is about letting go of conditioning and outdated ideas so who we’ve always been can show itself.

As we sort through our complexes, we separate out old programs we have unconsciously taken on through misplaced loyalty, inherited ancestral patterns, and traumatized self-defenses. We address wounds from the past and lay unsettled ghosts to rest.

The reward of this approach is both inner and outer. It helps us align with who we truly are, develop a symbolic way of looking at the world, learn from our symptoms, create more satisfying participation in life, and have more compassion and understanding for ourselves and others. When we approach the psyche on its own terms, what makes us uncomfortable and frustrated about ourselves may reveal deeper truths about how we relate to life. Through depth work we come to know the resilience, healing, and potential that comes from the mysteries of the inner world.

Our relationship with the psyche helps us enter more deeply into our lives as they are. This deepening brings transformation and renewal through contact with the archetypal wellsprings of life. In the process our neurotic suffering is replaced by the more purposeful struggle of individuation—the task of becoming the person we were meant to be.