In this webinar, Dr Phillip Graham will demonstrate the utility of applying Hughlings Jackson’s hierarchy of consciousness to an understanding of certain aspects of the psychotherapeutic process. This hierarchy represents a movement from lower to higher levels of psychic organization. The movement up the hierarchy reflects an expansion of consciousness. At the apex of the hierarchy a sense of Self is emergent. This sense of Self is dualistic in nature and can be thought of in the sense described by William James, as a flow of a particular kind of inner life. Contemporary theorist and researcher Prof. Russel Meares has elaborated this view.
These conceptualizations have important developmental and clinical implications. From within this perspective, optimal psychic development unfolds in relation to the provision of an adequately responsive environment, resulting in a sustainable position high in the hierarchy. Compromised development, on the other hand, may result from exposure to an adversely responsive environment, and is reflected in the failure to either gain or sustain this level. Under these circumstances a sufficiently robust sense of Self fails to emerge and one of the varieties of disorders of the Self may be manifest.
The central therapeutic task in the treatment of these disorders of the Self then can be conceived of as the facilitation of movement up the hierarchy of consciousness. This movement, during and over the course of therapy, occurs as a consequence of particular forms of engagement between the therapist and the patient. It is proposed that that these engagements shift sequentially and with increasing complexity, as one form of engagement provides the precondition for the establishment of the next. This movement constitutes the unfolding therapeutic trajectory.
In this webinar, the nature of these specific engagements will be described. It traces the shifts that take place within three inextricably related aspects of the emergent Self as movement takes place up the hierarchy: self-reflective awareness, forms of relatedness and the use of language.
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Video Lecture: The Hierarchy of Engagement
PPT Slides Hierarchy of Engagement
Assessment Component
Dr Phillip Graham, is a psychotherapist with over twenty five years’ experience, primarily providing long term psychotherapy. He has particular training and expertise in working with trauma. He also provides supervision/case consultation to other practitioners, primarily in the Conversational Model of therapy. Dr Graham trained in Medicine, and holds a Masters degree in Psychotherapy. He is a Fellow of the Australian College of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Lecturer at Sydney University. He is a Supervisor for the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychotherapy (ANZAP), and a past President. He is a member of the Supervising and Training faculty for the Masters of Medicine in Psychotherapy, Westmead Hospital, at the University of Sydney, and a member of the International Association of Self Psychology. He has published his work both locally and internationally
