Research & Publication

Power and Psychotherapy: An Exploration through a Psychosynthesis Lens

Published in European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling (2025).

Shortlisted for UKCP European psychotherapy trainee essay prize.

Abstract: In this essay, I focus on uncovering the subtext of power differentials as a global context in the therapeutic relationship. I will look at ways to conceptualise the phenomenon of power and splitting transpersonally, through the lens of psychosynthesis, while employing an interdisciplinary approach to create a theoretical and experiential ground in attending to intersectional power differentials structurally. Drawing from my experience as an East Asian trainee and a first-generation immigrant in a European psychotherapy and counselling programme, I consider how sometimes well-meaning measures can perpetuate division rather than facilitate inclusion, reinforcing what I posit as ‘power trauma’. Applying this to working with clients, I explore the creative potential of power when it is attended to both structurally and transpersonally. Ultimately, this essay argues for the experiential and non-dualist potency of psychosynthesis, when used with awareness and responsibility, in working with power trauma and the risk of splitting by conceptualising and relating to power as a transpersonal quality.

Keywords: power, therapeutic relationship, splitting, trauma, psychosynthesis, transpersonal

Link to the full article for UKCP members. (Note: if you can’t gain access to this article and you wish to read it, please contact me).

Sept 2024 – Panellist speaker at Sesame Organisation (previously known as End Violence and Racism Against ESEA Communities) Community Retreat

On the topic of ‘Mental Health Challenges for East and South East Asian Young Professionals in the UK’

Sept 2023 – Speech speaker at Nafsiyat Intercultural Therapy Centre 40^th Anniversary Celebration

On the topic of ‘Finding a Voice in the Seas of Language’