self-relationship is an aspect of psychotherapy which describes and focuses on the crucial relationship between a person and their own self. formally described in stephen gilligan's article: the relational self: the expanding of love beyond desire (1996), and expanded on in his book: the courage to love (1997), it has become a major new approach in psychotherapy and healing. it refers to a form of support, help, and assistance, usually found in psychotherapy and other therapeutic contexts, but also found in executive coaching, community building, and other forms of healing. it takes as its starting point, that 'symptoms' are most often the sign of something trying to "wake up" within a person, causing both visible and hidden conflict. it views symptoms such as violence and withdrawal, as born of a "skill-less" attempt to awaken oneself. self-relationship asserts that therapeutic work should always be centered on supporting this awakening process, allowing and helping it to grow, rather than immediately practicing specific 'techniques' to 'fix' or eradicate symptoms. accordingly, although self-relationship draws upon many distinct schools and traditions of therapy and healing, it works primarily with the flow of life, to awaken 'soul' and love in a person's experience of themselves and others. it draws upon other traditions of guidance and awakening so that powerful human experiences can be used to guide someone's process of self-awakening, which can often feel painful and confused. ==introduction== self-relationship is based on the ideas of stephen gilligan, ph.d., who has spent many years exploring and building on the legacy of milton h. erickson, m.d., the father of american clinical hypnosis. erickson viewed symptoms as "naturalistic trance states" or communications from the unconscious, that could be deciphered and used to promote healthy change and healing. he developed under the umbrella of hypnotherapy numerous communication techniques to enter into dialog with a person's deepest self and consciousness. self-relationship has extended erickson's legacy. in brief, the path of self-relationship suggests that working with the inner self-relational process within a person is not only important, but is critical and often primary. thus the therapeutic or helping relationship is devoted to opening up and expanding the depth and fluidity of self-relational processes, and helping a person to experience these for themselves. a key concept in self-relationship is sponsorship. sponsorship is an attempt to support this process by holding a space open for a person to enter, explore, and test out their feelings, thoughts, and intentions, and feel trusted and safe to do so. self-relationship psychotherapy is a powerful and expanding set of ideas and practices to support such exploratio
Psychotherapy