C.G. Jung, the founder of Analytical Psychology, believed that the unconscious is not only the ‘repressed’ but also a source of creativity and wisdom striving towards psychological growth and authentic self-development, what he referred to as ‘individuation’. Individuation is a process which consists in the development of a greater degree of awareness of oneself within the context of one’s personal history and present interpersonal experiences.

Analytical psychology is an approach to psychotherapy which aims to facilitate this process, by bringing balance between the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind. This approach takes a prospective, or finalistic, view of the presenting psychological suffering and symptoms. In fact, whilst one’s personal life history is very important to understand one’s current difficulties, such difficulties also contain the potential for future psychological growth and development.

‘I am not what happened to me. I am what I chose to become.’ C.G. Jung