In many people there exist powerful and potentially good psychic energies which have for one reason or another become lost to consciousness, or have never really become established there. They remain in the unconscious - though from there they can send up disturbing and painful feelings. This is often because, due to their repression, these energies can develop negative qualities. In so far as they reach consciousness at all, they can give rise to anxiety and distress, or anger, or other effects. For example, a person's energy and confidence may suffer, and so may their motivation, self-esteem and their relationship to others.

Part of the problem is that these repressed energies are in the unconscious. Not only are they unavailable in their positive form, they cannot readily be reasoned with or encountered in their negative, repressed form either. This can create suffering that is hard for a person to deal with alone because its nature and its roots are obscure.

The anxiety, or depression, or anger, or whatever the problem is, may be thought of as an inner voice whose pain is that it has not properly been heard, nor its potentially valuable contribution to the life of the individual been used. The pain is often related to this repression, which can be seen as a contortion of the persons natural psychic formation.

In Jungian psychotherapy, feelings and images associated with repressed energies are gradually brought to consciousness. There is a strong emphasis on appreciation and insight : insight into the nature of the repressed images and feelings, and into their potential, rather than what is felt to be frightening, disgusting or shameful about them. This reassessment of what amounts to a lost or undeveloped part of the psyche can lead to its incorporation into consciousness. Thus the images, feelings and energy can be transformed by being accepted and allowed to come into life, and consciousness can be transformed, not just by having something that it did not have before, but by the relief of a distortion that was spanning conscious and unconscious and sending out messages of distress.

An important aspect of Jungian psychotherapy is dream-work. Dreams that are recorded and looked at can be very helpful in bringing the unconscious aspects of problems to consciousness. Other avenues can also be used for this, such as drawing or painting. It is also important to look at the narrative of a person's life, and at their relationship with their sexuality, partners, work and leisure. In addition to this, for some people, a spiritual or religious dimension comes into the picture as well.

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