SUZANNE HALES

I am a psychotherapist (licensed professional counselor and licensed marriage and family therapist) and Jungian Analyst in private practice in McKinney, Texas.

I teach/lecture, internationally and work with individuals, couples, families, groups, businesses as well as lead retreats at Crescent Moon Retreat Center in the Kiamichi Wilderness of Southeastern Oklahoma. I also bring the tenets of Jungian Psychology to corporations looking to create an emotionally healthy environment. I am also an internationally published author of the book Jungian Psychotherapy with Medical Professionals.

I have trained in the United States and Switzerland. The current standard of treatment in the United States focuses on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. While CBT is certainly practical and helpful, it rarely addresses our symptoms at anything more than behavioral anomalies that can be changed with our thinking and behaviours alone, and does not take into account what the troubling symptoms might be truly saying or asking. I also have trained in Marriage and Family Systems, Archetypal and Imaginal Psychology, Sports Psychology, Gestalt and Object Relations Therapy. I am also trained as a Trauma Specialist.

I trained at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich Switzerland where my educational experience was steeped in the tradition of Analytical Psychology offering the avenues of therapeutic expression through art, body work, music, sandtray, dreamwork, as well as trauma of the mind and soul.

Jungian Psychoanalysis is a form of depth psychotherapy developed by the Swiss psychiatrist, C.G. Jung. Often for one to come to therapy and have those” hard conversations” he or she must have experienced deep suffering. Suffering is a natural part of life. However, we do not have to suffer alone, or without meaning. It is a basic human need to be seen, and to be heard. Entering into a therapeutic relationship with someone provides the time and space for that deep knowing of oneself to emerge in the presence of someone without judgment. Analysis seeks to understand the source of the suffering, delving into the unconscious patterns that we call coping skills, that have been created from our past hurts. These patterns were often developed when we were children and now as adults, many of our patterns no longer serve us, but we continue to use those old patterns because they are familiar.

The healing relationship both with oneself and the “other” is the root of psychological growth, involving introspection, self care and discovery of one’s true purpose. As humans, we seek expression of our common humanity, searching for a sense of belonging as we live in a time of vast uncertainty and challenge all around us. We are in a time of great upheaval and change. We are living in a time of crisis. Jung tells us There is no right way to wholeness as healing is made up of many detours and wrong turns as we come to learn to know and trust our deepest selves along the way.

The need for help is a deep instinctual need that dwells in each of us. A crisis of some type(even if just an internal one) is there to help us begin anew although it can be extremely painful. The experience of that emotional pain presents itself via various symptoms such as feelings of being overwhelmed, feeling trapped, shame, anxiety, depression, compulsion, addiction, relationship issues, or spiritual struggle. I see my role as analyst or therapist as someone who walks with my patients for a while, offering connection and support in finding their own inner strength and undiscovered resources, encouraging one to find wholeness, purpose and meaning to life. My desire and hope is I can offer a setting that is safe and provide a place of refuge or respite, inviting a sense of healing, as I am honored to be a witness to the unfolding of the life that sits in front of me in the consulting room. For me there is no greater honor, nor more humbling task to be experienced.

One might ask why analysis? Perhaps Jung said it best” When an inner situation is not made conscious it appears outside as fate.” Many forms of therapy seek to simply relieve the symptoms one is experiencing. Analysis, while often offering symptom relief, also seeks to understand the source of such symptoms, the unconscious patterns created from wounding and trauma, and the un-lived potential in the personality that has not yet been developed.

Jungian Analysis delves below the surface of an issue and works with both conscious material and unconscious content present through work with dreams, creative process, and repeating life and relationship patterns. This discovery of what lies below the surface aids in creating deep and lasting change through increased self-awareness providing more than temporary relief of the individual symptoms.