Stage 1

The sessions in the first stage of the Integrated Life System incorporate counselling, psychotherapy and applied philosophy. Sessions typically fall into two phases;

1) Containment

In the first phase counselling sessions provide the client with an opportunity to talk openly and confidentially with a professionally trained and empathic "listener" in a non-judgmental and non-critical environment.

2) Exploration

The second phase utilises psychotherapeutic concepts and practices to identify and explore the client's current circumstances in relation to their past experience. Emotion and behaviour are influenced, and limited, by unconscious conditioning. During this phase of the work the client begins to recognize, understand, dominate and consequently liberate themselves from their own unique matrices of psychic heredity. During this phase the client is also encouraged to analyse the conscious and unconscious philosophical principles which underpin their current way of living and to engage with the original goal of philosophy as the pedagogy for a life of well-being.

Together the phases of Stage 1 prepare the client for the transformative work that wil be undertaken in the secondary phase of the Integrated Life System.
Throughout Stage 1 a combination of techniques extracted from, or inspired by, the seemingly diverse, but in reality subtly interconnected, schools of thought of psychoanalysis, yoga, sámkhya and phenomenology are utilised. These include free association, active imagination and breathing, visualisation and concentration exercises.