TED recently hosted a gathering in Malibu that addressed THe New Paradigm. My friend, visionary painter and philosopher Leigh McCloskey, was one of the speakers exploring flourishing in the new paradigm through one of his extraordinary pieces of art.

Like every field, psychotherapy has its new paradigm visionaries and one of them has written a ground breaking book for therapists, clients and anyone interested in learning about a new more expansive exploration of the therapist-client relationship and of mental health in general. Terry Marks-Tarlow, Ph.D., is the author of Psyche’s Veil: Psychotherapy, Fractals and Complexity and works in private practice in Santa Monica, California. Her website is www.markstarlow.com.

Having explored therapy several times in my life including the last time a few years ago when the therapist told me he should be paying me for the sessions, I have been disappointed with the process. So when I saw a new book on psychotherapy by a therapist, artist, and yoga practitioner who integrated fractals and complexity, I was cautiously optimistic. After finishing the book yesterday, I feel that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that if enough therapists read and put into practice the ideas in Psyche’s Veil, that the field will take a quantum leap forward.

I offer several quotes from the book that stand on their own as entry points into the brilliant mind of Marks-Tarlow and the contents of her book. She studied this field for thirty years and serves as a Research Associate at the Institute for Fractal Research in Kassel, Germany.

I became uncertain about the utility of a straightforward medical model. I deepened my sensabilities to consider the transference triangle between psychiatrist/father, psychologist/mother, Sabina/child…ultimate success required a more complex picture based on my continued openness to indirect feedback signals surrounding what I did not know.

What this tells me is that here is a wise woman who is open to moving beyond the medical model she has been taught to discover something deeper, more meaningful and richer that she can embody and transmit to her clients.

Mental health conceived as the delicate but resiliant edge of chaos provides enough order for stable, integrated foundations, plus sufficient disorder to keep things flexible, fluid and creative. This stands in contrast to derailed or pathological conditions characterized either by too much stagnant order or overly destructive disorder.

Here we see a movement away from linear, Newtonian and Cartesian thinking and into the more organic and fluid dynamics of a nature based system of thinking and the astute observations of a curious mind probing the old order’s blindfolds.

Clinical competence comes out of accruing knowledge from books and experience in service of maintaining an open, flexible, relational stance. After twenty odd years of voracious study and practice, my professional doubts ar still with me.  Happily feelings of uncertainty no longer automatically signal my deficiencies to me. I now readily accept them as part of the work, harbpring no grand illusions about their disappearance. Paradoxically my certainty about uncertainty leads me to feel more secure as a clinician. No matter how experienced I become, no matter what my talent level, contemporary non-linear science assures me that not-knowing will continue to punctuate, penetrate, hound, if not haunt my work.

In this quote, Marks-Tarlow advises her peers not to seek to become the “expert authority” who diagnoses quickly, produce a surefire treatment plan and deliver rapid results which historically has certainly been more the rule than the exception in psychotherapy and medicine in general. By suggesting that her fellow therapists consider the powerful transformational role uncertainty and chaos can play in their practices, she opens the field of possibility and serves herself, her clients and her profession in a profound way.

At the edge of chaos, there is variability and flexibility for adaption and change, yet the capacity for great stability as well. This view addresses deficiencies of a negativistic definition of mental health by providing an affirmative framework for understanding health that guides clinical work toward more concrete, yet open, individualized goals, plus the presence of creativity and growth, rather than the absence of disease.

One can only say Bravo at this new definition of mental health and the colors it brings to the therapist’s emotional palette.

Psyche’s Veil provides a glimpse at the leading edge and behind the veil of a profession in transition that is moving toward a more inclusive and thereby soul satisfying destination for therapists and clients alike.  Psyche’s Veil is filled with wonderful case examples that illuminate the applied theory that Marks-Tarlow’s work is steeped in. And, her insightful interpretation of the myth of Psyche and Eros, her wonderful drawings and the extraordinary fractal photographs that beautifully illustrate many of her important points are additional reasons why anyone with an interest in expanding their understanding of psychotherapy’s potential should read this amazing book. I am hopeful that Psyche’s Veil may one day become a classic and standard college textbook informing the next generation of Psychotherapists and Psychologists that another, far richer, worldview is now available that can deepen their relationship with themselves, others and the world.

As many readers know, in chaos theory, there is a point of systemic chaos before a reorganization at a higher level. Perhaps this is how we might hold current events so as not to become overwhelmed. The following excellent piece by Steve Behrman, aka, Swami Beyondananda is a new paradigm perspective on the economy from a cellular point of view that resonates with me. You can receive Steve’s Notes From the Trail by visiting his site and signing up for a free subscription.

“With the new bailout plan, the U.S. dollar will be worth slightly less than a dollar in Monopoly money. And the good news? Finally energy medicine is being used to heal the financial world — we have homeopathic currency, diluted down to a mere trace of real value.”

— Swami Beyondananda

A funny thing happened on the way to the election. The house of credit cards economy collapsed. Interestingly but not surprisingly, neither of the two major candidates were able to get out of the box of conventional economics enough to do any more than invite their fellow Americans aboard the bailout express to financial train wreck.

Interestingly and more surprisingly, Americans from all political perspectives have risen up with such outrage and awareness that the railroaded bill is now off on a siding. Curious indeed to see Michael Moore and very conservative Republican congressfolk on the same side, but this economic collapse may be the thing that puts the “unum” back in “e pluribus unum.” Continue Reading »

Wade Frazier is one of the most brilliant and tireless researchers I know. Wade has lived an extraordinary life having come face to face with many real life situations most of us will never encounter. In his recent essay, he covers essential territory for those interested in becoming part of birthing an abundance paradigm and leaving behind the idea of scarcity that has ruled our lives for too many generations.

If you are lazy, in denial or are one of the few making fortunes at the expense of the many and the earth, this article is definitely not for you. If you are willing to open your mind to new possibilities and leave behind many of the assumptions that have dominated Western thought for far to long and led us to the multiple crises we face, you may find this article thought provoking and empowering.

If you begin reading and find yourself not wanting to continue because what you read is disturbing, continue. We grow by moving through previous limits. If you find this information compelling and are interested in exploring more, you’ll find thousands of pages at this writers site. And, if you have not read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, you may also want to check that book out. The author, John Perkins is another man who lived in the underbelly of our economic system, decided he could no longer play that game and felt compelled to share the truth behind the headlines. Both these men are true heroes and patriots living in the New Paradigm. The world needs many more like them.

Nearly all of today’s economic activism is focused on more equitably slicing up humanity’s scarce economic pie, not making the pie a hundred times larger.