Session script: The Golden Key
Preliminary talk:

The Client had suffered from depression for years. Her subconscious must have stored experiences, which need to be looked at. This can be done on a reality level (memories) as well as on a symbolic level. This story demonstrates the wisdom inherent in the subconscious mind and the fact that it expresses the urge towards self-healing. The synergetic process is very visible by observing the point at which the old structures topple and new structures evolve. The new order is characterised by heightened self-awareness.

Trial session (First individual session)

Client is lying on a mattress, wearing blindfolds ... relaxation induction ... going downstairs ... seeing a corridor with a number of doors ...

Therapist: What do you see?

Client: This corridor - it's not a closed corridor, it is open to its right side, like a raging, torrential river, a gorge I once visited. There's a passageway with doors only at the left side. They are wooden doors, looking rather heavy. As if they are made of oak or so. I can see only the first two of them, the corridor taking a turn. But there seem to be a few more doors after the bend.

Therapist: Good. Now feel attracted to any one of those doors, the first two or any other of the following. Just tell me which one it is you choose.

Client: Well, I’ll take the first one.

Therapist: Stay there, at this first door. In a moment when you open this door, your subconscious mind can express itself. You will see something or guess something, be it memories, fantasies, whatsoever. Some issue will emerge. Whatever issue or message that might be, you could describe it with a word. And this word is now appearing on the door. What's written there?

Client: Tree.

Therapist: Okay. Are you ready to open the door now with the word 'tree' written upon it?

Client: Yes.

Therapist: Then open it, now.

[The sound of a door opening being played back from CD]

Client: I can see the top of a tree. It's not possible for me to enter this room, because then I would fall down very deeply. It's rather a window and looking out I can see it's going down way deep. The trunk of the tree is down there, but in between there are many branches with many leaves.

Therapist: Just try - on a fantasy level - to let yourself float down.

Client: (laughing) Yes, okay.

Therapist: Look how it feels to float. Do you have the feeling you are falling fast or slowly?

Client: Slowly. I have the time to look at everything in detail. It's a beautiful tree, a chestnut tree, I suppose.

Therapist: Talk directly to it. Tell it: You are a beautiful tree.

Client: Hey, you are a beautiful tree.

Therapist: On this level everything you encounter is able to answer to you. Maybe the tree will give you an answer. Listen to it, if the tree will give you an answer maybe it wants to tell you something.

Client: The tree says it knows it's beautiful, but it feels somehow restricted. And it says it's not the right place for a tree because it wants to live in light and sun, not in a dark hole like this. Everything is enclosed in stone walls; it's like a cave where a lot of water is dripping from the walls. Yes, this place is much too restricted for a tree and it's a magnificent tree.

Therapist: What's going on inside you, seeing this?

Client: I would like to help the tree.

Therapist: Tell him directly.

Client: Hey tree, I'd like to help you.

Therapist: Maybe he's got an idea, maybe it can even tell you how to help it.

Client: Tell me, tree, in case I could help you, how to go about it. - I should find something, and having found it, something made of gold, the walls would drop down by themselves. It must be some talisman, something golden.

Therapist: Okay. Are you ready to start on this big search?

[The synergetic process is initiated by always following up on the last remark made by the client. In this way every remark of the client indicates the direction to take.]

Client: Yes, the tree says I can find it. It won't be in vain. The tree can't find it because it's rooted in the ground and cannot move.

Therapist: Yeah, that's quite symbolic. Where you are rooted - the tree is a representation of an inner part of you - you can't find it, and if you go on a journey, the walls will fall apart. Do you want to go on this journey now? Do you want to seek and search?

[The subconscious mind calls for new unknown paths to be followed]

Client: No, not yet, the tree should tell me some more.

Therapist: Okay. Ask him.

Client: Dear tree, I'm willing to go on the search for you, but I would like to know a few more things beforehand, for example, how come that you are stuck there in this dungeon instead of standing out there in the fields. Can you tell me? - The tree is sad. That’s not what he had in mind. It didn't want to grow big and magnificent down there, but rather on a huge meadow with light, sunshine, birds and so on.

Therapist: May I ask the tree a question?

[The guide also can ask question of the inner manifestation of energy patterns if the client approves.]

Client: Yes.

Therapist: Tree, I would like to ask you to show R. what you are representing. As a tree you are a symbolic expression. Is there an experience in R.'s life, which has caused you to live in this dungeon? If so, please show me this experience or the background thereof. – Now look at what's coming up.

Client: I feel like crying. But now there's no picture.

Therapist: But you are feeling the emotion of the tree. Do the following: say to your crying: Crying, I'm aware of you.

Client: Crying, I'm aware of you. - The crying feels positive about my being aware of it.

Therapist: Then tell it so directly.

[The direct approach is important for a process of integration of the energy patterns.]

[Conditioning and the childhood environment lie on the tree like an evil spell.]

Client: Crying, my being aware of you feels good for you. There has been a spell, a spell cast over the tree. In the beginning its intention was to grow and become big on that field.

And then, when it started to grow, the spot where it settled proved to be under a spell. And it already had put down its roots and couldn't get away, because it can't move. The wall started to grow and it had no defence. But still it was able to grow big and magnificent - at least it was able to push the walls back with its branches so as not to be impeded by them too much. But they cut it off from the light and nice things. But still it is big and magnificent, and it managed to grow fast enough to some of its branches to cause gaps and holes in the walls. Thus I was able to come in through that one door and through these same gaps and holes it will be able to get the key, in case I find it. Then everything will collapse. And no branches will be broken by this collapse, but the walls are simply going to dissolve into dust.

[Dissolution rather than collapse: What's the key going to be like? It must have to do with looking at, confronting and accepting, - the principle of the synergetic transformation process.]

Therapist: Are you talking now about your life? When you're listening to your tape once more, ask yourself if you might not be talking about your life. Have you ever felt there were walls in your life? And you were able to push away the walls and to maintain a certain amount of freedom. And if you were able to push away the walls and to maintain a certain amount of freedom. And if you are able to find the golden key in yourself the walls are going to dissolve completely. Yes, you can start your search now, if you want. But you don't have to. Today it's just about opening doors.

Client: No, I'd like to start the search now. It feels like it won't be long till I find it.

Therapist: The images tell the same. The tree is full and magnificent. Go ask the tree how long it will take you. Will it take a long time or a short time?

Client: No, it feels somehow like I don't need to ask the tree. It knows somehow that I'm going to find the key for it. And how long that is going to take - I'll know myself, for it only depends on me. The tree can't tell me how long it will take, because ... it's me who is doing the search; it's me who determines how long it takes.

[The individual's own free will is the decisive factor for self-development.]

Therapist: Okay. What could facilitate you to accomplish this search even faster, easier or better? Ask the search itself and listen to what it tells you.

Client: I already know. With the help of a bird, a white bird, I think it's a seagull, which has accompanied me during my whole life anyway ... there it comes down from the a branch and settles on my shoulder.

Therapist: Greet it in your own way.

Client: (laughing) Nice to see you again.

Therapist: It has been accompanying you for a long time?

Client: Yes.

Therapist: What has been its purpose?

Client: It kept reminding me that it's so wonderful to fly (crying).

[Many people have a secret inner companion or guardian angel with which they communicate.]

[Flying is related to freedom. To be able to fly again (in your inner world) has the symbolic meaning to be able to feel light and detached.]

Therapist: Look here, your sadness has resurfaced again. Let it be there, your sadness or your longing. Flying is beautiful, that's fine.

Client: During the most difficult times of my life I stopped wanting to be a bird and also stopped doing everything related to it. At that time I stopped allowing it to land on my shoulder.

Therapist: Does it resent you now?

Client: No, it always was very understanding and now it tells me that it followed me (laughs) and I didn't notice because it flew behind me.

Therapist: Tell it, now.

Client: I didn't notice you flying behind me. Thank you for doing that.

Therapist: Good, you've never been alone. Even if you didn't notice, it has been there all the same. Start flying if you want to remember how good that feels. Ask the bird if it will allow you to climb onto its back.

Client: May I fly with you? Just once around the tree? Yes, it is flying in front of me and I am flying behind. We fly around the tree. It shows me different beautiful branches, where it is easy to land.

Therapist: Enjoy your flying. Look how good it feels.

[Soft music]

Client: It feels like flying again after a long time – it’s like riding a bike. You feel you still can do it, though at first it feels a bit awkward - everything is going just fine and that's wonderful. And now I melt with the bird. I catch up with it and now we are flying in one body so that I'm the bird.

Therapist: Yes, the bird is a part of you, which corresponds to your energy, you are becoming it now. Your mind becomes one with the bird.

Client: Still, though we are flying in one body, I can talk to it and it shows me things I don't know yet, because I just met the tree for the first time.

Therapist: Start searching for the key now if you want to. Now that you are able to fly you can ask questions, whatever you want. Look at what you want to do next.

Client: Yes, something is still missing. It's not enough to just fly off. I think I need some direction to where I can find the key.

Therapist: Just ask the bird of the tree if you should maybe check first one of the other doors, you might find something of importance there.

[Inner world figures always give helpful advice]

Client: Dear tree, should I first be looking behind the other doors to find something there that might be important in finding the key? - Yes, I should. Okay, now I fly onto the top of the doorframe and perch there.

Therapist: Well, you know what to do. Say goodbye to the tree knowing you can come back and continue your search there at any time. Tell it you are going on your search now checking the other doors.

Client: Dear tree, bye-bye, I'll see you later. First I'm going to take a look at the other doors to see if I'm going to find something, which helps me with the search for the key. Now the tree rustles with its leaves to say good-bye. It's happy now. As I'm being a bird now, I can fly through the corridor.

[The quality of 'lightness' helps her to move forward.]

Therapist: Look at what other doors you are going to find and which one attracts you first.

Client: Now I've reached that curve in the corridor, where I could see only the first two or three doors - now the doors start to look differently. I'm glad I'm able to fly, because there is no more corridor, it's rather like a rock face with doors in it. You have to fly there or else lower yourself down on a rope.

Therapist: It's like you need to be able to fly to get near those doors. How many doors are there?

Client: I see only one door, with a barred window through which you can look inside. I know there are other doors too, shaped differently, round or so. But I think I prefer to look at the door with the window. I can fly up in front of the door and take a look through the window. But I can't get in; the barred windows are too narrow.

Therapist: I suggest you stay in front of the door and again you allow a word to appear which tells you what this door is about. Look at what word will emerge.

Client: Desert.

Therapist: Desert. Are you ready to open the door to the desert, whatever this may be?

Client: Yes.

Therapist: Open it now.

[Sound of a door opening]

[Desert: typical of depression]

[With the help of sound effects, material can be brought to the surface, as acoustic stimuli directly address the right hemisphere of the brain.]

Therapist: What are you aware of now?

Client: Sand dunes with a glimmering tinge of red or orange. But sand isn't the right word, it looks more like rocks and it glimmers like a sunset. It's dreamy - everything is kind of dry, brownish, no greenery to be seen, and it's vast. The sky in the distance is beautiful, but it's somehow dreary.

Therapist: How do you feel about it? What's your basic feeling?

Client: I like the vastness of it, but I hate the dreariness of it all.

Therapist: Where do you find similarly uncomfortable feelings in your life? Let the feeling show you where it comes from, how it originated. Look at what memory is coming up, right now.

Client: I feel somehow disoriented. That’s uncomfortable because I would like to know what I should, could or want to do.

Therapist: Where is that feeling of disorientation coming from? Let a memory come to mind. When did it originate?

Client: Not a long time ago. In general I'd say the last four years. I was always looking for something that just feels right. I never found it, I always was oriented otherwise. I thought other people would find it for me. That never proved to be so and by now I've started to realise that no one is able to know it as well as I do. But still I haven't found it yet; I don't know yet what is the right thing for me to do.

Therapist: But you know you are the only one to be able to know it.

Client: That's right, and I'm already more trusting to find it. But the kind of energy rush that tells me: Now I know! has not happened yet. That’s what I am waiting for.

Therapist: Okay. Go into the desert. That's where it is. If you feel trusting enough, dare to go into the desert. Enter it! Your feeling is: everything is dreary, but the vastness is there too.

Client: I'd prefer to fly - walking would take too long.

Therapist: Just look if you are able to. If your subconscious tells you it is possible, then fly. If you are able to fly, you fly. That's the simple truth.

Client: Yes, it's possible, because I'm still merged with the bird. It is much nicer too, because there's a lot of space and I don't bump into anything, more freedom. I don't have to be thoughtful or considerate. I'm flying and feeling different temperatures. I'm flying with closed eyes now and through my wings I can feel that it's really hot, like in a sauna, then again it feels cool or cold and windy. By feeling the qualities of the air, I can feel at the same time the moods prevailing in everything. There still is that heaviness, sadness, feeling of death.

Therapist: Say: heaviness, sadness, and death - I'm aware of you.

[The images are symbolic expressions of areas of the subconscious mind. These have to be brought back to life. This is done also in the currently prevailing techniques of visualisation - but what happens there is that reality is overlaid with wishful imaginations, that's strategic manipulation, not real change. It's positive thinking on an image level.]

[The synergetic therapy process topples old structures by means of confrontation - a new structure emerges via self-organisation.]

[By becoming aware of what seems to be dead it is brought back to life.]

Client: Heaviness, sadness and death, I'm aware of you. And now, at the horizon I see the sun coming up. The sky had been dark red for quite some time already, but the sun wasn't there yet, but it is showing now.

Therapist: Talk directly to it: sun, I see you rise.

Client: Sun, I see you rise. You are a sign, sun.

Therapist: Yes, talk to it directly. I listen to you talking to the different aspects coming up.

Client: Please, sun tell me what you want me to see. It shows me its rays - they shine over the desert towards something - I'm to fly along the rays to arrive at what's important. There's a ray near the ground - everything is really grey and dreary there. I'm flying along, I reach an oasis, still quite melancholic, but there's something shiny. It looks like that key, that talisman. When I was talking to the tree I saw what it looked like.

And now it's there, shining, with a chain, though I had seen it without a chain ... Still there's something missing. I can't just take away the talisman.

Therapist: Then ask it what else you have to do before you can take it with you.

Client: Talisman, what do I have to do in order to take you, to take you to the tree? Now that ray of light is hitting the talisman directly - and around it there is an additional circle of light - that's all there is which shines brightly. Everything else is dark and gloomy; it's sad and heavy, too. The talisman says I cannot take it before everything else is lit up as well, before the desert resuscitates all by itself. Then I can take it - the talisman is the key for the desert too and it seems like it is grown into the rock where it is sitting. I'd not be able to take it.

[The client first has to resuscitate her inner desert to be free. But how?]

[Here again an inner image is asked - it is able to give advice because everything is connected to everything else.]

Therapist: You know what has to happen, but you are not yet able to take it with you because it is still glued to the rock. What area in your inner world has to be resuscitated - ask directly - for those last images are also a representation of your inner world. There is area in you like a desert, something in you is sad and heavy, something in you has to be resuscitated - only then can you get the key, to free the tree, that is to say: You free yourself.

Client: Okay. Can I ask the talisman what to do?

Therapist: Sure.

Client: Hey, talisman, what can I do in order to revive the desert and to take you with me? - mmh.. - Dear talisman, I don't understand you, it's indistinct, or something is on top of it so I can't understand. Please say it again. - I think it tells me to fly to a well; something has fallen into that well. If I get it out, everything goes automatically. I'm flying now over the oasis village, I see the well. It has a stone edge and a stray root. It's painted white.

Therapist: A well means going into one's depths.

Client: Yes, now I'm sitting on the walled edge and look inside. It really is quite deep. It's a pitch black, deep well. It feels like it can't possibly be a normal well. It's more like a tunnel.

Therapist: And that's where you have to go?

Client: Yes.

Therapist: You don't have to do it today. What do you want to do?

Client: Now!

Therapist: Now, let's go.

[To enter the deep. The tale of the Frog Prince, too, contains this wisdom.]

[Trial sessions are not yet meant to be therapy, they just demonstrate the approach. Synergetic therapy and its contents can be quite intense.]

Client: Somehow I first have to change. Now I'm becoming a little monkey, which is able to climb down on a rope. Now I'm a little white monkey climbing down that rope. I notice I'm not at all afraid. I'm amazed how beautiful this inner wall of the well suddenly becomes. Though it is dark and gloomy, but it is not cold and damp, it's just not illuminated. There are a lot of little alcoves containing beautiful things, which are not visible because it's too dark. But they are not the real thing. I'm just amazed because I didn't expect such things to be there. It's going on and on. Climbing down that rope, I'm turning about it in a spiral fashion.

Therapist: Is it very deep?

Client: Yes, the light above is only just pinhead size. There’s no end to it. I don't like it any more. Now it's all black. I can't see any more beautiful things in those alcoves.

Therapist: Okay, again talk directly to this corridor or well.

Client: Now, well, I don't see anything nice in you anymore. Now it's like the well is changing, as if I was inside of one of the arms of an octopus. And now it's a living thing I'm in, no more stone edge.

Therapist: See what you want to do. Is there an impulse? What do you want to do?

Client: To get access to the centre, from where many corridors are leading off. Now I know it's not the only one, but I totally slipped into that well.

Therapist: You want to go to the centre?

Client: Yes, and now I'm there, and it's hot.

Therapist: Say: It's hot in there.

Client: It's hot in there and it's tight.

Therapist: What does this remind you of? Has there been such a situation in your life? It so, let a picture arise, for a short moment.

Client: It's similar to that sauna heat. The picture coming up is a fire red dome, like flames, similar to a temple dome. But down below everything is black and heavy like concrete, like slick or mud, thick and viscous and uncomfortable. When I was a child I repeatedly had a nightmare, and now it feels similar, though the pictures aren't the same, but this black slick is similar. In the dream there were elevator cables, but the feeling is the same.

[I'm trying to establish a connection to her real life, but she doesn't respond to that. The story is unfolding exclusively on a symbolic level. Typically it is possible to interchange all levels of energy expression directly, as the goal is just energy transformation. Content is of secondary importance.]

Therapist: Tell that slick: You appeared in my nightmare, or so. Talk directly to it.

Client: Hey, slick, you appeared in my nightmares already, in form of elevator cables. Do you remember? - Yes, the slick remembers, it says it can take the form of anything, which has to do with fear, which has to do with pain, which is uncomfortable, slick just being one of its forms of existence. And it tells me that it is also present behind the other doors and that it can take all possible forms.

Therapist: You just entered the core, and from every other door you would land there.

Client: Yes.

Therapist: I suggest the slick should tell you of its world, of its mysteries. You have accessed it now. It seems to be willing to show you something, for it already appeared to you in form of nightmares. I suggest you talk to it. Ask it to show you its world.

Client: Dear slick, I know you from the nightmares I had as a child. Can you show me or tell me what you already wanted to tell and show me then? I'm here now for you to show me. - It's happy.

Therapist: Sure it's happy. 20 years ago it already tried to call you, and now at last you've come. Of course it's happy.

[Getting acquainted with the 'shadow' transforms it.]

[Freeing oneself is possible through awareness and acceptance.]

Client: And now, as I'm looking at it, it starts to shimmer a bit, like gold. It tells me to sit down on it like in a nutshell - it's not like a morass, it's more like glue - and it wants to take me with itself.

Therapist: If you are ready, do it.

Client: Yes. And now we are riding through one of its arms.

Therapist: Look where it guides you. It seems to want to show you something.

Client: Now we left the arms behind, they look like they have broken open and we leave the dark behind us ... it's like a mixture of blue sky and green grass ... it's beautiful.

Therapist: You didn't expect that.

Client: Nope.

Therapist: Tell it that.

Client: No I wouldn't have expected that. Why didn't I want to go with you before? It’s so beautiful. - It tells me: Because it didn't look beautiful, but it had to be that way, black and frightened, in order for me to develop the trust that it can change into something beautiful, the darkness being a protection for the beautiful. For if it is openly beautiful everybody could enter it.

Therapist: Only the serious or trusting seekers are able to see the beauty behind it.

Client: Yes, but ... those who just want to enter it can enter through those corridors, but it's as dreary as in the desert. Only by riding on that slick everything changes.

Therapist: That is to say, you have to move towards the unpleasant.

Client: Yes, but it's not unpleasant really. The moment I entered it, it started changing. That thick, viscous slick became that deep blue which wraps me up, which is not heavy, but smooth.

Therapist: You just discovered the secret of synergetics. It's like the frog prince: the slippery, disgusting frog turns into a prince as soon as you accept it. It's always the same: If you accept the unpleasant you are just accepting an aspect of yourself that had been unpleasant - then it starts to change, and then you are freed from it. Then you contribute to the desert to become green again. And by going into the desert now there must be some green spot there. If you are ready, go there. Go into the desert in your mind and look what changes have happened.

Client: Oh, yes! (Laughing uproariously) Grass is sprouting everywhere!

Therapist: And now you have discovered the key. Do you notice?

Client: Yes!

Therapist: Now you can go where you want to.

[Change happens only if you go directly with the 'slick'. Only by confronting the 'slick' deeply and directly one gains access to the 'beautiful', as a 'reward'. The client found it out by herself. It works like a universal law.]

[The secret of synergetic therapy: the old structure is toppled - a new organic structue emerges automatically.]

Client: Okay, first I'm going to fly over that beautiful landscape there with the meadow and the waterfalls! It's like paradise! It's so beautiful.

[Soft music]

Therapist: Now do what you like. It's your world, your paradise. You are its master.

Client: I'm flying about and I see the grass in the desert sprouting more and more. I know the desert is changing into a paradise more and more, and I am at two points in time simultaneously. By flying about I'm in the future of what's sprouting now. I know I can't return to how it was before. As I'm flying I notice that I would fly back into this paradise if I would attempt to fly back. Because during the time of my return flight, everything would have grown so much that I would arrive at where I came from.

Therapist: The old conditions are irretrievably lost. There is no more desert in you, there is now more chance for you to remember it, for during the time it would take it would be changing again.

Client: Yes, and now, as it's possible only to fly in paradise, just because it has become impossible to rediscover the desert, which now is overgrown with grass and all those other plants, I can see the key shining on one of the rocks - it is there, I can take it with me.

[She has freed the key - not intellectually, but experimentally. Reflection to take place in the left hemisphere of the brain is not decisive, energetic balancing occurs in the whole brain which in turn leads to lasting harmonisation.]

Therapist: Look, it must be loose by now.

Client: Yes, it is. I take it in my beak and I fly on.

Therapist: Now you found the key.

Client: And now I can fly back to the tree.

Therapist: Wonderful, yeah.

Client: And now that door with the barred window is also gone. Now there's an open cliff from which I can look at the vastness of the sea. The things that had been sandstorm colour before are now white, shining marble. I fly on, and everything else where I came from has changed. That old corridor which reminded me of that gorge - there's much more sky above it. There are no more vaults, the gorge is gone. I'm flying an, and there's a beautiful tree there. Though I didn't bring him the key yet, I know it is the tree to which I should bring it. The walls are gone, too. Oh, that's wonderful to be able to fly around it!

Therapist: Tell it that.

[The new structure appears by itself, without active participation]

Client: Neither do I have the feeling that there are doors left through which I could go, because the walls around the doors also collapsed.

Therapist: Now you are perfectly free in your consciousness or your subconscious. There are no more specialised entrances. Now do what you want, whatever you wish. It is your world, your home, your space. You are part of it.

Client: I attach the key to the lower branches of the tree, loosely, the chain going round the tree. That talisman is glimmering and shining and radiating and it has found its proper place. The tree is shaking it is so happy to let the wind go through its leafs, that he doesn't rustle its leaves all by itself, but that now it is in connection to everything that exists.

[The key of transformation on the level of the unconscious mind: Synergetic Therapy]

...Now I'm flying to the sea, which is nearby, I'm sitting at the beach, enjoying the wind flowing through my feathers. I'm looking at the waves and I'm filled with gratitude that I was allowed to find the key for the tree.

[Sound of the ocean turf]

Client: As I'm sitting here, several things happen. I become a fish and by becoming a fish and letting the waves take me with them, I sort of dissolve and I'm everything at the same time. I'm no longer just the fish or the bird - I am everything.

Therapist: Yeah. How does it feel to be everything? Your consciousness is in everything.

Client: It's strange. I am the waves flowing over the sand and I'm feeling both simultaneously. One time I feel like being the wave and then like the sand and both at the same time. It's like I am one huge body, able to feel everything.

[There is appears a higher order on the perceptual level as well: the connection to the whole has been restored.]

Synergetic Therapy Institut  Kamala
EMail: kamala@synergetik.net
Homepage: http://www.synergetic-therapy.com
Amselweg 1
D-35649 Bischoffen-Roßbach; Germany
Tel.: 06444 1359, 6014
Fax.: 06444 6136