Developmental

This layer's four quadrants are based on the work of Ken Wilber, who is not a therapist but a philosopher. This developmental framework also contains, and makes sense of, the many seemingly disparate and contradictory schools of psychology and psychotherapy. The contradictions are only apparent, because the techniques are appropriate at various levels. See also spiral dynamics.

We are all operating on every level simultaneously, but as we grow, most of our energy is occupied with the tasks of a particular level.

You may notice that I do not discuss any arts-based approaches. That is because the arts are flexible and powerful enough to apply to all the developmental stages of our life.

Attachment

Often referred to as the pre-egoic phase, but I think the notion of attachment is clearer and juicier. This is the fundamental task of the very earliest years of life, and disruptions at this developmental level lead to profound woundings such as narcissistic, schizoid, and borderline personality disorders. This is the domain so richly explored by the British school of object relations.

Egoic

Once a person successfully leaves infancy and enters childhood and adolescence, a new set of concerns arise, having to do with morality, social rules, a sense of identity within the wider community, and ultimately individuating from our family of origin and creating a life as a functional adult. Most of us spend most of our lives dealing with egoic concerns. Difficulties dealing with the earlier egoic issues are the domain of traditional Freudian psychotherapy -- integrating material repressed into the unconscious. Later egoic issues are the "sweet spot" for cognitive and narrative therapies, as these sorts of problems typically arise from self-talk, the "story" we make of our lives, and how we define ourselves.

Existential

The ego is a construct, fabricated out of our story of who we are. In cognitive and narrative approaches, therapy involves creating a more satisfying story. But what lies beyond the story? What if our life seems great on the surface, we've fulfilled our dreams, have engaging work and healthy relationships -- but something is missing? This is the domain of the existential crisis -- trivialized in our culture as a "mid-life" crisis, but in reality a developmental opportunity that is often resisted and refused. However, some people choose to dive into this existential confrontation with life beyond the safety of our personal and cultural roles.

Existential growth does not necessarily require abandoning belief in God or life after death. Instead, it is centered on life in the here and now, and integrating mind and body. Gestalt therapy, existential therapy and somatic therapy approaches are fruitful in this domain.

Transpersonal

For the few who have successfully navigated the existential stage of development, there is another stage of development. This is the transpersonal, or spiritual, developmental stage. This stage involves moving beyond personal identity completely, and connecting with the larger forces of the universe.

A true transpersonal developmental step is quite rare. Much more common is the spiritual bypass, where a person avoids the pain of grappling with the tasks of an earlier stage by "flying" or "floating" into spiritual practice. This can actually be quite harmful, and it requires great discernment to tell whether a person is doing a bypass or really ready for transpersonal growth.

Of course, we all have a spiritual dimension, and spiritual practice can enrich our lives wherever we are developmentally. But people who have matured into the transpersonal developmental level are the sages and saints.

But even sages and saints have their difficulties. Transpersonal psychotherapy is as much spiritual practice as it is therapy.