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What is Process Work?

Process Work is a framework for working with change and conflict. An off-shoot of Jungian analytic psychotherapy, Process Work was originally developed by Jungian author and analyst Arnold Mindell as a therapeutic modality. Over the last thirty years of application and research, Process Work is now more commonly described as an “awareness practice,” as its methods are applied in a wide range of situations, as a form of inner work or self-therapy, as a facilitation method for group work, conflict situations, and large public forums, as a therapy method for individuals, couples, and families, and as a method for working with comatose and remote states of consciousness. Process Work methods have been also been applied to other mental health issues such as addictions, depression, anxiety and panic disorders, working with chronic symptoms, death and dying, grieving and loss.

Process Work is based on the simple, yet profound premise that the fluid transfer of information and experience between subjective, imaginative states of mind and our ‘everyday,’ objective, rational mind is critical for our psychological and physical well-being. Research into consciousness, health, creativity, and psychology increasingly supports this idea that the mind is much more than our everyday rational intelligence. The power of emotions, feelings, fantasies, dreams, and other so-called non-linear or non-rational states of consciousness play a key role in our physical health, emotional stability, and psychological well-being.

Arnold Mindell, founder of Process Work, describes consciousness as a spotlight that shines on some things, and leaves other things unnoticed. The mind selectively focuses on certain experiences, and marginalizes others, creating ongoing identity conflicts. What we call ‘awareness’ or consciousness is in fact a very narrow slice of our total attention. For this reason, Process Work proposes that we pay special attention to the less-known, disavowed or troublesome aspects of our awareness, especially those that conflict with our sense of identity. Through an attitude of embracing problems as valuable, and a precise, signal-based, awareness technique, the Process Work practitioner investigates and unfolds problems, as vital aspects of our wholeness, allowing us to connect more creatively with their potential and inherent power. Thus, following the teleological paradigm of C.G. Jung, Process Work views problems as attempted solutions, symbols of possibility, rather than only products of the past.

Living all aspects of our wholeness may bring us into conflict with our belief systems and the culture in which we live, and we may lack the skills needed to negotiate a way to live out these parts of ourselves in such contexts. This difficulty is characterized as an ‘edge’ because it represents a boundary to our personal identities. Process Work methods work to increase our sense of wholeness, and ameliorate the symptoms associated with the identify conflict that everyday consciousness predicts. It conveys an attitude that problems are valuable, seeds of potential and possibility. An important goal of Process Work is to help the individual explore such apparent limits and ways to live their expanded identity.

WorldWork – Conflict Resolution, Facilitation, and Group and Organizational Growth

Worldwork is a framework for analyzing conflict and group process, and a set of methods for facilitating groups and working with conflict. Developed by Jungian analyst and author, Dr. Arnold Mindell, Worldwork is based on the principle of deep democracy, the idea that sustainable group life depends on all the voices, positions and roles in a given group being heard and valued. A deep democracy approach to group work recognizes that growth and creativity frequently comes from the margins, in the disavowed experiences and perceptions of group members. As in individual experience, conflict, difficulties and disturbances in group life are treasured as unique opportunities for transformation, community development, creativity and growth.

Deep democracy is a diversity principle that goes beyond the measurable components of diversity and representation. It not only refers to people, positions and voices that may otherwise be marginal or underrepresented, but also refers to states of consciousness, emotions, feelings, and other non-tangible experiences that have profound influences on group life.

Worldwork’s roots lie in psychotherapy. Mindell developed his conflict resolution approach based on the premise that people can not always be rational, calm or verbally articulate in the heat of conflict. Unlike other forms of conflict resolution that request people agree to certain ground rules of expression, Worldwork employs methods designed to work with the spontaneous, emotionally charged interactions that often occur in conflict.

The Worldwork framework views the unequal distribution of rank, power and privilege as the heart of many conflict situations. Following its deep democracy approach, Worldwork methods address rank not only as a material, socio-political phenomenon, where rank differences are based on factors such as socio-economic status, race, gender, age, and sexual orientation, but also as non-measurable affects and powers available to everyone, such as wisdom, psychological well-being, personal power, credibility, self-confidence, and others. All dimensions of rank are factored into the conflict situation. Participants are encouraged to recognize and to use their rank to create solutions and spark creative growth. While in many situations, rank is often perceived as the source of conflict, Worldwork methods view it as the seed of its solution.

Process Work with groups and organizations takes many forms. Its principles and methods have been applied to different types of groups and organizations in various fields. It is used as a method for conflict resolution and mediation, organizational change and development, community development, leadership training, and facilitation of group processes and public forums.

Worldwork facilitation requires an experiential and self-reflective training that focuses on the facilitator’s development, and on learning to maintain a centered mind in the midst of conflict, volatility, unpredictable behavior and emotionality. Self-awareness includes understanding how one's own rank influences facilitation by filtering perceptions, and creating biases and assumptions, and how it is reflected in subtle communication cues and ways of speaking. Finally, training in Worldwork includes an analysis of the group-as-field, learning how to see the group as a self-organizing system, and to recognize individuals and their positions as roles and polarities of the system or field. In particular, an exact and detailed training in subtle and non-verbal communication is required to become skilled at recognizing the invisible and non-tangible roles and polarities influencing the group.