POWER IN THE HELPING PROFESSION

In this two-part discussion, we will question the intricacies of what it means to be helping.

Is the desire to help enough? What happens between two people where one is in need of help and the other is the helper (the professional)? This asymmetric relationship is at the start, problematic, as it involves a power imbalance. Also, if power is an archetype, then we are all subject to its subtle ways and at times can be possessed by it, without knowing. Helping is a perilous path to navigate and the deeper understanding of one’s self is often the compass.

Where love reigns, there is no will to power; and where the will to power is paramount, love is lacking. The one is but the shadow of the other: the man who adopts the standpoint of Eros finds his compensatory opposite in the will to power, and that of the man who puts the accent on power is Eros.

- CW 7. Para 78 - C. G. Jung

Tuesdays
April 9th and 16th, 2024

4-6pm Pacific / 7-9pm Eastern

+ Video recording will be available

Recommended reading:

Power in the Helping Profession
by Adolf Guggenbühl-Craig

david pressault, Iaap

David Pressault is a Jungian analyst with a strong background in the Arts. He has a Masters in dance from UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal) and was a professional dancer and choreographer for 20 years. He developed a relationship to the unconscious through that art form. Today, he works in private practice and is a faculty member of the Ontario Association of Jungian Analysts.