The Feminine Principal

One overarching concept that informs my work on a daily basis is the feminine principle as outlined in Barbara Sullivan’s (1989) book Psychotherapy Grounded in the Feminine Principle. Metaphor, the body, and being instead of doing are basic to the feminine principle, which “values the noncompetitive creation of things that are appreciated for their own essence regardless of their comparative qualities” (p. 19). I deeply believe that a therapeutic relationship that values the feminine principle has the potentiality to allow patients to heal at their own rate and to begin to define and understand themselves on their own terms.

Sullivan (1992) examined the need to trust the deep unconscious for guidance in therapy because of the unknown origin of the painful situation that has led the client to seek help. She saw healing as an intrinsically feminine component within the human being, regardless of the individual’s gender. In the process of healing, one must trust that there is something that is wise in the acceptance of not knowing and in trusting that this deeper wisdom has an intention of its own that eventually will be revealed (p. 25).

Sullivan stated tha "the feminine orientation is not simple. It involves a painful recognition of one’s smallness, of the fact that one’s psyche contains one’s ego rather than vice versa. The core attitude is one of openness to the self and of submission to one’s fate." (p. 25)

Healing from this place of the feminine means that “the therapist begins by centering herself firmly in her awesome lack of knowing and turning toward the deep unconscious which does know what needs to be done” (p. 48). In this way, the therapist’s ego is rooted deeply in the Self, and both therapist and patient are entrenched in the unconscious, trusting that a deeper wisdom will eventually appear. This concept of the feminine principle informs all other areas of my work.