Is it just me or have others noticed that there has been a sort of "inflation" when it comes to educational degrees? It seems that employers require a college degree for positions that once were filled by those with a high school education. Now it requires a Masters degree to qualify for jobs that once only required a college diploma. We have come to be a society of degree worshipers. Many people who are quite intelligent and capable are not even considered for job positions for which they are more than qualified because they simply lack the proverbial "piece of paper".

Some years ago I coined the term, the "virus of discontent". It refers to a habit of the ego mind to believe that if we or our lives are somehow not living up to our expectations then there is either something wrong with us or with our lives. It leads to a pattern of chronic self-judgment, disappointment, complaining and pessimism. It is often a part of chronic depression. When we fail to live up to our "ego ideal" or if life doesn't give us what we want right now, we feel less-than, unworthy, angry and stuck.

We live in an ego-based world where addiction runs rampant. I have yet to encounter an individual who does not use either an addictive substance or an addictive behavior to cope with the stresses and challenges of life in our contemporary society. Life truly is difficult and coming face to face with our genuine issues and feelings takes a great deal of courage and support. Some addictions are shamed (illicit drugs and alcohol),while others are actually elevated to a level of deserving admiration (work, romance, money/success) in our culture.

Pathwork is not about eradicating the ego but about developing a healthy ego that is connected and integrated with the Higher Self. One day as I was driving on 1-70 in the mountains of Colorado I entered that state of "driving trance" and asked myself, "What are the characteristics of a healthy ego?". These are the responses that my own Higher Self gave to me. It occured to me that these are,in fact, the goals of successful psychotherapy.

1. To develop a true sense of self-acceptance that is not based on external factors but on an internal acceptance of one's own being.

There is a good deal of confusion about the concept of "Ego" and I will seek herein to clarify what ego is to the best of my understanding. Ego is simply our human personality and we need it to function in this earthly dimension. That said, however, there is what might be called a healthy ego as compared to one that has been wounded or inflated and as a result has many defenses, distorted thoughts and projections, repressed emotion and behavior patterns that sabotage one's life and relationships. When one's ego is healthy one has a positive, self-accepting sense of self along with the ability to be self-aware and to face and work through personal issues, not only how one has been wounded but how one has wounded others. A healthy ego is psychologically mature and capable of connecting with and receiving guidance from one's Higher Self (God, Spirit) and thereby lives the truth of one's Spirit in the human dimension. An unhealthy or underdeveloped ego has often been wounded by abuse and trauma or has become inflated and falsely empowered (or both) and has separated from Spirit. In that case the ego takes over the role of being in charge of one's life. It craves security, control, being right, and being seen in a certain way. It is full of fear and uses that fear to justify its own will rather than to surrender to a Higher Power. Ego begins to form in childhood and starts to solidify in adolescence. Many people stop maturing at these stages of life and continue to operate emotionally as children or adolescents. Counseling and Pathwork help individuals face their ego issues in order to heal the wounded self, develop a healthy, mature ego and thereby transcend an immature ego-based existence. Psychological growth and maturity leads very naturally to spiritual growth and maturity. They are actually one in the same.

Many of us actually have no idea of the true Self we really are deep within. Instead we have learned to identify with what the Pathwork calls the "mask self". This is the self-idealized version of ourselves we want to believe we are and want the world to see. Our mask consists of the image we wish to project, the roles we play and the beliefs about who and what we "should" be. We play to an audience rather than come to know, accept and express our genuine thoughts and feelings.

Shame is undoubtedly the most powerful challenge we all have to overcome in order to live in our authentic selves. The distinction has been made between so-called "healthy shame" (a bit of an oxymoron, in my opinion) and "toxic shame", healthy shame being the possession of a moral compass, conscience and sense of morality and humility and "toxic shame" being an overly critical, unrelentant "super-ego" who blames us and believes we are somehow fundamentally defective.

  Pathwork is a psychospiritual approach to healing and personal growth that evolved from material that was channeled by Eva Pierrokos for a period of approximately 20 years beginning in the late 1950s. Eva discovered that she had a gift for automatic writing and connected to a spiritual teacher who identified himself simply as "The Guide"in this manner. She channeled many lectures that outlined the process of how to move from a life that was limited by our defended egos to one of living in harmony with our true Spirit and greater consciousness, love and creativity.

  Some years ago I read the then best-seller, The Road Less Travelled, by M. Scott Peck. I was very impressed from the very first sentence in the book. "Life is difficult", he wrote, and I immediately knew that this was not going to be another quick-fix self-help book that would be long-forgotten within  a few days after reading it. Instead it was an honest, straight-forward look at the process of psychotherapy as a challenging undertaking that requires hard work and commitment as well as time. Many do not have the willingness to commit to doing their work, to heal, to grow, to change. Thus those who are follow a "road less traveled", a phrase coined by poet Robert Frost who happens to hail from Vermont, my home state. However those who do take on the challenge and stick with it find that psychological healing and maturity lead very naturally to spiritual development. In fact authentic spirituality must involve doing one's psychological work. Peck's work was a large contributor to the emerging field of psycho/spiritual psychotherapy and had a profound influence on me.