Process Work

A Less than Brief Introduction to Process Work

This is a basic introduction to Process Work and was written for those who have little or no prior formal experience or training in Process Work.

The term process has commonly taken on a particular meaning based on the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead (1979), which extended concepts from quantum physics into philosophy. Arnold Mindell’s (2000c) work has, similarly, extended the theories and application of concepts from quantum physics into Jungian, social, and organizational facilitation. Since quantum physics is based on subjective observation, Process Work is not seen as a metaphor for quantum physics, rather, physics is seen as a metaphor for process.

Mindell began publishing his findings in 1982 with Dreambody: The Body’s Role in Revealing the Self. Process Work is a practical methodology for uncovering deeper meaning in a broad range of human experience by following experiences in the moment through tracking signals, synchronicities, and somatic experience. Process Work has roots in Jungian and Gestalt paradigms, Shamanism, Taoism, sociology, and physics; and application in all aspects of human experience including large group work on issues of conflict and oppression. Amy Mindell (2002) defines process as “a constant flow of experience, continual change.”

From the point of view of someone interested in conflict transformation and peacebuilding: Process Work can be seen as a way to integrate conflict resolution, organizational dynamics, and systems and relationship theories with dreaming. Dreaming, according to Arny Mindell (1982) is the metaphysical or spiritual experience and meaning behind behavior, signals, symptoms, and disturbances. Amy Mindell (1995) uses the term metaskill to refer to the feeling attitude, skill, technique, or tone used in performing an intervention. Using heartfulness and toughness and other metaskills a practitioner intervenes to bringing awareness to and unfolding the meaning embedded in the process’s constant flow of experience.

Other aspects of Process Work include its approach to working with somatic experience, body symptoms, altered and extreme states of conflict, and relationship issues—each of these aspects is also important in conflict transformation and peacebuilding.

Process Work does not have a goal of change. The goal is awareness. This may seem odd given that we all want change around the difficulties, relationship conflicts, and body symptoms over which we suffer. The idea behind this has roots in Taoism: there is a river that can be followed that will show the right way to go. Process Work is about noticing the signals that point to the river and the pattern that lies there and unfolding the meaning embedded in them. While Process Work does not have a goal of change, neither, obviously, is it against change. Many people assume that people change to avoid suffering. To some extent this seems true but many people suffer seemingly needlessly and do not change. Why?

Then, after many years of therapeutic work, I made a disturbing discovery that shook my belief in people. I discovered that pain was not enough to motivate people to change, its presence or absence alone is not sufficient to change people. There is something else, a strange, unpredictable element which is required before people can work out problems and alter their lives. This element is a mixture of discipline, love, and enlightenment. (Mindell, Mindell, & Schupbach, 2004)

The process oriented approach to integrating quantum physics with personal work bridges the gaps between science, philosophy, shamanism, and mysticism. This approach, which Mindell originally called Dreambody work, starts in the body and involves a practice of deep personal exploration. The term Dreambody refers to the body as we normally know it in consensual terms as well as to the non-consensual aspects of the body’s experience as well as to the hypothesis that the physical manifestation of the body arises from the underlying spiritual or quantum experience (Mindell, 1982). In the exploration, the body is used (along with synchronicities, dreams, altered states, and relationship troubles) to develop greater awareness, understanding, and compassion.

This path of learning involves developing an attitude of openness towards various feelings, experiences, opinions, states of consciousness, and body symptoms as well as towards various roles and dream figures. It is what Carlos Castaneda (1972) called the path of the warrior because it involves developing an openness to a certain kind of ego death wherein one’s own momentary experience, though important, is no longer important in the way that it used to be. There is a change of consciousness that enables an individual to support the views of others (as well as her own) in a way that promotes an openness to intimacy, to relatedness, and to change; thus allowing the whole community to work together to find momentary solutions to each of its ongoing conflicts.

In Process Work terminology, our normal consciousness and our normal identity (a straight, white American man, for example) is connected with our primary process. The things that someone does not identify with, things that do not go along with her normal identify or things that happen to her, are connected with a secondary process. These terms, primary and secondary— the symbols 1° and 2° are sometimes used as short hand for primary and secondary process—are meant to indicate proximity to the normal identity and in some cases proximity to consciousness. I identify as being a fairly nice person. This is my primary process. Aspects of my own brutality are further from my normal identity and are more secondary. These terms are used instead of the usual structural terms of conscious and unconscious because those terms tend to become meaningless when working with altered or extreme states of consciousness and because there is greater fluidity in being able to describe something as more or less primary or secondary, rather than as binary and rigid states of conscious.

Two other useful terms are first and second attention (Castaneda, 1968). It is the first attention that notices life in consensus reality. It is the second attention that notices the dreamingbody’s experiences—such as body symptoms, synchronicities, dream figures, and altered states of consciousness—and searches for signals pointing to underlying the secondary process. “The goal of the warrior is to [consciously and actively] develop the second attention, for this leads to living the dreamingbody and finding the path of heart” (Mindell, 1993, p. 27).

As with anything, the tools and the outlook you bring determine what you will be able to see and shape the possible outcomes. For example, assuming that a body symptom is a purely biological phenomenon prevents me from understanding it as a meaningful experience. Working with dreams only through associations prevents me from noticing how the dreaming process is happening in the moment by seeing it in a client’s symptoms, movements, relationship life, and interactions with the world.

The main metaskill in Process Work is curiosity towards the mysterious: an openness to experiencing nature and watching it unfold in unusual and wonderful ways (Amy Mindell, 1995). Each paradigm fits a certain situation and provides important tools but Process Work uses the signals of the moment as an indication of how the process might be amplified, unfolded, and understood.

Process Work attempts to find meaning in experience without pathologizing it. If I pathologize a client’s experience or behavior, the client will feel it (even if not consciously) and our work will be limited because of her own inner struggle or polarization. This sort of openness requires curiosity. In a particularly unusual way, there is something right or meaningful behind everything, including, paradoxically, being against some things.

Process Work saves me from judgments. If I think in terms of process, I cannot think in terms of good or bad, sick and healthy, past or future. If I think in term of process, then I can work nonverbally, with comas or with meditation, and I don’t get stuck with words. (Mindell, 1989b, p. 11)