Tim Read | Archetypal Crisis and Spiritual Emergency

Psychedelic states allow access to deep psyche, the formative early layers of our ego development and perhaps also a collective unconscious extending beyond ego altogether.  The amplification of meaning often holds an archetypal quality that may be overwhelming. Such journeys outside of consensus reality may also arise spontaneously, often in unsupportive settings, and be experienced as painful and disturbing. In this talk Tim will discuss the concept of spiritual emergency – a term that emphasises the meaning and healing potential of these challenging mental states if properly supported.

• What are the characteristics of such states?
• What do they tell us about the nature of psyche and our deepest wounds?
• How can such states be understood and supported in a way that is growthful?
• What do we mean by spiritual emergence?
• How do these ideas relate to our human evolutionary journey?

Dr Tim Read is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist and author based in London. After degrees in neuroscience and medicine, he was consultant liaison psychiatrist at the Royal London Hospital for 20 years also heading the crisis intervention service and developing psychological treatments for psychiatric emergencies. He has completed trainings in psychoanalytic psychotherapy (IGA) and transpersonal psychology with Stanislav Grof (GTT). He has been a certified facilitator of holotropic breathwork since 2007. Tim is extensively involved in clinical research of psychedelic assisted psychotherapy and with Maria Papaspyrou is co-facilitating the Depth Relational Process IPT 2-year training.

Tim is author of Walking Shadows: Archetype and Psyche in Crisis and Growth, co-editor with Jules Evans of Breaking Open: Finding a Way Through Spiritual Emergency and co-editor with Maria Papaspyrou of Psychedelics and Psychotherapy.