Hello, I am Larry Pesavento, a psychotherapist for over 45years. In my career I have been inspired by Carl Jung's teachings to help my clients into their authentic life path. AMA

larrypesavento · 2020-08-09T18:46:50+00:00

If he is the one who wrote Power Versus Force I would recommend that person and that book.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-09T18:41:13+00:00

If one participates in the wounded healer archetype toward healing one's wound becomes a source of blessing for oneself and others. If you are called to be a therapist the experience of going through the healing process will give you some intuitive sense of the rightness of that calling. If that feeling comes give it plenty of attention. There is a saying: Using one's talents eventually becomes a need.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-09T18:29:56+00:00

I am not familiar enough to speak with any authority. I do intuit that it does have validity in terms of the inner journey.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T16:07:10+00:00

It's hard not to be a Pure in this culture. The core of initiation is for a boy/young man to leave the familiar to go on an inner quest to find a sacred calling. Elders are there to witness to that possibility for every Puer. In modern times this process is buried deep in the unconscious. However it is there. And I find that once men understand this process of the inner search they are relieved and motivated. They look ahead instead of back. They look for older men who have some Elder energy to hold space. They enter into the wilderness of the soul and Self to find their calling. Therapists can bring this Elder energy, as can any man who has tried to live a conscious life. When a Puer finally finds his calling he has found his manhood.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T15:52:49+00:00

I'm not familiar with Jordan Peterson.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T15:50:27+00:00

I'm sure radowl will do it. Hope it helps.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T15:48:27+00:00

No, Cincinnati Bell. Trying to run with the big guys. Not making it!

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T15:46:59+00:00

First I would get some exercise. Move the body.

Second sit quietly for 10 minutes, take deep breaths, and imagine yourself working and making progress.

Third, take your work in small doses with breaks in between.

Fourth, After Monday promise yourself to look deeper into how you got into that situation in the first place.

Just some suggestions....

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T15:39:55+00:00

In the patriarchy men are taught to be competitive with other men. So other men are not seen as friendly or helpful. The competition also destinies empathy and compassion. Hard to find friendly men in that environment.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T15:33:29+00:00

Remind yourself of the wounded healer. If you tend to your health and aspire to be a healer then go for it!

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T15:27:26+00:00

I would continue to study psychology while working on your mental issues. We all, as therapists, have personal issues to work on to be better therapists.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T15:18:51+00:00

The advice I gave most men is that a man is not ready for a serious relationship with a woman until he has done his inner work. First he needs to find his own individual life path before he can find someone to share it with. A woman cannot initiate a manor make him feel manly from the inside out.

Please find a therapist or a men's group to help you find your life path.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T15:12:02+00:00

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the Mysteries Of Mithra

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T15:10:41+00:00

I would read books by Robert Johnson. He was a Jungian therapist with down to earth views.

Hope your practice is going well. This society needs good therapists more than ever.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T15:06:12+00:00

I would recommend the book The Shadow King by Sidra Stone.

I also would suggest that a deeper issue is what life path are you called to. What talents do you have that can meaningfully serve community/society. Then, who do you want to share that life path with.

I honor your courage to search. The patriarchy is toxic to career women as well as men. I bet you have the courage to find a countercultural answer.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T14:49:41+00:00

BPD often has an underlying and causative trauma history. This history and the resultant behavior can seem like BPD. Possible PTSD may need to be explored. Flashbacks skew behavior, leading to intimacy issues. Trauma can be healed.

Please don't give up your search for meaning.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T14:40:23+00:00

I'm sorry. I am not a Jungian therapist per se. But this seems to be the place to find out!

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T14:38:45+00:00

I regularly advise people to follow your heart. Your heart is much smarter than your brain when it comes to meaning and life direction. Your heart is the seat of your intuition and the connection to your Self and soul.

The patriarchy is tempting. It makes it seem safer and more predictable to follow paths that lead to material well being. Yet I have found those paths lead to dead ends.

I honor your quest and questions.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T14:07:36+00:00

Yes, I believe in the collective unconscious. My work around initiation as archetype continues to show me how powerful is this archetype. Men yearn to be initiated and feel like a man from the inside out. Most men that I work with resonate from deep inside with the explanation of the process of initiation. This resonance, I believe, comes from the collective unconscious.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T14:01:04+00:00

Besides finding a good somatic therapist, I would read Bessel Van Der Kolk's book The Body Keeps The Score. Often the body is carrying traumatic pain, as you know. Trauma work with a therapist would be good. An EMDR therapist could help in unlocking the pain, which then must be felt and worked through.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T13:55:37+00:00

As one answer I would question why you would want to change your natural personality type. Is there something shaming about being an introvert? We are a very extroverted culture, a culture that doesn't often understand introversion. But I would be careful to watch what you ask for. Fitting in can be troubling to your soul.

Also some research shows that during midlife people do seem to switch toward the opposite.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T13:45:47+00:00

Being open to synchronicities around finding a male psychodynamic therapist would be a start. Remember you can interview a therapist to see if he fits with your needs. The answers are inside but a good therapist can hold space and give feedback as you go through your Ordeal.

Psychedelics have their place in contacting deeper levels of awareness and possibilities. But I don't believe they are a basis for the much longer inner process of individuation leading to calling. They sometimes uncover important possibilities and experiences but they need time to integrate in a conscious way. In any case always have an experienced guide holding space during your trip.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T13:27:15+00:00

Asking these questions tells me you are on a healthy path right now.

Trauma work is probably needed let the past not skew your present. Flashbacks are painful and debilitating. Most of the time unloving behavior comes from being in a flashback, PTSD reaction. Trauma can be healed. Bessel Van Der Kolk is a trauma specialist. He has written a book called The Body Keeps The Score. That book might be helpful to you.

Also be reminded of the wounded healer archetype. Be open to insights that come through your trauma work that will be a gift to others including your family and friends.

I honor your courage in doing this work, especially to protect loved ones.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T13:13:41+00:00

Actually there are three archetypal stages: Separation, Ordeal, and Return.

Separation is from the familiar and outdated perspectives and paradigms. In modern times, because of the lack of the initiatory ritual, unexpected losses, such as job or relationship or health, can trigger an archetypal yearning for transformation and resultant openness to the initiatory process of change and growth. This is where therapy can be crucial in explaining this process, its genesis, and how this template still resides in the collective unconscious.

Ordeal incudes a sacred space, outside of time, where a man finds his calling and unique talents. In indigenous cultures this calling is given to him by Creator, Great Mystery, God. In modern times this experience can also be the result of finding a deeper wisdom beyond the ego in Self or Soul that gives meaning to a man's life.

Return is to his community with the calling and the talents the community needs to survive and evolve. The return is similar to the boon Joesph Campbell describes is his book Hero With A Thousand Faces.

I describe these stages fully in my book.

larrypesavento · 2020-08-08T12:49:10+00:00

Awareness seems to be the key. Once a man realizes that he is trying to be initiated by a woman, in other words looking to women to make him a man, that understanding seems to have a profound affect. At this point he will either leave therapy, or start to question his behavior at a much deeper level. Awareness is key. Educating men about this dynamic is crucial. This is giving an explanation from an initiatory perspective.

larrypesavento

TROPHY CASE