CREATION AND DEVELOPMENT
OF AMÁTE GROWTH WORK

Introduction

Because the Amáte Growth Work process is the heart and soul of The Amáte Institute, this section contains a great deal of information, some of it very specific and lengthy. To allow maximum flexibility in accessing the various topics in the section, a brief description of each major topic and direct entry to each topic are provided.

	BACKGROUND: Relates the creative illness experiences and resulting healing methods of Jung and Freud to the creation of Amáte Growth Work.
	SELF-HEALING EXPERIENCE: Describes Dr. Horton’s remarkable healing experience and journey to emotional maturity that preceded the creation of Amáte Growth Work.
	CREATING THE PROCESS: Contains an extensive description of the trial and error creation of the process. It includes actual initial client experiences and describes the evolution of elements that have become key to the process.
	AMÁTE GROWTH WORK PROCESS: Offers an overview of each of the Four Phases of the process.
	CONCLUSION: Briefly links the foundational beliefs of Amáte Growth Work to significant philosophers and philosophies of the past.
	COMPLETE DESCRIPTION CONTAINED IN: M.S. Horton. (2004) Doctoral Dissertation. Amáte Growth Work: A Healing Process for Adult Emotional Immaturity. Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center: San Francisco. View in Adobe PDF Format

BACKGROUND

Amáte Growth Work developed out of my self-healing experience following an emotional crisis. According to Ellenberger (1970), that places me in august, if controversial, company. Freud and Jung (p. 210) suffered emotional crises, cured themselves, and were transformed by a creative illness (p. 216). The “creative illness exists from which a person emerges with a permanent transformation in his personality and the conviction that he has discovered a great truth or a new spiritual world” (p. 448). According to Ellenberger, “This is how Freud came to proclaim the truth about the Oedipus complex and the infantile sexual root of neurosis and Jung the anima and the process of individuation” (p. 890).  

While I would presume to place my healing experience, or the development of the healing method based upon it, in the company of those identified by Ellenberger, there are some interesting similarities between my emotional crisis and self healing, and the creative illness, self-healing, and healing methods created following the healings, of those initiated healing experience identified emotional stoppage from an early age that had to be reworked and resolved, and I healded myself. As a result of the healing, my personalitity was permanently transformed, and I became unshakably convinced that my ideas about helping immature adults grow up were correct.

There are similarities in the struggles of creative illness survivors who attempt to model healing methods on their personal healing experiences. According to Ellenberger (1970), those who have been successful, including Freud and Jung, used their creative illnesses “as a model to be followed by their disciples under the name of training analysis. . . .The Jungian school later came to consider it as being a kind of initiatory malady comparable to that of a shaman” (p. 891).

 As is true in other methods, only the core principles of Amáte Growth Work can be taught. The ideal student has the appropriate educational and professional background, as well as gifts, talents, and interests, to apply to those principles. However, similar to a “training analysis” of Jung and Freud, that ideal student must first undergo healing through use of Amáte Growth Work as a client.

 Ellenberger (1970) said of Jung’s legacy, “It is the fate of all innovators that the development of their work is unpredictable, because it does not depend so much on its intrinsic value as on material factors, historical circumstances, and the fluctuations of the collective mind” (p. 736). It is hoped that experiences of other methods created from creative illnesses will be shared by Amáte Growth Work, and it will be transformed by individual facilitators and used in ways not predictable today.

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SELF-HEALING EXPERIENCE

 The initial healing experience of my creative illness occurred on January 21, 1983, and is fully described in the book, The Seashell People: Growing up in Adulthood (Horton, 1990, pp. 17-24). At that time, I was aftercare director of a private residential treatment center for addictions. I was also seriously contemplating suicide for the first time. The pain caused by the chronic dichotomy between the stellar success in my professional life, and abject failure in my personal life, had finally become unbearable.

On the afternoon of January 20, I was asked to write the social history of a patient at the treatment center, an unusual experience for me as aftercare director. Returning home that evening after conducting a very successful aftercare group, I found myself surprisingly agitated and upset. The next day, as the social history of the patient was read aloud at a staffing meeting in the center director’s office, I found myself crying silently and feeling great sadness. After the meeting, when the rest of the staff and the patient had left the office, I asked the director, a social worker, to help me sort out my unexpected and confusing emotions.

After inquiring about my current emotional life status and finding nothing exceptional about it, the director paused a moment, then asked me how old a child would be who would respond to life as I was responding. I was taken aback by the question but answered, “Perhaps 8 or 9.”  He then asked what had happened to me when I was that age.

At that instant, sobbing, with my eyes closed, holding onto him, I clearly visualized myself at age 8, sitting on the couch in the living room of the house my family lived in at that time. I was trying desperately to think of a way to tell my mother, who had just returned from driving friends home following a picnic, I had found my father’s body lying across the bed in his upstairs bedroom, and I had seen a rifle on the floor beside the bed. As I tried to find a way to make what I knew had happened seem less horrible or permanent, blood began dripping from the heat register in the ceiling onto the couch beside me. Seeing it, my mother screamed and ran upstairs. The ambulance was called. My younger brother and I were left with neighbors as our mother took the body to another state. When my mother returned from the funeral, the entire experience became something not discussed. A year later, my mother remarried, and the event was pushed farther away.

I observed the entire scene in my mind as if I were someone else. However, as I opened my eyes and told what I had visualized to the center director, I knew the 8 year old was convinced she had caused her father’s death. My father had invited me to remain with him the morning of the suicide, and I had chosen instead to go to the picnic with my mother, brother, and friends. I realized I believed he would not have killed himself if I had been with him, and I also grasped that no one had ever discussed the event with me or challenged my beliefs about it. I knew I had never been held and allowed to express my pain and grief. I believed I had committed an unforgivable sin, was a bad person, and was unlovable. However, I was unaware I had become emotionally stuck at the time of the suicide until emotional similarities in the center patient’s history touched deeply buried emotions, and the center director asked his inspired questions.

After I described the clear inner images of the 8-year-old and the traumatic experience to the center director, I asked him what I should do. His only advice was to love the inner child I had seen. I said I would try. I left his office with a strange sense of having the little girl by the hand. After that experience, I tried to maintain a vision of the inner child in my consciousness and respond appropriately to her. I felt increasingly part of her, and to a part of myself that had apparently been disconnected since I was her age. By focusing within and connecting to the inner vision, I was surprised to discover a source of inner guidance about all decisions. Asking and receiving inner guidance for her, then for me, and finally about every moment, eventually became an integral part of life.

Dramatic and totally unanticipated outcomes of maintaining the inner connections began to occur in my outer life. When faced with the emotional risk of standing up for myself with someone I feared, and had tried unsuccessfully many times to confront, I was able to risk defending myself on behalf of the invisible child. When that risk was taken, and I survived the risking process without self-destructing, I sensed a shift in the age of the inner child. I experienced her as slightly older.

The new Inner-Self resembled the pudgy, pimply, insecure adolescent I had been. She no longer needed to know whether she was a bad person. The inner adolescent was concerned about a lack of appropriate support and guidance through the transition to becoming a woman, but her emotional stoppage was due to the chaos created by the deepening alcoholism of her mother and the sudden death of her long-suffering step father.

 Sensing my inner adolescent’s previously unmet needs, I devoted time to letting her know I was there to support and guide her. Even though this was rather awkward, and keeping who “I” was straight was not easy, the message that seemed most effective with this adolescent Inner-Self was, “If I had been there when you were becoming a woman in that difficult situation, I would have offered you all the love, support, and counsel you needed to feel very loved, secure, confident, and not alone.”

The Inner-Self seemed comforted by the commitment and actions taken to rework the trauma and other painful experiences. Those actions included confronting her mother about the alcoholism and emotional abandonment. When I eventually sensed my Inner Self knew she was especially loved and protected, she transitioned into a somewhat older Inner-Self. 

During the 3 years following the initial healing experience, I maintained the connection to my Inner-Self and inner guidance much of the time and successfully took increasingly complex emotional risks. That process culminated in taking the risk to love myself as my youngest child left home to attend a university, an event that deprived me of an identity and life purpose my son had provided. As a result, I experienced and visualized an Inner-Self at my chronological age. I finally felt like one person and could identify the face I saw in the mirror as my true self. Since that experience, I have continued to risk and grow, and maintain the connection to my Inner-Self and inner guidance. Even though I have revisited my Inner-Self at earlier ages for deepening and clarifying healing, I have never again experienced my true Inner-Self as younger than my actual age.

Almost immediately after reaching my chronological age emotionally, I was asked by the publishing house Simon & Schuster to write a book on parenting for adult children of alcoholics. While struggling to create an outline for the book, I realized I did not believe in its premise. I believed parents needed to become functional before attempting to parent. I also became aware I had a story to tell about my own experience as a dysfunctional emotionally immature adult attempting unsuccessfully to live life and parent children, and the remarkable self-healing that occurred that changed everything.

It took 3 years to complete and publish the book. During that time, my emotional base became solidified and strengthened through taking emotional risks and loving myself through the consequences. The most significant emotional toughening experiences occurred when I lived with my brilliant but highly dysfunctional mother during the final stages of the book’s sale, revisions, and publication. For 2 years, my mother intuitively identified and attacked every emotionally vulnerable part of me. She said my book would never sell, my children did not love me, I would never succeed, and my spiritual life was ridiculous. Confronting my own greatest fears about these highly charged issues forced me to fight for emotional survival. I learned to commit to loving myself through the worst possible consequences if those greatest fears were realized. Without being consciously aware of what she was doing, through the exquisite emotional torture my mother helped me unearth and confront fears she helped create, and prepared me to move beyond my own healing to the challenging work of helping other fearful adults achieve maturity.

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CREATING THE METHOD

 After the book was published, I returned to Manhattan to reestablish a private counseling practice specializing in addictions. However, as I began the new practice, the majority of clients who sought my help were those with the profile I described in the book. It did not seem to matter to those first clients that I had no formal method to offer. Sharing information about the emotional profile of adult emotional immaturity and the story of my emotional maturation in adulthood, and offering hope and understanding, seemed sufficient. Nevertheless, I resolved to create options that would do more than merely help them feel better temporarily. I knew what I experienced had permanently changed my life. I was also driven by the awareness of the failures of those I had formerly tried to help through traditional individual, family, and group therapy before the book was written.

Most compelling were the memories of those who had worked well in counseling for extended periods, yet, when attempting significant life-changing risks, returned to active addictions or other serious self-destructive behaviors. They had not established the emotional base to successfully take powerful emotional risks, and when the challenging risks were attempted, they regressed or relapsed. At that time, I did not know how to help them establish the sufficiently strong emotional base for successfully taking demanding emotional risks. Now, however, I was determined to find a way to guide these new clients in developing a strong emotional foundation. I believed if I could rework the past and create a solid emotional base on my own, others could surely achieve it with guidance.

I resolved to duplicate, and accelerate if possible, the healing and growth experiences I had undergone over a 3-year period. Speed was a major consideration in the beginning because I was assured I would be going on a book tour in the near future. I explained to potential clients about the upcoming tour, and the fact that they were part of a very experimental work in progress. I decided to compress the initial healing experience and work in blocks of 4 hours on 2 consecutive days in what is now termed the Intensive.        

Following the Intensive, I proposed weekly 2-hour meetings for the time remaining before leaving on the book tour, or until the clients and I considered them ready to end their work. I offered to augment face-to-face contact with telephone calls between office visits. Even though the condensed structure of the method evolved quickly and seemed appropriate, I was very concerned there was an insurmountable obstacle.

I believed the reason I had been able to visualize my Inner-Self clearly was due to the exceptionally dramatic nature of the emotional stoppage trauma I experienced and the startling emotional crisis following the strong identification with the treatment center patient’s story. I seriously doubted others would be able to visualize an Inner-Self, especially not with the same quality of visualization, unless they had experienced similar exceptionally powerful early trauma and had experienced some later precipitating event such as the emotional crisis.

I was concerned those who had become emotionally stuck due to less dramatic situations than mine, such as those who had lived years of limited love or neglect, might find it impossible to visualize an Inner-Self, much less pinpoint the specific age when the emotional stoppage occurred. However, I was convinced that “seeing” my Inner-Self, and relating to her as a separate visualized part of me, was essential in responding appropriately to her needs and facilitating her growth.

Visualizing an Inner-Self made it possible to identify, focus on, and help a specific other person, much as I would a client, friend, or child. I could successfully take important growth risks on her behalf, something I had been unable to do for the Outer‑Self represented by the face I saw reflected in the mirror. I knew the continued inner visual presence and powerful emotional connection to the Inner-Self, even as she evolved into an older person, made an immeasurable difference in the ability to mature emotionally. I was not, however, convinced it would be possible to facilitate a reconnection of the Inner-Self and the Outer-Self for others.

Concern lessened when one of the first clients, who had suffered ongoing difficulties in childhood but no severe trauma, visualized a younger Inner-Self during the first day of the Intensive. As the session started, I asked the client to recall her earliest fear experiences. When she had difficulty, I suggested she close her eyes, lean back on the couch, and let her mind wander over her early years. She attempted this, said she could identify where some fear experiences took place, but said the impressions seemed vague and not useful in resolving her feelings.

I suggested she return within to the visualization of the place the fearful experiences occurred and attempt to visualize the person having the experiences. Almost immediately, the client reported seeing herself as a 3-year-old child in a field near her grandparents’ home. With her eyes still closed, I asked her to describe the child, and she did so in great detail. I then asked her to describe the fearful experiences the inner child was living. The client said when she was 3, her parents, who were noted performers, left her with quarrelsome grandparents while they traveled. She felt insecure with the grandparents but panicked when the parents came to take her from them permanently.

Perhaps because of the decisive nature of the client’s responses, I asked her to continue working within with her eyes closed. I asked her to try to comfort the child and address her needs as if she herself were beside the inner girl, saying, “If I had been there with you when you became too afraid, I would have changed what was happening and you would not have felt so afraid.” After a few minutes, I asked the client what she was experiencing. She said she had gone within to the little girl, hugged her, and told the parents the little girl did not want to leave the grandparents. The client said she told the parents she agreed with the little girl and was going to permit the little girl to stay with the grandparents.

I asked the client how she and the little girl felt following the new visualization. Continuing to speak with her eyes closed, she said she felt very powerful, and the little girl was happy, smiling. She said the child had needed to know someone listened to her and would have changed the outcome of the fearful experiences. Even though the visualization was fantasy, the client said the love and respect felt by the inner child, and the love, power, and control she felt, seemed real. The imaginary reworking experience appeared to have produced a long-awaited healing of painful memories.

As I reflected on what the client had just told me and considered the next actions to take, the client, with her eyes still closed, calmly volunteered the information that the vision of the inner 3-year-old had been replaced by a vision of an inner 7-year-old. The client described the older inner girl in the same detail she had described the younger one. I was so surprised I continued to question the client, asking if she could also visualize the younger child. She answered she could see her, but the connection to the younger child was not as powerful as it was to the older one.

I was unsure what to do next. Buying time to consider, I asked the client to open her eyes, review the inner experience, and return the next week to continue her work. During the week, I called to ask how the client was doing and to inquire about the age of her Inner-Self. The client remained convinced the 7-year-old was her true Inner-Self. At the session the following week, when the client closed her eyes and went within, that impression remained. I casually observed during the session that the client’s outward way of being had changed.

When the client originally came for help, she exhibited behaviors of a little child. The way she sat, her voice, and the overly pleasing manner with me were reminiscent of a very small child, even though her chronological age was 36. When the age of the inner child shifted from 3 to 7, the external behaviors changed as well. Because the shift-in-age was not great, I did not think too much about the outward changes at first. I believed they might have resulted from the client’s feeling a little more confident with the work, or more comfortable with me. However, as the client continued to go within, identify an inner age, work with that age Inner-Self, and experience shifts-in-age to her chronological age, remarkable changes in her outward demeanor became undeniable. The client seemed to metamorphose from a child into a woman before my eyes. However, when I described the differences I observed, the client was amused, even disinterested, saying she was just expressing herself naturally.

The image that came to mind as she spoke was of a child crawling, walking, and finally running. When running, a child is not naturally interested in recalling the experience of crawling. However, I was very interested in the process of a client moving from an emotional 3-year-old to an emotional adult quickly and almost painlessly. It seemed unbelievable at first. Yet, when a number of clients connected with their Inner‑Selves, became emotionally unblocked, and through various shifts-in-ages their emotional ages became equal to the chronological ages, I realized the process was not a fluke. Even though I was more concerned with what was happening than why, I determined to improve the experience, if possible, and find ways to track the progress of clients.

I decided to create tools to evaluate the emotional status of clients before healing work began and periodically during the healing process. I hoped to identify significant growth milestones as they occurred. What evolved were two lists created by the client while completing the Client Information Form during the Intensive, a list of the client’s goals for therapy, and a list of untaken emotional risks the client knew should be taken but had not been able to take, or take successfully. Periodic evaluation of these lists helped recall the initial emotional status, record changes in emotional functioning, allow for modification and/or creation of new goals if appropriate, and determine when Growth Work could lessen in intensity or end. They also helped refocus the work if it was not going as anticipated or hoped. I developed the Client Inner Work Form to chart each aspect of clients’ Inner Work, including each shift-in-age of the Inner-Self. The form proved especially useful in identifying recurring themes within clients’ emotional stoppage experiences and in gaining insight into why and how shifts-in-age occurred.

The first client’s ease in visualizing an Inner-Self, and almost automatic shifts in age, produced a false confidence that others might work as quickly and easily. It soon became evident that most others did not have the same immediate success. They required greater assistance in visualizing the Inner-Self and intensive guidance in identifying and reworking emotional stoppage situations to achieve shifts-in-age. Highly structured guided imagery, and later self-guided imagery, became the predominant tools for facilitating the Inner Work in Amáte Growth Work. Clients consistently reported feeling empowered when they controlled their own inner healing. Eventually, the guided‑imagery exercise became longer and more complex and was finally separated into two distinct exercises. The first helped the client visualize, connect with, and begin communicating with the Inner-Self. The second helped the client resolve emotional stoppage situations experienced at the age of each visualized Inner-Self. When the visualization exercises became self-guided, Inner Work proceeded more quickly.

Most early clients were able to successfully rework and resolve emotional stoppages and experience shifts-in-age of the Inner-Self to the appropriate chronological ages. However, exceptions began occurring. Some clients had difficulties visualizing. Others could only sense an Inner-Self. Still others intuited or heard an inner presence without seeing or sensing one. Occasionally, a client could not visualize, sense, hear or intuit an Inner-Self and was helped through reviewing photographs or cognitive work. However, regardless of the method employed, if the client was able to conceive of an Inner-Self and resolve stoppage experiences, shifts-in-age occurred, emotional risks were taken, and the quality of life improved.

 It became evident that everyone has an Inner-Self that can almost always be accessed. This realization helped me gain greater confidence with clients. I also concluded there is a powerful inner force in each individual that pushes forward toward completion; a force that yearns for balance and harmony and creates its own healing momentum. This belief came from experiences with Spanish speakers who did not speak English when my Spanish was negligible. It became clear that the healing process, once started, developed a force and flow of its own. There were times I truly did not understand what the client was telling me about a traumatic event. However, as soon as the self-guided Inner Work began, the client was able to experience shifts-in-age and move to the chronological age. Once unblocked emotionally, risks identified and taken produced positive changes in the lives of clients.

Looking back, I know it never occurred to me that emotional growth and development did not continue lifelong. And I took it for granted that the core of any healing was spiritual. Because I began my professional life as an addictions counselor and recovering alcoholic, I accepted that connecting to and relinquishing my life and will to a loving Higher Power, no matter what I called it, were essential to staying sober and helping others become sober and maintain their sobriety. I believed those struggling to grow up in adulthood would have to be helped to make and keep a spiritual connection and learn to surrender to the Higher Power of their understanding.

The healing method had to help the client refocus attention within to connect to and heal the Inner-Self and reconnect with a loving inner force. That inner force would provide the guidance and sense of security missing since the original emotional stoppage occurred and the client turned outward searching for love and security. Convincing frightened and mistrusting immature adults to risk turning within and trust inner guidance was no easy task. Yet, in this challenge I had a real advantage.

I had spent years presenting difficult spiritual concepts to spiritually paranoid clients in treatment for addictions and at war with God. I had honed my skills with addicts who faced death if they did not become sober, with sobriety depending on developing a strong spiritual belief system. Those clients prepared me well for the new set of adults who had to decide to risk, believing love existed, and existed within them, to heal themselves and grow. There was no question that all spiritual ideas presented as part of the method had to be accessible and generic.

After extensive personal spiritual and religious investigation, seeking a specific religious connection that did not materialize, I settled on a very generic and inclusive personal spiritual belief system that has been of invaluable help in guiding others in their spiritual lives. It is based on the belief that each individual is responsible for connecting to the voice of inner guidance within, and asking, receiving, and following appropriate inner guidance. The presence of peace is the sign that appropriate inner guidance has been followed. It is up to each individual to define more specific spiritual and religious beliefs.

For the first few months of working with the healing process, I was not sure what was to happen after the Intensive, or when the process ended. The Post-Intensive follow up visits sometimes seemed anticlimactic, especially after the client’s Inner-Self reached the chronological age and the profound and dramatic Inner Work Exercises were no longer necessary. My changes in role from listener in the earliest Intensive work, to guide for the Inner Work, to teacher and coach for the Post-Intensive emotional toughening and schooling phase, were not always comfortable for either clients or me.

However, I believed the client who was finally the same emotional and chronological age still lacked sufficient emotional strength to successfully negotiate taking difficult emotional risks. Tools to take the risks needed to be identified, taught, and practiced under supervision until assistance was no longer required. Over time, I developed an emotional/spiritual “boot camp” approach for the Post-Intensive phase. The objectives of the new phase were carefully explained before beginning the healing process. As a result, discomfort about the changes in Growth Work activities, and my roles in them, subsided.

The method soon developed a life of its own. After several clients underwent healing and growth experiences, patterns emerged, and judging the various stages of the process became predictable. The process ended when the client achieved emotional maturity. That meant the client had arrived at the same emotional and chronological age through Inner Work; had connected with and maintained a loving connection with the Inner-Self; had developed the tools to independently access, evaluate, and act appropriately on inner guidance; and could successfully survive the consequences of appropriate emotional risking.

After approximately 3 months, the typical client was ready to attempt emotional independence, and the client and I discussed adjusting the pattern of our involvement to monthly or “as-needed” aftercare. This did not imply that by the end of 3 months the client was totally fulfilled and actualized, or would never experience emotional difficulties or emotional stoppages in the future. It did mean most clients could enter the process of taking the series of appropriate adult risks that would determine the individual destiny, a potential formerly impossible due to emotional stoppages. It meant the tools to create this destiny had been taught, practiced, and lived, even if later the individual chose not to use them, delayed using them, or stopped using them for a time then returned to their use.

There have certainly been exceptional client experiences. There have been those for whom the process has taken much longer than 3 months, and some for whom a month has been more than enough. There have been clients with every conceivable reason to stop growing emotionally, and every conceivable problem being experienced in adulthood as a result. There have been those for whom visualizing the Inner-Self was extremely easy, and those requiring the most creative approaches to connect with the Inner-Self. Yet, after 15 years of using the very eclectic method with over 1,200 clients, including 15 psychiatrists and 62 psychologists, the form and substance of the work itself has become enriched and refined but has not changed significantly from the first clients. The most important aspects of the method, confirmed with each client, are the vital work accomplished during the 8-hour Intensive, the shifts-in-age of the Inner-Self accomplished during the Inner Work, and the generic spiritual approach.

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THE AMÁTE GROWTH WORK PROCESS

Before describing the Amáte Growth Work process, it is important to note that it has proven highly successful forInternational clients who participate in a specially designed, very intensive, short-term initial therapy experience of a minimum of 11 days. Each client is seen each day during the visit, then is carefully followed through phone calls, email, and follow up visits until the goals of Amáte Growth Work are achieved. 

THE PROCESS

Amáte Growth Work is conducted in four phases that may overlap depending on the presenting situation and the specific healing experiences of the client.

The Four Phases are:

     1. Phase I: Initial Interview

     2. Phase II: The Intensive

     3. Phase III: Post-Intensive Follow-Up Visits

     4. Phase IV: Aftercare

Phase I: Initial Interview

During the Initial Interview I describe the Amáte Growth Work process, my personal and professional qualifications to help the client achieve emotional maturity, and the responsibilities I expect to assume in the healing process. I explain I function as guide, teacher, and support, and the client participates as the principal healer. The prospective client’s background and present situation are evaluated to determine the suitability of using Amáte Growth Work at this time. The prospective client is asked a series of questions concerning current emotional functioning.

Questions include whether the client has been unable to take important emotional risks, has a sense of being emotionally stuck, has perceived failure in significant emotionally demanding adult life tasks, and has felt bewilderment at the failure because there seem to be adequate reasons to predict success.

An attempt is made to identify a state of internal isolation, loneliness, depression, and a sense there is an inner emotional barrier that restricts intimacy and connection to others. Early traumas, fears, and the quality of emotional functioning in the family of origin are assessed. 

The prospective client’s readiness to begin the healing work is appraised. Issues such as motivation to complete the process, current and past medical and psychological treatment history including hospitalizations for mental or emotional problems, and use of strong psychotropic medications, are considered. Addictions, especially if there are powerful active negative addictions that would make this healing work inappropriate, are carefully investigated. A period of at least 9 months of freedom from active addiction is required before the method may be used. Religious and/or spiritual beliefs, pending trips or upcoming time commitments that would interrupt the flow of the work, and the ability to focus and commit resources to the Growth Work process, are discussed.

A major objective of the Initial Interview is to screen out individuals who are not within normal psychological functioning ranges or have other conditions or situations that would make this healing method an unacceptable choice. If there is any question of the prospective client’s suitability to participate in the Amáte process, the choice is made to err on the side of caution. When the limiting factors are temporary, the prospective client is encouraged to make contact when the factors are resolved. If the client is in need of assistance beyond the reach of this method, an attempt is made to provide referrals to more appropriate healing resources.

Fees are explained, individually determined, and agreed upon. The typical arrangement is a set amount paid during the Intensive that includes the eight hours of the Intensive, two or three two-hour sessions following the Intensive, and as needed telephone and/or e-mail support. Once the time covered by the initial fees has been used, subsequent two-hour sessions are paid for at each session.

The “package” concept has proved to be very effective in motivating the client to make a solid commitment to the work and follow through during the delicate and sometimes difficult first weeks. The amount of the package varies depending on the economy of the part of the world in which I am working and the personal resources of the prospective client. Clients report they appreciate the opportunity to understand and anticipate financial commitments of Growth Work before the actual work begins.

Prospective clients are reassured that Amáte Growth Work ends as rapidly as possible and there are clearly observable indications for the client and facilitator in determining when that ending occurs. Although it may vary, the average client completes the process within three months.

The prospective client is informed that Amáte Growth Work ends when the client has achieved emotional maturity. The client will have arrived at the same emotional and chronological age through Inner Work and will have established and maintained a connection to the Inner-Self much of the time. The client will have developed the tools to independently access, evaluate, and act appropriately on inner guidance relating to taking emotional risks, and can survive the consequences of taking emotional risks in a self-loving and peace-producing manner.

Prospective clients learn that many former clients have reported that completion of Amáte Growth Work has signaled the end of their need for further professional emotional healing assistance.

Prospective clients sometimes voice apprehension about being able to encounter an Inner-Self, especially a younger Inner-Self, because they have little or no memory of their early years. They may express concern that they will not be able to identify the cause of their original emotional stoppage, or locate the exact moment when the stoppage occurred, especially when they believe their stoppage trauma was not as dramatic as mine. I am able to assure them everyone has an emotional and spiritual Inner-Self and the Inner-Self can almost always be located. I share that I have learned through years of experience that stoppage occurs at a point in time when the self-protective Inner-Self decides there is too much fear in the inner environment to continue taking emotional growth risks. It makes no difference whether the excessively fearful situation is chronic, a dramatic one-time occurrence, or results from neglect rather than abuse. When emotional risking halts emotional growth stops. The cause of the stoppage and moment of stoppage are almost always identifiable through Inner Work.      

If the prospective client and I agree that Amáte Growth Work is the correct healing method to undertake at this time, the dates for the two day Intensive are set. The new client is prepared for the Intensive by being encouraged to wear comfortable clothes and bring photos of the client and family members to share if they are available. The client is instructed to avoid ingesting mind/emotion altering substances for a few days prior to the Intensive, get a good night’s sleep the night before, and call if there are questions or the plan for the Intensive must be changed in any way.

Phase II: The Intensive

Introduction

What is termed the Intensive in Amáte Growth Work is an encapsulated eight hour emotional healing experience conducted in 4 hour segments over two consecutive days and divided into three stages:

          Stage 1: Completing Forms.

          Stage 2: Relating Life Histories. 

          Stage 3: Inner Work Exercises I & II.

The purpose of the Intensive is to help the client begin healing with sufficient time and concentration to achieve many healing goals very quickly. The extended encounter permits prolonged Inner Work and thorough exploration and resolution of fearful situations causing emotional stoppages. Free to relax, feel deeply, and stay focused on pertinent material, the client quickly begins the tasks of healing the past and constructing a new and stronger emotional base. The immediate return of the client for continued healing work on the Day 2 of the Intensive allows for the quelling of fears that may have materialize overnight and strengthens the possibility the client will complete the healing process.

The careful structure of the two days of the Intensive helps create a sense of beginning, middle, and end for the initial healing experience. Each Intensive is unique, but there is a characteristic pattern. The following is a description of that pattern.

Characteristic Intensive Day 1

 The first 2 hours of Day 1 are devoted to discussing and completing pertinent portions of the Amáte Client Information Form and relating life histories of the client and the client’s parents. When relevant, life histories of other significant relatives or caregivers are reviewed. 

The final two hours of Day 1 are spent using a combination of Inner Work Exercises I & II to locate the Inner Self at the time of the original emotional stoppage and rework that stoppage situation. During the Inner Work Exercises there are interludes of conversations on topics related to emotional maturation. Topics may include making mature decisions, taking emotional risks, and managing daily life after the Intensive.

Before the conclusion of Day 1 time is spent helping the client make the transition from the deepened state of consciousness during the Inner Work to an emotional and mental state appropriate for returning home. The client is asked to rest, reflect on the Day 1 experience, avoid extreme emotional situations if possible, and call if there are questions or concerns. 

Characteristic Intensive Day 2

The first hour of Day 2 is devoted to reestablishing a comfortable relationship with the client and discussing overnight experiences. This includes allaying fears that may have surfaced overnight, such as the fear of failure, or the fear that desired changes may indeed take place. Questions or concerns that have materialized since the healing work began are addressed. The second hour is devoted to deepening the dialogue about the spiritual life and beliefs of the client. 

The activities of the final two hours of Day 2 alternate between continued Inner Work and discussion of topics on living a mature spiritual/emotional life. The final 20 minutes of Day 2 are spent preparing the client for the week before the first Post-Intensive 2 hour session and establishing the date and time for the session. The client is encouraged to call or e-mail if there are questions or emotional reactions that seem troubling or unusual. The concluding instructions to the client are to continue to stay connected to, focus on, and appropriately love the Inner-Self. The client is urged to continue seeking inner guidance for all decisions, especially those that may seem mundane, and practice acting appropriately on the inner guidance.

By the end of the typical Intensive most clients have:

1.  Understood and completed pertinent parts of the Client Information Form.

 2. Created a list of goals for the Growth Work and made a list of untaken emotional risks considered appropriate to have taken…and indicated how long each risk had been appropriate but not taken.

3. Reviewed their own and their parents’ life histories.

4. Located and connected with the Inner-Self who experienced the original emotional stoppage using Inner Work Exercise I. 

5. Identified and reworked the original emotional stoppage trauma using Inner Work Exercise II.

6. Experienced a shift-in-age of the originally visualized Inner-Self to an older Inner-Self.

7. Identified and reworked subsequent emotional stoppages experienced by older Inner-Selves using Inner Work Exercises I & II.

8. Begun learning or reviewing information on living an emotionally mature adult life.

At the conclusion of the Intensive some clients have reworked all emotional stoppages and have visualized an Inner-Self at their chronological age. Most clients report feeling less fearful and more hopeful regarding their prospects for an improved present and future and are highly motivated to continue their work in the sessions following the Intensive.

Phase III: Post Intensive Follow-Up Visits

The client who returns for the first follow-up visit after the Intensive may have an Inner-Self that has reached the client’s chronological age.  If this was not accomplished in the Intensive, part of each follow-up visit is dedicated to further Inner Work until this goal is achieved.  However, even if the Inner-Self and the client are the same age, the client is far from ready to attempt demanding emotional risking, and is in need of emotional schooling and toughening. During this phase of Amáte Growth Work, the client is closely followed, and carefully taught the skills necessary to successfully weather the transition to sustained emotional maturity.

Follow-up visit activities include a review of events in the client’s life since the last visit, a discussion of relevant topics for continued emotional growth, and an evaluation of the client’s emotional responses to situations that were the same or similar to poorly handled or avoided situations of the past. The client’s reporting of an improved ability to determine what emotional risks are correct to take, followed by the successful taking of the emotional risks are clear indications of progress.

The client is helped to understand what concepts and skills are called into play when risking, and consciously identify, refine, and strengthen them. The client is taught concrete steps to take each time risking is attempted, and is instructed in practicing these steps when not fearful, to prepare for the eventuality of taking difficult emotional risks when fearful. As the client grows stronger and more independent through successfully taking increasingly difficult emotional risks, the amount of support and guidance offered is reduced until the client is successfully taking challenging emotional risks without external support.

At the end of each month of Growth Work, the client’s lists of goals and significant untaken risks from the Amáte Client Information Form are reviewed in detail and improvement is evaluated. This information is helpful in deciding when sufficient development has taken place to shift the client into Amáte Aftercare, or end Growth Work activities. As has been stated, formal Growth Work typically ends at about three months. However, Amáte Aftercare contact may continue indefinitely.

Phase IV: Aftercare

 Many clients find the Amáte Aftercare option an attractive one and come for monthly visits. Some prefer to continue on an “as needed” basis and come sporadically. During Aftercare it is typical for the client to explore more deeply topics of spiritual development and issues of personal actualization. Frequently those who work with others as healers find continued emotional and spiritual work enriching and valuable. Occasionally the client uses Aftercare visits to gain significant emotional strength to take life-changing risks that were identified when Growth Work began. Relationship work, including family therapy, preferably conducted with clients who have completed Growth Work independently, has become a frequent, and often very successful, feature of the Aftercare Phase of Amáte Growth Work.

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CONCLUSION

When reviewing the literature for foundational concepts of emotional development, adult emotional development, and arrested emotional development similar to those of Amáte Growth Work, the humanistic ideas of Jean Jacques Rousseau and 19^th Century Romanticism were found to be most closely linked. Romantics alleged “life is not seen as a long period of maturity following a shorter period of immaturity, but a spontaneous process of unfolding, a series of metamorphoses” (Ellenberger, 1970, p. 200). “Rousseau. . .was the first theorist to point out that the child’s full development is governed by an inner energy or force and that it is our task to respect and nurture that force. . . .This self-guiding force is something all humans share with one another and with Nature as well. . . .It is a spiritual force—a force that comes from the transcendent source of our being” (Miller, 1990, p. 154: as cited in Crain, 1992, pp. 329, 330).

Abraham Maslow believed this force was not strong, and could easily be “drowned out by learning, by cultural expectations, by fear, by disapproval, etc. . . that usually takes place during childhood” (Maslow, 1962, p. 191).  However, Maslow also believed

     the inner core, with its urge toward self-actualization. . .rarely disappears even in adulthood. It persists underground, in the unconscious, and speaks to us as an inner voice waiting to be heard.  Inner signals can lead even the neurotic adult back to buried capacities and unfulfilled potentials. Our inner core is the pressure we call the ‘will to health,’ and it is this urge on which all successful psychotherapy is based. (1962, pp. 192-93)

     Amáte Growth Work is dedicated to that “will to health” of normal adults with buried capacities and unfulfilled potentials, adults who have not acquired the emotional maturity necessary to achieve self-actualization.  It is intended to answer a resounding “Yes!” to the often confused and doubtful inner voice of the emotionally stuck adult when it dares to ask, “Is there hope?”

References

Crain, W. (1992). Theories of development: Concepts and applications. (3^rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. 

 Ellenberger, H. F. (1970). The discovery of the unconscious. New York: Basic Books.

 Maslow, A. (1962). Toward a psychology of being. (2^nd ed.) New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

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