Defenses

Our best strengths that help us achieve in life are at the same time our worst enemies and most painful weaknesses. Why is that?
In homeopathic case taking I listen to the person's experiences in life and the way they describe these. Often it is clear that the same patterns that create the helpful, positive, unique strength in the person in one end of the spectrum, in one extreme, the same pattern is recognizable at the other end of the spectrum where the person is struggling with the same patterns, qualities, experiences. while the pattern is the same, it can be helpful in one extreme and unhelpful in the other extreme. I think that in psychotherapy we see these as the person's defenses. These are behaviors, patterns, unconscious anxieties and drives that makes the person move and act and protect himself. On the other hand, the same person cannot shed this pattern and behave well other times. The same pattern will create the negative and the unpleasant, as well as the passionate and creative behaviors.

Mindfulness

In discussion with Renee, a Mindfulness therapist in Palo Alto, the question arose about the here-and-now nature of Mindfulness techniques in therapy and the issues that tend to come up in therapy about the patient who names tendencies, recurrent patterns of thinking that are unhealthy and as such the therapist would aim to help the patient create a new, healthier narrative to their story. Often, psychodynamic therapists would explore with the patient the history of the thoughts and shed light onto the unconscious patterns that govern those conscious troubling thoughts. I appreciated Renee's thinking about this issue: the exploration of the patient's mind and body in the here and now sets the stage, creates the space that is needed for the unconscious to find its way to the surface and be cleared off. This way, instead of thinking with the thinking mind about the unconscious, the body gets involved and finding the calm, relaxed state of the unthinking mind allows the contents of the unconscious to surface and clear. The issue can be named, and the body can be invited to access the underlying thinking patterns, taking the thinking out of the equation and allowing the process to happen.
For me, at this juncture the body-mind modalities meet and allow the space to open up in a very real, authentic, close-to-home way. Focusing and Mindfulness techniques are wonderful tools to access the below  the conscious layers.