| The study described psychological mechanisms of Goddess Art Process, developed by the author and offered as an intervention for transpersonal psychotherapy and as a personal growth process. Exploration of the interiority of the self occurred through the participant's self-goddess portraits, unique digital collages that incorporated the participant's real photos, images of the Divine Feminine, and other meaningful images. Six women of different ages and ethnicity volunteered. Every woman assisted by the facilitator created 3 self-goddess portraits, and recorded 3 progressive interviews. Data were transcribed and analyzed employing Giorgi's phenomenological psychological method. Results revealed 2 fundamental depth processes unfolding within the participant's psyche; the creative process and the self-construct. In the creative process, initiation belonged to the ego, and the Self led. A constellated complex within the psyche that caused tension and distress for the ego was addressed, and latent psychic resources necessary for the complex's healing were deployed from the unconscious. During the self-construct phase the ego consciously integrated activated psychic content and expanded the horizons of self-perception through: (a) including into conscious awareness previously hidden in shadow material such as positive pole of the complex, (b) reconciling the opposites, and (c) synthesizing both personal and transpersonal parts of the self into a whole. A new more productive relationship with the complex was built and aspirations and motivations for future life were created. New guiding principals included: (a) prioritizing of the Self within the psyche; (b) establishing the self as one's own authority guided from within; (c) the self was recognized and acknowledged as a part of the System, accepted as sacred, and as deserving to be loved unconditionally; and (d) the self was granted permission to live her own truth expressing fully all parts of the personality and the transpersonal Self. |
