The experience of Wiccan counsellors: An interpretive phenomenological analysis

North, Stuart J.

Abstract

This research examines the experience of Wiccan counsellors through interpretive phenomenological analysis (Smith et al 2009). Five Wiccans, whose professional accreditation would enable them to deliver some form of ‘talking therapy’ within the UK National Health Service, were interviewed in a semi structured format intended to capture participants’ experience as therapists and Wiccans. Emergent themes were: Developmental Spiritual Quest, which contained two subordinate themes; Transformative Mystical Experience and, in the case of the three female participants Spiritual Emancipation as Women. Secondly, Perception of Self as Outsider in that most participants saw themselves as eccentric to the mainstream. Weighting Experience over Rationalism addressed how most of the participants described reality. Fourthly, Balancing Spiritual Identity with Professional Role in that all participants worked to balance authenticity with understandings of ‘professionalism’ as articulated within clinical healthcare discourse. Spiritual Life Supports Work as Therapist reflected the sense that participant’s spiritual lives supported their clinical work. Employing Zinnbauer and Pargament’s (2000) framework describing religion and psychotherapy it was found that no participant adopted an exclusivist approach, rather they adopted either pluralistic or constructivist perspectives. A shared concern for self-development unified counselling and Wicca as different aspects of the same project, and participants were drawn to psychological models that included spirituality as a means of holding their dual roles, particularly Jungian analytical psychology. This was notable as many writers adopting an analytic perspective have construed ‘oceanic’ mystical experiences, in which the self is perceived to merge with a larger whole, as regressive (Neumann, 1954; Faber, 1993; Tacy, 2001). Experiences of this type, however, were of particular significance for the participants, who described them in terms of accepting their own mortality, and supporting the self-development that they saw as supporting their work with clients.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 1, 2020
• Keywords: Wicca, Wiccan, Witchcraft, Witches, Pagan, Paganism, Counseling, Counselling, Counsellors, Counselors, IPA, Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, Therapy, Therapists, Psychotherapy Psychotherapists
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1490671
• Award Date: Sep 1, 2020