We begin our conversation exploring José’s background, and with the likes of Dr. Andew Samuels and Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés as mentors, his intellectual,

professional, and spiritual orientation ranges from depth psychology and meditation to attachment and spiritually integrated psychotherapy. First up is one of

José’s papers on spirituality and psychotherapy wherein he takes a critical look at “Jungian” approaches and identifies some of the dangers of both

ungrounded psychotherapy and spirituality. We discuss the nature of therapy, ways psychotherapy can support and transform suffering, the nature of the

relationship in therapy, meditation, development of a private spiritual process, religion and defining related terms such as spirituality and mysticism, the

taxonomy of healers and therapists, the shadow side of spiritual work and healing professions, shamanism, fairytales, the archetype defined, inflation in

healing work, differences between mythology and fairytales, we analyze the fairytale “Sleeping Beauty,” or “Briar Rose,” and the importance of inviting the

unexplored psychological aspects of self.Bio: José has an M.A in Jungian and Post-Jungian Studies from the University of Essex, where Andrew Samuels was his

academic supervisor, and an MSc in Systemic Psychotherapy from the Milton Erikson Institute from Monterrey. Since 2013, he has trained with Dr. Clarissa

Pinkola Estés. He works as a psychotherapist in private practice and writes the column ‘The Spiritually Ambivalent Therapist’ for Thresholds, a Journal of

Psychotherapy and Spirituality, from the British Association of Counseling and Psychotherapy.