Integrating Spiritual Emergency Through Visionary Art Therapy: A Jungian Autoethnography of Psychospiritual Trauma Healing to Benefit the Collective
Journal of Humanistic Psychology July 22, 2025 Nisha Gupta 1 citation
Spiritual emergency is a phenomenon where psychological crises trigger altered states of consciousness with transpersonal themes that can resemble psychopathology but may instead catalyze psychospiritual evolution, offering wisdom for the individual and collective. The author, a depth psychologist and artist, presents an autoethnographic case study of their own spiritual emergency after a traumatic loss, using visionary art therapy to express spiritual insights during trauma healing. Referencing Jung, they describe painting tarot cards as archetypal images from the collective unconscious, depicting a six-stage process of spiritual evolution. Practical recommendations are given for psychotherapists to facilitate visionary art therapy for clients in spiritual emergencies.