Counsellors and Mental Health Professionals talk

Our MCA blog Editor, Margaret Penhall-Jones gave a talk to the Mental Health Professionals’ Network, Coffs Harbour Collaborative Network and Counselling Services, Inc. 16 June on

The Complexes:

a Jungian Perspective and the Association Experiment

Margaret practiced in Sydney as a counsellor and psychotherapist for a decade before moving to Coffs Harbour in 2014. She currently applies many of the theories and skills from that earlier career to her current activities as a writer (www.margopenhall.com ) and developer of local and online courses on writing skills (www.openlearning.com). Her current Australian romance novel is Keeping his enemy close and she has a personal blog at https://margopenhall.wordpress.com/

As Margaret described it in her earlier book: “A complex, for Jung, is a response to situations in the world, which we developed at a time when we had little control over our world or our reaction to it. When similar situations recur, the complex response seems to take over our psyche and we feel compelled by it. The response occurs on all levels, including ideas, feelings and physical sensations. … Complexes related to parents, ‘father’ and ‘mother’ complexes are particularly tenacious. Much psychotherapy is devoted to untangling these complexes and allowing adult individuals to interact with their world without undue influence from their parents.” (Dreampower, 2008 p.49)

The MHPN and Counselling Services, Inc. are non-profit organisations and Margaret freely donated her time to give and prepare the talk.