Integral Life Practice
A long with Critical Realism my work is also influenced by Integral Theory originated by Ken Wilber. Whilst not as complex as Critical Realism it is no less a powerful mode for change. Unlike Critical Realism, Integral Theory has a much clearer realisation of personal change and growth known as Integral Life Practice.
Within this post I would like to introduce you to Integral Life Practice, and along the way offer an overview of Integral Theory.
Wilber’s meta-model, or the AQAL map, is deceptively simple but allows for a vast complexity of ideas to sit side by side. It provides the theory from which ILP develops the injunction or exemplar of how to grow and develop an integral consciousness.
AQAL
Integral Theory views a human being in terms of levels and lines of development, which are expressed through individual and collective, interior, and exterior actions, and supported by typology, and state changes.
It aims to bring together multiple theories on human growth and development and place them within a four quadrant framework. With the left hand quadrants being theories that explore human growth from the interior and the right hand being theories that explore human growth from the exterior.
The top two quadrants represent theories about the individual and the bottom two quadrants represent theories about the collective.
This gives the All Quadrant (AQ) element of AQAL. The AL indicates All Lines/Levels or the developmental levels which have a line of developmental growth within each quadrant, something Lines and Levels are also referred to a Waves and States, as developmental growth is not some fixed linear process but a fluid interchange between the inner world and outer world.
The AQAL framework in all its complexity emerged through Ken Wilber’s detailed study of over a 100 theories of human development. However, by using pronouns we are able to simplify Integral Theory into, I (How I feel), WE (How we feel), IT ( What it is I do), ITs (What it is we do).
The simplicity in complexity of Integral Theory means that it has now become one of the most go to theories when wanting to understand how to created and support change and growth. The theory can be found being used in such areas as Education, Medicine, Politics, Ecology, and Psychology.
So what is Integral Life Practice
Integral Life Practice (ILP) offers a simple approach to personal growth by exploring practical applications of what Clare Graves called the second tier of consciousness (Beck and Cowan, 2005). ILP is a practice curriculum built around the aim of cross-training.
It is further expressed through the four core modules of body, mind, spirit and shadow.
An integral practice was first offered by Sri Aurobindo, and was further developed by Michael Murphy and George Leonard working at Esalen on a process of cross-training, bringing together body, mind, heart and soul, and attempting to provide a systematic 
training programme that would help the individual maintain or have more regular contact with Maslow’s peak experiences. Leonard and Murphy worked together and separately for over 25 years to define their system and in 1995 published a working manual, The Life We Are Given (1995), calling the system ‘integral transformative practice’. They found that engaging in systemic practice/exercise within the core dimensions of our being, helped the practitioner gain greater traction and acceleration in development growth.
At around the same time that The Life We Are Given (1995) was published, Ken Wilber was publishing the first grand map of integral in Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution (1995). In these two books a kind of synergy of theory and practice emerged.
Working with the Shadow
However, integral transformative practice offered little in the way of psychotherapy work (or practice). And it is the importance that AQAL places on working with the shadow that first drove an adaption of integral transformative practice and finally an independent system much more in line with the philosophy of integral theory.
As Wilber says, ILP is:
… the attempt to integrate the contributions of Western ‘depth psychology’ with the great wisdom traditions of ‘height psychology’ – the attempt to integrate id and Spirit, shadow and God, libido and Brahman, instinct and Goddess, lower and higher – whatever terms you wish, the idea is clear enough, I suspect.
(Wilber, 2000a: 122)
To support ILP, in 2006 the Integral Institute published The Integral Life Practice Starter Kit, a multimedia package offering ILP as a system. And in 2008, Integral Life Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening, a working manual of ILP practices, was published. At the core of ILP is cross-training in
Body (kinesthetic),
Mind (cognitive),
Spirit(contemplative)
Shadow (psychodynamic)
ILP recognises that we need to practise but we also have busy lives, so it offers scalable practices, from one-minute practices to four-hour practices. It is customisable: I have freedom to create my own individual practice. And it is adaptable:
I can add to the practices I am already engaged in.
ILP as a support system
When beginning to look at integral life practice as a support system within my own work two movements need to be made:
Horizontal, or Translation
Working with the client at their current level of development and helping them to create a wider sense of self. Here I am helping the client rearrange the way they feel/think/hold relationships/navigate social systems.
This is a process of ‘translation’ helping the client to recognise self-sense, just as we might reorganise the furniture in a room,
Vertical, or Transformation
Here I support the developmental growth of my clients into more complex structures; I am helping the client to transform from one developmental stage to the next. Kegan (1983) says that I am helping what was once subject in awareness to become object in the next stage of our awareness. Another way of describing this would be to say that ILP as a translational tool helps me support the client in finding legitimacy, make meaning of the world around them. ILP as a transformational tool helps me to support the client in a growing and deepening their connection to authenticity.
Many developmental psychologists have shown that transformation between stages can take an average of five years. However it has been shown that engaging with the practices of ILP can dramatically increase transformation between stages (Wilber 2000b).
Core modules as dimensions of Being
Within my work I could centre change interventions around the ILP shadow module (psychodynamics)
and flow out into the other modules. By using CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy), NLP (neurolinguistic programming) or TA (transactional analysis) I am moving into the mind module (cognition), in which I help the client to reorganise thinking. If I follow a more embodied or somatic approach I am moving into the body module (kinaesthetic), helping the client in releasing emotional energy trapped within the muscle memory. If following a purely transpersonal approach I move into the spirit module (contemplative), helping the client to connect with higher or archetypal awareness. These are all great ways of working, but from an integral perspective all are partial. ILP sees the individual holding the core modules as dimensions of being. Therefore, as a therapist taking ILP into the therapeutic space, I need to enquire how each of the core dimensions can be supported.
Aperspectival madness
As a skilled helper it can become quite overwhelming when you think that I have to take not just the perspective of my professional training but explore and offer multiple interventions, that are provided as the best change strategy for the client. I could find myself in ‘aperspectival’ madness (Gebser 1983). However, by using the four enquiries of ILP I am able to take an aperspectival (avoiding the madness) view of the change process.
The Four Enquiries
The four enquiries ensure my work is held within an ILP context. The simple inclusion of these questions helps me bring a more inclusive or integral awareness to my work or an aperspectival view. The questions also act as a process of self-inquiry for the me: how am I centring my work? Am I offering interventions that are client focused or am I just working within the space of of my own safety? How do I view the body – as a meat machine or a living vessel of consciousness energy? What is my response to contemplative practices within the therapeutic space? Am I able to hold objective rationality with humanistic awareness? Where do I see myself in terms of my own development and what traction and practices will help my growth?
There are many ways to answer these questions and I have found that it is quite possible when I make the inquiry that I am building multiple interventional approach.
ILP is not about changing what I do or taking on a whole new approach. It is about supplementing what I am already doing; it’s about acknowledging the gaps in my intervention and searching out the practices and interventions that are missing, and it’s also about having my own ILP.
ILP and Me
Integral psychotherapists Forman (2010) and Ingersoll (2010) have shown the importance of the skilled helper engaging with a personal ILP. An integral practitioner understands the challenges of holding an aperspectival view and also understands that to be fully present to the client they have a practice that enables them to develop their own presence. In this emerging post-postmodern world, we need to develop Open Mind, Open Heart and Open Will (Scharmer 2009)
ILP shows that as a skilled helper I can no longer engage with my client with just clinical objectivity. ILP allows me to engage with my own humanity, and the deeper I can engage with my humanity the deeper I can engage with the humanity of the people who come to me for help.
ILP is the ultimate CPD. It keeps me up to date with emerging ideas of how people change and investigate cultural meaning making (Mind). I stay healthy through exercise and diet, but we also tone my subtle intuitions though practices such as yoga and chi gung (Body). I work on my own psyche through therapy and supervision (Shadow), and spend time in silent contemplation developing my awareness (Spirit).
This has been a very quick dive into ILP, but one that I hope you have found interesting to read, if not a little challenging. I believe that the approach does not need to be overwhelming, and that it can be used as a tool to fine-tune my change work whilst providing my clients with a deep and rich encounter as each dimension of their being is supported.
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