Using Love as a Healing Tool - for Therapists and Healers
Erich Fromm was one of the first to address the notion that love carries with it a healing property that can help people develop into their best personal selves. In his book “The Art of Loving” he says right in the beginning that ‘human beings are starved for love’. Since Fromm’s work over 60 years ago, there has been little mention of the power of love as a healing tool in the therapeutic arts until now. The scientific community shut its eyes to the concept of love being something other than the fluff in greeting cards and sappy movies. It is a subject that is not taken seriously and very few have been able to bring it into the public discourse to discuss its effect on the human spirit.
I met Stefan Deutsch a few months ago and learned about his work in the field of human development. His Continuum Theory™ of Human Development includes a new theory of life span, a new concept of a developmental self, and a new functional definition of what love is. As a trained Gestalt therapist he uses his concept of love in his therapeutic interventions, especially with couples or people with relationship issues. His work with his concepts of love has convinced him that “being starved for love” is not just an expression, but a reality.
I asked him if it was alright for me to try out his concept of love with my clients, specifically a mother and daughter who were having a painful power struggle for decades. I did and to my surprise the relationship, they had been coming for therapy for 6 months and seemed absolutely stuck, went into healing right in front of my eyes. I had never read anything similar to his concept of love or its functional use in any journal of psychology, psychotherapy or social work.
After using his theories I began researching concepts of love in therapeutic interventions for the past few months I have still not come across anything even remotely similar. I believe that the therapeutic community must find out, become educated in, and learn to use Mr. Deutsch’s concepts of healing with loving energy.
