About Jonathan and The GATE

Learn more about the GATE concept

Getting counseling or therapy when you feel stuck, tired, fearful, etc. is a start; some may start a bit earlier as 'something just feels a little off,' though. Having a third party to help you look objectively at your life can help you to create new patterns for yourself when they're needed. No judgment, just finding what works. The idea is once you open a gate between the conscious and the unconscious, there can be forward movement due to having more information, intuition, creativity, etc.

Some people we see as very 'open' and fluid, able to flow with each moment with relative ease, while others seem to be more 'closed' and have some difficulty seeming at home with themselves.  By looking deeper into neurophysiology and neuropsychology, I learned that there were neural structures and pathways, neural peptides, neurotransmitters, etc that could open people's awareness in a way that helped them to feel more at home with themselves, even during challenging times. The metaphor of a gate opening and closing between conscious thought and unconscious motive/intention began to emerge for me. And how it could be applied to counseling and therapy.

In 1997, I was thinking about the idea of a gate, and how there are gates mentioned throughout biology, chemistry, neurology, and even spirituality of all varieties. The image seemed to lend itself to the connection between the conscious mind and the unconscious mind; two areas often discussed in psychology, and applied in counseling and therapy.

As I talked with close friends, teachers and colleagues, and read more literature ranging from neuroscience to spirituality and philosophy, a pattern emerged . . . that many very successful people had in common some very similar traits. They tend to be very honest (Genuine) about what they saw and felt (Awareness), and that they had a deep confidence (Trust) in themselves, and in their inability to offer trust to those who earned it; finally, they also seem to embody a sense of compassion (Empathy) for other people. This did not always mean that they were 'lost in the clouds' or overly 'new-agey,' or even 'soft;' it simply meant that they had found a balanced way of experiencing life, even biochemically speaking.

Each of these concepts (Genuineness [G], Awareness [A], Trust [T], Empathy [E]) involves an intricate interplay of various parts of the brain that can be easily described in terms of function, conscious thoughts, unconscious drives, and related behaviors, rather than only talked about in overly intellectual medical terms and chemicals; and at the same time, for people who take comfort in a very scientific, even physiological explanations, each can be tied directly to parts of the brain, and how they interact with each other. Putting this into counseling and therapy practice was not difficult from here . . . many clients seemed to naturally arrive at the same conclusions as we talked through their daily experiences of dealing with anxiety, depression, relationships, stress, parenting, etc. They found that using a structure like the GATE, or their own adaptation of it, helped them live more successful, content lives - and a confidence in their ability to get through tough times and return to contentment when things did become challenging.

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