All five components of Ken Wilber's AQAL model are included in this program. We offer a special emphasis on lines and levels of development, as we believe that the synthesis that the AQAL model provides in the domain of developmental psychology is one of the most important theoretical contributions of our times in any field, especially in psychology and spirituality. Among other benefits, we find that the integral view of development imparts a knowledge of the oneness of human beings, giving students a sense of gratefulness and joy that comes from the in-depth study of the subject.
THE 1st YEAR
The first semester systematically surveys the psychological and spiritual teachings of the major spiritual traditions and teachers, while the second semester introduces all major schools of psychology, psychotherapy and psychiatry. Books such as Sex, Ecology and Spirituality and A Brief History of Everything are used as texts, along with others. By the end of the first year, students will have acquired a balanced view and introduction of the fields of psychology and spirituality, no matter the specific background they may have had prior to registering in our program, such as being psychologist, spiritual seekers or teachers, or any other professionals. During this first year we also introduce the quadrants and the concept of altitude, using these constructs to map and integrate the spiritual and psychological schools and theories both horizontally by ways of the quadrants, and vertically by way of the levels of development or altitude. Additionally, we study ecology in order to foster the student’s compassionate orientation to the Earth, based on actual scientific facts. In addition to studying the state of the world, we invite students to take practical steps towards reducing their ecological footprint. This is supported by self-organised ecological mentoring groups in our school.
THE 2nd YEAR
Our second year is focused solely on a thorough study of the lines of development as they move through multiple levels. The curriculum for this year is based on Integral Psychology -- especially the charts in the appendices and the concept of the integral psychograph -- as well as The Atman Project, Integral Spitiuality and others. We focus on the following lines: cognitive (Piaget, Wilber, and others), moral (Kohlberg and Wilber), worldviews (Gebser, Wilber), needs (Maslow), self (Freud, Mahler, Kernberg, Kohut, Stern, and Susanne Cook-Greuter), psychosexual (Freud, Deida), and values (Clare Graves), just to name a few. After studying theses systems in themselves, we integrate them using the concept of altitude. Through this study, a student comes to an in-depth understanding of each level of each line, as well as their criss-cross integration. In this year we also give 30 hours to explore the different areas and phenomenas of the transpersonal state-stages of the nautre-, deity-, formless-, and nondual mysticism.
THE 3rd YEAR
Our third year focuses in depth on states of consciousness and types. We thoroughly examine the phenomenology of the transpersonal state-stages -- including those of nature, deity, formless and nondual mysticism -- as well as their types and laws of functioning. Furthermore, we investigate altered states of consciousness and meditation. The third year curriculum also contains 40 hours of study of psychopathology, including from conventional clinical psychology (DSM and ICD) , as well as the study of spiritual emergency, and the differential-diagnoses of psychoses and mystical states, based on transpersonal psychology. In terms of types, we study the major personality typologies of western psychology, eastern typologies such as the i-ching, and a detailful study of the Ennegaram.
Time Commitment
One year in our Academy consist of 28 days for our students, all together 84 days, and 622 hours. Classes are held every third weekend, Saturday and Sunday, from September to June, in downtown Budapest.
Main modules in the program
What you have read so far was only the theoretical part of the study. There are other important modules, that are incorporated in the 662 hours of the program, and fulfilling them is a pre-requisit to gain our integral counsellor qualification.
By the end of the course students will have a comprehensive mastery of integral theory, the practically applicable tenets of psychology and spirituality and they will have efficient knowledge and skill to do integral work in a counselling practice. To achieve this goal, a two-year practical training is built in the program, teaching counselling techniques and methods from different schools like psychoanalytical, humanistic, NLP, and our own others. Students have the opportunity to gain a first-hand experience of group psychotherapy, and spiritual practice, which are essential parts of the training. We believe that there is no authentic integral practitioner without first-hand personal experience of therapy and meditation. As for meditation they have to do a 10 to 14 days retreat at once, and they freedom to choose a tradition according to their wish, we define only the criteria of the retreat. Our criteria is, that it has to be in a living tradition of accomplished masters. It might be a Buddhist, a yogic, a Christian mystic, or any other authentic form of meditation.
The 4 modules of the Integral Psychology course are as follows:
THEORETICAL COURSE ON INTEGRAL PSYCHOLOGY
+ COUNSELLER TRAINING (“LIGHT THERAPIST”) AND SUPERVISION
+ GROUP THERAPY (experiential)
+MEDITATION PRACTICE AND RETREAT
Compared to many mainstream colleges and universities, our school becomes a transformative community due to integral theory per se, and also to a great extent, to the intimate true moments of the therapy groups and counsellor practices (that students practice on each other). We believe, that being in such an integral community (sangha) is a key element in becoming an integral personality. We also bind theory and practice together, back and forth by referring to the theories on the experiential groups and vice versa. Therefore:
+ TRANSFORMATIONAL COMMUNITY
What are the main modules of the 3 years?
Main modules of our integral psychology program are:
The THEORETICAL LECTURES are marked with the blue strip on the chart. They span throughout the three years.
Experiential THERAPY GROUPS (marked with the magenta strip) also span three years, which provide a first-hand therapeutic experience for the students.
COUNSELLOR TRAINING (marked with the greyish blue strip) starts from the second year. We call it “TC training” among ourselves to abbreviate “therapeutic communication”. Here students learn practical therapeutic skills and techniques, taking turns in practicing the roles of the therapist, client and observer. This lasts until the end of the third year.
One MEDITATION RETREAT (orange strip) is to be completed once within the three years according to the student's choice. We recommend to do it, however, during the second or third years (shown on the chart) because, after the first year they will have better understanding about meditation and in the third year meditation and altered states of consciousness are an explicit part of the theoretical course as well.
In the third year students write a THESIS (or dissertation, the brown strip). This piece of work is ideally written by a person who acquired the knowledge of all the above - integral theory, integral psychology and counselling practice, has gone through therapy, has experienced a meditation retreat as an active part of this culturally creative environment.
All this happens throughout the three years in an INTEGRAL COMMUNITY with specific atmosphere (the general green background on the chart) and consist of fellow student and has a transformative effect.
