Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

Phil Mollon (PM)
Phil Mollon is a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist and psychoanalyst who is Head of
Psychology and Psychotherapy Services at the Lister Hospital, Stevenage. He has written
numerous books on trauma, shame, dissociation, the unconscious, the work of Kohut - and
most recently on his unique psychoanalytic energy psychotherapy (Mollon 2004, 2008).
This combines insights from the psychoanalytic tradition with a holistic understanding of
the body, mind and energy. Psychoanalytic listening identifies psychodynamic conflict and
trauma - and then the client is guided to use simple procedures to stimulate the energy
system in order to clear the structures that generate and maintain the problem.
Meeting Phil Mollon
PM and I had briefly corresponded on the subject of ‘terror’ 369 and he had warmly replied
with a paper on evil in therapeutic relationships. Terror and evil did not seem promising
foundations for an interview but revealed PM as an original thinker that would add unique
insights for my research.
As I sat in the waiting area of a hospital-based psychiatric unit, I was reminded of a unique
institutional feel recalling my time as part of a Chaplains’ department in a psychiatric
hospital twenty-five years before. This had been a very positive experience that introduced
me to the world of psyche and therapy (Ross 1997). As I was musing, PM appeared,
introduced himself and took me to his office.
369 A lecture I had given to the annual conference of the Association of Anglican Advisors in Pastoral Care and
Counselling.
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