Christina Grof: The Spiritual Aspect Of Human Nature

Christina Grof was the founder of the Spiritual Emergence Network and a convinced representative of holotropic breathing. She was a brilliant and innovative psychotherapist, President of Grof Transpersonal Trainings, and Vice President of the International Transpersonal Association. She is also the author of numerous books. Yet many only know her because she was the wife of the American psychiatrist Stanislav Grof, one of the great teachers and pioneers of transpersonal psychology.

Before her death in 2014, Christina Grof had worked in the field of transpersonal psychology for more than 30 years. She spent much of her time giving workshops and lectures around the world. Today we remember a figure who developed one of the most advanced therapeutic techniques and, together with her husband, coined the term “spiritual emergency”.

The story of Christina Grof

Christina Grof shared her story, her experiences and even the difficulties that she had encountered due to her many altered states of consciousness and which occurred again and again spontaneously with her listeners. Even as a young woman Christina was interested in yoga and made strange psychological and physiological experiences, experienced symptoms of a spiritual awakening. That’s what she called them in later years. Because the truth is that at first everything pointed to some kind of psychosis and she even thought herself that she was going to go crazy.

Her doctors treated her with morphine and chlorpromazine for a while to try to relieve these symptoms, but that made her worse. During this time Christina was introduced to the then innovative therapist Stanislav Grof by one of her teachers, the anthropologist Joseph Campbell, whom she married shortly afterwards. In the course of their transpersonal crisis – their own spiritual emergency – Christina and her husband founded the Spiritual Emergence Network at the Esalen Institute in California, USA.

The emergency spiritual network

The Spiritual Emergence Network is there to support people in their psycho-spiritual crises. It was founded in order to be able to offer these people special help without it bearing a psychiatric stigma. Alternative treatments have been developed to address mystical seeking, letting go, and addictions. Together they worked on holotropic breathing. This is a therapy developed from the breathing techniques that Christina learned in the oriental tradition. They did this to healthily replace the psychedelic substances that Stanislav Grof experimented with to achieve altered states of consciousness in his patients. They also developed a comprehensive treatment program for alcoholism and other addictions, which blended the well-known twelve-step program and transpersonal psychology.

At this time Christina Grof was also writing several books about addiction and its relationship with the spiritual search. Her books include: Longing for Wholeness: The Spiritual Way Out of Dependence   and The Stormy Search for the Self . She also wrote with her husband, published books such as Spiritual Crises: Chances of Self-Discovery  and Holotropic Breathing: A New Method of Self-Inquiry and Therapy.

The transpersonal psychology

Christina Grof is considered a pioneer in transpersonal psychology. This type of psychology takes into account the emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of human nature. Christina and her husband explored areas of the human being that traditional western psychology has always ignored. Your work on the spiritual emergencies is truly unique.

Christina Grof dared to work and bet on people who would have described a different type of consciousness and otherwise misdiagnosed and safely placed in psychiatric centers.

Christina Grof often remained in the shadow of her husband, although both have always worked together and she has made many of the most successful contributions to their therapies together. Christina’s work and life have been an inspiration to millions of people. So we can say that she was one of those people who left the world a little better than they found it, a very courageous therapist whose work and legacy is still considered enriching and very human today.