Healing and repair work often arises when processing content related to chronic life-threatening illnesses, severe injuries, cancer treatment, psychosis, and trauma. The term trauma used in this context may refer to specific events or situations in the remote or recent past. The term is further subdivided into complex trauma (i.e., developmental trauma, attachment trauma) or episodic trauma (i.e., trauma related to a single event or a specific situation). In this context, the term trauma includes instances of abuse (e.g., sexual, physical, verbal, and/or emotional abuse), traumatic losses, physical / emotional neglect, or abandonment.

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Common themes in this level of care include the building of self-confidence through living with awareness and sincerity, regaining a lost or fragmented sense of Self, learning new ways of coping with severe adversity, mending of trust in oneself and in others, sustaining the courage to look within despite confusion or discomfort, and supporting the natural healing capacities present within each individual across the lifespan.

The growth and maintenance level of psychiatric care includes all mental and emotional aspects of major phase of life changes. This may include relationship difficulties, adjustment difficulties in new roles, work transitions, housing transitions, beginning school, finishing school, friendships, loss and grief work, marriage and family stressors, career changes, raising children, caring for families, empty nest syndrome, retirement, and the development of a satisfying and enduring inner life across the lifespan.

 

Common themes in this level of care include building positive habits, creating healthy limits and boundaries in relationships, structuring time in a way that facilitates daily flow states, deepening and building upon satisfying relationships, becoming further acquainted with the Self in new ways across the seasons of life, and changing ones understanding of the Self when one desires a change of course in life.

The aesthetic and creative level of psychiatric care arises when many aspects of life are going well, but some areas could be further optimized in the pursuit of greater enjoyment and life satisfaction. This aspect of inner work arises in the context of developing higher values and aspirations, cultivating new areas of focus and direction in work and art, seeking deeper sources of meaning and purpose in life, building greater levels of mind-body connectivity, exploring intersubjective fields in finer detail, attunement of artistic expression to inner realities, and raising ones own inner standards of living consciously. In short, this area of psychiatric work encompasses the process of self-actualization, and views life itself as a work of art that is undertaken for its own sake. 

 

In some ways, this is the newest, fastest growing, and most exciting trend in modern psychiatry. In other ways, this approach represents a foundational aspect of mental and emotional life that far predates the field of psychiatry itself. In our society, it is very possible to be emotionally healthy and physically well, while still retaining a desire to further elaborate and articulate the inner and outer aspects of daily life. When psychiatric work is viewed through the lens of an artistic and aesthetic endeavor attempted for its own sake, we are able to reinterpret and reimagine aspects of daily life in exciting and unexpected ways. One might choose to consult with a psychiatrist in this capacity simply because it is pleasurable to direct ones energies into crafting a life that is more elegant and more satisfying than before.