Cultivating Female Sovereignty

Book excerpt: The impacts of patriarchy have created horrific circumstances in the lives of innumerable women and girls. The internalized objectification and devaluation of the feminine has engendered a need among many female psychotherapy clients for increased psycho-spiritual liberation and autonomy. The feminine principle is an energy that exists in the psyche of all humans and externally in the phenomenal world. Through heuristic methodology and organic inquiry, this thesis explores how the feminine emerged in the author's life to support her process of psycho-spiritual individuation, empowerment, and sovereignty. Psycho-spiritual sovereignty is the ability for a woman to feel valid in her own view of truth, beauty, and goodness within her sense of self. This thesis presents the importance of including the feminine principle within the therapeutic process. It provides a fourfold framework for supporting women in cultivating a relationship with the feminine as a healing agent in psycho-spiritual individuation and empowerment.