It was such a joy to reconnect with Paris to find out what he’s up to now and how his work and ideas have progressed since he appeared in the Emerging Proud film seven years ago. Here we talk about Paris’s journey from post-traumatic growth following an existential crisis, to his work as an Integrative Psychologist, interest in collective trauma-healing, and leading people to connect with the ‘more than human realm’ through deep ecology.Paris explains his needs-based ‘organismic holistic model of healing’ as an alternative to the current ‘mental health’ paradigm. We also touch on the complexities of what gets labelled as ‘spiritual bypassing’, and how the imaginal cells present in the metamorphosis process relate to the bigger picture of what is happening in the collective right now. As usual, it’s an organic flow, and we hope it might offer some helpful insights to anyone going through a transformation process.
Dr Paris Williams has traversed a very winding road in his life—going from the lows of a broken childhood to the highs of becoming an international hang gliding champion in his younger years (winning a World Champion title and numerous National Champion titles). But then in his late 20s, the wounds from his past, along with the deep wounds within human society and of the Earth that were all too apparent from his vantage point in the sky, converged to send him spinning into the vortex of a profound spiritual/existential crisis.
As he navigated through this crisis, he found solace and strength in the natural world as well as in a number of the world’s wisdom traditions, and found himself drawn into the path of “Wounded Healer.” He has since gone on to conduct research on psychosis and radical personal transformation, published the widely acclaimed book, Rethinking Madness, and received his PhD and license as a clinical psychologist, specializing in humanistic, existential, transpersonal, somatic and ecological approaches.He has worked in numerous settings supporting people struggling with challenging and extreme experiences – these include meditation centers, a residential facility, a medical hospital, a community mental health clinic, a substance dependency program, multi-disciplinary teams, and in numerous private practice settings.
Paris is currently residing in the U.S., working as an integrative psychology practitioner in private practice, providing support to individuals and families, providing supervision to other health professionals, and running various psychotherapy trainings and workshops.
Reframing Mental distress as a potential catalyst for positive change 