• The Method
• The Beginnings
• The Essence
• The Course of a Session

Prof. Dr. Eligio Stephen Gallegos is the founder of the method The Personal Totem Pole Process. For many years he was professor of psychology and director of the Psychology Institute of Mercer University (USA) where he studied the teachings of C. G Jung.

He used guided imagery with his clients, as it is common practice in psycho synthesis. In 1979 he set himself up as a psychotherapist on the west coast of the USA.

At that time he came across the totem poles of the northern American native tribes. Totem poles are sculptures, which are carved out of a single trunk and then colored.

They are formed out of animals sitting on top of each other. The word totem originates in the Indian language and means relations or protecting spirit. The totem is perceived as a being from which a person is descendent - the ancestor of a human being or its tribe.

 Gallegos found out
that the formation of the animals
was very similar to the placement
of the seven chakras (energy centers)
in the human body.

One evening he went out jogging and noticed for the first time, that there were indeed animals in his chakras. They wanted to get into contact with him and so he started to communicate with them. He became aware that the Chakra-animals hardly knew each other and asked him to become acquainted. This experience should then be the origin of his research on deepimagery.

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