How much holding do you need in your environment?
Winnicott wrote a great deal about the importance of the holding environment for psychological development. When doing individual or group work with a therapist or spiritual teacher, the holding environment is a major concern.
Issues of basic trust are a concern for individuals involved in deep psychological or spiritual work. The holding environment needs to be safe enough to venture out, but risky enough to push our developmental envelope or edge. If there is no risk, is there ever expansion or going beyond the familiar and known?
At first, one needs more trust in the other (teacher, therapist). As personal work deepens, trust in the process or one’s self becomes more foreground than trust in the other.
In the 40 years I’ve been on the journey, I’ve seen holding environments that ranged from the self-serving, to the sublime, to the truly inspiring.