Mental Space Psychology
Everything that exists in the universe – any toy, cloud, person, DVD or animal – is located somewhere in physical space. Our bodies, the womb, the brain itself and all neurological structures which connect our bodies & senses with minds are 3-dimensional.
Thus, from the very first moment of our physical, emotional and cognitive development, everything in our experience is spatial. The fundamental 3D nature of all things is necessarily reflected in the mind’s representation of its environment and itself.
The mental mapping, representation and animation of our environment enable us to navigate and predict our world. Since our survival depends on anticipating what will come and finding our way around it, mental mapping and representation is understandably crucial. Thus when our mind represents our environment with sufficient accuracy, we may thrive. If not, we may get lost, stuck, startled, hungry and incapable of connection. A poor simulation of reality will cause us to live in constant fear, panic and stress – if we survive at all.
Mental Space Psychology shows how humans live in the centre of a landscape full of imaginary constructs that they believe are real.
Thankfully, these constructs can be moved around and modified to update one’s model of the world. Mental Space Psychology tries to provide a bridge between academic psychology and the up-to-date clinical practice. This demands great powers of imagination. One must envision how the 3-D basis of cognition is a biological necessity with far ranging consequences.
There is a burning question in Mental Space Psychology.
Robert Hemelaar, René Koppelaar, Michiel Brandt, Lucas Derks, Jacqueline Heemskerk, Gert Arts, Christine Beenhakker
How can we explore, understand, and apply the 3-D character of the foundation of cognition?
Mental Space Psychology as an evolving discipline will progress when experimental cognitive psychologists start to merge their experience and knowledge with non-institutional Mental Space researchers, whose knowledge primarily depends on extensive change-work in the clinical field.
Society of Mental Space Psychology
The Society of Mental Space Psychology was founded with the intention of building a worldwide connection for all people interested in practising and researching Mental Space; to unite research and clinical practice in this radical field and to be an important source of information about the subject. To learn more about the board, please visit their website here.
Michiel Brandt – President, SOMSP
Michiel is a business consultant. He trains organisations in techniques, sales and leadership. The nature of the questions asked during these trainings led him to become a Mental Space Coach, creating space for innovation for organisations and individuals.
In his own professional development Michiel has always been interested in the psychological aspects of life. As connecting people is his passion, he became a mediator. He came into contact with a number of other interesting areas, like Solution Focused Coaching and he is certified in several domains. He uses Dynamic Colour Drives, a psychological model based on Spiral Dynamics, to test clients and interpret the results.
As mentioned above, Michiel’s passion is creation out of connection. Michiel is also fascinated by the systemic aspects of interaction. He is certified by the Bert Hellinger Institute for leading organisational constellations.
His desire to coordinate all these ways of approaching questions led him to become a Master Practitioner of NLP, and a Social Panorama Consultant. The excellent results Michiel encounters with clients using mental space psychology have made him very enthousiastic about the techniques. He would like to make the world aware of these beautiful possibilities, by training, representation or articles.