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Guide XIV-236

Ontopsychology (Meneghetti)

Antonio Meneghetti1971Italy
A 25 · L 58 · M 1730 interventions in the Trinity explorer
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: Antonio Meneghetti's Ontopsychology (Portuguese Ontopsicologia) as taught today by the Antonio Meneghetti Faculdade (AMF) at the Recanto Maestro centre in Restinga Sêca, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and as set out in its affiliated journals (Saber Humano, Revista Brasileira de Ontopsicologia). These journals cite Meneghetti's Manual de Ontopsicologia (Portuguese 4th edition, 2010) and Dicionário de Ontopsicologia. Italian-language primary sources are not cited here, so the Italian versions and organisations are marked [uncertain: not verified] where they come up. [source: AMF specialisation folder 2019; Barcellos 2018a; Wazlawick 2021]

What it is. Ontopsychology is not a single therapy. It is a school: a body of theory, an applied method and a set of institutions founded by the Italian Antonio Meneghetti (1936–2013). A critical academic review describes him as a former priest. [source: AMF specialisation folder 2019; Santibañez 2000] An author affiliated with the AMF gives this account of its history:

  • Meneghetti taught philosophy at the Angelicum in Rome in the early 1970s.
  • His clinical experimentation began in 1971 and ran for about ten years.
  • His first Brazilian conference was held in Santa Maria in 1988. [source: Wazlawick 2021]

AMF materials say the school offers individual and group psychotherapy, "authentication consulting", business and leadership consulting, residential events ("Residence"), body-and-music practices, art, pedagogy and youth programmes. Credentials run from a bachelor's degree to a postgraduate specialisation. [source: AMF bachelor curriculum; AMF specialisation folder 2019] Meneghetti's own one-line definition: Ontopsychology is "a method for authenticating and developing the creative human being" (translated). [source: Barcellos 2018a, quoting Meneghetti 2010 p. 282]

Core idea of change, as the school states it. Every person has an innate core, the Em Si ôntico (roughly "ontic In-Itself"; the Italian term is [uncertain: not verified]). The school treats it as the "base criterion" of what is healthy and right for that person. Two things are said to pull a person away from that core:

  • a distorting filter between the conscious mind and the unconscious, called the monitor de deflexão ("deflection monitor");
  • cultural stereotypes taken in from family, school and institutions.

The ontopsychologist claims to perceive these distortions through the campo semântico ("semantic field"), described as a non-verbal, bodily-visceral form of communication between people. Change comes as metanoia: a radical change in behaviour that lines up with the In-Itself. The school says the client must make it freely and carry it out personally. [source: Barcellos 2018a; Barcellos 2018b; Meneghetti 2015]

Evidence status, in one line. The claims about semantic-field perception and the In-Itself have not been tested in independent controlled research in any source reviewed here. A University of Chile psychologist states that the therapeutic effectiveness is not demonstrated. Most of the literature comes from authors affiliated with the school. [source: Santibañez 2000; Wazlawick 2021 (author affiliation stated)]

What this guide covers. The therapist reading this is usually not an ontopsychologist. The likely situation is a client who attends ontopsychology consultations, residences or courses, works for or with affiliated businesses, studies at the Faculdade, is considering any of these, or has left. This guide therefore:

  • describes each ontopsychology instrument as the school publishes it, in outline;
  • sets out the psychotherapist's own work around it: meaning, cultural formulation, screening, consent, debriefing, dependence, money, the operator-client power relationship, leaving and families. [synthesis]

The psychotherapist does not perform semantic-field readings, dream "readings" or authentication consulting for clients. [synthesis]

2. Framework

2a. How the school structures involvement (as published).

  • Entry points. Conferences and courses, consulting for businesses and leaders, youth events, individual psychotherapy, and degree programmes at the AMF. [source: AMF bachelor curriculum; AMF specialisation folder 2019; Wazlawick 2021]
  • Analysis, then intervention. Analysis is framed as "discernment": finding the person's original psychobiological soundness and individual path in the here and now. It uses the reading of both parties' bodily perception ("proprioceptive reading"). Intervention is framed as "liberation" from distortions and stereotypes and aims at metanoia. A case list attributed to Meneghetti covers eight areas: existential interpretation, social authenticity, courage in pain, noogenic orientation, freedom from neurosis, psychosomatics, psychosis and leadership. [source: Barcellos 2018a, citing Meneghetti 2010 p. 293]
  • Order of work: the "four autonomies". The four areas are social, economic, legal and, last and most fundamental, psychological-individual. The work is said to begin "with agreement", so that the client does not feel their worldview is under attack. [source: Barcellos 2018a]
  • Instruments. The specialisation curriculum lists:
    • analysis tools: linguistic anamnesis and biography, symptom or problem, physiognomic-kinesic-proxemic analysis, dream analysis, semantic field, results;
    • intervention tools: individual and group psychotherapy, authentication consulting, business consulting and the "Isomaster" leadership tool, Imagogy, Cinelogy, Psicotea, the Residence method, Melolística, Melodance and "solar hydromusic". An affiliated review calls Melolística "one of twelve" intervention instruments. The full list of twelve is not given in the sources cited here [uncertain: not verified]. [source: AMF specialisation folder 2019; Silveira & Fiorezi 2024]
  • Training ladder. Published figures:
    • The bachelor's in Ontopsychology lists 3,006 hours in six modules, including "Applied Ontopsychology I–III", a practice laboratory, and the youth programmes "Jornada da Vida" and "Weekend Life". [source: AMF bachelor curriculum]
    • The 2019 specialisation ran two years and 360 hours, in monthly Friday-to-Sunday blocks, for R$ 29,800 with instalment plans. Lodging, travel and meals were extra. It was aimed at executives, entrepreneurs and professionals. [source: AMF specialisation folder 2019]
    • Doctoral research at PUC-São Paulo describes the training of "ontotherapists" under Meneghetti as theoretical study, personal psychotherapy and supervision, plus residences, congresses and international events. The same research notes there are no dedicated schools or institutionally defined training path for ontotherapists. [source: Accorsi 2019]
  • Session counts and lengths. No source reviewed gives the number or length of psychotherapy sessions, or the length of a Residence [uncertain: not verified].

2b. The psychotherapist's framework around a client's involvement [synthesis].

  1. Orientation. Learn what the client is involved in, in their words: which instrument, which organisation, what it costs, and who the operator is. Do a cultural formulation. Move on when you and the client share a working map of their involvement and what it means to them.
  2. Decision support (before a course, residence or consultation). Screening, informed consent, money, and a crisis plan. Move on when the client has made a decision that is their own and documented.
  3. Concurrent support (while involved). Keep the client's authorship of interpretations. Watch dependence and coercive-control signs. Coordinate if two treatments run side by side. Move on when there is a defined event, such as a residence, a crisis or a decision to leave.
  4. Debrief and aftercare (after an intensive event or a crisis). Stabilise, integrate, and check for adverse effects. Move on when the client's functioning is back to baseline and any new commitments have been reviewed calmly.
  5. Leaving and after. Practical exit, money, work ties, identity, grief and family repair. Close when the client is choosing freely and the distress is being addressed.

Phases can repeat or run out of order. Acute risk overrides sequence.

3. Guiding principles

Principles of Ontopsychology as published. Each has a practical meaning for the outside therapist.

  • The In-Itself as "base criterion" [source: Barcellos 2018a; Meneghetti 2015]. Practical meaning: clients may judge choices, relationships and symptoms by whether they "agree with the In-Itself". Ask what that means for them, concretely, rather than arguing about it.
  • The semantic field as a perception tool [source: Barcellos 2018a; Barcellos 2018b]. Practical meaning: the client may have been told what their "field" or someone else's "really" communicates. Treat these as statements made by a person with authority, and explore their impact.
  • The deflection monitor and stereotypes as the source of distortion [source: Barcellos 2018a; Meneghetti 2015]. Practical meaning: the client's doubts, family loyalties, religious ties or reliance on mainstream medicine and media may be framed as distortion. Listen for that framing, and protect the client's ability to weigh those ties freely.
  • Authenticity of the operator [source: Barcellos 2018a; Meneghetti 2015]. The school holds that the receiver's own authenticity decides how well they read the field. Practical meaning: this gives the operator great authority. Explore how the client handles disagreement with the operator.
  • The client's free and deliberate decision at every stage [source: Barcellos 2018a]. Practical meaning: use the school's own value as common ground when the client is weighing whether a commitment is really freely chosen.
  • "Explanation first", then the client does the abreaction (emotional release) on their own [source: Barcellos 2018b, citing Meneghetti 2015 p. 134]. Practical meaning: clients may carry intense emotional processing alone after a session. Ask about what happens after sessions and residences.
  • Results as a criterion [source: AMF specialisation folder 2019; Barcellos 2018b]. Practical meaning: success in work, money or status may be read as a sign of authenticity, and setbacks as failure of self. Check for shame and self-blame.
  • Start "with agreement" across the four autonomies [source: Barcellos 2018a]. Practical meaning: the client may value an approach that does not attack their worldview. Offer the same respect yourself.
  • Metanoia as rapid, own, concrete change [source: Barcellos 2018a; Barcellos 2018b]. Practical meaning: expect sudden life decisions after sessions or residences, such as leaving a job, partner, faith or treatment. Slow the decision process without dismissing it.

Principles for the psychotherapist [synthesis unless tagged].

  • Describe the school as it describes itself, and neither endorse nor ridicule it. Meaning: use its terms with a gloss, and keep evidence questions separate from the client's meaning.
  • The client's meaning comes first, then function and safety. Meaning: your concern is how involvement affects the client's wellbeing, relationships, money and freedom, not whether the theory is true.
  • Do not pathologise belief. Meaning: commitment to a philosophy of life is not a symptom. Assess symptoms on their own criteria.
  • Keep authorship with the client. Meaning: interpretations of the client's dreams, body or "field" belong to whoever offered them. The client decides what fits.
  • Informed consent and the right to leave are continuous. Meaning: revisit consent before each new commitment, and normalise stopping.
  • No dual roles. Meaning: you do not attend residences, endorse an operator, give readings, or act as a rival guide. Mark ethics points as your own professional judgement. For psychologists, the APA Ethics Code, Standard 3.05 (Multiple Relationships), applies (https://www.apa.org/ethics/code).
  • No confrontation. Meaning: do not "deprogram" or stage confrontations. Support the client's own reflection and choices.
  • Name individuals as wrongdoers only on court, regulator, independent-investigation or major-news grounds. Meaning: in session and in notes, describe behaviours and roles, not rumours about named people.
  • Safety overrides neutrality. Meaning: suicidality, psychosis, mania, abuse or exploitation trigger standard risk procedures whatever the context.
  • Children and young people get safeguarding attention. Meaning: youth programmes are part of the school's offer [source: AMF bachelor curriculum]. Ask about any minor's involvement, consent and assent.

4. Intervention inventory

This inventory has two parts:

  • Part A, items 1–16: the instruments Ontopsychology publishes. Each is described in outline as the school's sources present it, followed by what the psychotherapist does when a client brings it. The psychotherapist does not deliver these instruments.
  • Part B, items 17–30: the psychotherapist's own interventions. These are [synthesis] unless tagged.

In Part A, "Steps" means the published outline plus your response. No exercise steps, scripts or timings are given.

Part A. Ontopsychology's published instruments (outline only)

1. Linguistic anamnesis and biography

  • Purpose (as published): an analysis tool for reading the person through their language and life history. [source: AMF specialisation folder 2019; Barcellos 2018a lists language and history among the ways the In-Itself is expressed]
  • Steps:
    • Outline: the operator gathers the client's account of their life and the way they speak about it. No procedure is given in the sources cited here [uncertain: not verified].
    • Your response: ask what the client told the operator, what was made of their life story, and whether any reframing of family members or past events now shapes decisions. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you told your story there, what did they make of it? Does that version feel like yours?"
  • Watch for: life history rewritten so that family, partner or faith become "stereotypes" to escape. Watch also for growing distance from people the client previously valued. Working looks like the client holding several readings of their story and choosing what fits. [synthesis]

2. Symptom or problem analysis

  • Purpose (as published): to treat the symptom or presenting problem as information about distance from the In-Itself. Neurosis is defined as repetitive inner information without resolution. Neurosis, psychosomatic illness and early decline are linked to cultural stereotypes, including reliance on "official science" and the media. [source: Barcellos 2018a, citing Meneghetti 2010 pp. 391–393]
  • Steps:
    • Outline: the symptom is read for its existential meaning. No procedure is given in the sources cited here [uncertain: not verified].
    • Your response: separate meaning-making from care. Make sure any physical symptom has proper medical assessment. Never advise starting, stopping or changing medicines, and route those questions to the prescriber. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "The meaning you're finding in this symptom matters, and so does having it checked properly. Can we make sure both happen?"
  • Watch for: delayed medical care, or reluctance to take prescribed treatment because it is framed as reliance on "official science". Watch also for self-blame for illness. Working looks like the client keeping medical follow-up while exploring meaning. [synthesis]

3. Physiognomic-kinesic-proxemic analysis

  • Purpose (as published): reading face, movement and use of space as expressions of the In-Itself. [source: AMF specialisation folder 2019; Barcellos 2018b]
  • Steps:
    • Outline: the operator observes the client's body language. No method is given in the sources [uncertain: not verified].
    • Your response: ask how the client felt being read in this way, and what was said about their body, appearance or sexuality. Make sure the client knows they can decline being read. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Being read from your face and posture can feel validating or exposing. What was it like for you?"
  • Watch for: body shame, hypervigilance about one's own posture or expression, and statements about the client's body that felt intrusive. Working looks like the client feeling free to accept or reject such observations. [synthesis]

4. Ontopsychological dream analysis

  • Purpose (as published): dreams, fantasies and art are treated as manifestations of the In-Itself. Dream interpretation is listed as an analysis tool, and the school publishes a dream-reference book, Prontuário Onírico. [source: AMF specialisation folder 2019; Barcellos 2018b; Trillo & Chikota 2022]
  • Steps:
    • Outline: the operator interprets dream images. The interpretive procedure is not described in the sources cited here [uncertain: not verified].
    • Your response: invite the client's own associations first. Then explore the interpretation they were given and its effects. Do not offer a counter-interpretation as fact. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Before we get to what you were told it means, what comes to mind for you with that image?"
  • Watch for:
    • dreams used as instructions for major decisions;
    • fear of one's own dreams;
    • interpretations that recast real memories, a suggestion risk; see Domain VI 110.
    Working looks like the client using dreams reflectively, without obeying them. [synthesis]

5. Semantic-field reading

  • Purpose (as published): the central perception tool. The operator reads the non-verbal, bodily-visceral communication between people to perceive the other's projects, intentions, blocks and defences. The school says the accuracy depends on the reader's own authenticity. [source: Barcellos 2018a; Barcellos 2018b; Meneghetti 2015; Santibañez 2000]
  • Steps:
    • Outline: the operator perceives and states what the client's field communicates. No procedure is published in the sources.
    • Your response: treat any reading as an attributed claim by an authority figure. Explore its emotional impact and how the client checks it against their own experience. Never perform readings yourself. [synthesis]
  • Evidence status: claimed perception, not independently tested in the sources reviewed. [source: Santibañez 2000]
  • Example language (illustrative): "You were told your field shows something you hadn't noticed. How do you weigh that against what you know about yourself?"
  • Watch for:
    • the client no longer trusting their own perception;
    • readings of third parties (a partner, a parent) used to justify cutting contact;
    • a belief that the operator knows the client's mind better than the client does.
    Working looks like restored trust in one's own judgement. [synthesis]

6. "Results" as a criterion

  • Purpose (as published): concrete results are listed among the ways the In-Itself shows itself and among the analysis tools. [source: AMF specialisation folder 2019; Barcellos 2018b]
  • Steps:
    • Outline: the person's outcomes in life and work are read as evidence of authenticity.
    • Your response: explore how the client reads their own setbacks, illness, poverty or relationship loss under this criterion. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "If results show authenticity, what does a hard year say about you, in your own view?"
  • Watch for: shame, perfectionism, overwork, and depression framed as personal inauthenticity. Working looks like self-compassion alongside ambition. [synthesis]

7. Individual ontopsychological psychotherapy ("ontotherapy")

  • Purpose (as published): individual psychotherapy is a named intervention instrument. It aims at liberation from distortions and at metanoia. The explanation comes first, and the patient carries out the abreaction on their own. [source: Wazlawick 2021; Barcellos 2018a; Barcellos 2018b]
  • Steps:
    • Outline: spontaneous dialogue in the here and now, which the school describes as conducted with respect and humility, and with the client's free decision required at every stage. Session frequency, length and fees are not given in the sources [uncertain: not verified].
    • Your response: if the client is in both treatments, agree the roles. Get the client's consent for any contact. Keep one clear crisis pathway. If the client prefers one treatment, help them choose rather than run two in conflict. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Seeing two people for help can work if we're clear who does what. How would you like to handle that?"
  • Watch for:
    • emotional processing left unsupported after sessions;
    • pressure to drop other treatment;
    • the operator's professional status. Whether the operator holds a regulated psychology or psychotherapy licence varies by country; ask. [synthesis]

8. Group psychotherapy

  • Purpose (as published): a named intervention instrument. [source: AMF specialisation folder 2019; Wazlawick 2021]
  • Steps:
    • Outline: group format. Structure not described in the sources [uncertain: not verified].
    • Your response: explore group dynamics: confidentiality, public interpretations, peer pressure and the status hierarchy. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "What happens in that group when someone disagrees with the leader?"
  • Watch for: public exposure, shaming, group pressure towards rapid decisions, and loss of outside friendships. Working looks like the client feeling free to speak, decline or leave. [synthesis]

9. Authentication consulting (consultoria de autenticação)

  • Purpose (as published): described as directive. The consultant does not give opinions or advice but informs the client of the indications of their own In-Itself. The "psychotherapy of authentication" is described as putting oneself in analysis to check whether one knows oneself as one is. [source: Wazlawick 2021, citing Meneghetti 2006a p. 32]
  • Steps:
    • Outline: the consultant states what the client's core indicates.
    • Your response: notice that a directive "indication" from a person claiming to read the client's core carries great authority. Help the client test decisions taken this way against their own values and timeframe. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "You were told what your core indicates about this job. If no one had told you, what would you be leaning towards?"
  • Watch for: major decisions about career, relationships, money, residence or children taken on an "indication", and difficulty disagreeing. Working looks like the client owning the decision and its reasons. [synthesis]

10. Business consulting and the "Isomaster" leadership tool

  • Purpose (as published): applying the method to companies and leaders, with the Isomaster named as a leadership tool. Executives and entrepreneurs are a target audience. [source: AMF specialisation folder 2019]
  • Steps:
    • Outline: not described in the sources [uncertain: not verified].
    • Your response: map overlapping roles. Is the client an employee, a client of the consultancy, a student and a psychotherapy patient of the same network? Explore the consequences of disagreeing in one role for the others. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "If you stepped back from the courses, would anything change at work?"
  • Watch for: employment or business dependence that makes leaving costly, and an employer or consultant who also has access to the client's inner life. Working looks like roles the client can separate. [synthesis]

11. The "four autonomies" review

  • Purpose (as published): to examine social, economic, legal and psychological-individual autonomy, beginning "with agreement". [source: Barcellos 2018a]
  • Steps:
    • Outline: the four areas are reviewed, with the individual dimension treated last as most fundamental.
    • Your response: the same four areas make a neutral checklist for your own assessment of the client's real independence: friends, money, legal position and inner freedom. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your school talks about four kinds of autonomy. How free do you feel right now in each: friendships, money, legal matters, your inner life?"
  • Watch for: gaps between stated autonomy and actual dependence. Working looks like the client naming their real constraints. [synthesis]

12. Metanoia as the intended change

  • Purpose (as published): a radical change of behaviour in line with the In-Itself, described as facile, simple, rapid, concrete, ready and the person's own. It is said to relieve existential anguish. [source: Barcellos 2018a; Barcellos 2018b, citing Meneghetti 2001 and 2010]
  • Steps:
    • Outline: the client takes on the change as their own responsibility.
    • Your response: welcome real growth, and introduce a pause before irreversible steps. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "This change feels urgent and right. Would it still be right in three months? What would it cost to wait a little?"
  • Watch for: sudden life overhauls, elation or reduced sleep (screen for mania), and decisions that increase dependence on the network. Working looks like changes the client can explain and that survive time. [synthesis]

13. Residence

  • Purpose (as published): a named method. Residential events are held at centres such as Recanto Maestro, including youth events. The school publishes a book on it (Residence Ontopsicológico). Format, length and participants are not described in the sources [uncertain: not verified]. [source: AMF specialisation folder 2019; Wazlawick 2021; Trillo & Chikota 2022]
  • Steps:
    • Your response: go through decision support (item 18), consent (item 19), and debrief and aftercare (item 20). [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Before you go, let's agree what you'll do if it gets too much while you're there."
  • Watch for: acute distress, sleep loss, dissociation or elation during or after the event; commitments made on site; travel and accommodation costs. [synthesis]

14. Melolística, Melodance and "solar hydromusic" (body-and-music practices)

  • Purpose (as published): Melolística is described as a psychocorporeal intervention combining music and harmonious movement to restore "organismic vitality". It is directed at normally healthy, active adults. Its three stated functions are "to heal, dissolve and levitate", and it was earlier called "ontopsychological music therapy". Melodance and solar hydromusic are named only. [source: Silveira & Fiorezi 2024; AMF specialisation folder 2019]
  • Steps:
    • Outline: an operator plays rhythms and participants move to them in a group, with an individual focus. No further steps or timings are given here.
    • Your response: treat it as a body-based group practice. Ask about any touch, consent and the right to stop. [synthesis]
  • Evidence status: the healing claims are attributed to the school, and no independent controlled evidence is cited in the sources. Nothing here treats physical disease. [source: Silveira & Fiorezi 2024 (affiliated review)]
  • Example language (illustrative): "How did your body feel during and after? Was it clear you could stop at any point?"
  • Watch for:
    • dissociation or trauma reactivation during eyes-closed movement;
    • any touch without consent; touch must never be sexual;
    • use of the practice in place of medical care.

15. Imagogy, Cinelogy and Psicotea

  • Purpose (as published): named intervention tools. Cinelogy has a published book (Cinelogía Ontopsicológica). The content of all three is not described in the sources cited here [uncertain: not verified]. [source: AMF specialisation folder 2019; Trillo & Chikota 2022]
  • Steps:
    • Your response: ask the client to describe what happened and how it affected them, without assuming a procedure. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "I don't know that practice. Can you tell me what it involved and what it stirred up?"
  • Watch for: strong emotional or dissociative reactions, and interpretations the client feels bound by. [synthesis]

16. Pedagogy, youth programmes and training as an ontopsychologist

  • Purpose (as published):
    • Ontopsychological pedagogy is taught.
    • The bachelor's lists youth programmes ("Jornada da Vida", "Weekend Life").
    • Becoming an ontotherapist involves theory, personal psychotherapy, supervision and residences.
    • Doctoral research notes there is no institutionally defined training path.
    [source: AMF bachelor curriculum; Accorsi 2019]
  • Steps:
    • Your response, for a trainee: explore the double role of being in personal therapy with, and assessed by, the same network.
    • Your response, for a parent: ask about the young person's own wishes, assent, contact with adults, and how disagreement is handled.
    [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "When your trainers are also your therapists, where can you take doubts about the training itself?"
  • Watch for: in trainees, career and identity bound up with staying, plus fees and debt. In minors, safeguarding concerns, which you act on under local child-protection procedures. Never name minors. [synthesis]

Part B. The psychotherapist's own interventions

17. Client-led exploration of meaning and cultural formulation

  • Purpose: to understand what Ontopsychology means in the client's life: identity, community, work, hope and conflict. Use this at intake or whenever involvement comes up. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Ask permission to explore the topic.
    2. Use the client's own terms (In-Itself, field, metanoia) and ask for their gloss.
    3. Go through the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview, including the supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions. Cover the cultural definition of the problem, cultural explanations, supports and stressors, and the client's expectations of help. Module wording [uncertain: not verified].
    4. Map involvement: which instruments, how often, costs, and roles (student, patient, employee, volunteer).
    5. Summarise back, and agree goals that belong to the client. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "You've mentioned your In-Itself a few times. Could you tell me what it means to you, in your own words?"
  • Watch for: your own urge to debate the theory. Working looks like the client feeling understood rather than judged, and a shared map of their involvement. [synthesis]

18. Deciding whether to attend a residence, course or consultation (screening)

  • Purpose: to support a free, informed decision before an intensive or costly commitment. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Clarify what is on offer: format, duration, location, cost and cancellation terms. Use the organisation's own materials.
    2. Screen current state:
      • history or current signs of psychosis or bipolar disorder;
      • PTSD and recent trauma;
      • recent bereavement or separation;
      • suicidal thoughts;
      • an eating disorder;
      • pregnancy;
      • substance use;
      • major medical conditions.
      This list is [synthesis]. No source reviewed gives Ontopsychology's own screening or exclusion criteria [uncertain: not verified].
    3. Weigh the timing. Is the client in an acute crisis that makes an intensive event risky now?
    4. Agree a crisis plan: whom to call, how to leave, and how to get home.
    5. Check finances (item 25).
    6. Record the client's decision and reasons. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Given how hard the last few months have been, let's think together about whether now is the right time, and what you'd need in place."
  • Watch for: urgency ("places closing"), pressure from the operator or peers, and a client who wants your permission rather than your thinking. Working looks like a decision the client can explain in their own terms. [synthesis]

19. Informed consent and the right to leave

  • Purpose: to make sure the client knows what they agree to and that they can stop at any time. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Help the client prepare questions to put to the organisation: what happens, who leads, what qualifications the leaders hold, the fees and refund rules, confidentiality, any body-based or touch elements, and what happens if they want to leave midway.
    2. Rehearse saying no or leaving, in the client's own words. This is not a confrontation script.
    3. Note that the school itself states the client's free decision is required at every stage, and use this as common ground. [source: Barcellos 2018a] [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your school says every step should be your free decision. What would it look like to use that if something didn't feel right?"
  • Watch for: vague answers about content or cost, and leaving framed as failure or inauthenticity. Working looks like the client knowing the terms and feeling able to opt out. [synthesis]

20. Preparing for, debriefing after, and aftercare following an intensive event or a "peak"

  • Purpose: to integrate the experience, catch adverse effects early, and slow big decisions. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Before: agree a check-in soon after the client returns, and a plan for sleep, contacts and work.
    2. Afterwards: invite an open account of the event.
    3. Ask about sleep, appetite, mood, energy, unusual experiences (derealisation, depersonalisation, "reading" others' minds), and suicidal thoughts.
    4. List the commitments or decisions made, and agree a waiting period before acting on irreversible ones.
    5. Reconnect the client with ordinary supports.
    6. If there are signs of mania, psychosis or suicidality, follow standard urgent pathways (item 30). [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "It sounds like it was very powerful. Let's take a slow look at what you came back with, and at how you're sleeping and feeling."
  • Watch for:
    • post-event elation followed by a crash;
    • persistent unreality;
    • grandiosity about perceiving others' hidden intentions;
    • abrupt life changes;
    • shame after a "failed" event.
    Adverse psychiatric reactions after intensive large-group trainings have been reported (Glass, Kirsch and Parris 1977, American Journal of Psychiatry); how far they apply to Ontopsychology events is [uncertain: not verified]. Working looks like stable sleep and mood and decisions taken at a sustainable pace. [synthesis]

21. Reclaiming authorship of an interpretation

  • Purpose: to help a client test a dream, body or semantic-field interpretation against their own experience. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Ask for the interpretation in the client's words.
    2. Ask what fits, what doesn't, and what they felt when they heard it.
    3. Explore who benefits if the interpretation is accepted.
    4. Invite the client to hold it as one view among several.
    5. Where an interpretation has changed memories of family or abuse, slow down and avoid confirming or disconfirming. See Domain VI 110 on suggestion and memory. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "If that reading were only one possible view, what other views of the same thing might you hold?"
  • Watch for: distress when doubting the operator, and memory changes. Working looks like the client feeling entitled to their own reading. [synthesis]

22. Differential assessment without pathologising belief

  • Purpose: to tell committed belief and growth apart from psychiatric conditions. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Assess functioning, distress and the criteria for each condition independently of belief content:
      • psychotic disorders (fixity, idiosyncrasy beyond the group's shared beliefs, other symptoms);
      • mania or hypomania (sleep, energy, speech, spending);
      • dissociation;
      • depression and suicidality;
      • complicated grief;
      • OCD-type scrupulosity about authenticity.
    2. Check whether the experience is shared and recognised within the group, as opposed to idiosyncratic.
    3. Where distress is spiritual or values-based without a disorder, consider the DSM-5-TR "Religious or Spiritual Problem", coded Z65.8 (ICD-10-CM Z65.8, "other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances") [source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8; DSM-5-TR wording uncertain: not verified]. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm not questioning what you believe. I'm asking about sleep and energy because they tell us how your body is coping."
  • Watch for: your own bias in either direction. Working looks like an accurate formulation the client can recognise. [synthesis]

23. Assessing the operator-client power relationship and coercive control

  • Purpose: to identify dependence and control without labelling the group. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Map the client's relationships with operators: as therapist, teacher, employer, consultant, landlord or creditor.
    2. Ask about the freedom to disagree, criticism of doubt, secrecy, isolation from outsiders, control over decisions (relationships, work, where to live), escalating payments, and sexual or boundary violations.
    3. Note where the school's own claims of superior perception (semantic field, "authenticity") are used to override the client's judgement.
    4. Write a neutral summary with the client. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you and your operator see something differently, what usually happens next?"
  • Watch for: the warning signs listed for Italian "psycho-sects" by commentators quoted in national press:
    • presenting as a cultural association, school or study group;
    • free introductory lessons followed by paid ones;
    • targeting people at vulnerable moments;
    • isolation from family;
    • escalating financial pressure;
    • discouraging medical treatment;
    • secrecy.
    These are general signs, not reported findings about Ontopsychology. [source: Sarti 2016] Working looks like the client describing the relationship in their own words and noticing their own choices. [synthesis]

24. Supporting a client who is also a trainee or practitioner

  • Purpose: to protect the client's therapy space when their career depends on the network. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Clarify confidentiality: nothing goes to their trainers without written consent.
    2. Explore career dependence, credential recognition and fees.
    3. Help the client find independent supervision or professional-regulator information on practising psychotherapy where they live. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "This is a space where you can think about the training without it counting for or against you there."
  • Watch for: fear of losing career, income or community if doubts are voiced. [synthesis]

25. Financial review

  • Purpose: to prevent unaffordable spending and debt. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. List costs: fees, instalments, travel, lodging and follow-on events. The published 2019 specialisation, for example, cost R$ 29,800 in up to 30 instalments, with lodging, travel and meals excluded. [source: AMF specialisation folder 2019]
    2. Compare the total with income and savings.
    3. Flag loans, credit cards or family money.
    4. Set a spending limit in advance.
    5. Refer to debt advice if needed. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let's add up the whole year, including travel, and see how it sits with your budget."
  • Watch for: spending framed as investment in authenticity or results, hidden costs, and debt. [synthesis]

26. Pressure to enrol others, volunteer, work for affiliated businesses or upgrade

  • Purpose: to help the client set limits on recruitment and unpaid or low-paid work. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Ask whether they are expected to bring others, volunteer, work for affiliated businesses or take further courses.
    2. Explore how saying no is received.
    3. Help the client choose limits.
    4. Where work conditions may break labour law, signpost to employment advice. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Is there any expectation that you'll bring friends along or help out? How would it go if you said no?"
  • Watch for: friendships and family used as recruitment pools, and burnout. [synthesis]

27. Leaving and after leaving

  • Purpose: to support a client who is reducing or ending involvement. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Respect the client's pace. Do not push leaving.
    2. Plan the practical side: cancelling payments, work and housing ties, and digital contacts.
    3. Work with loss: community, meaning and identity.
    4. Address shame or fear ("inauthentic", "deflected").
    5. Use trauma-informed care for any abuse.
    6. Rebuild relationships and outside activities. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Leaving can mean losing a community as well as a method. What do you miss, and what are you relieved about?"
  • Watch for: depression, guilt, intrusive self-criticism in the group's vocabulary, isolation, and suicidal thoughts (item 30). [synthesis]

28. Family members' concerns

  • Purpose: to support relatives worried about a family member's involvement without encouraging confrontation. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Listen to their concerns.
    2. Separate disagreement with the beliefs from evidence of harm.
    3. Encourage staying in warm, non-judgemental contact.
    4. Agree what would count as urgent: safety, minors or medical neglect.
    5. Signpost to their own support. Never coach coercive interventions. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Staying close and curious usually keeps the door open better than arguing. What would help you stay connected?"
  • Watch for: safeguarding concerns about children (item 16), and family conflict that pushes the member further in. [synthesis]

29. Checking the public record and holding your own boundaries

  • Purpose: to keep your work accurate and your role clear. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Rely only on court, regulator, parliamentary or major-news sources when discussing any named person's conduct. The public record cited here:
      • In May 2012 the Tribunale di Firenze rejected Meneghetti's request to make Google stop showing a website critical of his activity. The court found the site's use of his photos and trademarks to be an exercise of the right to criticism, and found that a search engine has no duty to remove content without a court ruling that it is unlawful. [source: Blitzquotidiano 2012, reporting Ansa]
      • Earlier Italian or other investigations or proceedings, and their outcomes, are not described here because no court or major-news source for them is cited [uncertain: not verified].
      • For context: Italy's offence of plagio (psychological subjugation) was struck down by the Constitutional Court in judgment 96/1981. Circumvention of a vulnerable person (art. 643 c.p.) remains an offence. Two 2025 Senate bills on "mental manipulation" were under committee review as of April 2026. [source: Tonti 2026; Sarti 2016]
    2. Decline to attend events, endorse operators, or give readings.
    3. If the client asks for your approval, return the decision to them.
    4. Keep any personal practice of your own separate from therapy. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "My job isn't to approve or disapprove of the school. It's to help you decide in a way that's truly yours."
  • Watch for: being drawn into a rescuer or adversary role. [synthesis]

30. Referral and crisis pathway

  • Purpose: to respond to acute risk. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Use standard suicide-risk assessment and safety planning, including lethal-means counselling (safe storage and removal).
    2. Arrange urgent psychiatric assessment for suspected psychosis or mania.
    3. Arrange medical assessment for physical symptoms.
    4. Make safeguarding referrals for children at risk.
    5. Signpost crisis lines: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (US); Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland); 112 for emergencies in the EU.
    6. Consider referral to clinicians experienced with high-demand groups or religious trauma, if the client wishes. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm concerned about your safety right now. Let's work out together who we contact and what happens next."
  • Watch for: reluctance to seek help because "official" psychiatry is distrusted. Address that respectfully and stay with the client through the referral. [synthesis]

5. Handling problems

The sources reviewed do not address the difficulties of an outside therapist working with an Ontopsychology client. All responses below are [synthesis] unless tagged.

  • The client wants you to confirm or refute Ontopsychology.
    • Name your role: you help them think, not decide the truth of a philosophy.
    • Offer evidence information in one neutral line if asked: the core claims have not been independently tested in the sources reviewed, and a University of Chile review states effectiveness is not demonstrated. [source: Santibañez 2000]
    • Return to what matters to them.
    • Illustrative: "I can tell you what research says in a sentence, but the more useful question may be how it's working in your life."
  • Stuck: the client defers every judgement to the operator's reading.
    • Use externalising questions ("if no one had read your field…").
    • Build small experiments in self-trust, such as a low-stakes decision made alone and then reviewed.
    • Use the school's own value of free decision as common ground. [source: Barcellos 2018a]
  • "Resistance": the client frames your questions as "deflection" or "stereotype".
    • Do not argue. Acknowledge that they may see it that way, and ask what would make the conversation useful.
    • Agree that you work from a different frame, and stay transparent about it.
    • If the frame makes therapy impossible, discuss openly whether to continue, pause or refer.
  • Overwhelm after a residence or intense session.
    • Stabilise first: sleep, food, grounding, supportive people. Postpone meaning-work.
    • Screen for mania, psychosis, dissociation and suicidality (items 20, 22, 30).
    • Suggest a pause on further intensive events until the client is stable.
  • Non-adherence to medical or psychiatric treatment framed as freedom from "official science". [the framing is sourced to Barcellos 2018a, citing Meneghetti 2010]
    • Do not advise on medicines.
    • Explore fears and values, encourage an honest conversation with the prescriber or physician, and with consent coordinate care.
    • Act on risk if stopping treatment endangers the client or others.
  • Rupture: the client feels you are against their school.
    • Name it and own any part you played. Restate that you respect their choices.
    • Invite feedback.
    • Illustrative: "I may have sounded like I was judging something important to you. That's not what I want. Can you tell me how it landed?"
  • Dual-treatment conflict: the operator and you give opposing advice.
    • Map the disagreement with the client.
    • With consent, consider one coordinating contact. Otherwise help the client choose which treatment leads.
    • Never ask the client to carry messages that set you against the operator.
  • Money and debt escalate.
    • Do the full cost review (item 25). Agree a hard limit and refer for debt advice.
    • If the client is cognitively or psychologically vulnerable and others may be exploiting this, consider safeguarding or legal advice. In Italy, circumvention of a vulnerable person is a criminal offence. [source: Tonti 2026]
  • Allegations against an operator (boundary, sexual or financial misconduct).
    • Take them seriously and support the client's choices: police, professional regulator, civil advice.
    • Record facts without naming people beyond what the client reports. Do not repeat unverified public allegations.
    • Follow your mandatory-reporting duties.
  • A minor is involved.
    • Ask about the young person's views, assent, contact with adults, and any refusal of care.
    • Act under local child-protection procedures. Never name minors in notes beyond what records require.
  • The client asks you to attend a residence, read their field, or endorse a course. Decline warmly, explain your role, and offer to help them prepare and debrief instead (items 18–20, 29).
  • The client wants to leave but fears losing their job, studies or community.
    • Plan step by step: income, housing, credentials, friendships.
    • Accept partial disengagement as a valid outcome.
    • Monitor mood and suicidality.
  • Your own reactions (fascination, suspicion, rescuing). Use supervision. Check whether your stance is driven by the client's goals or your views of the school.
  • Uncertainty about adverse-event literature. Published research on psychiatric casualties of large-group awareness trainings exists, including est case reports and an Annual Review of Psychology review of LGATs. It is not specific to Ontopsychology [Annual Review of Psychology review: uncertain: secondary, unverified]. Use standard clinical judgement rather than relying on it.

Sources

Web sources:

Books cited only as they are cited in the sources above:

  • Meneghetti, A. (2010). Manual de Ontopsicologia (4th Portuguese ed.).
  • Meneghetti, A. (2001). Dicionário de Ontopsicologia (date given as 2012 in one footnote [uncertain]).
  • Meneghetti, A. (2006a), cited by Wazlawick 2021 for authentication psychotherapy (title not given [uncertain]).
  • Meneghetti, A. (2015), cited by Barcellos 2018b, p. 134 (title not given [uncertain]).
  • Residence Ontopsicológico (2016), Cinelogía Ontopsicológica (2015) and Prontuário Onírico, all listed in Trillo & Chikota 2022 [uncertain: details not verified].

Further references:

  • ICD-10-CM Z65.8, Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances (includes 'Religious or spiritual problem'), Unbound Medicine
  • American Psychological Association. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, Standard 3.05 (Multiple Relationships), https://www.apa.org/ethics/code
  • Glass, L. L., Kirsch, M. A., & Parris, F. N. (1977). Psychiatric disturbances associated with Erhard Seminars Training: I. A report of cases. American Journal of Psychiatry, 134(3), 245.
  • DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview and its supplementary modules [uncertain: not verified].
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