Organisation
The Society is a non-profit organisation founded in 2010, built entirely on enthusiasm and shared purpose. Its central board includes a president, secretary, treasurer, social media expert, researcher, and editor.
Several commissions support the work of the central board, including the Ambassadors Commission, Homepage/Marketing Commission, Research Commission, Newsletter Commission, Ethical Board, and Conferences Commission.
Vision
The mind functions as a reality simulator. Since everything in the universe exists in a specific place, our mental model of reality must also contain spatial characteristics in order to make sense. Three-dimensional psychological maps help us navigate land, air, and water in search of food, safety, and connection. Spatial thinking enables us to reason, imagine, and store or retrieve memories.
The scaffolding of our model of reality consists of semi-permanent ideas about stable things such as the earth below and the sky above. Nature and humanity are located around an “I” which is in the body and surrounded by relationships which may be near or distant. The directions in which the past, the present and the future are conceived structures all experience.
Our sense of time—past, present, and future—follows directional patterns that gives shape to everything we know, remember and expect. These basic tacit spatial stable cognitive background structures form the certainties of existence.
However, these same unconscious spatial structures also underlie most psychological problems. Which is what stands out for clinical psychology. Recent developments show that, when the spatial nature of experience is prioritised in psychotherapy, effectiveness increases dramatically.
The evaluation of this space-informed approach to therapy led to the the mental-space-psychology paradigm, which views space as the primary organising principle of the mind. Both academic research in spatial cognition and extensive clinical experience strongly support this perspective.
Mission
For decades, spatial psychology lay dormant as a collection of “fascinating ideas.” Meanwhile, several psychotherapists independently and quietly discovered its power in clinical work — for both diagnosis and treatment. Their results helped shape the mission of the Society for Mental Space Psychology (SOMSP) which is: to reach out globally to everyone in mental health care, education, and science who may benefit from this knowledge.
The founders of SOMSP, convinced of the transformative potential of space-informed therapy, warmly welcome like-minded practitioners into their community. Yet their vision extends far beyond the present. They see a future in which mental space research, coaching, therapy, and teaching play a central role in understanding human experience.
SOMSP has become the vehicle for spreading these insights across continents and generations. Fulfilling this mission requires active networking, seminars, research, media outreach, publications, conferences, and the dedication of a worldwide network of active ambassadors and supporters.
MSP changes psychology
Twentieth-century psychology sought to distance itself from its subjective, phenomenological, and philosophical roots of the nineteenth century. Behaviourism, cognitivism, and neuroscience each contributed to shaping the scientific profile of modern psychology. Mental Space Psychology, however, recognises all perspectives on the psyche as scientifically legitimate. It holds that detailed neuroscientific experiments are just as relevant as the analysis of psychotherapeutic change when exploring consciousness as a spatial phenomenon. The hope is that, in the future, psychology as a science will be grounded in the principles of MSP.
Who is in the SOMSP?
A deep fascination with the psyche brings professionals from clinical psychology, medicine, psychiatry, IT, business consulting, education, and related fields to the SOMSP. Many arrive through their work with the Social Panorama model, Clean Language, Clean Space, Systemic Constellation methods, imagination-based therapies, or hypnotherapy—whether as therapists, coaches, students, or clients. Researchers in spatial cognition, social cognition, and psychotherapy research are also increasingly joining our community.
