Skiatism. A psychological approach that bases an understanding of counselling through the use of symbolism in a transcultural dimention,projected into an Intra cultural paradigm. It fuses ideologies of C.G.Jung and his concepts of symbols. The concept was founded by Samuel Ochieng in 1992.

Symbols are culturally oriented in terms of interpretation, but there are those that have become intra-culturally formulated.

As a word, ‘symbol’ takes its roots from the Greek word symbolon and it is usually taken to mean a sign from which a person can recognize or imply something. The word itself consists of the syllable ‘sym’ which gives the inference of together, common. The second syllable, ‘bolon’, depicts that which has been thrown: I throw. To join the two ideas together, you arrive at where things are thrown together.

Looked at in a different light, the symbol is part of a whole, it gives a greater value to the whole because it enhances the whole towards a wholesomeness – a bonding of a part to a greater whole, giving a greater value. Giving rise to the concept of Skiatism.

Skiatism is then the a working format of a Psychological approach, that opens out to an understanding of individual cultures through the use of stories. These Stories, as told by a story teller, are dependent on the background of the story and the story teller, and therefore no two stories are ever told or retold in the same manner although they may depict the same event.