Dear Members of the Pacifica Community,

I​ am delighted to share that, effective February 1, 2023, Dr. Loraine Devos-Comby, Director of Institutional Effectiveness and Learning, will be stepping into the role of Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs while we prepare to conduct a national search​ to select a permanent ​appointment to that position.  On behalf of the Pacifica community, let me extend sincere appreciation to Dr. Peter M. Rojcewicz for his service as Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs over the previous three years. In the coming weeks, I will share details of Dr. Peter's continued contributions to the Pacifica community.

Dear Pacifica Community,

The Supreme Court’s recent ruling, overturning Roe v. Wade, erodes almost 50 years of precedent protecting equitable access to women’s reproductive health, right to make private, informed choices about their health care, and their futures.  This move towards increasing political activism by the court in removing reproductive rights threatens lives, well-being and security for many in our country.  This decision is of grave concern to Pacifica Graduate Institute as it is antithetical to our mission and values.

Curandera and storyteller, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, speaks of depth psychology as a way to “the river beneath the river,” to a place that delves deeper than the surface of things into implicit and nonlinear knowing and broadens the subtle field of intersubjectivity, integrating systems of being. Integratio may be fostered by a restoration of “beginner’s mind” to renew a sense of wonder, openness, feeling, and curiosity.

Perhaps you are aware of something that drives you, breathes you, that has brought you here to inquire about our integrative program and to do so now in this intense time of global uncertainty, paradox, and possibility?

What is speaking to you and through you? Why DPT now?

"All true things change and only those things that change remain true.” C.G. Jung

People are carefully thinking about educational opportunities during this time of radical uncertainty. They hope to strategically find their way through a world of increasing complexity and rapid, unpredictable change. Grasping the nature, order, and the way of the world has long been a goal sought throughout higher education. Today, however, this question is highly problematized and traditional certitudes of the Academy are hotly contested.

Next week, Counseling will be holding a series of events for our "Counseling Community Commencement Weekend". On Thursday evening, we will hold the next in our series of webinars, this time a clinical round table with department faculty. On Friday morning, we will host Thesis Presentation Day. 

On April 1, 2020, Dr. Murray Stein, internationally known Jungian analyst and author, was interviewed by Dr. Robert Henderson on the subject of the coronavirus found here.  In the interest of exploring further the powerful images and ideas found in this seminal interview, Pacifica will offer a series of new interviews with Murray, designed to address the pandemic from a depth perspective. In this first interview, Murray will be interviewed by Dr. Pat Katsky, a Jungian analyst, Pacifica faculty member, and former Pacifica provost.

A guest post by Dr. Joseph Cambray, President.

Our most recent Pacifica Experience Day was the first time we attempted to offer a recruitment event fully online, and I am happy to report that we had a rich, full engagement.  I set aside most of my usual introductory remarks, as I thought it more important to try applying some relevant depth psychological reflections to the crisis of our emerging global novel coronavirus pandemic.  I feel that it might be valuable to share them here.

A guest post by Keiron Le Grice, Ph.D.

The following article is based on notes made for an online presentation for Pacifica Graduate Institute on March 20, 2020.

In response to the exceptionally testing circumstances we now find ourselves in, as we try to deal with the traumatic impact of the coronavirus as it aggressively spreads around many parts of the world, I wanted to share some reflections on how we might gain a larger perspective on what is happening, and what we’re passing through, in terms of the archetypal patterns of history. At the same time, these reflections give a sense for the kind of things we are concerned with at Pacifica, the ideas we’re exploring in courses and in the classroom, and some of the ways in which we’re trying to understand and illuminate human nature and our place in the world at this critical moment of our collective history.

A guest post by Juliet Rohde-Brown, Ph.D.

As Pema Chodron has said “fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.” We are being challenged right now. How we move through this COVID-19 fear will say much about what we are willing to face. In recent times, one need only spend three minutes on most social media venues before witnessing vitriolic language and divisiveness, whether it be political or other contexts. However, this virus has opened us to consider another way.

A guest post by Mary Watkins, Ph.D.

I am hoping you are each well and taking great care to protect yourself and to help your family, friends, and neighbors in need. Our struggle with Covid-19 is both physical and psychological. As our daily routines are upended and many of us are working and conducting our lives from home, there are important healing and centering mind-body practices that we can learn and then pass on to others.