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

Pema Chodron has written: “Embarking on the spiritual journey is like getting into a very small boat and setting out on the ocean to search for unknown lands.” This quote beckons to how mindfulness and depth psychology serve complimentary journeys, in that both invite us into active agency with our inner landscape and a deeper intimacy in relational engagement.

A guest post by Joseph Bobrow, Roshi, Ph.D.

“To sit at a table... and bear the full force of our anguish.” —Lucia McBath, Mothers of the Movement group consisting of women who lost children to gun and police violence.

When trauma ripples through the zeitgeist, as it has since the November 8 elections, relationship and community become vessels for repair, revival, and transformation. Our inner lives and our sociocultural lives are intimately intertwined. Our own well-being arises in concert with the well-being of others and of our earth. My peace, understanding, and freedom do not exist in a vacuum; they express themselves in action that promotes justice for the many.

Tonight in Dreamland: Archetypal Perspectives a New Play co-written by Award-Winning TV Writer Cheri SteinKellner & Visionary Jean Houston
A guest post by Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.

The hit television series, Cheers, was a staple for many of us in the 1980s and early 90s. Sitting down in the front of the TV to catch a good laugh was sometimes the highlight of a busy week. Little did I know that decades later, I’d be having a conversation—about depth psychology—with on one of the award-winning writers of the series who is pursuing a degree in the Engaged Humanities and the Creative Life Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Cheri Steinkellner has an impressive number of awards, including Emmys, Golden Globes, and Tony among them as a writer/producer on a number of shows, including the Broadway hit, “Sister Act, the Musical.”

A guest post by Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.

Some of the best memoirs you can read are those that are reflective, those which are informed by dreams, myth, and synchronicities, maintains Maureen Murdock, a Jungian-oriented psychotherapist and the author of multiple memoirs and books about memoirs. In other words, there’s a depth psychological perspective that can facilitate, enhance, and deepen the telling of one’s story in a profound way.

A guest post by student/alumnae Hala Khouri, M.A.

Graduating from Pacifica’s M.A. in Counseling Psychology Program in 2004 gave me a foundation that has nurtured my work since then. Today things have come full circle. This year, not only have I begun the Community Psychology, Liberation Psychology, and Ecopsychology Specialization of the Depth Psychology Program, but also the non-profit organization that I co-founded in 2007, Off the Mat, Into the World ®, will be offering a training intensive entitled, Mindfulness, Compassion, and Social Justice at Pacifica this December, 2016.

A guest post by Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.

Dr. Pat Katsky is a Jungian Analyst and core faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and she has been a therapist for thirty years. When Pat sat down with me in a recent interview, our conversation focused on the idea that some of the most psychologically healing experiences come from the natural world, a theme derived from an upcoming certificate program, “Dreaming the Earth: Earthing the Dream” starting April 15, 2016.

Pat mused on how in the last million or so years of history, humans have always needed nature and did not feel separate from it. But with the industrial revolution and the development of society as we know it, we have lost the connectedness. It has become something we do for vacation, she observes, then we return to jobs and daily life where nature is distant.

A guest post by Frank McMillan

Nature is always right.  By repeated experiment, nature is now proven to be non-local.  According to quantum physicist Henry Stapp, non-locality is the most profound discovery of science.  Read that again.  Not simply an interesting finding or significant advance, but the most profound discovery in the history of science.  The reigning materialist paradigm that has dominated Western culture for three centuries is empirically dethroned as a complete explanation of reality.  More than seventy-five years after reductionism’s funeral in the labs of Bohr and Planck, Nature magazine printed its obituary last fall in an article entitled, “Quantum physics: Death by experiment for local realism.”  Wow.  To quote rock godfather Chuck Berry, “Roll over Beethoven and tell Tchaikovsky the news.”

Somebody refuses to listen, however.  I’m looking at you, Academia.

How do you take your ideas and turn them into successful businesses and/or tangible projects?

If you have ever struggled with the “what, how and why” of your path in life, then we invite you to the upcoming workshop Your Story Accelerator: Bring Your Story to Life and Put Your Ideas into Action with Dr. Thyonne Gordon. 

A guest post by Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.

Ever since I met Dr. Glen Slater in 2008, I have known him to be a particularly passionate and knowledgeable advocate of film. I often see his film reviews in Jungian and depth publications, and his background in clinical psychology and religious studies—along with his interest in technology and culture—make his commentary especially valuable.

In a recent interview, Glen and I sat down together for an intriguing depth discussion on Jung, individuation, and film.

To begin, Dr. Slater notes, while we can think of individuation as coming to one’s deep self or unique character, it’s also the place where one comes to contribute to the larger human story. The individuation process is both deeply personal but also transpersonal; both universal and archetypal. At any given time in a specific culture, individuation is about finding a deep relationship with those energies that are coming up from the collective psyche. Jung believed that “no one can individuate on a mountaintop,” Glen reminded me. Therefore, at the same time you are growing into your own genius, you are also finding where your own life resonates with what is emerging collectively.

A guest post by Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” ― Kahlil Gibran

We are all intimately familiar with suffering. And, while we might wish it away when it is painfully present, it is a normal part of human life, Dr. Lionel Corbett, M.D., Jungian analyst and professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute reminded me when I recently sat down for a depth discussion with him on the topic.

Etymologically, the word “suffering” comes from two Latin roots: sub—meaning “under”—and ferre, meaning “to carry or bear,” as in “to bear a burden.” But suffering is not necessarily pathological, Lionel insists. The root of the word “suffer” is also the root of the English word “fertile,” so it is also related to the idea of bearing fruit. Psychologically, then, suffering can produce something; it’s not random or meaningless, nor merely something to get rid of. In reality, it can act as either a fertilizer or a poison. It can be harmful or it can be helpful, but we need a framework by which we can understand it.