What are the Friday Evening Salon Series at Pacifica?

Throughout the year, Pacifica hosts prospective students on campus at The Pacifica Experience: A One-Day Introduction to Pacifica's Graduate Degree Programs. The Friday evening before each Pacifica Experience is reserved for public salons/lectures. These Salons are complimentary and open to the public.

We invite you to learn more about the meaning of the word salon and these wonderful lectures given by Pacifica Core Faculty members by listening to an interview with Dr. Jennifer Selig, who coincidentally will host the next upcoming salon this Friday, January 22nd from 7 - 8:30 p.m. titled The Right Address: How to Be Home When the Gods Come Calling.

Pacifica's Friday Evening Salon Series- An Interview with Dr. Jennifer Selig (mp3 ~ 4 minutes)

A guest post by Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.

What happens when the gods come calling, from a depth psychological perspective, and how can one be ready when it happens? These are questions that arose when I recently sat down with Dr. Jennifer Selig to discuss her upcoming Salon on January 22, 2016, at Pacifica’s Ladera Lane Campus: “The Right Address: How to Be Home When the Gods Come Calling.”

The title of Selig’s presentation is based on the double meaning of the word “address.” Not only can the word mean a physical “address” where you live or work— where you can typically be found—it’s verb form, while pronounced differently, signifies when someone calls you. “Calling” ties to the word “vocation,” which is based on the Latin vocatus, the past tense of vocare, “to call.” Vocation, from the early 15th century is defined as “spiritual calling.” Thus the word “vocation,” Selig notes, literally means to be called by the gods.

Every fall students in the the Community Psychology, Liberation Psychology, and Ecopsychology Specialization of the M.A./Ph.D. Depth Psychology Program gather together to present their Community and Ecological fieldwork research projects. The community and ecological fieldwork projects take place during the summer quarter of a student's first and second year in the program. Working with a faculty advisor, students choose an organization or group to work with, applying the insights and methodologies learned from this innovative course of study.

In mid-December of 2015 students, alumni, staff, faculty, and guests gathered together on the Ladera Lane Campus to view the poster and multi-media presentations created by the students of the Community Psychology, Liberation Psychology, and Ecopsychology Specialization.

To share this exquisite and powerful work of the students, and the communities they engage with, I have provided a list of each presentation. To learn more about the individual communities and fieldwork students work with download the list of presentations complete with full abstracts. 

For the November, 2015 Public Program Coming Home to the Body: The Legacy of Marion Woodman, a conference co-sponsored with the Marion Woodman Foundation, Pacifica welcomed a group of scholars and practitioners who honor the connection between the body and psyche. Attendees had the opportunity to participate in lectures, movement workshops, and connect with like-minded individuals who hold sacred the dynamic interplay between body, soul, and mind. One of the scholars and speakers from the weekend was Dr. Tina Stromsted, who is involved in many organizations working to bring this work out to the wider community. The following is the introduction speech from Dr. Rae Johnson, Chair of Pacifica's Somatic Studies Specialization, welcoming Dr. Tina Stromsted to the stage for her plenary session Stars Beneath the Sea: The Gifts of Marion Woodman.

Ferguson, Missouri has a history that is worth exploring when looking at the 2014 incident between 18-year-old Michael Brown and Darren Wilson, a policeman with Ferguson Police Department. 

A guest post by Dr. Erel Shalit, Ph.D.

Ever since I began practicing, now more than forty years ago, I have been drawn into the unique features of the intimate encounter in the sealed analytical vessel.

Simultaneously, however, I have always felt the need to look out, observe and partake in the currents and happenings in society, and the interaction between the individual and the world. Regarding the intense and conflicted Israeli society in which I live, wavering between periods of euphoria and despair, between constant strife and eternal images of wholeness, this has been the subject of a couple of my books.

This week we send warm wishes to faculty members Mary Watkins, Lynne Layton, and alumnae Deanne Bell who are presenting at the Association for Psychoanalysis, Culture, and Society’s  annual conference, Border Tensions: Troubling Psychoanalysis.

From Deserved Shame to Reparative Solidarity: The Role of Psychosocial Accompaniment

Chair(s): Mary Watkins (Pacifica Graduate Institute)

Presenter(s): Mary Watkins (Pacifica Graduate Institute)

From a decade of work on the borders between Anglos and Mexicans in the U.S., Watkins has tracked the role of deserved shame in psychological and community life. She defines deserved shame as feelings of shame that arise in the aftermath of individual or collective actions that have caused harm, differentiating it from undeserved feelings of shame experienced by innocent individuals. She asserts that if deserved shame is given psychological and community space, it can be a transformative emotion, capable of helping us move toward greater integrity in our relationships with those we or our cultural group has aggrieved.

Pacifica is excited to announce that is has several faculty, students, and alumni presenting at the international conference The Art and Psyche in Sicily. The conference is organized by Art and Psyche Working Group and is being held in the Grand Hotel, Minareto, Siracusa, in Italy from Tuesday, September 2 to September 6, 2015.

The full title for the conference is:

We invite you to learn more about the Pacifica community members presenting at the conference.

Barre, Robin. Student at Pacifica Graduate Institute in the M.A. Counseling Psychology Program. Robin presents Crocodile Mandala on Saturday, September 5th at the conference.

One of the papers that 2nd year M.A. Counseling Psychology students present to their peers and professor Allen Koehn is on healing. The assignment asks them to reflect on their first two years in the program and write about the personal transformation that has taken place. Because the program is psycho-active and students participate in personal therapy, they find themselves going through a process of healing as they acquire the tools and skills necessary to be a therapist. This process of healing and the return to wholeness is the topic for the next complimentary salon and lecture on Friday, June 26 with Allen Koehn, D. Min. 

Today is Pacifica's Thesis Presentation Day for the M.A. Counseling Psychology Program. Surrounded by faculty, fellow cohort members, family, and friends, students will present their thesis, sharing their scholastic findings and passion about issues they care deeply about. We congratulate our class of 2015 on their tremendous achievements. Below is a summary of the thesis process followed by the titles of these exquisite presentations.