Honoring César Chávez Day

Posted by Guest on Mar 31, 2023 12:43:27 PM

César Chávez Day is a day to honor the legacy of one of the most important civil rights leaders in American history. Chávez was a labor leader and activist who fought for the rights of farm workers in California and across the United States. He founded the United Farm Workers (UFW) union and led efforts in support of better wages, working conditions, and protections for agricultural workers.

Read More

Posted in: Pacifica News, Pacifica Graduate Institute, Message from the President

Black History & Women's History Months Reminds Us That Beauty Follows Burden

Posted by Guest on Mar 15, 2023 12:38:35 PM

Women Dancing

By Dr. Leonie H. Mattison, Ed.D. 

 

Black History and Women's History Months are always an inspirational time throughout the country, as we celebrate the many ways Black Americans and women have helped shape our national story and fueled U.S. innovation. These months are opportunities to unite and honor those who fought and continue to fight for our freedom, equality, empowerment, and human rights. To recognize those who opened doors, stepped out on faith, took the elevator up, and sent it back down to bring us up. Yet, these months are at a precarious time for the Black and women communities.  

Read More

Posted in: Pacifica News, Pacifica Graduate Institute, Message from the President

Pacifica Graduate Institute Celebrates Black History

Posted by Guest on Feb 24, 2023 12:14:40 PM

In celebration of the historical achievements of Black/African Americans for our country and specifically for our community, Pacifica Graduate Institute and its Alumni Association hosted a landmark celebration on Friday, February 17 at their Lambert Road Campus.

In keeping with this year’s national theme, Black Resistance, as chosen by The Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the Institute emphasized the message with a directive to: “Honor the Past, Embrace the Present, Celebrate the Future.”

Read More

Posted in: Pacifica News, Pacifica Graduate Institute, Message from the President

Black History Month - Influential Black Psychologists & Educators in History

Posted by Guest on Feb 23, 2023 4:29:36 PM

Dear Pacifica Community,

As we continue our celebration of Black History Month, we wish to pay tribute to a few of the many influential, historical black psychologists and educators who made significant contributions to their fields and to advancements in civil rights and social justice.

  • Drs. Kenneth B. Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark were a husband-wife team whose landmark research on internalized racism, famously known as the “Doll Study,” was instrumental in the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Course case that declared segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional.  The first African Americans to earn their PhD’s in Psychology from Colombia, they then opened their own agency in 1946, the Northside Center for Child Development, the first full-time center offering psychological and casework services to families in Harlem.  Dr. Clark was also the first African American tenured professor at the City College of New York and the first African American president of the APA.
  • Dr. Francis Cecil Sumner, known as the “Father of Black Psychology,” was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in Psychology (1920) and helped in the founding of the psychology department at Howard University, an HBCU.  A pioneer in the field of race psychology, notably in themes of variations in mental health and the judicial system, Dr. Sumner also had a significant influence in his advocacy for African-American education.
  • If Dr. Sumner is termed the “Father of Black Psychology,” Dr. Joseph White is known as the “Godfather of Black Psychology.”  An advocate for the creation of “Black Psychology,” Dr. White worked to expose the explicit whiteness in the field and fought to found the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) in 1968 within the APA.
  • Dr. Inez Beverly Prosser was the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in Psychology in 1933.  While her life was tragically cut short a year later, the legacy of her pioneering endeavor and passion for education live on. Prior to getting her PhD, she spent years teaching, researching, and mentoring young people.  Her doctoral dissertation research focused on the study of the psychological effects of segregation on Black students.
  • Dr. Robert Williams’ development of the Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity, an intelligence test geared towards black speech and experiences, was groundbreaking work to demonstrate the inherent racial bias and unfair discrimination in education and standardized testing.  Dr. Williams also helped in the founding of ABPsi, coined the term “Ebonics” referring to African American Vernacular English, and was the first Black psychologist at a hospital in the state of Arkansas. 
  • Dr. Margaret Lawrence was the United States’ first African America female psychoanalyst, as well as the first Black female physician certified by the Board of Pediatrics.  Overcoming childhood tragedies and racist-driven roadblocks throughout her education, she was driven to becoming a healer.  Initially drawn to medicine, she began her career as a pediatrician and then pursued child psychiatry  She dedicated her life to the underserved and children’s mental health with her therapy focusing on play and artwork.  Her pioneering programs and methods in child psychotherapy in schools, day care centers, and clinics are still used today.  One organization that Dr. Lawrence was associated with was the Harlem Family Institute, where Pacifica Faculty, Dr. Fanny Brewster, was also connected with several years.

We encourage you to read more on the lives and work of these and many others who worked to advance Black psychology and education.  Please also find additional related resources in our Graduate Research Library’s DIVERSITY LIBRARY GUIDE.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lee                                    Dr. Fanny Brewster

President & CEO                    Core Faculty & Chair of Diversity & Inclusion Council

 

Read More

Posted in: Pacifica News, Pacifica Graduate Institute, Message from the President

Black History Month Community Member Spotlight: Fanny Brewster

Posted by Guest on Feb 17, 2023 11:16:19 AM

As we continue to celebrate Black History Month, we honor those within our community for their contributions and achievements to Pacifica, local communities, and their field.  We are pleased to share more today about core faculty member, Dr. Fanny Brewster.

Read More

Posted in: Pacifica News, Pacifica Graduate Institute, Message from the President

Black History Month

Posted by Guest on Feb 4, 2023 9:00:00 AM

Dear Pacifica Community,

The beginning of February marks the start of Black History Month, a time to celebrate Black Excellence, a term used to describe the individual contributions, perseverance, achievements, and successes of the Black community. The 2023 theme for Black History Month, set by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), is Black Resistance.

Read More

Posted in: Pacifica News, Pacifica Graduate Institute, Message from the President

Pacifica Graduate Institute: Statements on Addressing Systemic Racism

Posted by Guest on Jun 3, 2020 5:47:56 PM

Statement on the Violence in Atlanta (3/19/21)

The terrible murders of eight individuals in Atlanta this week, including six Asian women leave us in the Pacifica community with great sadness, grief and distress for the rising levels of hated-filled violence in our society and for the pain and suffering in the Asian community. While we do not yet know all of the details, there has been a clear pattern of escalation of violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) over the last year: According to NBC news, citing the advocacy organization Stop AAPI Hate, there have been about 3800 reported incidents of hate-based crimes targeting members of AAPI communities across the country, many against women, since last March when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Racist and gender-based crime have absolutely no place in our society. Pacifica Graduate Institute unequivocally condemns this violence and the hate that fuels it.

Statement in Solidarity with the Asian and Pacific Islander Communities (3/9/21)

In the midst of the many changes our society is undergoing and as part of our ongoing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts, we wish to explicitly state the following:

Pacifica Graduate Institute unequivocally condemns the racism, violence and hatred directed against the Asian communities across the nation, which has soared during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Hate and racism have no place at Pacifica Graduate Institute or anywhere else. Pacifica Graduate Institute stands in solidarity with the Asian and Pacific Islander communities in denouncing all forms of hate, discrimination, and intolerance.

Statement on Addressing Systemic Racism (6/3/20)

At Pacifica Graduate Institute, we are deeply distressed and aggrieved by the senseless, ongoing violence directed at black members of our communities. We grieve Mr. George Floyd’s death as the latest hate-motivated tragedy in a society riven by dehumanization and lack of empathy for fellow citizens based on mindless racist projections. This deep stain on the American soul has a long and dreadful history, and despite great efforts to educate, reform, retrain, add body cameras to police attire, there has not been effective, lasting change in overall behavior by police departments throughout the country. The legacy of systemic racial oppression continues to shape how we perceive ourselves and one another, and must actively be countered if its virulence is to be checked, and its lethal effects transformed. The results of this oppression include the differential health care being offered during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which African Americans and other people of color are suffering mortality at a much higher rate than white populations, especially those with better access to health facilities and PPEs.

Read More

Posted in: Current Affairs, Pacifica News, Pacifica Graduate Institute

Pacifica’s Vision: Psyche in the 21st Century

Posted by Guest on May 29, 2020 5:16:17 PM

by Joseph Cambray, PhD, Pacifica Graduate Institute President

Pacifica Graduate Institute has been the premier academic institution devoted to depth psychology from its inception about 50 years ago. Our overarching vision integrates multiple, diverse perspectives on the human psyche—the totality of our being, including conscious and unconscious mental life as well as how we are embedded and engaged in our environments, cultural and natural; traditional referred to as the soul. We offer a wide range of transformative programs designed to enrich soul-centered knowledge (taking psychology as the logos of the psyche) through experience and disciplined practice. Though our various programs have differing emphases, we draw upon many shared foundations, including but not limited to psychological processes based on the notion of an “unconscious” component to our mental life; psychotherapeutic, environmental, and social justice best practices, in conjunction with mythological, archetypal, and cultural studies, drawing upon the humanities as well as the sciences and the arts. While other select academic programs scattered around the world include depth psychology as a part of coursework, none are so profoundly rooted in this discipline. This is part of what makes Pacifica unique, as do our extraordinary faculty and staff, and the unique settings of our two campuses.

Read More

Posted in: Current Affairs, Pacifica News, Pacifica Graduate Institute

Upcoming Pacifica Events: Spring 2019

Posted by Melissa Ruisz Nazario on Jan 31, 2019 11:55:48 AM

Is personal, intellectual, or creative growth one of your goals for this year, or for your life in general? Do you long to connect with others interested in the intersections of art, soul, and depth psychology? Let one of Pacifica’s upcoming events this spring be the catalyst for you to plug into our like-minded community, and get ready to experience and engage in deep, meaningful conversations where you are able to hold space for each other and learn new, exciting ways to explore your creative potential.

Read More

Posted in: Pacifica Events, Pacifica News, Santa Barbara, graduate school, creativity, art, vocation, Education, depth psychology, active imagination, Pacifica Students, Pacifica Graduate Institute, resources

Dr. Joseph Cambray - Expanding Jung’s Views of Synchronicity (MP3)

Posted by Krystyna Knight on Jan 23, 2019 9:53:28 AM

 

Last week, Pacifica president and CEO Dr. Joseph Cambray did an interview with Connecting with Coincidence with Dr. Bernard Beitman, MD on Expanding Jung's Views of Synchronicity.  Dr. Cambray is one of the leading experts on this topic in the field.  Click below to listen to the interview.  

Play Audio

Read More

Posted in: C.G. Jung, Pacifica News, Pacifica Graduate Institute, resources, interview