Advisory Board

The role of the Advisory Board is support the vision of Depth Psychology Alliance, providing counsel and insight and to hold the space for ongoing growth and expansion in serving depth psychology

Silvia Behrend
Michael Conforti

Patricia Damery
David Van Nuys

View bios for these individuals below, or click here for additional Advisory Board member profiles

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Dr Silvia Behrend

Dr. Silvia Behrend is an Archetypal Pattern Analyst™ in private practice. She graduated from the Assisi Institute with a focus on the Archetypal Field of Leadership. Before starting a private practice, Dr. Behrend was a minister, leading national workshops on creativity, worship and transformation. She created programs for people of all ages and lectured widely on issues of justice and sexuality. Dr. Behrend also received training as a chaplain, serving as the co-chair of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee on chaplaincy, and was responsible for creating the training for volunteer chaplains.

She received a Doctor of Ministry degree from Meadville/Lombard Theological School. Her interest focused on using the transformational power of art in secular and religious institutions, and research was based on subject-centered pedagogy, self-psychology and a theology of relationship and creativity. Experience in teaching and developing doctoral level classes, being a leader in the parish and developing programs to bridge cultural, sociological, political and interfaith communities, demonstrated the transformational power of art on individuals and community. Her dissertation, "Art in Community, Community of Art", a qualitative research project, became the basis for developing curricula for leadership and ministerial studies.

Dr. Behrend has continued to use the creative processes as an adjunct professor in the Doctoral Leadership Studies Program at Gonzaga University where she serves on numerous dissertation committees. In addition to teaching, and creating curricula, she has led numerous retreats for physicians and staff at Providence St. Peter's Hospital. Internationally, she developed and led webinars for students of the Duggan French Approach in Barcelona, Spain, exploring archetypal patterns, Jungian psychology and the workings of the Objective Psyche. She currently leads a on Study Group for the work of Marie Louise von Franz.

Silvia's essay, "The Archetypal Field of Leadership"
recently appeared in the Spring 2013 issue of Depth Insights scholarly ezine. Her publications have appeared in Catalyst Magazine and Worship and the Arts, among others. She is currently working on "The Feminine Face of God: Jung, Judaism and Judith."

Learn more about Dr. Behrend's work at http://www.behrendcounseling.com

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Michael Conforti PhD

Dr. Michael Conforti is a Jungian analyst and the founder and Director of The Assisi Institute which offers among other things, certificate programs in Archetypal Pattern Analysis™ and Dream Patterning™. He has been a faculty member at the C.G. Jung Institute Boston, the C.G Jung Foundation of New York, and for many years served as a Senior Associate faculty member in the Doctoral and Master's Programs in Clinical Psychology at Antioch New England.

A pioneer in the field of matter-psyche studies, Dr. Conforti is actively investigating the workings of archetypal fields and the relationship between Jungian psychology and the New Sciences. He has presented his work to a wide range of national and international audiences, including the C.G. Jung Institute Zurich and Jungian organizations in Venezuela, Denmark, Italy and Canada. He is the author of Threshold Experiences: The Archetype of Beginnings (2007) and Field, Form and Fate: Patterns in Mind, Nature and Psyche. His articles have appeared in Psychological Perspectives, San Francisco Jung Library Journal, Roundtable Press, World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution, and Spring.

Dr. Conforti maintains a private practice in Vermont, where he also serves as a state-appointed advisor to the Board of Psychoanalysts. He provides his insights as a sought-after consultant to businesses, government institutions, and the film industry. He has served as script consultant on the film, Pride and Glory. He has also been asked to consult on the application of field theory to the understanding and resolution of international border disputes. He was selected by The Club of Budapest and the University of Potsdam to be part of a 20 member international team of physicists, biologists, and dynamical systems theorists to examine the role and influence of informational fields. He is a recipient of the Vision Award presented by the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis.

Dr. Conforti is a Senior Fellow of the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership at the University of Maryland. He is currently working on a new book,
Hidden Presence: Archetypes, Spells, Possessions and the Complex.

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Patricia Damery

Patricia Damery M.A. is an analyst member of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco in private practice in Napa, California. She has published numerous articles, a handful of poems, as well as a compelling account of her Jungian analytic training and simultaneous entry into Biodynamic farming: Farming Soul: A Tale of Initiation. Her first novel Snakes was published in 2011 with Fisher King Press.

Her second novel, Goatsong, is newly published (November 2012). With Naomi Lowinsky she also co-edited an anthology, Marked by Fire: Stories of the Jungian Way, April 2012, stories of Jungian analysts' and teachers' inspirations for their life paths.

Along with three other writers, she is organizing a 2013 Greater Bay Area reading series celebrating and championing the Earth. She maintains two blogs: patriciadamery.com and the eco-blog for Harms Farm. She and her husband farm a Demeter certified Biodynamic organic ranch and run a lavender business. Ranch website: harmslavender.com. Patricia joined the Depth Alliance Administrative board in December 2012 before transitioning to the Advisory Board.

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David Van Nuys

David Van Nuys, Ph.D. is Emeritus Professor (and Past Chair) of Psychology at Sonoma State University, a unique department with an international reputation in humanistic, transpersonal, and existential psychology.

David is also an experienced clinician, having practiced for many years in both California and New Hampshire. He did his doctoral work in Clinical Psychology at the University of Michigan. David has also served on the Board of Directors of the Division of Humanistic Psychology of the American Psychological Association, as well as the board of the Qualitative Research Consultants Association. David is also on the advisory board of The Neuropsychotherapist.

He has conducted workshops for a number of growth centers in the U.S., including the Esalen Institute and in Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, and Sweden. He has published extensively in the professional, trade, and popular press. He co-authored a book in which he profiled the infamous Bay Area serial killer known as The Zodiac.

David is founder and president of e-FocusGroups, a research-consulting firm whose client list includes a number of Fortune 500 companies among others.

Finally, as "Dr. Dave," he has been producing the Shrink Rap Radi™ podcast for the past eight years and has dedicated listeners in more than 79 countries. He also produced a second interview series, Wise Counsel Podcast. Between these two podcasts, he has conducted around 500 interviews with psychologists, psychiatrists, analysts, professors, researchers, and so on. Many of these interviews have focused on various facets of Depth Psychology.

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