Blogs

There's a brief and intriguing article in today's New York Times, asserting that psychotherapy has an image problem. Whether the author is being deliberately provocative or not, I like the article for the conversation it has generated - and in particular, this response, from a practising psychologist in Pittsburgh: 

'In reality, psychotherapy is nothing like a drug. Rather, it is a complex but profoundly rewarding process of examining one's life, history, desires, relationships, hopes, and fears

An Archetypal Perspective on Clinical Practice

A Summary of an Introductory Teleseminar Lecture by Jungian Analyst Michael Conforti

A few days ago I attended a teleseminar wich I found valuable and provocative and which inspired me to summarize it here. Please note that that this synopsis is based on my own understanding and interpretation of what was said on the call, and has not been reviewed by the presenter, Dr. Michael Conforti. Also, the teleseminar was offered to the general public free of

As a Latina and a self-made media mogul who has produced hundreds of television shows, headed a TV network, and generated a significant amount of income, Nely Galán ironically felt an odd sense of relief when the economy crashed in 2008, bringing many of her projects to a halt. In hindsight, Galán believes she had been feeling incongruent in her career because she was in a field where much of the focus was on achieving success, and where individuals were not valued for being their authentic selv

The first thing Courtney McCubbin did when she landed in Cameroon for the Peace Corps was start a tree nursery, which then required her to build a fence around it to protect it from rodents. Once she began getting interest from farmers, she gave them seedlings to plant to help improve soil fertility and to prevent erosion on their lands. She also created a demonstration farm to show native farmers techniques they could use.

While a volunteer in the Peace Corps, McCubbin connected in profound ways

EXCERPT from my new blog post and interview with Dr. Joseph Cambray, Jungian analyst and Provost at Pacifica Graduate Institute:

"...Recent analyses of the fractal qualities that are inherent in Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings, which reveal Pollock had “spontaneously intuited a way to get at the optimal amount of fractal density.” It’s that kind of intuitive knowing from nature—not from a cognitive rational process—which, when they emerge in therapy and supervision, are art forms...."

Psychothera

Some topics are so controversial we cannot discuss them. Jane Davenport Platko’s In the Tracks of the Unseen: Memoirs of a Jungian Analyst brings one of those topics into full view: when the doctor and patient fall in love.

While we psychoanalysts and psychotherapists have thorough discussions as to why these kinds of relationships are problematic, we seldom have open discussions about what happens when they seem to work. Those who have entered such relationships rightfully fear judgement.

I will

In looking at patterns, we see an incarnation and expression of archetypes and spirit within the internal and external world.  The specific form and design of these patterns gives voice to the reality of these underlying shapers of experience.  
   
From the moment a dancer steps onto the stage, to the lyrical musings of a poet, and even to our most intimate of relationships, we find these highly stylized, patterns in our life.  Joseph Campbell allowed us to see that one’s life is an unfolding of

I'm a new member to this group, and would like to dialogue with others about some of the contributions that I've made to the field of depth psychology. For example : 1. In the 1980's I developed the Mythic Journey Process which integrated Gendlin's Focusing with Archetypal Psychology; in the 1990's I added Tai Chi/Qigong to this process to integrate movement 2. My Mystery of Personal Identity book was the first to integrate astrology with depth psychotherapy and introduce a hermeneutic perspecti