9142466494?profile=originalThe 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.

9142467069?profile=original

While a volunteer in the Peace Corps, McCubbin connected in profound ways to the community, she on her return she began to realize that her interpersonal relationships weren't thriving as much as she would wish. As much as she had been outwardly focused on helping others, she wanted to focus on helping and healing herself, and so she began working one-on-one and doing group work with a psychodynamic psychotherapist.

Now that she’s training to be a therapist herself, McCubbin is acutely aware of lessons she learned when she was “on the other side” of therapy as a client. While focusing on agroforestry, she built a farm with a protective fence so she could grow new seedlings for farmers. While in therapy, she worked on creating boundaries and nurturing her psyche. As a therapist or counselor, she is developing the capacity to provide fertile ground so that something new can grow within the psyche of the clients she sees.

9142467268?profile=original

Through my own depth psychological lens, I’ve been keenly aware of the profound erosion of soul in contemporary western culture, which desperately needs to be reforested in a new and different way. Through McCubbin’s willingness to pursue a career in counseling, can now begin to parlay that kind of literal experience into something new, different, and profound in her work with soul.

Read the full blog post or listen to the interview on Pacifica Post

ABOUT THE HOSTS/PRESENTERS
BONNIE BRIGHT, Ph.D.,(Founder of Depth Psychology Alliance), is a Transpersonal Soul-Centered Coach certified via Alef Trust/Middlesex University, and a certified Archetypal Pattern Analyst®, and has trained extensively in Holotropic Breathwork™ and the Enneagram. She has trained with African elder, Malidoma Some'; with Transpersonal Pioneer Stan Grof; and with Jungian analyst, Jerome Bernstein, among others.Her dissertation focused on a symbolic look at Colony Collapse Disorder and what the mass vanishing of honeybees means to us both personally and as a collective. Bonnie’s path to soul began with a spontaneous mystical experience in 2006, and she continues her quest for awakening each day with a sense of joy, freedom, and gratitude at the magic afoot in the world.

JAMES R. NEWELL, Ph.D., MTS, (Director of Depth Psychology Alliance) earned his Ph.D. in History and Critical Theories of Religion from Vanderbilt University (2007), and holds a master's degree in pastoral counseling and theology from the Vanderbilt University Divinity School (2001). James is also the director of the Depth Psychology Academy, offering college-level courses in Jungian and depth psychology. James has spent much of his working life as a professional musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist with interests in jazz, blues, folk, world, and devotional music. Since his youth, James has worked with a variety of blues greats including John Lee Hooker, James Cotton, Jr. Wells, Hubert Sumlin, Big Joe Turner, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and others.