Blogs

In honor of what would have been Jung's 138th birthday, July 26, I'm sharing an excerpt from my essay on Jung's role in Depth Psychology, "Occupy Psyche: Deconstructing the Jungian Shadow in Depth Psychology," published in Occupy Psyche: Jungian and Archetypal Perspectives on a Movement (2012, Eds. Jordan Shapiro and Roxanne Partridge).

 

The essay takes a look at how Jungian psychology relates to depth psychology and examines the influence of the larger-than-life persona of Jung on many of us who

This quote puts me in touch with that place in the journey of our life where we find that we have lost connection with our true self—our vision and identity—a place where psyche finds its self, essentially, in a dark wood. Those moments beg something different from us; the established ways no longer work—the direct way is lost...

http://drpamelaalbro.wordpress.com

What an interesting emotion, Anxiety is! On its face, Anxiety hearkens danger and demands flight… fear… apprehension… and even panic. It creates stress and overwhelm. Screaming, with a message to “Get out!!” it asks for nothing less than complete abandon, all ye who enter here.

However, Anxiety can also invite a more intimate experience…

What appears to act as an alarm—clearing out any space for openness or presence—by leaning in, instead of retreating, can actually become a beacon for greater int

LGBT Suicide and the Trauma of Growing Up Gay
By Payam Ghassemlou MFT, Ph.D.

As a mental health counselor for the past twenty years, I have listened to many painful stories by some of my lesbian and gay patients regarding growing up in a homophobic and heterosexist world. Many of my gay and lesbian patients, including a number of bisexual and transgender individuals, shared with me that as young as age five they felt different. They were unable to articulate why they felt different, and, at the

On June 21, 2013 I had the privilege of presenting a portion of my doctoral research at World Congress XIX on Viktor Frankl's Logotherapy in Dallas, Texas.  The audio portion of that lecture is available below.  Please note that the full video of the lecture was not captured.  What you see is a composite of the video, followed by the remaining audio with images from the presentation handout and still shots inserted.

Please follow this link to hear the presentation on YouTube.

Please follow this li

I had a series of memory flashes recently, triggered by a poignant song that was playing along while I was otherwise focused. It pulled me into a vortex of feelings and reflections, about a person from an earlier part of my life. She was pivotal in my early relationship development, and having thought of her on previous occasions, I was struck with the lingering feeling intensity this time around. Why this time, why now? Feelings are useful clues to the interior of our lives and one of many ways

Nineteen-nineteen was one of the most contentious years in American history. The presence of millions of unemployed World War One veterans added to an already difficult economic situation. In every industry, working people were confronting the excesses of capitalism. The year saw: more labor strikes than in any previous year; a resurgent Ku Klux Klan; several major race riots; pressure for both prohibition of alcohol and women’s right to vote; and a massive reactionary mobilization by the govern

http://www.theaddictioncomplex.com/symbolism-and-emotion-addiction-and-perception-of-image/

Symbolism allows for an expression that at times may be taken for granted, especially since we encounter and engage with symbolism on a frequent basis. As I find myself spending time with the concept of symbolism, I am focused on how the addict can experience symbols, as well as how an individual within the throws of addiction can perceive the affect-based element of a symbol. What I am referring to is the

http://madnessatthegates.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/barrys-blog-62-what-we-have-lost/

A reader recently asked me for a short answer to the question: What have we lost by literalizing our mythological stories?

The evidence is all around us, so ubiquitous that we don't see it. The creative imagination (which I discuss in Chapter One of my book) that is our universal inheritance from our indigenous ancestors has collapsed over a very long period of time, as the myth of patriarchy overcame it. Our sense

Do you ever feel that there is so much more to you and you don’t know how to tap into it? Or do you spend too much time of your precious time lost in confusion and overwhelm? Here’s a quote from John O’Donohue that beautifully describes what I do in Doorway Sessions.

"Sometimes on a human journey a person can stay marooned on the surface of their minds, suffering the devastation of doubt, confusion and great turbulence, while the whole time just a couple of inches deeper, there was a vast world w

A few days after Edward Snowden revealed the NSA’s secret – and criminal – surveillance programs, an old friend of mine posted on Facebook that Snowden was a “traitor” who’d done irreparable damage to American security and should be punished most severely.

I was stunned that Leda, who’d participated fully in the political, cultural, racial, sexual, spiritual and pharmacological upheavals of the 1960s and 70s, should feel that way. I posted a quote:

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain

Since my last correspondence a very long time ago, I felt an update to be in order.  At that time I had announced my retirement.  That lasted through 2012 but, since January, 2013, I am "unretired."  During 2012, I had a second hip replaceement, my husband had a patch put on his aorta and I received a Pacemaker and two new hearing aids.  Now, I feel "up to snuff" and am seeing clients for Sandplay Therapy and supervision of sandplay for professionals.  I have also added "Skype" so I feel fairly

Soul care yields a happy mind. After over thirty years of professional practice in depth psychology and over forty years of personal dream tending, I've come to the conclusion that caring for the soul takes us into a strange realm of contentment and well being. Happiness of this sort is not common. Soul care requires patient and tender devotion to the psyche. As we cultivate such devotion through sensitivity to self and others and by consistent dream tending, there comes a gentle but definite kn

When we are not grounded, not connected to our roots, terrible psychic issues occur, which lead to feelings of intense fear and anxiety suggests Jungian analyst Judith Harris, in her book Jung and Yoga: The Psyche Body Connection. She quotes C. G. Jung, who, in his complex work, Mysterium Coniunctionus, establishes that the element of earth holds the exact central point between the tensions of two opposites.

Grounding oneself in the earth results in feeling held by the Great Mother, rendering one

Breath, heavenly wanderings, and The Unholy (Sunstone Press/Release Date August 2013) fit together just as natural spiritual openings that are blocked generate toxic backup. My depth psychological colleague, Michael Eigen, author of The Psychoanalytic Mystic, shared with me the following quote by Chuang Tzu: "All things that have consciousness depend upon breath. But if they do not get their fill of breath, it is not the fault of heaven. Heaven opens up the passages and supplies them day and nig

http://madnessatthegates.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/barrys-blog-60-the-curse-of-the-fathers/

The Curse of the Fathers

What are the mythological roots of violence in the modern world? Can we speak about school shootings and the Boston bombing without also speaking about drones and targeted killings? Don’t lone gunmen and the agents of state violence enact our myths for all of us? Don’t we all have the same capacity for violence?

In 1964, Bob Dylan sang of these roots:

Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill m

New York Times Sunday Dialogue article (May 26, 2013)  about medication and psychotherapy struck a few soul chords. Medication works for as long as its taken. There is no doubt that it can prove necessary and helpful when treating severe and chronic mental pain. However, drug cocktails don't fix soul misery and the need for meaning and wholeness. Seasoned therapists know when to use drugs, when to refrain, and about the need to guide the sufferer along deeper and darker paths of soul to find aut

Shame and bad religion ring about as hard in the human ear as a bell clanging way too up close that finally stops. Shame gets the bell of bad religion going. Without the human capacity for shame, the inner sense of being defective, then bad religion would have no hold on the human psyche.
   

For over thirty years I've been helping people take the deep plunge into the unconscious mind so as to find freedom from the dark side of religion. It doesn't always work. Sometimes people want quick fixes, a