A PATH TO WHOLENESS: EMBODYING SPIRIT IN JUNGIAN PSYCHOTHERAPY

A yearlong course for licensed clinicians. CE HOURS: 78 Approved for MD, RN, PhD, PsyD, MFT & LCSW (Pre-licensed, early-career clinicians may be admitted to the program upon application. Contact acollins@sfjung.org if interested.)  

DATES & INSTRUCTORS

Course Co-Conveners: Bryan Wittine, PhD and Maria Ellen Chiaia, PhD

 ALL CLASSES TAKE PLACE AT THE INSTITUTE. With a few exceptions, classes meet on the first Saturday of each month from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and three consecutive Monday evenings from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Four additional Monday evenings during the year will focus on personal expansion using symbols from the unconscious and practices associated with Jungian psychotherapy.

2011

Sat, Oct. 1, (9:30-12:30 & 2:00-4:30) Mon. Oct. 3, 10, 17

Bryan Wittine, PhD: The Transpersonal Self in the Therapeutic Process

Maria Ellen Chiaia, PhD: Toward Wholeness: Spirit, Psyche, Symbol

Sat. Nov. 5, Mon. Nov. 7, 14, 21

Diane Deutsch & Alan Ruskin: Experiences of Darkness and the Desert in Clinical Work

Mon. Nov. 28

An evening for personal process and integration with Maria Chiaia and Bryan Wittine

Sat. Dec. 3, Mon. Dec. 5, 12, 19

Gail Grynbaum: Addiction and Eating Disorders: BodySoul Possession

 2012

Sat. Jan. 7, 2012, Mon. Jan. 9, 16, 23

Beth Barmack: Working in the Silence

Mon. Jan. 30

An evening for personal process and integration with Maria Chiaia & Bryan Wittine

Sat. Feb. 4, Mon. Feb. 6, 13, 20

Carol McRae & Richard Stein: Meditation and Active Imagination

Sat. Mar. 3, Mon. Mar. 5, 12, 19

Betsy Cohen: Analytic Intimacy: Love, Courage, Truth

Mon. Mar. 26

An evening for personal process and integration with Maria Chiaia and Bryan Wittine

No meeting Sat. Apr. 7 & Mon. Apr. 9 for Passover/Easter & Easter Break

Sat. Apr. 14, Mon. Apr. 16, 23, 30

Gale Lipsyte & Bonnie Payne: Beginner’s Mind and Depth Psychotherapy

Sat. May 5, Mon. May 7, 14, 21

Marty Lawlor & Jeff Swanger: Intimate Relationship as a Path to Wholeness

No meeting Mon. May 28 for Memorial Day

Mon. June 4

Process Group with Maria Chiaia & Bryan Wittine

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The purpose of human life is to achieve wholeness of body, soul, and spirit and to become the persons we were intended to be. The path to wholeness, which Jung called the process of individuation, involves cultivating latent parts of our personality and integrating lost, disowned, and rejected parts. Our physical bodies, our illnesses and suffering, as well as our gifts, talents and longing for spiritual truth—all have a place in the totality of our being. Wholeness, however, can never be fully attained. We can only move toward it, for the depths of soul and spirit appear to be infinite.

For Jung, our psyche or soul is “a phenomenal world in itself, …an almost infinite phenomenon.” The fundamental emotional problems of our time—meaninglessness, depression, relationship conflicts, loss of values, spiritual malaise—reflect our loss of connection with our deep psyche. They also arise when we ignore or reject our bodies. We live in our bodies. All the archetypes live there as well. We are part of nature. We feel our emotions kinesthetically. Jung said, “The healthy body is the healthy life, and the healthy life is the life of the soul of man as much as his body, because soul and body are not two things. They are one.”

Finally, our problems stem from our loss of connection with spirit. The word spirit is used in various ways in analytical psychology. Jung’s recently published Red Book begins with his dialogue with the “spirit of the depths,” which inspires dreams, visions, art, creativity, spiritual development, cultural evolution, and all activities in which we encounter the vast potential of the human being.

Spirit is closely related to the archetype of the Self, which we frequently experience as an inner spiritual director that guides our development toward whole­ness and presents itself as the goal. The fundamental questions Jungian analysis addresses include “What is the Self engineering? What is the Self seeking through our obsessions, addictions, relationship struggles, and losses? What is the Self masterminding when we inquire, “Who or what am I? What matters most in life? Am I living according to my ultimate values and concerns?”

Jung defined spirit as “an inexpressible, transcendental idea of all-embracing significance.” He also said it is the power that holds and unites the opposites. It may connote courage, liveliness, or wit, or it can mean simply “God,” the “Ground of Being,” the “Absolute.”

The living Spirit drives Jungian analysis. In this course, designed to explore with psychotherapists the profound insights, feelings, imagery, sorrows, and ecstasies associated with spirit, psyche, and body as they unfold in the therapeutic process, analysts will present different modes for paying attention to the unfolding wisdom of the Self and for seeking understanding of what it means to let Spirit guide our journey toward wholeness.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

• To understand the basic nature of the Spirit, or transpersonal Self, its unifying function, its relationship to experiences of wholeness, and how it emerges in psychotherapy;

• To recognize body and mind, soul and spirit, and all polarities as aspects of a complex continuum of experience;

• To help our patients listen within themselves to the Self as it "speaks" through their free associations, dreams, fantasies, life-experiences, symptoms, and their relationship with you, the therapist;

• To make interventions based on what we hear from the Self as it "speaks" through our own reveries, inner experiences, and relationships with our patients;

• To distinguish between the repetitive (or personal) and archetypal (or transpersonal) dimensions of the transference;

• To expand our capacity to use mythological, religious, and other symbolic material, arising in both ourselves as therapists and our patients, in creative, growth-enhancing ways;

• To develop skill at working clinically with techniques that are typically Jungian: use of metaphor, dreams, active imagination, meditation, sandplay, and expressive arts.

 **Please Note** this course is open to licensed clinicians. (Pre-licensed, early-career clinicians may be admitted to the program upon application. Contact acollins@sfjung.org if interested.)  

CANCELLATION POLICY Registration refunds (less a $25 administrative fee) will be issued for requests received by email at acollins@sfjung.org by 5pm on Wednesday, September 15, 2011.

 For questions or to register by phone please call 415.771.8055 ext 209 or email acollins@sfjung.org

The Jung Institute of San Francisco is accredited by the Institute of Medical Quality/California Medical Association (IMQ/CMA) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.The Jung Institute of San Francisco takes responsibility for the content, quality and scientific integrity of this CME activity. 78 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ are offered for this event.