Programs

COVID 19 UPDATE


Due to Covid-19 we will be replacing our public meetings with Zoom Video Conference Meetings until further notice.


We hope you are all safe and well.

- The Board of Directors

Program Calendar 2023

Find us on Facebook



March Meeting | March 12, 2023





Find us on Facebook

*This meeting will be held, on Zoom, and if possible, in person.
Watch for updates on our website and in your email!*


March 12, 2023 

Online Meeting 


If Jung Were Alive Today: A Re-evaluation of the Self

with 

Frank Echenhofer, PhD


 

Please RSVP at Eventbrite or reply to this email. 

This event is free for members, $10 for guests.

If someone you know is interested in membership, please contact Elaine Mannon at: outreach@sfapc.org.


This event is free for members and $10 for non-members and guests.


If you are interested in membership please contact Elaine Mannon. 



If Jung Were Alive Today: 

A Re-evaluation of the Self

with 

Frank Echenhofer, PhD


If Jung were alive today and had access to current research related to his areas of study, might he have chosen to revise the way he understood and worked with archetypes, including the archetype of the Self?


Current ayahuasca research shows that when used properly, it can facilitate Ego-Self visionary encounters that might suggest new perspectives on the nature of archetypes as well as the different ways that visionary Self-like beings communicate. 

 

I suspect Jung would have been keen to explore how this visionary medicine can facilitate the unfolding of the individuation process through profound encounters with the Self. Drawing on my own research studies into visionary experience amplified by Ayahuasca, this talk will explore the powerful and surprising ways that archetypes of the Self can manifest kinesthetically as well as through relational encounters with entities. 

 

I will discuss how these experiences can be integrated into an ongoing spiritual practice in support of the individuation process, with or without the use of the medicine.  


Frank Echenhofer first began his studies of Jung’s writings and applied them in his private practice in Philadelphia as a licensed psychologist a decade before he moved to the SF area in 1996. He soon became core faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in the PsyD department. His research and teaching specialty at CIIS was Transpersonal Psychology, and Jung’s work is considered to be one of the main foundations of this field.

 

In 2002 he began his research in Brazil and Peru on the sacred medicine used by indigenous Amazonian tribes called Ayahuasca or Vine of the Soul. His research continued for over a decade and in 2011 he wrote a book chapter for University of Chicago Press about his neuroscience research and subjective report findings in several studies where his participants ingested Ayahuasca. From his research, he developed a theoretical model to explain transformational processes facilitated by Ayahuasca. A significant part his model mirrored Jung’s own account of his life-changing experiences after ending his relationship with Freud.  Jung said that these very difficult personal experiences opened him to insights essential for the development of all his later discoveries, writing, and ways of being with patients.  He is now writing a book to expand his 2012 book chapter and to include his more recent research evidence and the research of others because very significant progress has occurred in the decade since 2012 which is relevant to the individuation process. 



Previous Meetings 





February Meeting | February 12, 2023




Help on the Way: 

Our Seen and Unseen Allies 

with 

David Richo, PhD, MFT


She backs me up.

He stands up for me.

She believes in me.

They are at my side.

He has my best interests at heart.


These are references to a necessary and needed character on our human journey, the ally, the reliable companion, the assisting force. In every heroic journey story the hero or heroine requires a trustworthy companion to fulfill his/her/their destiny. The assisting force is often depicted as a sidekick, an aide, a wise advisor, a spirit guide. It can also be an elixir, a magic article, an animal, a wish-fulfilling gem. Some of the assisting forces are visible and some are invisible as we shall see. 


Carl Jung said that we cannot individuate on Everest, that is, alone. The archetype of the ally is necessary if we are ever to be our full selves. Martin Buber, in The Knowledge of Man, beautifully describes this: “A person wishes to be confirmed in his being by another person…. It is from one human being to another that the heavenly bread of self-being is passed.” 

David Richo PhD, MFT, is a psychotherapist, teacher, workshop leader, and writer who works in Santa Barbara and San Francisco California. He combines Jungian, poetic, and mythic perspectives in his work with the intention of integrating the psychological and the spiritual. His books and workshops include attention to Buddhist and Christian spiritual practices.







November Meeting | November 13, 2022



The Dante Experience: Poetry as a Vehicle for Peace
with
Nicole Pagano, M.A.


What if a wise and beautiful work of art could help you turn toward the challenges and promise of our time and inspire a new way forward? 


The Divine Comedy is a poetic masterpiece by Dante Alighieri that has inspired readers for over seven centuries and remains one of the most actively translated works of all time. The poem’s lasting relevance speaks to the rewarding journey it offers readers to this day—from a place of troubled uncertainty and isolation to one of courage and community. In a world that can feel more divided than ever, we will turn to Dante and his souls in the Commedia for their wisdom and see how their stories can support our personal growth and the service we seek to provide our beloveds and communities.


This workshop will offer an introduction to Dante’s opus and a brief visit to his realms of the afterlife: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Our activities will involve actively engaging the poem with medieval methods of reading and writing prompts while drawing on the plethora of artistic renderings of the poem to bridge the gap between 1302 and 2022. Attendees will be asked to participate individually and as a group in these brief reflection exercises that require no previous knowledge of the poem.


The image: Domenico di Michelino, Dante and His Poem. 1465

Nicole Pagano, M.A., has led classes on The Divine Comedy in various adult settings, including the San Francisco County Jail, Incarnation Monastery, the School for Applied Theology, and UC Berkeley. A native of the Washington, DC area, she was valedictorian at Georgetown University where she studied humanities and earned a master’s degree from the Graduate Theological Union in Art and Religion. There she designed her coursework to focus entirely on Dante’s works and the art, philosophy, and theology of his time. Nicole lives and works in Berkeley, CA, where she currently serves as Chief of Staff to Nobel Laureate Saul Perlmutter at the University of California.






October Meeting | October 9, 2022



Ancient Myth and Current Passages

with Greg Bogart, Ph.D. MFT

During confusing times of world crisis we can turn to mythology for entertainment, guidance, and an expansive array of archetypal characters to contemplate. Greg will recount and enact a few stories from the founding myths of civilization, such as the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris, the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh, and, time permitting, a story from Hindu or Chinese mythology. Audience members will then spend approximately 10 minutes journaling in response to the mythic narratives. This will be followed by a period of time for group discussion and sharing. 

Greg Bogart, PhD, MFT practices psychotherapy and astrological counseling and is a lecturer in psychology at Sonoma State University. His research on the efficacy of Jungian dreamwork in the treatment of depression is documented in his books Dreamwork and Self-Healing; and Dreamwork in Holistic Psychotherapy of Depression, both published by Routledge. Greg’s other books include In the Company of Sages; Astrology and Spiritual Awakening; Planets in Therapy: Predictive Technique and the Art of Counseling; and Astrology’s Higher Octaves: New Dimensions of a Healing Art

Websites: dawnmountain.com; and gregbogart.net.

Author of the following books:

Dreamwork in Holistic Psychotherapy of Depression

In the Company of Sages

Dreamwork and Self-Healing

Planets in Therapy

Astrology and Spiritual Awakening

Astrology and Meditation: The Fearless Contemplation of Change



September Meeting | September 11, 2022




Vivekananda and C.G. Jung: Yoga in the West 

with Steven Herrmann, Ph.D. MFT


Vivekananda and C.G. Jung: Yoga in the West 

with Steven Herrmann, Ph.D. MFT

 

Before Swami Vivekananda left his homeland in India, at the age of twenty-nine, he had a powerful dream. He saw his Master, Sri Ramakrishna, calling him. His Guru was summoning him in the dream to “Go!” to Chicago and deliver his message of non-dual Vedanta at the Parliament of World Religions, which was to begin September 11th that year. 


The seminal speeches for which Vivekananda has become most well-known in the West were given at the “World’s Parliament of Religions” in Chicago beginning on September 11 in 1893.

Come celebrate the 129th anniversary of this historic event on September 11th 2022 with a public presentation following the publication of Steven's new book, “Swami Vivekananda and C.G. Jung: Yoga in the West.”


From the Preface of Steven's new book: 

"Swami Vivekananda’s words awakened me. He transported me to new vistas of Oneness. There was an electrical force-field that I sensed in his words, which had been devotedly preserved by his students in the West. What he had to say deeply resonated. He seemed to speak directly out of the superconscious, or the Higher Self, in a way that formed a complementary teaching to the works of C. G. Jung, a new way of uniting East and West, without any unnecessary dualisms between psychology and religion, radical empiricism and transcendentalism. His teachings are non-dual, focused on finding unity, consciousness, strength, healing, and inner peace through Yoga... His Yoga is a psychology of sacred work and a breath of fresh air."


Swami Vivekananda

Steven Herrmann’s Book “Swami Vivekananda and C.G. Jung:Yoga in the West.” is available on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1682356558

Steven Herrmann, Ph.D., MFT, is a Jungian analyst practicing in Oakland, California, and an analyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. He has lived and worked in the Bay Area his whole life. He is interested in the historical roots of analytical psychology and its relevance for today, vocational dreams, sandplay, synchronicity, the psychology of Yoga, and spirituality. Steven is also a Jungian literary critic and a scholar in the fields of American poetry, Jamesian pragmatism, analytic psychology, Advaita Vedanta, and Western spirituality. Dr. Herrmann has presented papers at the C.G. Jung Institutes of San Francisco, Chicago, and Zurich, and he has published six previous books that have been well received, nationally and internationally. "Swami Vivekananda and C.G. Jung: Yoga in the West" is Steven's seventh book. It forms a synthesis between analytical psychology and Vivekananda's "highest" teachings in San Francisco during the Spring of 1900 on Spiritual Democracy, making the Swami the first transpersonal psychologist to have taught non-dual Yoga in the Bay Area, the United States, and Europe. 

 

Please watch a brief Video Steven’s upcoming book:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1C8YakzWaE


Steven Herrmann’s Book “Swami Vivekananda and C.G. Jung:Yoga in the West.” is available on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1682356558




July Meeting | July 10, 2022



Jung developed the method of active imagination during a turbulent time in his life, after his break from Freud in 1913, and when unconscious contents threatened to flood him. He wrote in “Memories, Dreams and Reflections” that he “felt totally suspended in mid-air, for I had not yet found my own footing.” Describing the process of opening to the contents of his psyche, Jung wrote, “It was like a voyage to the moon, or a descent into empty space.” (p 181).

This seminar will review Jung’s discovery of active imagination, and his concept of the Transcendent Function, an innate instinct in the human psyche to become more whole. We will consider how the psychotherapy relationship itself can be an active imagination. Through lecture, discussion, and exercises this seminar will explore how active imagination transcends method, how it can become an attitude toward life — an art and a map toward living more fully. In turbulent times — whether from inner or outer disturbances, traumas, and pressures — slowing down, opening to and relating meaningfully to what is happening inside, is a process of embodiment, and a way of approaching life creatively.

Robin Eve Greenberg, MFT is an analyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. She is an associate editor of Jung Journal: Culture and Psyche, and teaches in the candidate training program. Robin has roots in dance and has written and presented on subjects related to creativity, active imagination, Jewish mysticism, embodiment, and the idea of home. Robin has a private practice in Kensington, California.



April 2022 



Painting at the Intersecton of Psyche, Science and Mystery: 

A Journey into the Cosmos Through an Inner Landscape.

A presentation by Johanna Baruch

The creative process remains hidden and mysterious, even for the artist who is creating. All we can do is dance around its source, look at it from different angles, nurture its growth and appreciate its expressive flowering. It is equally mysterious to ask how an artist finds her specific inspiration? What does he choose to create? For painter Johanna Baruch, it’s almost as if the inspiration chose her.

In this image-rich presentation, Johanna will explore the many facets of the creative process through her own work of painting the Cosmos, as inspired by images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. She’ll dive into the magic of seeing into deep space, and how that opens up deep vistas within herself. She will travel into history to connect us up to our ancient ancestors who looked up into the night sky in awe. She will explore the alchemy of painting, seeing the artist’s studio as a laboratory in which the prima materia is processed to create something alive and meaningful. And she’ll investigate the science as a language that bridges us to the great mystery of the universe around us, as it also connects us to our own selves, borne out of that same “star stuff.” 

Johanna Baruch 

 

Johanna’s current Cosmos Series are abstracted paintings inspired by images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. She paints in oil on aluminum panels, creating luminescent surfaces through applying multiple layers of translucent glazes.  Her life-long studies of Carl Jung’s theories, as well her explorations into spiritual, mystical and psychological teachings suffuse her work with dimension, breadth and depth.

 

She exhibits in galleries and museums nationally, and her work is in private and corporate collections. She serves on the Board of Governors of the C. G. Jung Institute of S.F., is a former trustee of the California College of the Arts and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and former committee member of the SFMOMA Accessions Committee.  She currently lives under the big skies of Inverness, CA.

 

https://www.johannabaruch.com/




February 2022



The Interplay of Jungian Psychology and Shamanism

with

Carol McRae, PhD



Carol will explore the development of Jung’s ideas and experience with active imagination and his eventual expression of the Two Million Year Old Man in his last ten years of work with analysands. The Red Book and recently published Black Books will give participants a deeper picture of Jung’s process in exploring his own inner depths.

 

Carol will share her own work with an inner ally or guide and the shamanic focus of other Jungians, especially Jeff Raff and Don Sandner. We will explore together other aspects of our work in Jungian Analysis that have a shamanic flavor.

 

Finally, we will have an experience of active imagination/journeying accompanied by my drumming. Please bring a dream of some intensity or plan to journey to find or talk with an ally or guide. Some may be willing to share their experience to give a sense of the range of possibilities in this process.


Carol McRae, PhD, is a member of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco and has a private practice in Fairfax, California where she sees individual adults and couples. She also leads three journeying groups. She teaches interns and candidates at the Institute as well as teaching in public programs there. She has been on numerous committees involved in running the Institute and the training program. For 15 years she was part of a group on Shamanism and Jungian Psychology.



January 2022



APC Yearly Reports and Elections. Followed by film:


"Thomas B. Kirsch in Conversation with Murray Stein

In the Home of C. G. Jung"

A Film by Luis Moris

Thomas Kirsch was one of the elder statesmen of analytical psychology. His remembrances and associations include Carl Jung, Jung’s earliest followers as well as the analytical pioneers on the west coast such as Joe Henderson and Joe Wheelwright. He was internationally active in the promotion of analytical psychology abroad and a beloved local resident of the San Francisco Bay Area as well. He served as president of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco and  was a member of our own Analytical Psychology Club of San Francisco. 

In this beautifully made film, a year before his passing away in 2017, he talks to Murray Stein from Jung’s own home in Zurich in a very personal and thought provoking interview, where he reveals not only the breadth of his memory and experience, but the depth of his character and insight.




November 2021 



Individuation, the Search for Enlightenment, and the Religious Function of the Psyche

With

Pat Katsky, Ph.D.


Jung described the process of individuation as a manifestation of the religious function of the psyche, the archetypally based human drive to find meaning in one’s life and develop a relationship with a larger unity beyond one’s ego consciousness. In the individuation process, this search occurs with the aid of the wisdom contained in the center of knowing he called the Self, and is characterized by the occurrence of numinous experiences through, for example, dreams, images, synchronicities, moments of attunement with the natural world, in relationship, and in meditative experiences. Over the course of a lifetime, individuals following this path develop a spiritual autobiography composed of the significant moments of contacting this larger awareness. 

 

We’ll look at this process, and explore the experiences of Western individuals whose individuation journeys have led to engagement with Eastern spiritual practices.


Pat Katsky, Ph.D. is a member of the San Francisco Jung institute and formerly was a member of the Los Angeles Jung Institute. She is a past president of the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles, and serves regularly on the reviewing and certifying boards of the San Francisco and Los Angeles Jung Institutes. She has been a core faculty member at Pacifica for almost 20 years. Her main research interest is in the religious function of the psyche.

September 2021 

Modern Day Alchemy: Art Making and Transformation

with

Felicia Matto-Shepard, MFT 


When an image arrives in a dream or reverie, it is often covered in a veil of mystery.  It's vitally might be palpable, but its meaning is elusive.  To explore the image, we can follow the practices of the alchemist: Spend time with the image, observe its properties, experiment, listen, refine and observe, inside and out. In this way, that which has been sensed but not known can emerge into the light of awareness and be integrated into being, aiding the seeker the path of individuation.  


We will reflect on questions such as, “What is an image?”  “Why engage an image?” and “How might we engage with images?”  Matto-Shepard will present on the use and value of art making in psychological transformation based on material from her personal process, as well as works by her students.  Between didactic sections, participants will take time in brief creative practices for personal exploration.  Through attention to emotion, sensation, and reverie, the makers can work to birth and explore images. Matto-Shepard will present on the use and value of art making in psychological transformation based on material from her personal process, as well as works by her students.  

Felicia Matto-Shepard, MFT, is an analyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. She has a private practice in Petaluma, CA, serving teens and adults, as well as offering Alchemical Art classes and workshops exploring image, archetype and the creative impulse in her Petaluma studio.

July 2021

The Mystical Exodus in Jungian Perspective: 

Transforming Trauma and the Wellsprings of Renewal 

with 

Shoshana Fershtman, JD, PhD 


The Biblical story of the Exodus from Egypt is an archetypal map of healing from trauma and reconnecting with the sacred in the wake of catastrophic loss. Reflecting on this sacred story through the lens of kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) and Jungian theory, we explore how the journey out of constricted consciousness created by trauma is transformed. We begin to move out of the state of exile, or the ego’s disconnection from the Self, as we are awakened through the eros of the Feminine, inviting us into a larger consciousness that includes the mythic imagination.

We will explore core kabbalistic teachings and reflect on the impact of collective trauma on the transmission of Jewish mythic imagination in our time. How do we begin to trust again after our faith has been shattered? The role of the Shekhinah, the Sacred Feminine, in kabbalah is central in transforming trauma through restoring our capacities for feeling and embodiment, creativity and trust. Feminine archetypes in the Exodus story will be highlighted. 

Shoshana Fershtman, JD, PhD, is a Jungian analyst and psychologist in Sonoma County, California. She is a member analyst and teaches at the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. She served as core faculty at the Sonoma State University’s graduate program in Depth Psychology, and has offered workshops on Jewish mysticism, transgenerational trauma, and the Divine Feminine. She has studied Jewish mysticism for several decades. Her work as an attorney focused on environmental, social justice and indigenous rights. 

The Mystical Exodus in Jungian Perspective: Transforming Trauma and the Wellsprings of Renewal by Shoshana Fershtman

https://www.routledge.com/The-Mystical-Exodus-in-Jungian-Perspective-Transforming-Trauma-and-the/Fershtman/p/book/9780367537135

June 2021

Sheltering Grief: Living through the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco

with 

A Group Presentation with 

Analysts and Candidates from the SF Jung Institute

This presentation/discussion is part of a continuing dialogue begun two years ago when a group of analysts and candidates broke from their self-imposed isolation to discuss the experience of living through the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco in the 1980s. Many of us, then or soon to be, affiliated with the C.G. Jung Institute in San Francisco were impacted by the crisis. However, there has little recorded institutional narrative incorporating the memory of that time. Our experiences constitute some of the stories that have been omitted from the history of our institute. During the height of the epidemic, many of us found ourselves stranded in a reality that was beyond comprehension. An unconscious collusion of silence has led to a reluctance to put words to our anguish and perpetuated our felt invisibility. This group of seven has had the unexpected experience of creating our own narrative of long held grief and pain. A year ago, we began sharing that with the San Francisco Jung institute community. We view this presentation as a means to locate others who have felt similarly lost. At the same time, we are currently experiencing another trauma of cataclysmic proportions. For many of us, sheltering in place, has brought home the need to find safe shelter and expression of our collective grief, past and present.

Michael Bala, MFT, is an analyst member of the San Francisco C. G. Jung Institute and is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Since the early 1980s, he has worked on AIDS in the community and in his therapy practice. Michael has taught depth psychology at San Francisco Bay Area colleges and universities. Michael has published in The Jung Journal: Culture and Psyche, Cahiers Jungiens de Psychanalyse; and in Kudos magazine. 

 

Scott Carollo, MFT, is an analyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. He is in private practice in San Francisco.  

 

QiRe Ching, LCSW, served as co-chair of the direct services committee of the Asian/Pacific Islander AIDS Coalition and was a founding board member of the Gay Asian/Pacific Alliance Community HIV Project, through which he facilitated a support group for Asian/Pacific Islander men with HIV. QiRe Ching is a analyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute in San Francisco, and teaches in the candidate training program.

 

Claire Costello, RN, PhD

Claire provided home-based psychotherapy to men, their families, and their health care providers as they struggled to survive AIDS during the early AIDS crisis.in San Francisco. She wrote her dissertation on Religion, Spirituality, and AIDS-Related Bereavement. Claire delivered several papers to the Jungian community in 2008 (IAAP and IAJS), 2012 (IAJS), and 2015 (CNASJA) around the themes of the early AIDS crisis as initiation into personal, collective, cultural and global individuation and the transformation of consciousness. Claire realizes that her relationships with her patients with AIDS evolved her being as nothing else. Claire is an adult and child analyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, works in private practice, and with Kaiser Permanente, Marin Cardiology.

 

Paul Fishman, MD

Beginning in 1979 at the start of his medical training, Paul Fishman saw men becoming ill from what would a few years later briefly be known as GRID, Gay Related Immune Deficiency, and soon thereafter, as AIDS. Continuing through his psychiatry residency into private practice, he has worked with patients spanning the rainbow spectrum that is the Bay Area, including some who have died, some who are long term survivors, some who have recently sero-converted, and all others who, though not infected themselves, have been touched by the epidemic. At the start of his analytic training at the C.G. Jung Institute in 1992, his brother-in-law succumbed, the lifesaving protease inhibitors finally coming online just a moment too late for Roy. Paul is an analyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco where he consults to the candidate group process curriculum and serves on the certifying committee. He is in private practice in San Francisco, California and is director of mental health services at University of California Hastings College of the Law. 

 

Jeffrey Moulton Benevedes, PhD

Jeffrey Moulton Benevedes, PhD is a member analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco and worked in AIDS patient care, research, service delivery, in San Francisco throughout the AIDS epidemic. He is the current Editor-in–Chief of the Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche. He maintains private practices and San Francisco and Palm Desert.

May 2021

Social Dreaming Matrix 2021

with 

Barbara Holifield, MSW, and Margaret Skinner, MSW


The Social Dreaming Matrix reflects an archetypal process of being with dreams in community, historically used in indigenous communities, emerging in the psychoanalytic tradition during the rise of the Third Reich. Diverging from the common approach of understanding dreams as only pertaining to the inner life of the dreamer, the intention of a Social Dreaming Matrix is to bring attention to bear on the enormous effect of cultural and political forces on the individual and the collective. 


In the midst of the intense immediacy of these forces and the pressures they exert on the psyche, the Social Dreaming Matrix allows us to gain access to the creative, collective and cultural unconscious to that which is otherwise difficult to bring to language, to feel or to even think clearly about regarding the social context in which we live.

 

In this session dreams will be shared without interpretation. Dreamers will be invited to share the emotions, images and associations that arise for them. As a group our listening perspective will tune to hear how these give voice to our individual diversity, the group-as-a whole unfolding in the social context in which we live.

Barbara Holifield, MSW

Barbara Holifield, MSW, is a training analyst member of the San Francisco Jung Institute and an adjunct professor at The California Institute of Integral Studies. She works extensively with the psychophysiology of trauma and teaches Authentic Movement internationally. Her interest and writings explore the relationship of trauma, body, earth, self and our participation with the dream of the earth and have been published in The Jung Journal, Psychological Perspectives, The Body in Psychotherapy and Authentic Movement: Moving the Body, Moving the Self, Being Moved.

 

Margaret Skinner MSW

Margaret Skinner, MSW, is an analyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. She works with adults and couples as well as offering consultation to therapists in her psychotherapy practice in Berkeley, California. She has taught at the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, CA and The Psychotherapy Institute in Berkeley, CA. Margaret specializes in the treatment of many types of trauma and couples psychotherapy. Political activism has always been an important aspect of her work as well.

April 2021

TRANSFORMATIONS:  Nearing the End of Life:  Dreams and Visions

with

Phyllis Stowell, MA PhD


Nearing the end of life, there is an urgency to attend to what comes to us demanding attention, something we ignore at our peril. Transformations by way of a dialogue with multiple versions of the analyst and most powerful of all, with what comes from the Unconscious in synchronicities, dreams and visions describes when this process is recognized and submitted to.  It is similar to the creative process, in necessary focus and receptivity but very different in intention. What began for me as a dangerous, chaotic driven state in time resolved in a life-altering, sensuous, visionary experience.

Phyllis Stowell has an MA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State (University) and a PhD in Poetry and Depth Psychology from the Union Institute and University.  She is Professor Emerita from Saint Mary’s College and Founding Member of the SMC Master of Fine Arts. She is the former Chair of the Friends of the San Francisco Jung Institute.

March 2021

Tina Stromsted, Ph.D., LMFT, LPCC, BC-DMT, RSME/T is an analyst member of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco where she teaches candidates, clinic interns, and Extended Education programs for the public. 

 

A Dance/ Movement therapist, Somatic psychotherapist and educator, she also teaches in the Depth Psychology & Somatics Doctoral program at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and as a core faculty member for the Marion Woodman Foundation. 

 

Past co-founder and faculty of the Authentic Movement Institute in California, she was a founding faculty member of the Women’s Spirituality Program, and faculty in the Somatic Psychology and Expressive Arts Therapy departments at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, and in the Somatics Psychology doctoral program at Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. 

 

With 40+ years of clinical experience in hospitals, community mental health, and in private practice, her numerous articles, webinars, and book chapters explore the integration of body, psyche, soul, relationship, community, and nature in healing and transformation. Dr. Stromsted lectures and teaches at universities and healing centers in many parts of the world. Her private practice for individual Jungian analysis, body-oriented/movement psychotherapy, and consultation is in San Francisco.

Jung Embodied: Active Imagination in Movement 

with 

Tina Stromsted PhD

“If we can reconcile ourselves to the mysterious truth that the spirit is the life of the body seen from within, and the body the outward manifestation of the life of the spirit— the two being really one— then we can understand why the striving to transcend the present level of consciousness through acceptance of the unconscious must give the body its due.”

 

~ Jung, C.G. (1928). ‘The spiritual problems of modern man’. CW 10, para. 195)


In our gathering, we'll explore inner-directed movement as a way to bridge the realms of conscious and unconscious, body and psyche, instinct and spirit, affect and image, memory and emergence. 


Our session begins with how Jung discovered Active Imagination, an overview of the four steps of this approach, and how to integrate our learnings into everyday life. We’ll explore how one of Jung’s early patients embodied this process and learn about other key pioneers in integrating the body in healing, including Mary Starks Whitehouse who pioneered the Authentic Movement approach. We discuss how dreams images, symbols, and body symptoms can be used as starting points for movement and explore different polarities in the body and the importance of recognizing “the Shadow." 

 

Tina will share an inspiring story about how Jungian Analyst and author, Marion Woodman, used natural movement and dream symbols to heal from her kidney disease and “addiction to perfection.” Then you’ll be guided through a brief exploration of active imagination in movement so you can gently dip into your inner world through your body, and see what you discover for yourself!

 

Through presentation, guided embodied exploration, drawing and reflection this workshop will explore dance/movement as a form of active imagination, with special attention to the living body in analysis, healing, and transformation.

 

In preparation, I invite you to let a healing image come to mind - something comforting, warming, or sacred that’s meaningful for you – from a dream, from nature, or perhaps an object on your altar, or something from your daily life. Says Jung, “My soul, where are you? Do you hear me? I speak, I call you - are you there? I have returned, I am here again.” Please join us as we welcome psyche’s body, working with the healing energies of the creative imagination in conscious embodiment. No experience in dance is necessary, only curiosity and openness to engage the unknown. 

February  2021

David Richo, PhD, MFT, is a psychotherapist, teacher, workshop leader, and writer who works in Santa Barbara and San Francisco California. He combines Jungian, poetic, and mythic perspectives in his work with the intention of integrating the psychological and the spiritual. His books and workshops include attention to Buddhist and Christian spiritual practices.

Encountering the Trickster

with

David Richo, PhD, MFT


Lowly characters continually humble imperious ones. The trickster is the archetype of that comeuppance. We have certainly noticed in our own lives how persons and events keep coming along to depose our ego’s arrogance, to show us how little in control we really are, to strip us of our imaginary entitlements, to disrupt our best laid schemes. Such people and events are trickster visits to us, more assisting forces on our path. The trickster is the ego demolitions expert who helps us become more realistic about our psychological limitations and ultimately our spiritual limitlessness. He leads us to border crossings where we are tricked into finding our own wholeness. This is an energy within ourselves and within the universe that humbles us, topples our ego, upsets our plans, demonstrates to us how little our wishes matter, and dissolves the forms that no longer serve us though we may be clinging to them for dear life. Comfort and routine are the two sworn enemies of our lively energy, and the trickster battles these enemies on our behalf. His visits may feel like plagues but they can be positive when we work with them.

November  2020

Astrology, Dreams, and the Manifestation of Archetypes 

with

Greg Bogart, PhD, MFT

Greg Bogart, PhD., MFT, is a psychotherapist in the San Francisco Bay Area and has taught and practiced astrology professionally for 40 years. Currently he is a lecturer in psychology at Sonoma State University, where he teaches courses on depth psychology, Jungian dreamwork, mythology, and the psychology of yoga. Previously he taught in the Counseling Psychology, East-West Psychology, and Community Mental Health programs at California Institute of Integral Studies, at John F. Kennedy University, and Dominican University. His other books include Dreamwork and Self-Healing; Astrology and Spiritual Awakening; Planets in Therapy: Predictive Technique and the Art of Counseling; In the Company of Sages; and Astrology and Meditation: The Fearless Contemplation of Change. You can contact Greg at 510-594-4329.


Websites: www.gregbogart.net and www.dawnmountain.com.

Greg will return to APC on November 15 to present material from his recent books—Dreamwork in Holistic Psychotherapy of Depression, and Astrology’s Higher Octaves: New Dimensions of a Healing Art. These books explore astrology and dreamwork as natural antidepressants whose uplifting influence is keenly needed during the present challenging times. 


C. G. Jung, in addition to pioneering archetypal and mythological interpretation of dreams, also extensively researched the astrological birthmap and used it as a diagnostic aid in clinical practice. Greg’s talk links these two interests and shows how we can consummate the marriage of astrology and depth psychology by joining the practices of dream analysis and chart interpretation. 

 

We’ll note how dream symbols reflect the symbolism of our natal and transiting planets, and how planetary symbolism illuminates deeper levels of meaning in dreams. Greg describes the healing effects of alignment with our natal chart structure, current planetary transits, and the direction revealed by the unconscious through dream images.


Both dreams and astrological symbols deliver momentous and truthful messages that show us clear steps forward for transformations at crucial transitions.

 

Within the workshop’s time constraints, a few participants will have the opportunity to briefly share a dream along with their natal chart and transits. Please bring a copy of a recent dream and your natal chart, if you have one. The presenter can also easily cast and display a chart for you during the workshop. 


September 2020

Steven Herrmann, PhD, MFT, is an analyst member of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. He is the author of six books, over forty papers and several book chapters. Vocational dreams is a subject that has been very close to the presenter’s personal and professional interests for over forty years. He started studying vocational dreams by coincidence. When studying for his BA degree in “Depth Psychology and Religion” at U.C. Santa Cruz during the 1980-1982 school term, Steven taught Jung’s theories of dream interpretation to students who were in the process of trying to see if they could confirm their vocations through their dream life. The aim of the course “Birth of a Poet” was to look at dreams over time and see if the student could verify his or her vocation by examining calling symbols in their dream journals. The class was taught by the poet-in-residence, William Everson and Steven served as the poet’s TA. Steven taught for Bill and later they continued to deepen their conversations about the subject of vocation. These conversations became the transcript for the book Steven co-authored with Bill: William Everson: The Shaman’s Call. Steven has a private practice in Montclair, Oakland, where he sees children, adolescents, couples, and adults.

Vocational Dreams and Synchronistic Phenomena

with 

Steven Herrman, PhD, MFT


What are vocational dreams? Who has had a vocational dream? Probably everyone in Jungian analysis, or who has studied Jung deeply enough, has had a vocational dream of some kind or another, whether one is aware of it or not. Vocational dreams serve a pragmatic function of clarification in the domain of practical career decision making or confirmation of a life’s calling. Steven will be speaking about how dreams can become part of your psychophysical experience, your actual vocational reality. He will draw upon ideas from Jungian psychology and will focus particularly on C. G. Jung’s theory of synchronicity. When one taps into a vocational dream at a deep enough level it can touch a corresponding chord in the transpersonal psyche, and when this happens, it may sometimes create a reshuffling of environmental events where things may begin to happen that are beyond probability and constellate instances of meaningful chance, or acausal coincidence.


Synchronicity is an acausal connecting principle in the universe that provides empirical evidence that there is a hidden correspondence between deep, underlying archetypal nuclei in the psyche and outer events that just happen to us and are sometimes baffling. They can startle us and leave us with a feeling of something numinous, something that leaves one feeling like there is a sense of the holy present, within and without. Jung used the term “numinous” during his seventh and last trip to the United States in his lectures on “Psychology and Religion” at Yale University in 1937 to clarify what he meant by religious experience. The presenter will offer various techniques for accessing the vocational archetype in the human psyche. 


July  2020

Encountering the Other:  The White Shadow

with

Karen Naifeh, Ph.D.

How do we who identify as White and unconsciously express attitudes, writings, actions that are offensive to the Other? There are embedded forms of racism and thereby oppression that members of the dominant group learn not to see, to keep in the shadows. What forces keep unconscious racial bias alive and active in our societies? One answer lies in a culture’s shadow. 

 

This presentation will utilize writings of Jung, and post-Jungians such as Kimbles, Singer, and Brewster, as well as examples from philosophy, relational psychoanalysis, film and literature that depict culture’s shadow. The relationship of culture’s shadow to Jung’s “geology” of the personality as diagrammed in one of his 1925 lectures will be explored, and the connection of culture’s shadow to archetypal evil and to the formation of negative cultural complexes. These explorations are directed toward new ways of understanding the creation and maintenance of the sense of Other in the psyche, furthering the work of bringing culture’s shadow into consciousness.   

 

Karen Naifeh, Ph.D., is the other co-chair of the ad hoc Committee on Diversity and Inclusivity and an analyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. She holds doctorate degrees in medical physiology and in clinical psychology. She teaches candidates in the GCJISF's analytic training program and clinic internship program, and supervises doctoral interns in the Institute Clinic. She is a clinical supervisor at the Women's Therapy Center in Berkeley.