Trauma:
An Affront to Soul, An Invitation to the Numinous
An On-line Course
Monday Evenings
8:00 - 9:30 PM EDT
March 6,13,20,27
April 3,20,17,24
May 1,8,15,22
June 5,12,19,26
July 3
All webinars are recorded for your convenience.
Trauma is those experiences that are contrary to nature and run contrary to the natural order of life. From the death of a child, to the premature death of a parent, to sexual abuse and oppression, this is not a reflection of the natural order of life, but an immersion and expression into the dark and evil dimension of psyche. It is this experience of a life lived out of order that so often tears at the essential integrity of the personality, causing a fracturing of the essential wholeness of the individual. Like the oyster’s constant working with the presence of an irritant, the experience of trauma holds the potential of creating a deepening of one’s life and an experience of the numinous.
The experience of trauma carries the capacity to both dismantle a personality, while also creating conditions for great personal and collective achievements. At least for the immediate future, war and those events that often shatter the individual such as: loss, incest, addictions, and other forms of violence, may remain part of the human condition. The fact that these have shaped human experience since the beginning of time, suggest their existence as ontological, archetypal entities, living on as deep structures of the psyche. While we all hope and pray that our children, loved ones and humanity will not have to suffer the indignities of these ongoing abuses, we have to admit that each is a painful reminder of the harsh reality of life and trauma.
While the origins and experience of each of these traumatic situations are in essence, transpersonal, and part of the collective psyche, it falls to the human condition to create a life that encompasses the reality of trauma. Perhaps it was the work of Jung and Elie Wiesel whose lives are a testament to this fact. Our individual and collective tasks in the face of such traumas are:
1. To create a life able to incorporate the personal experience of trauma, while not being possessed by these experiences.
2. To find a way to consciously respond to the invitation to engage in events that result in such traumas for others and ourselves.
3. As individuals informed by the existence and workings of these transpersonal, archetypal dynamics, it is our hope to delve deeper into the very essence of such events, as for instance the archetype of genocide, incest and addictions, in hopes of understanding the nature of what drives them, to lessen their occurrence on the stage of life, and to do what we can to de-potentiate their presence in the world.
In this course, we have brought together many of the world leaders in the field of trauma, and Jungian Psychology. Through faculty presentations, and small group discussions, we will work to advance our understanding and treatment of trauma.
The experience of trauma carries the capacity to both dismantle a personality, while also creating conditions for great personal and collective achievements. At least for the immediate future, war and those events that often shatter the individual such as: loss, incest, addictions, and other forms of violence, may remain part of the human condition. The fact that these have shaped human experience since the beginning of time, suggest their existence as ontological, archetypal entities, living on as deep structures of the psyche. While we all hope and pray that our children, loved ones and humanity will not have to suffer the indignities of these ongoing abuses, we have to admit that each is a painful reminder of the harsh reality of life and trauma.
While the origins and experience of each of these traumatic situations are in essence, transpersonal, and part of the collective psyche, it falls to the human condition to create a life that encompasses the reality of trauma. Perhaps it was the work of Jung and Elie Wiesel whose lives are a testament to this fact. Our individual and collective tasks in the face of such traumas are:
1. To create a life able to incorporate the personal experience of trauma, while not being possessed by these experiences.
2. To find a way to consciously respond to the invitation to engage in events that result in such traumas for others and ourselves.
3. As individuals informed by the existence and workings of these transpersonal, archetypal dynamics, it is our hope to delve deeper into the very essence of such events, as for instance the archetype of genocide, incest and addictions, in hopes of understanding the nature of what drives them, to lessen their occurrence on the stage of life, and to do what we can to de-potentiate their presence in the world.
In this course, we have brought together many of the world leaders in the field of trauma, and Jungian Psychology. Through faculty presentations, and small group discussions, we will work to advance our understanding and treatment of trauma.
Course Faculty:
Sanford Drob, Ph.D.
Sanford L. Drob is a philosopher, forensic psychologist, and painter, who is best known for his efforts to develop a universalist rational-mystical theology through a synthesis of Jewish mysticism and contemporary thought. In a series of books (Symbols of the Kabbalah, 2000, Kabbalistic Metaphors, 2000, Kabbalah and Postmodernism, 2009,) as well as on his website www.newkabbalah.com, Drob describes how the symbols of the Lurianic Kabbalah articulate a “basic metaphor” that is reprised in a philosophical idiom in the writings of such later thinkers as Hegel, Freud, Jung and Derrida, and which serves as a compelling model for understanding the world and the place of humanity within it. Drob is also known for his writings on the psychologist C. G. Jung. His books, Kabbalistic Visions: C. G. Jung and Jewish Mysticism (2010), and Reading the Red Book: An Interpretive Guide to C. G. Jung’s Liber Novus (2012) approach Jung from a philosophical and a psychological point of view. His Archetype of the Absolute: The Union of Opposites in Mysricism, Philosophy and Psychology is scheduled for publication by The Fielding Graduate University Press in 2017. As an artist, Drob has worked to update and resignify Jewish and other mystical and archetypal themes, and to address basic philosophical and theological questions through the medium of representational, narrative painting. Drob holds doctorates in philosophy and clinical psychology and for many years served as the Senior Forensic Psychologist and Director of Psychological Assessment at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. He is currently on the Core Faculty of the doctoral program in Clinical Psychology of Fielding Graduate University, where he teaches classes in Humanistic/ Existential psychology, forensic psychology and psychological assessment. He maintains an active practice in forensic psychology and psychological assessment in New York City. 
Alan Guggenbuhl, Ph.D
Allan Guggenbühl, Prof. Dr.phil., received his degrees from the University of Zurich in education and psychology, and afterwards his diploma from the C.G. Jung Institute Zürich in 1994. He is editor of the Jungian journal Gorgo, director of the Institute for Conflict Management in Bern and is well known for his methods of Mythodrama and crisis intervention in various Swiss schools. He has many publications, including his celebrated Men, Power and Myths. 
Ruth Lanius, Ph.D.
Dr. Ruth Lanius, from the University of Western Ontario, graduated from the University of British Columbia with a combined MD and PhD degree in Neuroscience in 1996. She continued her training at the University of Western Ontario where she completed her residency in psychiatry in 2000. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Western Ontario. She established and directs the Traumatic Stress Service, a service that specializes in the treatment and research of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and related comorbid disorders. Her research interests focus on studying the neural correlates of PTSD using neuroimaging (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and treatment outcome research examining various pharmacological and psychotherapeutic methods. Her research is currently funded by several federal funding agencies. Dr. Lanius is an ad hoc reviewer for numerous journals and granting agencies. She has lectured on the topic of PTSD in North America, Europe and Japan. 
Ann Ulanov, Ph.D.
Ann Belford Ulanov, PhD, is a Jungian analyst in private practice in New York City, a member of the Jungian Analytic Association, and former Christiane Brooks Johnson Professor of Psychiatry and Religion at Union Theological Seminary. An internationally known lecturer and prolific author, among her many articles and books are the highly acclaimed Cinderella and Her Sisters: The Envied and the Envying; Spiritual Aspects of Clinical Work; The Wisdom of the Psyche; The Unshuttered Heart: Opening to Aliveness/ Deadness in the Self; The Living God and Our Living Psyche; and Madness and Creativity. . |
Michael Conforti, Ph.D.
Dr. Michael Conforti is a Jungian analyst and the Founder and Director of The Assisi Institute. He has been a faculty member at the C.G. Jung Institute - Boston, the C.G Jung Foundation of New York, and for many years served as a Senior Associate faculty member in the Doctoral and Master's Programs in Clinical Psychology at Antioch New England. A pioneer in the field of matter-psyche studies, Dr. Conforti is actively investigating the workings of archetypal fields and the relationship between Jungian psychology and the New Sciences. He has presented his work to a wide range of national and international audiences, including the C.G. Jung Institute - Zurich and Jungian organizations in Colombia, Russia, Australia,Venezuela, Denmark, Italy and Canada. He is the author of Threshold Experiences: The Archetype of Beginnings (2007) and Field, Form and Fate: Patterns in Mind, Nature and Psyche (2002). His articles have appeared in Psychological Perspectives, San Francisco Jung Library Journal, Roundtable Press, World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution, and Spring Journal.Dr. Conforti maintains a private practice in Mystic, CT and consults with individuals and corporations around the world. He provides his insights as a sought-after consultant to businesses, government institutions, and the film industry. 
Ed Tick
Edward Tick, Ph.D., is Executive Director and Co-founder of Soldier’s Heart. He is also a Soldier’s Heart Program Leader. Honored for his groundbreaking work in the spiritual, holistic and community-based healing of veterans and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Dr. Tick has been a psychotherapist for 38 years, specializing in working with veterans since the 1970s. He is the author of Sacred Mountain, The Practice Of Dream Healing, The Golden Tortoise, Wild Beasts and Wandering Souls and the award-winning book War And The Soul. Dr. Tick is an internationally recognized educator and expert on veterans, PTSD, and the psychology of military-related issues. He has conducted trainings, retreats and workshops across the country and overseas. He has lectured and trained staff and worked with wounded warriors at West Point, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Fort Hood, Fort Knox, Altus Air Force Base and other Dept. of Defense facilities. The Department of Defense now uses his pioneering work and he was the U.S. Army’s 2012 trainer for its annual Chaplain Sustainment Training in PTSD. He is a tireless advocate for war-healing and peace-making, lecturing around the world and leading semi-annual educational, healing and reconciliation journeys to Viet Nam and Greece. Dr. Tick is a gifted healer, teacher and guide specializing in using psycho-spiritual, cross-cultural, and international reconciliation practices to bring healing and hope to veterans, communities and nations recovering from the traumas of war and violence. 
Loralee Scott-Conforti, MFA
Loralee is the Executive Director of the Assisi Institute and founder and Director of Seeing Red. She is an artist, activist, author and educator with over two decades of leadership experience focused on creative transformation and innovative leadership. Her most recent body of artistic work focused on the theme of "kintsukuroi" meaning to be beautiful in the broken places as an embodied metaphor for the psychological process of moving forward after trauma. Her past work includes a dance theater production focused on the global issue of human trafficking. that resulted in the passage of anti-trafficking legislation as a result of Loralee's collaboration with the Troy, NY City Council. Loralee's work around this issue is featured as part of a compilation of research included in an academic text published by Routledge: "Grief and The Expressive Arts" A certified MBTI Consultant, and Archetypal Pattern Analyst, Loralee is a sought after speaker. She has been a featured presenter for: the MAAP 2016 Conference in Moscow, Russia, the International Association of Analytical Psychology's conference on Art and Psyche in Siracusa Italy, the Pennsylvania Governor's Council, the Rhode Island Family Courts Anti-Trafficking Conference and many others. 
Ursula Wirtz, Ph.D.
Dr. Ursula Wirtz graduated in Philosophy and German Studies at the University of Munich in 1971 and taught at universities in Sarajevo, Dublin, Bonn, Klagenfurt. At the University of Zurich, she earned the Dipl.phil in clinical and anthropological psychology and at the CGJung Institute the diploma in analytical psychology. She is a full member of the Swiss and international Society for Analytical Psychology (SGAP, IAAP, AGAP), the Swiss Psychotherapy Association (ASP) and the International Federation for Psychotherapy (IFP). Dr. Ursula Wirtz has a private practice since 1982, lives and works in Zurich, also as a supervisor with individuals and teams with a focus on psychotraumatology. She is a lecturer, teaching analyst and supervisor at the International Seminar for Analytical Psychology Zurich, ISAP and trainer for Psychology in Eastern Europe. She is internationally active in teaching and training, researching and publishing on the topics of sexual violence, trauma, ethics and the combination of psychotherapy and spirituality. One of her recent publications is: "Ursula Wirtz, Beyond Trauma. The Mystery of Transformation. Spring Journal Publications.“ |
|
Webinar Schedule
(To Be Finalized) March 6th Michael Conforti, Ph.D. March 13 Michael Conforti, Ph.D. March 20th Michael Conforti, Ph.D. March 27th Ed Tick, Ph.D. April 3rd Group discussion led by Michael Conforti April 10th TBA April 17th Sanford Drob, Ph.D. April 24th Loralee Scott-Conforti, MFA May 1st Ruth Lanius,Ph.D. May 8th Ruth Lanius, Ph.D. May 15th Ruth Lanius Ph.D. May 22nd Group Discussion led by Michael Conforti, Ph.D. June 5th Allan Guggenbuhl, Ph.D. June 12th Ann Ulanov, Ph.D. June 19th Ursula Wirtz, Ph.D. June 26th Ursula Wirtz, Ph.D. July 3rd Michael Conforti, Ph.D. |
Tuition and Discounts
Tuition: $1,525 Non-refundable Deposit: $500 Tuition Discount (one per applicant, please): ____ 20% APA, Dream, Creativity or Trauma Program Graduate ____20% Current Assisi Institute Certificate Student (APA, Dream Seeing Red) __ 20% Canada Resident ___________ 10% Depth Psychology Alliance Member ___________ 10% Senior (65 and older) ___________ 10% Pre-Pay Discount for Payment in Full plus 2.5% qrtrly processing fee or 5% monthly processing fee Course Registration to Download
| ||