Assisi Institute – Teleseminars

“The main interest of my work is not concerned with the treatment of neurosis but rather with the approach to the numinous…the real therapy, …as you attain to the numinous experience you are released from the curse of pathology.  Even the very disease takes on a numinous character.”  ~ C.G. Jung

After the Storms:
Psyche’s Response to Trauma, Resilience and Healing
Friday, May 29th
7:00 – 9:00 PM

It is in the domain of trauma that traditional therapy must face its limitations. In living with such unimaginable suffering, individuals are unwillingly made to see the contours of a hellish reality. So too, in their movement towards resilience, they experience a benevolence which they felt had been lost not only to them, but to the world. It is this inexorable dance of the eternal themes of hope, trauma and healing that creates what may be the greatest individual and archetypal challenge of life.

Therapy needs to return to its origins as a spiritual journey in order to help the individual live with the pain while opening to the archetypal experience of benevolence and healing. It will also help those living with trauma to see the truly heroic nature of their unique journey, in realizing that they now have to carry a profound experience of heaven and hell in their heart and soul. Perhaps if this work goes well we will begin to see trauma in a new light, and to consider as Whitmont writes that:

“Relevant events in a patients past history which we have been in the habit of viewing as causes of current psychopathology may now perhaps be seen as the manifestations of the beginning life pattern.”

This lecture will draw on the work of Elie Wiesel, C.G. Jung’s archetypal approach to psyche and the role of the creative in working with the effects of trauma.

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An Archetypal Perspective on Working with Trauma in the Clinical Situation
Saturday, May 30th
9:00 AM – 11:00 AM

In working with trauma, we are brought to the abyss of human nature. Here we find acts of utter devastation, brutality and of unimaginable loss. Here we are forced to see into those hellish experiences of humanity.

As we enter this domain of trauma, we find that contempoary therapy has reached its limits. In recognizing the utter power and consuming nature of trauma, we realize that trauma, while experienced in a very personal way, is an archetypal and not solely a personal issue. As it’s roots are embedded within an archetypal and spiritual reality, any meaningful treatment will have to involve an experience of the transcendent. In this seminar we will address the following:

1) The living presence and re-emergence of trauma in the client/therapist relationship

2) Ways of working with replicative patterns of trauma in the actual therapeutic relationship and within the clients life

3) The activation of the therapists trauma when working with clients

4) The representation of trauma in dreams

5) Trauma as an archetypal field

Learn More Here

After the Storms:
Psyche’s Role in Trauma, Resilience and Healing
Saturday, May 30th
1:00 – 5:00 PM

Addressing what Elie Wiesel speaks of as the “unimaginable” and Jungs writing in the Red Book where he speaks of living with the Spirit of the Depths, we will look at the presence, effects and ways of working with trauma in life.

This seminar may allow us to better understand what is asked of us in living with trauma, and ways to make a life with what we have lived through. Here we are addressing the Japanese practice of Kintsukuroi, – where the artist uses a gold lacquer to repair the broken pieces. Here we learn that the pottery is made even more beautiful because of its wounds and its history. This is the challenge for anyone living with the unimaginable experiences of abuse, terror, violence and loss, including an early loss of a parent and the loss of a child. In this seminar we will address the role of the creative in healing, and ways of invoking the transcendent and grace to help bring healing to the individual.

Learn More Here