The Wellsprings of Renewal:The Exodus Story as an Archetypal Framework for Transforming Personal, Intergenerational and Collective Trauma

Contact hours::4 CE contact hours for Licensed NYS Social Workers, Psychoanalysts and Creative Arts Therapists for this program. General public welcome!

The Biblical Exodus from Egypt is an archetypal journey of healing from collective trauma and reconnecting with the sacred in the wake of catastrophic loss. Reflecting on this sacred story, we explore how the constricted consciousness created by personal, intergenerational and collective trauma is transformed. Jungian theory guides our understanding of how trauma creates a state of exile, where the ego becomes alienated from the Self. As we are awakened through numinous experience, we reconnect with the Self’s guiding wisdom.

The archetypes in the Exodus story show us how to grieve the losses engendered by both personal and intergenerational trauma, reconnect with the wellsprings of ancestral memory, discover the light hidden in the darkness of what may have been disowned in our family and cultural lineages, and soften defenses developed in response to trauma. As we do, we open to rebirth and post-traumatic repatterning of consciousness.

In this program we explore the rich psychological meaning of the archetypal journey of the Exodus story, a vessel into which Jewish sages over millennia distilled mystical wisdom. We find that this timeless story is also the story of our own time, offering profound insight for healing from personal and transgenerational trauma following the cataclysmic upheavals of recent collective history.

Understanding exile as disconnection from the Source, we follow Moses, keeper of the spiritual fire, and Serach bat Asher, preserver of ancestral memory. We encounter the depths with Joseph, touch collective grief with Lilith, experience the Red Sea crossing and Miriam’s well as psychological rebirth and Sinai as the repatterning of traumatized consciousness.

Wisdom drawn from millennia of Jewish mystical interpretations of the Exodus, as well as analytical psychology perspectives guide our exploration. The role of the Shekhinah (the Divine Feminine) in kabbalah is central in restoring our capacities for feeling and embodiment, both of which are profoundly injured when we experience trauma. The workshop will explore the teachings of Jungian scholars on themes related to Jewish mysticism and intergenerational trauma. The wider cross-cultural mythic implications of the Exodus story as both a personal and collective story about healing the relationship with the Self will also be explored.

The workshop will explore the following:

A short overview of Jewish mysticism including Jungian perspectives on kabbalah, and Jungian views on transgenerational trauma.
Various archetypes of healing in the Exodus story:

(a) The experience of exile in post-modernity and its meaning in our own time, including during the pandemic

(b) Awakening from the trance of exile through the relatedness of the Feminine

(d) cultural complexes and the loss of connection to the Self

(e) reconnection with ancestral memory (Serach bat Asher and Lilith)

(f) learning to trust again in the wake of collective trauma (the movement through the Red Sea as rebirth, and the well of Miriam)

(g) Repatterning of traumatized consciousness (Sinai)

Learning Objectives:
Participants will be able to:

1. Demonstrate competency in working with those experiencing personal, transgenerational and cultural trauma.

2. Explain Biblical myths and symbols from the perspective of Jewish mysticism.

3. Describe the healing impact of reconnecting with the cultural collective unconscious in transforming collective trauma.

4. Explain Biblical myths and symbols through the lens of Jungian theory.

5. Recognize how reconnection to cultural collective unconscious supports healing of transgenerational and cultural trauma.

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, and has worked as an attorney for environmental, social justice and indigenous rights. Her book, The Mystical Exodus in Jungian Perspective: Transforming Trauma and the Wellsprings of Renewal was published by Routledge in 2021.

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

Contact Hours: Four CE contact hours for Licensed NYS Social Workers, Psychoanalysts and Creative Arts Therapists for this program.

The C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, Inc. is recognized by New York State Education Department’s State Board of Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0350.

The C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts. #P-0015.

C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed creative arts therapists, #CAT-0068.

FACULTY

William Baker, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City. He is currently on the faculty at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology at Yeshiva University, the William Alanson White Institute, and the Philadelphia Association of Jungian Analysts and serves as a member of the editorial staff at the Journal of Analytical Psychology.

Harry W. Fogarty, MDiv, PhD, LP, is a Jungian analyst in private practice in NYC. He is a faculty member of the Philadelphia Association of Jungian Analysts and a former Lecturer in Psychiatry and Religion at Union Theological Seminary.

Ilona Melker, LCSW, is a Jungian Psychoanalyst and Certified Sandplay Therapist. She has taught and lectured at the C.G. Jung Foundation and at national conferences. She has contributed to professional journals. She is in private practice in Manhattan and Princeton, New Jersey.

Maria Taveras, LCSW, is a Jungian analyst in private practice in New York City. She is also an award-winning creator of Dream Art. She creates art from images in her own dreams and is the recipient of two Gradiva Awards from the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis for her Dream Art. Her Dream Art has been exhibited in New York, San Francisco, Berkeley, London, Montreal, and Cape Town.

David Walczyk, EdD, LP, NCPsyA, is a Jungian analyst in private practice in NYC. He is a graduate of Columbia University and the C.G. Jung Institute of NY. He is an award-winning educator, award-winning designer, a writer, and public speaker. He has lectured both domestically and internationally and is on the faculty of New York University.

Sylvester Wojtkowski, PhD, is a Jungian analyst and clinical psychologist in private practice in New York City. He received his doctorate from the New School for Social Research.