Category: Workshops

A daylong seminar led by
Michael Gellert, MA, LCSW

Contact hours: 6 CE contact hours for Licensed NYS Social Workers, Psychoanalysts and Creative Arts Therapists for this program.

An exploration of the Abrahamic God's evolution as depicted in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too. – St. Teresa of Avila

All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware. – Martin Buber

The epic story of the Abrahamic God's inner journey begins in the Hebrew Bible, the common source of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He emerges here as a living, textured personality as tormented as a Shakespearean character and as divided against humanity as the devil who personifies his dark side. Yet in heroic fashion, he embarks on a journey to greater consciousness, stretching into himself in the Talmud, New Testament, Qur'an, and Gnostic writings. Then finally, with and through the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic mystics, he discovers his true self as the absolute Godhead. He takes up residence in their psyches as their own Divine Mind or true self. What God learned from his journey might be something that we in turn could learn from and that could help us at the dawn of the twenty-first century. In this way, God's inner journey becomes a metaphor for our own.

The Biblical God's PTSD and Other Afflictions

An exploration of the origins, features, and healing of Yahweh's deep-seated wound and their implications for us.

The degree of character flexibility, the ability to open oneself to the outside world or to close oneself to it, depending on the situation, constitutes the difference between a reality-oriented and a neurotic character structure. – Wilhelm Reich

This presentation will focus on the profound disappointments and suffering that the biblical God encountered on his inner journey toward greater consciousness. We will explore how these contributed toward his trauma and other existential and clinical afflictions as illustrated in the Hebrew Bible. We will also discuss what it means historically and for us today that the God of Western and Islamic civilization suffered from these conditions. Special attention will be given to what Jung, among others, has called the "Yahweh complex." Our approach to God will be as a figure of the religious imagination rather than as a representation of an objective Godhead.

Tuition

Members/Students, $100;

General Public, $110.

You can pay online using your amazon account.

If you pay online, please also email us your name, address, email, and the name of the workshop for which you have paid.

Gellert workshop: non member ($110)

Gellert workshop: member ($100)

Registration and Payment Form for mail-in and phone payments

 Gellert workshop registration (PDF format)

Learning Objectives

1. To describe how the story of the Abrahamic God mirrors the evolution of our human experience of him and of our own consciousness.
2. To explore what the core images and ideas of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam reveal about the psychological nature of religious experience.
3. To recognize how the many different traditions of mysticism share the same universal psychodynamics.
4. To summarize what it means historically and for us today that the God of Western and Islamic civilization suffered from PTSD and other afflictions.
5. To explain the nature and effects of the Yahweh complex.

Michael Gellert, MA, LCSW, is a Jungian analyst practicing in Los Angeles and Pasadena, California and former Director of Training of the C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles. He is the author of Modern Mysticism, The Way of the Small, The Divine Mind: Exploring the Psychological History of God's Inner Journey, and America's Identity Crisis: The Death and Rebirth of the American Vision (originally published as The Fate of America). His website is michaelgellert.com.

Contact hours: Six CE contact hours for Licensed NYS Social Workers and Psychoanalysts for this program.

The C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, Inc., SW CPE, 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 #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

Saturday, October 27, 2018: 9:30 am–4:30 p.m.
at the C.G. Jung Foundation, 28 East 39th Street, New York City

A daylong seminar led by
Bonnie L. Damron, PhD, LCSW

Contact hours: 6 CE contact hours for Licensed NYS Social Workers, Psychoanalysts and Creative Arts Therapists for this program.

In Psychotherapists or Clergy, C.G. Jung wrote,
“Perhaps this sounds very simple, but simple things are always the most difficult. In actual life it requires the greatest art to be simple, and so acceptance of oneself is the essence of the moral problem and the acid test of one’s whole outlook on life. That I feed the beggar, that I forgive an insult, that I love my enemy in the name of Christ-all these are undoubtedly great virtues. What I do unto the least of my brethren, that I do unto Christ. But what if I should discover that the least amongst them all, the poorest of all beggars, the most impudent of all offenders yea the very fiend himself-that these are within me, and that I myself stand in need of the alms of my own kindness, that I myself am the enemy who must be loved-what then?”
(CW, Vol. 11: p. 330, ¶520)

The ancient Greek word xenos translates into English as stranger, beggar or foreigner. The custom of inviting the stranger in is xenia, which is also the Greek word for hospitality. According to many ancient traditions, when a homeless or destitute person arrived at your door, you invited her or him in, offered comfort, food, a bath and a comfortable bed. We are told that, at times, the gods arrived disguised as beggars to test mankind’s faithfulness to the Law of Heaven, including Zeus, Wotan, and Christ.

After your guest was made comfortable, you might ask questions such as, “What is your name?” or “Where are your people, your home?” Then, if you were lucky, your guest might entertain you with stories and valuable information about the affairs of the world beyond your little island home. Or perhaps this guest might even share a dream with you. We have a storehouse of such stories from the Biblical Book of Ruth, Ovid’s telling of Baucis and Philemon, and, of course Homer’s Odyssey. Such stories are outer representations of the archetype of the stranger at the door, but what about the symbolic life? What role does the stranger, beggar, or foreigner play in the individuation process?

During the morning, we will discuss the archetype of xenos, reflect on some of these traditional stories, and allow them to speak to us. In the afternoon, we will focus our attention inward and ask, “What is the relationship between the stranger at the door and a person’s inner life?”

Fortunately, Jung draws a straight line for us from theological and mythological considerations about this archetype directly to psychology, to psyche, and the individuation process. Taking Jung’s lead, we will discuss the characteristics in the personality that Jungians call the shadow, which are strangers in need of care and recognition. We will start by looking at some dreams, thinking of the dream as the stranger, beggar, or supplicant arriving at the door. Do we greet our dreams and shadow-selves in the way the ancients greeted a stranger at the door, with xenia—invite them in and offer them kindness and hospitality? If one did, might those dreams, and even the shadow, reward us with clues, information, stories we have not heard?

In order to mediate this process, we will reflect analytically on some dreams and stories, which show us how we-the ego consciousness-may be enlarged when we “greet the beggar at the door.” We will also set aside times of silence, for simplicity, introspection and journaling. Then each one of us will have a chance to discover where a beggar or stranger may be knocking at the doorway of our souls.

Tuition

Members/Students, $100;

General Public, $110.

You can pay online using your amazon account.

If you pay online, please also email us your name, address, email, and the name of the workshop for which you have paid.

Damron workshop: non member ($110)

Damron workshop: member ($100)

Registration and Payment Form for mail-in and phone payments

Damron workshop registration (PDF format)

Learning Objectives

Morning Objectives

1. Identify and discuss the archetype of “The Stranger at the Door” as it appears in mythology, folk tradition, and theology.
2. Explore several traditional stories about a stranger, beggar, or supplicant arriving at the doorway of an established home, tribe, or community. Homer’s Odyssey, the Biblical Book of Ruth, and Ovid’s telling of Baucis and Philemon are some examples.
3. Discuss our reactions and responses to these stories from theological, mythological, and psychological perspectives.
4. Consider the value and meaning of the archetype of “The Stranger at the Door” for us today.

Afternoon Objectives

1. Identify and amplify core elements in the archetype of “The Stranger at the Door” that directly refer to what Jung called the individuation process, especially deep shadow work. The following example from the writings of C. G. Jung is helpful:
   • In Psychotherapists or Clergy, Jung wrote, “Perhaps this sounds very simple, but simple things are always the most difficult. In actual life it requires the greatest art to be simple, and so acceptance of oneself is the essence of the moral problem and the acid test of one’s whole outlook on life. That I feed the beggar, that I forgive an insult, that I love my enemy in the name of Christ-all these are undoubtedly great virtues. What I do unto the least of my brethren, that I do unto Christ. But what if I should discover that the least amongst them all, the poorest of all beggars, the most impudent of all offenders yea the very fiend himself-that these are within me, and that I myself stand in need of the alms of my own kindness, that I myself am the enemy who must be loved-what then? (Vol. 11 of the Collected Works: page 330, ¶520).
2. Discuss some contemporary dreams where the shadow appears as “The Stranger at the Door.”
3. Discuss some contemporary examples where the shadow appears through projection as “The Stranger at the Door.”
4. Discuss how the archetype of “The Stranger at the Door” may play an important role in work with dreams, in clinical work, and in the individuation process as a whole.

Bonnie L. Damron, PhD, LCSW, is a Jungian-oriented psychotherapist in private practice in Falls Church, Virginia. She is a clinician, cultural anthropologist, artist, and storyteller. She teaches courses in mythology, fairy tales, Shakespeare, the Greek Classics, and the writing of C.G. Jung. She also leads contemplative retreats, and conducts study tours in Crete. She holds a Masters of Social Work from Catholic University, a Doctorate Degree in American Studies from the University of Maryland, and a certificate as an Archetypal Pattern Analyst from the Assisi Institute in Mystic, Connecticut.

Contact hours: Six 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., SW CPE, 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 #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.

Saturday, November 17, 2018: 9:30 am–4:30 p.m.
at the C.G. Jung Foundation, 28 East 39th Street, New York City

GOOGLE ANALYTICS DEV

Registration and Payment Form for mail-in and phone payments 

Selinske workshop registration (PDF format) 

Learning Objectives

1. To learn the history and influences of C.G. Jung’s religious family background that contributed to his search for a religious function in the psyche.
2. To learn how the origin of Jungian Psychology was influenced by C.G. Jung’s exposure to Spiritualism, his descent into the unconscious and his mythic life with the dead.
3. To discuss how C.G. Jung’s doctoral dissertation was an attempt to find a medical answer to mediumistic behavior.
4. To understand C.G. Jung’s shift in perspective from a metaphysical to a psychological understanding of Spiritualism.
5. To understand the conflict over Spiritualistic phenomena between Jung and Freud.
6. To distribute a bibliography to participants that can enhance their further study and research.

Jane Selinske, EdD, LCSW, LP, MT-BC, is a Jungian analyst, a practitioner of Mandala Assessment and a Board Certified Music Therapist. She is President of the Board of the Jung Foundation and a faculty member of the C.G. Jung Institute of New York and the Institute for Expressive Analysis of New York.

Contact hours: 6 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., SW CPE, 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 #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.

Saturday, December 8, 2018: 9:30 am–4:30 p.m.
at the C.G. Jung Foundation, 28 East 39th Street, New York City