Program Catalogue

Living Institute

Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy Diploma

This three year program offers theoretical and clinical skills training, as well as a significant personal growth element and a service component oriented toward cultural evolution.

The Living Institute is a teaching centre committed to exploring humanistic, psychodynamic, existential and mythological themes in individual, cultural and cosmological evolution. The basis for this work is the Holistic Experiential Process Method (HEP). HEP is a model for understanding systemic management and growth that is both social and personal, providing a method for facilitating the evolutionary emergence of self-organizing complexity from apparently chaotic disorder. It provides a container for transformational growth based on dialectic integration of arising dualities. The HEP view of evolution as existential self-organization is applicable to group, business and cultural life, as well as individual development.

The Living Institute Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy Diploma is a training in the HEP Method as applied to psychotherapy within the existential-integrative tradition, bringing us into connection with Kirk J. Schneider, PhD, psychologist, founder of the EI method, which derives from the existential-humanistic tradition, founded by Rollo May, James Bugental, Schneider and others. Dr Schneider’s Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy (2008) shows existential-integrative psychotherapy as a broadly eclectic model in its application, with chapters on multiculturalism, gender, short term therapy, addiction, intersubjectivity, child therapy, spirituality. While HEP remains a distinct tradition in its own right, locating HEP within the EI tradition also situates it in a growing, international, professional community.

HEP recognizes the importance of spiritual and human values in institutional and organizational functions that serve society and culture, based on the interdependence of humans with each other and the natural world, so that our future is not compromised for the sake of short term consumer satisfaction, greed and an insensitive drive for dominance.

HEP is also participating in the current re-emergence of spiritual models that draw on ancient cosmologies, from both eastern and western mystical traditions, where nature is seen to embody patterns of integration that link the part with the whole, so that everything is understood to be interconnected. In this view, we can see that the world is not a collection of separate ‘things’, but a pattern of dynamic relationships, as life unfolds in the individual, the culture and the cosmos.

Program Structure: Year 1 will be focused through a theoretical overview model, drawing on humanistic, existential, transpersonal, psychodynamic, archetypal and somatic depth psychologies, as well as a number of other streams. This will include the philosophical and cultural stream of the Romantic and bohemian traditions, modernist art and literature, critical theory, culture studies, Continental Philosophy and post modernism as a way of understanding human relationship and the place of individuality in culture and cosmos. A multicultural perspective is integral to this program, as is a general orientation to culture as a contextualizing ground for the psychological and spiritual traditions in the model. The spiritual aspect of the transpersonal tradition will draw on mythology (particularly as understood by figures such as Joseph Campbell and Mircea Eliade), Vajrayana Buddhism, the shamanistic model and Western mystical traditions such as the Hermetic, Gnostic, Sufi, Rosicrucian, Kabbalistic, divine-human union mysticism and the apophatic tradition. The holistic and evolutionary paradigms, self organizing systems theory and dynamical systems theory will also be taught in this year. This includes a complex understanding of the ‘norm of nature’ and ‘healing power of nature’ as expressed in Naturphilosophie, homeopathy and naturopathy. It also includes a focus on Thomas Berry’s geocentric theology with its implicit ecopsychological and ecospiritual approach to the study of earth stewardship. We will highlight the value of humanistic, qualitative and phenomenological research.

In year 2 the clinical skills aspects of these traditions will be the focus, along with basic psychotherapy skills, psychological assessment, ethics and professional relations. This will include an expressive arts component and the theme of integrating the natural world into a psychotherapy model, as well as disciplines such as tantric yoga, and the spiritual emergence tradition. The personal growth focus will continue. In this year, students will start clinical skills training in a video clinical skills class, where one will volunteer to be a client and another the therapist, the interaction being videotaped and then reviewed for discuss. There will also be opportunities to observe qualified HEP practitioners as they lead their groups, and to be involved in clinical debriefing sessions with them. Eligible students will also be encouraged to begin developing their own individual practice under supervision. There is a plan under way to create a Living Institute student clinic, where clients could be treated by eligible students under supervision.

In year 3 the focus will be on continuing integration of theoretical and clinical skills, and special topics such as trauma work, energy healing, sexuality, death and dying, grief, couples work, creativity, natural health care, nutrition. Students will be expected to create, in conjunction with colleagues, public workshops and presentations as part of their training, and also to orient them to the need to reach out to the public as part of generating a successful practice. There will be a marketing skills course in this year. During this year there will be an ongoing clinical discussion group where students will be expected to make case presentations for discussion, with faculty and guest presenters supervising. The personal growth focus will continue, as will supervised clinical practice.

Program Model: The Living Institute Psychotherapy Diploma is based in a number of psychological, spiritual and cultural traditions have been integrated into programs at places such as the California Institute of Integral Studies, Saybrook, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Naropa. This program also draws on the psychodynamic model of human nature, of psychotherapy and of training, particularly in its Jungian and archetypal forms as taught at Pacifica Graduate Institute. This three year diploma is designed toward providing eligibility for licensure in Ontario. Although the parameters for this have not been fully publicly defined in the ongoing legislative process, as this takes place the Living Institute will be up to date on progress and will respond accordingly. The present design is congruent with other currently existing Ontario programs.

Teaching Format: The teaching format will be 3-4 hours per week from September to May and two 6 hour one-days per month. There will be a 4 day intensive retreat in June, which will combine personal growth and other elements of the learning model.

Learning Model and Evaluation: The Living Institute supports a student centred learning model. Engaging the interest and motivation of the student in meeting the educational and personal challenges of this model is the central organizing principle of the program. Nevertheless, the goal of the program is to facilitate students in achieving a standard of knowledge and clinical skill that will enable them to confidently and competently commence practice on graduation. The curriculum is oriented toward becoming a skilled practitioner who is eligible for licensure in Ontario. An equally important goal is that of reaching a level of knowledge that will enable and encourage graduates to continue to evolve by contributing to the knowledge community from which this tradition has arisen.

Personal Growth: The personal growth aspects of this training program will start with weekly individual sessions in year 1 and expand to include the possibility of group participation in years 2 and 3, including the VCS classes. There will be a 4 day summer intensive at the end of each year with a significant personal growth element.

Service and Cultural Activism: The service component will draw on the Buddhist bodhisattva model, the Christian ideal of caritas and fellowship and the Romantic bohemian model of communality. The themes of conscious development and informed understanding leading to effective action, in the larger context of think globally act locally according to your awareness interest and capacity, are the key threads. Living Institute cultural activism work currently focuses through the creation of topical conferences and participation in the ongoing process of psychotherapy regulation in Ontario through our membership in the alliance of Psychotherapy Training Institutions and our creation of the Canadian Humanistic and Transpersonal Association.

Contact: jim@livinginstitute.org 416 515 0404

Visit www.livinginstitute.org for full program outline & enrolment info

Living Institute

Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy Diploma

Year 1 2009-2010

Courses

1. Psychological and Spiritual Theory

2. Philosophy, Culture and Consciousness

3. DSM IV Religious and Spiritual Problems

4. Cultural Activism Project

5. Year End Intensive

6. Annual Living Institute Conference

Class Calendar

1.Psychological and Spiritual Theory

This course draws on humanistic, existential, transpersonal, psychodynamic, archetypal and somatic depth psychologies, Western mysticism, Vajrayana Buddhism, the shamanic tradition and ecospirituality.

Class times from 10:00am to 5:30pm, one Saturday and one Sunday per month, from Sept, ‘09 to May, ‘10. (108 hr)

Class1, Sept 12: Jungian Psychology, Caroline Mardon

Class 2, Sept 13: Transpersonal Psychology, Sally Johnson

Class 3, Oct 3: Archetypal Psychology, Caroline Mardon

Class 4, Oct 4: Humanistic Psychology (3hr), Jim McNamara; Somatic Psychology (3hr), Jim McNamara

Class 5, Nov 7: Existential Philosophy (3hr), Stephen Ticktin; HEP Existential Tradition (3hr), Jim McNamara

Class 6, Nov 8: British Existential Therapy (3hr), Stephen Ticktin; Existential Positive Psychology (3hr), Paul Wong

Class 7, Nov 28: Attachment Theory, Fran Harwood

Class 8, Nov 29: The Psychodynamic Tradition, Caroline Mardon

Class 9, Jan 16: Basic Principles of Psychoanalysis, Dan Merkur

Class 10, Jan 17: Arc of Life, David Cornfield

Class 11, Feb 6: Western Mystical Traditions (3hr), Jim McNamara; Goddess Mythology (3hr), Caroline Mardon

Class 12, Feb 7: HEP Spirituality, Jim McNamara, Caroline Mardon

Class 13, Mar 6: Ecospirituality, Dennis O’Hara

Class 14, Mar 7: Shamanism (3hr), Caroline Mardon; Vajrayana Buddhism (3hr), Jim McNamara

Class 15, Apr 10: Psychotherapy Research – Qualitative (3hr), Kelli Nigh; Quantitative (3hr), Paul Wong

Class 16, Apr 11: Developmental Psychology, Sally Johnson

Class 17, May 1: Year 1 Synthesis, Jim McNamara, Caroline Mardon

Class 18, May 2: Year 1 Student Synthesis Presentations, Jim McNamara, Caroline Mardon

2. Philosophy, Culture and Consciousness

Fall Semester 2009. Conscious Evolution in the Romantic Tradition and Continental Philosophy. Tue Sept 8 to Tue, Dec 15; 6:30 – 10:30pm. Christmas Break: Last class Dec 15, ’09; classes recommence Jan 5, ’10. (60hr). Jim McNamara

Note - Wed, Nov 18, 6:30 – 10:30: Systems Theory, Kristin Trotter

Spring Semester 2010. Holistic Archetypal Consciousness and the Evolutionary Paradigm.

Tue, Jan 5 to Tue, May 25; 6:30 – 10:30pm. March Break, Tue, Mar 16. (76hr). Jim McNamara, Jeff Warren

3. DSM IV Religious and Spiritual Problems

This internet based learning course is offered through the Spiritual Competency Resource Centre (www.spiritualcompetency.com). Students complete this course in their own time. David Lukoff. (8hr). Separate fee: $66.75 US.

4. Cultural Activism Project

Timing for participation in the Living Institute annual cultural activism event depends on the nature of the event. No fee.

5. Year End Intensive

Fri, June 11, (eve); Sat, June 12; Sun, June 13. With year 2 and 3. Jim McNamara, Caroline Mardon. Tuition cost included in annual fee. Food and accommodation separate

6. Annual Living Institute Conference

The Living Institute and the Canadian Humanistic and Transpersonal Association, has been invited by the Humanistic Psychology Division (Div 32) of the American Psychological Association to co-host their hospitality suite at the APA convention in Toronto, August 6 to 9, 2009. We are holding a panel discussion Saturday, August 8, from 2:00 to 6:00 pm in the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel on Humanistic Perspectives in the Regulation of Psychotherapy in Ontario with prominent local and international figures. Kirk Schneider, Dan Merkur, Paul Wong, Vicki Winterton.

Course and Class Descriptions

Arc of Life - This class presents an overview of life’s journey, its stages and its purpose, within a framework based on the alchemical formulation known as the Axiom of Maria: One becomes Two, Two becomes Three, and out of the Third comes the One as the Fourth. One: at the beginning of human life there is no felt boundary between the individual and the universe. To the extent that there is awareness at all, it is an awareness of a limitless ocean of Oneness. One becomes Two: the task of the first half of life is the excruciating process of disengaging from the connected experience of Oneness (leaving paradise) and developing a sense of a separate Self that can interact with and manipulate the universe as Other. You can think of this stage as the hero’s journey. Two becomes Three: the task of the second half of life is the excruciating process of re-engaging with the Oneness (paradise regained) despite existential fears of Self annihilation due to loss of boundaries. When the polarities of Oneness and Twoness are held simultaneously, it becomes a Threeness (1+2=3). You can think of this stage as the mystical journey. Jung called it the path of individuation. Out of the Third comes the One As the Fourth: the One that emerges ‘out of the Third’ at the end of the journey is a One that has evolved as a consequence of the journey. To distinguish the new One from the original One we give it a new name - the One as the Fourth. Observation: the effect of the human journey is to evolve the One. Conclusion: the purpose of the human journey is to evolve the One. We will examine the journey from One to One as Fourth in more detail, and consider its implications for the process of therapy. David Cornfield.

Archetypal Psychology - A development of Jung’s analytic psychology, defined by James Hillman in the 1970’s, archetypal psychology suggests that we are an imaginal activity. Instead of viewing the human psyche through a biochemical, sociohistorical or behaviourist lens, it develops a consciousness that attempts the uncovering of meaning through engagement with soul and the imaginal world. Archetypes and mythic figures model the poetic characteristics of thought and feeling that underlie our relationships, our moods, events in personal and cultural history, expressive possibilities, and what these mean for us. Therapy explores which archetypal figures are organizing this experience, and our relationship to them. Psychological disturbances are seen as messages from the unconscious, and the work of therapy is to provide soul with an account of itself, to enact a mythic engagement with this material, rather than cure pathology. In this way, experiences of weakness and mortification are seen as modes by which soul relativizes conscious intentionality and draws us into a deeper relationship with our being and destiny. As the ego’s intentionality is deconstructed, we find the ground of being and feel a support that does not emanate from effort. We learn to live interrelated with the mystery, pierced by joy and sorrow, and each other. Caroline Mardon

Attachment Theory - In the 1950's, John Bowlby, a British psychoanalyst, began creating Attachment Theory, which came from a blend of psychoanalysis and ethology. Up until then, psychoanalysis had been focusing primarily on intrapsychic structures. Affected by Konrad Lorenz's work on early imprinting, Bowlby, in his work with disturbed and delinquent children who were categorised as "affectionless", began to see the importance of the quality of the early relationship with the mother in the healthy development of the child. Conversely, he recognised that early environmental deficit or trauma was instrumental in creating neurosis. His work was developed by the research of Mary Ainsworth, in her Strange Situation experiments with young children. Though Bowlby had wanted to integrate his theory with psychoanalysis, his work on the whole was not well received there initially and instead came to stand as a discipline in its own right. Later, in some ways, Attachment Theory laid the foundation for the current development of Relational Psychoanalysis. His focus on research was also carried on by early childhood psychoanalysts like Daniel Stern. More recently still, Allan Schore has brought the neurobiology of affect regulation to the attachment styles originally developed by Bowlby. Fran Harwood

Basic Principles of Psychoanalysis - Freud devised psychoanalysis as a cure for hysterical conversion symptoms and rapidly added obsessional-compulsive neurotics to his client base. After he introduced the analysis of aggression, in addition to sexuality, his followers found extended psychoanalyses effective for the treatment of character or personality. The subsequent development of ego psychology, led by Anna Freud and Heinz Hartmann, promoted increasingly mechanistic models of defense analysis. Meantime, object relations theories, which imagined the psyche to contain mental representations of bodily parts and whole persons, were offered by Melanie Klein and W. R. D. Fairbairn. The British “Middle School” or Independents developed a technique that promoted “regression” to the early infantile period prior to the pathogenic trauma. The work of Freud’s friend Sandor Ferenczi, which was formative of the British Independents, was also taken up in American by Clara Thompson, Harry Stack Sullivan, and their school of “interpersonal psychiatry,” who expanded the client base to include psychotics. Reactions against the dominance of ego psychology included Heinz Kohut’s self-psychology in the United States, Jacques Lacan’s revisions of French psychoanalysis, the spread of Kleinian theory throughout South America, and the rise of the American school of relational psychoanalysis. The various schools of psychoanalysis have all been atheistic or, at least, methodologically agnostic, with the exception of the British Independents, who accommodated liberal Christian ethico-moral concerns. Occasional analysts of all schools have been mystics; James Grotstein and Michael Eigen have both found ways to bring their patients to mystical experiences as routine components of their analytic work. Dan Merkur

British Existential Therapy - Existential ideas were initially introduced into British psychiatry and psychotherapy in the 1960’s through the writings of existential psychiatrists R.D.Laing and David Cooper, who called into question the whole concept of 'mental illness', suggesting that it was a social construct as opposed to a fact. They founded the Philadelphia Association in 1965 which sponsored therapeutic communities in London, England, for people going through severe states of mental distress as an alternative to traditional hospital-based psychiatric treatment. They started their own psychotherapy training programme in the early '70's promoting an integrative model that drew upon psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and existential philosophy, still in exsistence today with a centre in the Hampstead area of London. Inspired by their work, Emmy van Deurzen, a Dutch philosopher and psychologist, set up the first training programme in existential therapy at the Regent's College School of Psychotherapy and Counselling in the late 80's, also founing the Society for Existential Analysis. She was joined by Canadian psychologist Ernesto Spinelli and other professionals with an interest in existentialism and phenomenology, including Hans Cohn, something of an elder statesman for the School, who wrote two very good books. Out of this has emerged a British School of Existential Therapy which tends to be descriptive, nondirective, and de-pathologising, with emphasis on the relational aspects of Being-in-the-World. Although much of the practice has been in the arena of individual therapy, application to working with couples and groups has been explored, as well as a more focused time-limited therapy. In 1996 Emmy left Regent's College and started the New School of Psychotherapy, based at Schiller International University, London, England. Stephen Ticktin

Cultural Activism Project: Each year students participate in Living Institute public activity that enacts the Institute mandate to contribute to the evolution of the culture. In 2008, we mounted the Human Dimension of Psychotherapy conference with the participation of Year 1 students, drawing on international leaders in the field. In 2009, Year 2 students are participating in the creation of the Living Institute Wellness Clinic by creating the Living Institute Teaching Clinic, where members of the public can receive psychotherapy at affordable rates from students under supervision. In August 2009, we will be participating in the American Psychological Association Humanistic Psychology Division hospitality suite professional activities as a cultural activism project. No fee.

Developmental Psychology - Lifespan Theories: 1Developmental Psychology is a vast area of study, which historically addressed the challenges of infancy and early childhood. Over time it expanded to include adolescence, adult development and aging. Today developmental theory includes all ages and stages, and addresses the movement of change in all areas of human growth. These include: motor skills and other psycho-physiological processes; cognitive development such as problem solving; conceptual understanding; language acquisition; social, personality, and emotional development; moral evolution; identity formation; and spiritual maturation. In this course we will touch on the developmental theories that have most influenced the growth of psychology, and work our way towards current-day transpersonal developmental theory. Sally Johnson

DSM IV Religious and Spiritual Problems: This internet based learning course is offered through the Spiritual Competency Resource Centre (www.spiritualcompetency.com). The inclusion in the DSM IV of a new diagnostic category, “Religious or spiritual problem”, means that for the first time in the mental health field there is an acknowledgment of distressing religious and spiritual experiences as non-pathological problems. This course covers the history of pathologizing theory in the mental health field, the work of Stan and Christina Grof, John Perry, John Mack, R.D. Laing, and others. Religious problems studied will include: loss or questioning of faith; changes in membership, practices and belief; new religious movements and cults; terminal and life-threatening illnesses. Spiritual problems studied will include: mystical experiences; psychic experiences; visionary experiences; meditation and spiritual practices; Kundalini awakening; near-death experiences; UFO encounters; shamanic crisis. David Lukoff. Separate fee: $66.75 US.

Ecospirituality - Although the cosmology of the modern era in Western society tended to either relegate spirituality to humans alone or to disassociate spirituality from the phenomenal world, the relatively recent advent of the new cosmology articulated by such authors as Thomas Berry and Sallie McFague has argued that the universe has had a psychic-spiritual dimension from its beginning 13.7 billion years ago, not just a physical-material manifestation. Adopting this new epic of evolution transforms our understanding of spirituality. Providing an Earth-centred understanding of ourselves and spirituality, it reintegrates the human into a sacred universe and redefines our understanding of human and ecosystem health. Dennis O’Hara

Existential Philosophy - This class will give an outline/overview of the philosophical history of existentialism, starting from classical Greece up through the main exponents in the 19th and 20th centuries, showing interconnections. Stephen Ticktin

Existential Positive Psychology - Existential psychotherapy is known for its dark themes, such as meaninglessness, alienation, despair, and fear of death (Yalom, 1980). However, once we free ourselves from the tradition of continental existential philosophy and focus on the meaning-centered approach, we begin to see existential therapy is a more positive light. Meaning-based positive existential psychotherapy has many characteristics, which include: realizing people are meaning-seeking, and meaning-making creatures, living in a world of personal and cultural meanings; recognizing that people have the predisposition to strive for personal significance, growth, and happiness given the reality of the impermanence of life; balancing self-actualization with the need for community and spiritual union; viewing existential anxieties as the necessary preconditions for the development of virtues such as altruism, courage, creativity, resilience, love, and optimism; advocating an integrative approach towards various schools of existential and meaning-oriented psychotherapies; fostering the integration of scientific psychology and spirituality in the practice of counselling and psychology; stressing the discovery of meaning and purpose of both specific situations and life as a whole. Paul Wong

Goddess Mythology – The mythic traditions of the Goddess, in her many forms, go back thousands of years into the Paleolithic era. This class will trace themes of creativity, eros, holism, relationality, a systemic orientation, mind/body integration, nature orientation through the Neolithic and Bronze ages up into the Christian era, modernity and, especially, postmodernity, with a focus on the revival of Goddess mythology in the 20th century, including through depth psychology and feminism. The Goddess tradition will be contrasted throughout with the warrior tradition that began in the Bronze Age and has brought us to the brink of destruction in the 21st century. Caroline Mardon

HEP Existential Perspective - In the evolutionary crisis of 20th © Western culture, the existential, phenomenological and humanistic traditions have provided a ground for both challenging the simplistic inhumanities of the culture, but also, through existential psychology and the arts, suggesting an authentic way through. We will look at how this translates into a psychotherapeutic model, drawing also on the Romantic tradition. It will include the existentialism of gestalt, the transpersonal aspect of existentialism, as delineated by, for example, Schneider, Bugental and Heidegger, and various existential mysticisms, such as the apophatic tradition. Jim McNamara

HEP Spirituality - Spirituality is as fundamental to HEP as psychology is. In this integration, HEP draws on spiritual themes in the humanistic, existential and transpersonal traditions, as well as Jungian and archetypal psychology, and mythology as given by figures such as Campbell, Jung, Hillman, Eliade, Scholem, Corbin and the Eranos Conferences. HEP draws on the Romantic tradition and post modernism (including romantic irony and the nouveau roman tradition), relating it to divine-human union and apophatic mysticism, seeing the world in the Hegelian sense as a place of spiritual evolution, based in a model of the ‘eternal return’. This also integrates the esoteric theme in surrealism and the mystical theme in existential absurdism. The crossfertilizing interrelationship between the Hermetic, Gnostic, Kabbalistic and Rosicrucian traditions is reflected in the syncretic nature of HEP spirituality. This particularly draws on the theme of the presence of the divine in the experience of individual humanness, and in the natural world. The shamanistic aspect of HEP is correlated with the deity work of Vajrayana Buddhism, the ‘body of light’ tradition in Sufism and related themes in other Western theurgic mysticisms. Caroline Mardon, Jim McNamara

HEP Synthesis - HEP is a complex, eclectic model which is continually evolving. Each of you will come to a unique synthesis of your own, over time. The HEP synthesis presented here will be a basis for entering the 2nd year clinical skills focus, and, ultimately, your point of departure in your continuing HEP (re)definition. You will be asked with a colleague to make a class presentation of your own attempted synthesis in this class, based on your years work, and we will all discuss, reflect, metabolize – and celebrate. Jim McNamara, Caroline Mardon

Humanistic Psychology - Humanistic Psychology arose as an alternative to behaviourist and psychoanalytic approaches in the 1960’s, in relation to the human potential movement of the counterculture. It developed in conjunction with the existential, phenomenological and transpersonal traditions. Key features are: a valuing of subjective experience and personally derived meaning; the valuing of authenticity as a defining theme in the therapeutic relationship and as a goal of therapy; an appreciation of the body as a necessary focus in considering the whole person; a focus on the conscious capacity to develop goals and purpose through intentionality; a focus on potential rather than just limitations and pathology; an appreciation of the individual as a whole life and of the irreducible interdependence of all life, including nature; the capacity for self transcendence in the exercise of freedom of choice; the necessity for moral, democratic social institutions; an appreciation of the arts, philosophy and spirituality, as well as science, as means for developing human knowledge. Humanistic research values qualitative (as well as quantitative) models and the phenomenological method, where enquiry is conducted in relationship with the subject of enquiry rather than through objectification. Recent developments include critical psychology, derived from critical theory and post modernism. Jim McNamara

Jungian Psychology - Jungian Psychology is a psychodynamic tradition that has incorporated elements from Alchemy and Gnosticism. It became a distinct tradition in the early part of the century, separating out from psychoanalysis starting in 1912. It did, however, retain a full psychodynamic model of the psyche and the working through of resistance. Jungian psychology deemphasizes the sexual aspect of libido and includes spiritual issues, extending the idea of the unconscious to include a collective aspect through which archetypal or spiritual influences can be experienced. It has a Romantic structure and character, including the Hegelian dialectic model of evolution and, in its understanding of synchronicity, the ‘doctrine of correspondences’ originally enunciated by Paracelsus, then Goethe. Jungians particularly value the dream as a focus of psychotherapeutic work and as a model for understanding the Mundus Imaginalis. A key focus in Jungian psychotherapy is ‘individuation’, the innate evolutionary tendency toward full manifestation of the whole being. Related themes are integration of the ‘shadow’ (forbidden and dangerous elements of identity that have been excluded in the formation of the ego), going beyond the ‘persona’ (the mask we wear to cope with the everyday world) and integration of the ‘masculine’ (anima) and ‘feminine’ (animus) aspects of an individual in both women and men. Caroline Mardon

The Psychodynamic Tradition: The HEP psychodynamic tradition draws on the original psychoanalytic basis and extends this through the Jungian model into a way of working both personally, interpersonally and transpersonally with the conscious/unconscious dialectic, including reference to the collective consciousness and psychodynamic manifestations of the imaginal world. Existentialism, gestalt and bioenergetics will also be integrated into this complex model of evocation and working through of psychological, psychosomatic and psychospiritual conflicts. The phenomenology of resistance and defences will be addressed, as will the themes of transference and countertransference, including how archetypal factors can play a role. Caroline Mardon

Qualitative Research – This class will examine the qualitative research tradition, including phenomenological, single case, action and participatory research. Kelli Nigh

Quantitative Research - This class will introduce psychotherapy students to the basic ideas of quantitative research. The principles of the ongoing development of skills will be explained, and its connection with research will be emphasized. Research is conceived as an extension of the responsibility to reflect on one's professional practice. Paul Wong

Shamanism – The shamanic tradition of healing in aboriginal cultures is an ancient one that draws on the natural and spiritual worlds, in the context of community. As Western culture seeks new forms of healing practices, there is a desire to recover something that has been lost. The attempt to return to these roots, while respecting the cultures that are drawn on, enlivens and broadens the possibilities for holistic evolution in health care. Caroline Mardon

Somatic Psychology - A bodily orientation and a psychosomatic awareness has been a part of psychotherapy since its inception approximately one hundred years ago through psychoanalysis. The humanistic, existential and transpersonal traditions have, however, been the main carriers of this orientation with their primary focus on the experience of being an embodied subject. Many specific body oriented traditions have been developed since the 1970’s within a professional practice and then been offered through training in diverse centres. Methodology varies across a spectrum from simple focused body awareness, through expressive techniques, movement/dance therapy and psychodrama, to direct hands on approaches utilizing breathing, postural exercises and massage. This means both working with psychosomatic psychodynamics and facilitating alive energetic physical dynamism, so that the whole spectrum of the experiential range is available, positing this as a definition of healthy human functioning. The body is seen to reflect the psyche, and by working directly on the body the psyche is affected in a unique way, not available via verbal and interpersonal techniques. Some of the most challenging questions in body oriented psychotherapies concern touch, necessitating specific training regarding appropriate professional ethics and the particular intensification of transference and countertransference engendered. Body oriented psychotherapy must be used judiciously, and the proper application of techniques varies according to personality type and stage of therapy. Bioenergetics and core energetics, primal therapy, dramatic enactments and gestalt are the main traditions HEP draws on. Jim McNamara

Systems Theory: This lecture will introduce students to systems theory and chaos and self-organization theory as it relates to models of therapy such as family and couples therapy. The advent of systems theory in the latter half of the 20th Century revolutionized the way in which professionals approached therapy. Instead of working only with the individuals, systemic thinking allowed psychotherapists to begin to work with entire family systems. The family, once seen as the problem, became the unit of analysis and entire schools grew up devoted to treating not just the so-called "identified patient" or symptom bearer in the family, but the family as a whole. Faculty: Kristin Trotter

Transpersonal Psychology - Transpersonal Psychology is both new and old at the same time. It is relatively new as a school of psychology, but it is old in the sense that it looks to ancient World Wisdom traditions for spiritual knowledge. The central question that this course asks is, “What is Transpersonal Psychology, and what distinguishes it from the former psychological traditions?” In this investigation, we will use academic inquiry and meditative contemplation to determine what qualities and characteristics need to be present in order for something to be considered transpersonal, and why it is part of the human condition to look beyond the personal, individual dimensions of reality to transpersonal realms of existence. In this marriage of psychology and spirituality, students will be introduced to the fundamental concepts, approaches, practices and theories that have contributed to the maturation process of transpersonal psychology as a field of study. A few of the theorists in this tradition that we will study from are: John Welwood, A. H. Almaas, Michael Washburn, Ken Wilber, Stanislov Grof, and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. In this exploration, there will be an emphasis on the core principles of transpersonal psychology expressed as: the limitlessness of human potential, the innate desire for transformation, and the necessity for an embodied integration of psycho-spiritual experiences. Sally Johnson

Vajrayana Buddhism - The Vajrayana, or Adamantine Vehicle, has been described by the late Namgyal Rinpoche as "the best collection of archetypes available to us in our time." According to John Blofeld it is a highly practical form of tantric mysticism offering precise techniques for attaining that wisdom whereby one's ego is transcended and one enters upon the bliss of one’s own divinity. It was originally developed in India over 1000 years ago, handed down from teacher to disciple and carefully guarded from outsiders. Vajrayana is the Way of Transformation whereby inward and outward circumstances are transmuted by the consciousness of Buddha mind. The whole of the adept's being, experience and environment must be harnessed to his purpose. Jim McNamara

Western Mystical Traditions - The Egyptian and Hellenic Mystery religions, in the several millenia BC, Hermeticism, Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, bracketing the beginning of the Christian era, are the oldest. For the most part, specific teachings were preserved via oral tradition passed from teacher to initiate, though not entirely, from here up to the medieval period. Christian Pentecostal mysticism in this period includes the desert hermits who founded the monastic tradition. Kabbalah arose in the early medieval period, along with the troubadour and grail traditions, Beloved mysticism (particularly amongst women), and Pentecostal traditions such as the Brethren of the Free Spirit. Renaissance magic revived the occult traditions of Late Antiquity, recovering texts treating Greco-Roman magic and Hermeticism, Kabbalah, alchemy, thaumaturgy and medieval grimoires. Renaissance scholarship gave rise to a Christian Kabbalah and later (in the Baroque period) to the Rosicrucian Brotherhood. The Enlightenment saw another occult revival, spurred by a growing rejection of mainstream religion, increased democracy and freedom of conscience. This period also saw the rise of occult fraternities, most notably Speculative Freemasonry, a revived Rosicrucian Brotherhood and Spiritual Alchemy. The late 19th century saw a radical split in the western mystery tradition, with HP Blavatsky reinventing the tradition in Theosophy, largely ignoring the medieval traditions, instead focusing on more ancient mystery teachings and incorporating Eastern yoga. The extant traditions prospered alongside Theosophy, especially under the influence of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and teachers such as Eliphas Levi, MacGregor Mathers, and Aleister Crowley of the Ordo Templi Orientis. These traditions began to see themselves as an alternative to Christianity, emphasizing theurgy. This occult revival lasted through World War II and aspects of it were further revived in the 1960s. Western theurgy strongly influenced the development of neo-paganism, including the Wiccan tradition. Jim McNamara

Year End Intensive: In June, students from all years get together for a year end intensive retreat where the principles and practice of the program are enacted in a group context. The learning on this retreat is experiential, with significant attention given to collegiality and celebration. Jim McNamara, Caroline Mardon. Tuition cost included in annual fee. Food and accommodation costs separate.

Philosophy, Culture and Consciousness

Class Structure and Format

The reading packages will be usually 25 to 30 photocopied pages. I will try to provide some study guidelines to focus your reading. There will be music mixes given to elucidate various themes, and you will be asked to make a mix of your own.

The class structure will be a 2hr lecture /question/discussion period, a small break, and then it’s time for something completely different. We will utilize DVD’s, for example, that will present the material in a different format (e.g. DVD’s on Jung, Zizek, transpersonal psychology) as well as more entertaining DVD’s, such as HEP rock’n’roll classics and avant guarde beat poets performing. These are more in the line of consciousness development – they come from a HEP place in philosophy and culture and evoke consciousness expansion by their nature as art. I will try and keep these to around 1hr so that we have time for some discussion and reflection.

The learning on a cognitive level is via reading, listening, reflecting, discussing, and reflecting some more. On a more complex level, this is an immersion experience that goes beyond discursive learning. The class format involves a lot of questioning and discussion. There are, however, concrete learning goals, for example re specific language and ideas that are part of the HEP tradition philosophical and cultural background.

A particular goal of this course is to expand your thinking, ideas and language in a way that will enable you to converse with each other, and with other professionals in the field, as well as enable you to begin to read more extensively and write with some reference to tradition in these fields. We will also focus this as consciousness development through the arts - literature, poetry, music and visual art, (including beginning to compile your own resource base), class storytelling, and poetry composition.

Fall Semester

Faculty: Jim McNamara (64hr)

Conscious Evolution in the Romantic Tradition and Continental Philosophy

In the fall semester, we will address the problematic nature, and the evolutionary promise, of the crisis in Western cosmology, drawing on the work of Joseph Campbell and Richard Tarnas, as well as the Romantic tradition in culture and the arts, and continental philosophy in its various inflections through existentialism, critical theory, postmodernism.

Course Sections

Class 1 will be an introductory overview, getting to know you class.

Section 1: The Crisis in Western Cosmology

In classes 2 & 3 we will set the scene by surveying the field through the lenses of Rick Tarnas’ (Passion of the Western Mind) and Joseph Campbell’s (Creative Mythology) mythological and depth psychological perspective, highlighting the Romantic/Enlightenment, organismic/mechanistic, and religion/arts polarities in this evolutionary crisis. In classes 4 & 5, we will do a historical, thematic overview of the revolutionary, paradigm shifting events of the 20th ©, the century that exploded.

Section 2: Continental Philosophy

Classes 6, 7 & 8 will be given to continental philosophy. Drawing on David West’s An Introduction to Continental Philosophy we will look at the phenomenological and existential traditions (Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre), the Marxist/psychoanalytic critical theory of the Frankfurt School, the poststructuralist decentering of the subject and the break with humanism, Derrida’s deconstruction of Western metaphysics and the varieties of postmodernism ( including the philosophical critique of the Enlightenment and modernism, postmodernism as a stage in Western society, the politics of ‘difference’ and the ethics of ‘otherness’). In class 9 we will look at the writings of some popular representative’s of this field – Sontag, Eco, Žizek.

Section 3: The Romantic Arts, Psychology and Culture

Class 10 will be based in William’s & Wadell’s Chamber of Maiden Thought, which uses various authors to illustrate the literary origins of the psychoanalytic model of the mind – we will take the examples of Milton, Blake, Keats. Class 11 will be based in Brickman’s American Romantic Psychology, which shows the Jungian themes in the writings of Poe, Emerson, Dickinson, Melville, particularly tracing the triadic evolutionary spiral of unity, fragmentation, reunion in the process of individuation, enacting the Hegelian theme that “God must be all in all and each must be God”, the homo dei theme of HEP.

Classes 12 & 13 will be a HEP tour of 20th © arts, looking particularly at the Romantic themes of the (im)mediated construction of reality and identity, the function of darkness, nothingness, downwardness and defeat in the evolution of consciousness, existential mysticism as it shows itself in the arts as part of the evolution of divine-human co-creative identity, the role of duende, daimon, demon in the (r)evolutionary themes of eros, chaos, thanatos and erotic transgression, the hip counterculture of the 20th © alien divine child, and the chthonic theme in rock’n’roll.

Section 4: Romantic Irony and the Circuitous Return

Class 14 will be based in Abram’s Natural Supernaturalism - Tradition, and Revolution in Romantic Literature and Art, where we will trace the idea of life as a journey of self-alienation and self-recovery through transgression of pre-established identity and reality boundaries, the (fortunate) fall into disunity (variously seen as sin, evil, suffering, pathology) and the self-redemption of coming to terms with this ‘otherness’ through dialectic integration, creating an evolved form of original unity. We will look at Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Eliot, Lawrence as exponents of this theme of spiral circuitous return. In classes 15 & 16 we will look specifically at how the Romantic theme integrates into HEP, from early German philosophical and poetic romanticism (Schelling, Novalis, Schlegel), up through Naturphilosophie, Goethe, Nietzsche, depth psychology, existentialism, the romantic irony of the postmodern nouveau roman, Lacan’s work on desire as translated into the arts by Boothby, as well as Hirsch’s The Demon and the Angel which shows how the deep, dark, duende laden challenge of the fallen angel has inspired 19th and 20th © Western poetry, art and music. We will also look at the Norman O. Browne theme of the redemption of the body as an instrument of the soul, the Jungian phenomenological tradition’s understanding of ‘poetic thanatology’, and the HEP revolutionary evolution theme of passionate, spontaneous, emergent self creation, as expressed in Jackson Pollock‘s account of his painting style “When I am in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing. It is only after a sort of ‘get acquainted’ period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc, because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through.” (Hirsch, p173)

Spring Semester

Faculty: Jim McNamara, Guest Faculty (72hr)

Holistic Archetypal Consciousness and the Evolutionary Paradigm

In the spring semester, the Philosophy, Culture and Consciousness course will take up the evolutionary themes of paradox in the complex holism of embodied, archetypal consciousness, through a study of the Jungian and archetypal tradition’s work on the imaginal reality of the subtle body in various Western mystical traditions, and the holistic, evolutionary paradigm in the scientific tradition. These themes will be pre-echoed and amplified in the HEP Spirituality one-day (Mar 15).

Course Sections

Section 1: Archetypal Consciousness

In classes 17, 18, 19 and 20, drawing on the works of David L. Miller (The New Polytheism), James Hillman (The Dream and the Underworld), Rafael Lopez-Pedraza ( Hermes and his Children) and Thomas Moore (Dark Eros), we will attempt a re-visioning and re-situating of Western culture’s heroic mode of enlightenment consciousness in a more dark, paradoxical, dream like, underworld style. This section correlates the pagan, polytheistic perspective of ancient Greek mythology with the post modern, multi-perspectival, contextually driven, imaginal style of consciousness that emerged in late 20th © Western culture from a mixture of the psychodynamic, archetypal and existential absurd traditions, and continental philosophy. Class 21 will draw on Sean Kelly’s Individuation and the Absolute, in which the complex, evolutionary holism of Hegel and Jung will be brought into dialectic relationship with the post modern, archetypal, polytheistic perspective, as they both differently elucidate the process of divine individuation in individuals and culture. This synthesis is characteristic of HEP.

Section 2: Imaginal Reality, Evolutionary Redemption and the Subtle Body.

In class 22 and 23 we will explore Gaston Bachelard’s imagination of the poetic encodings of the soul of matter and Hans Peter Duerr’s crosscultural ethnographic account of the “boundary between wilderness and civilization”. In class 24 we will draw on Marsilio Ficino, C.G. Jung and James Hillman to explore into the reality of the mediating dimension of the imaginal world of the soul. In this section we will also draw on Marie Louise von Franz’s alchemical understanding of Egyptian mythology of death and resurrection (class 25), Henri Corbin’s reading of Ibn ‘Arabi’s Sufi subtle body tradition in his “The Dialectic of Love and the Creative Feminine” (class 26), and Harold Bloom’s account of subtle body in the esoteric traditions of Islam, Judaism and Christianity (class 27). In class 28 we will highlight the personified nature of the experience of this 20th century Mundus Imaginalis through the archetypal figures of Sophia and the Holy Spirit, Lucifer and Satan. The existential, embodied, evolution promoting adverse alterity of the Lucifer/Satan archetype will be dialectically situated with the fiery, complex, holistic vitality of the Sophianic/Pentecostal archetype, following the spiral thread of authenticity, individuality, freedom and redemption. In class 29, the divine-human union mysticism of the beloved and apophatic traditions will be connected to the postmodern désoeuvre (unworking) of George Bataille, highlighting the Rosicrucian and apophatic beloved traditions as precursors of the 20th © death of God/rebirth of polytheism theme, the esoteric theme in surrealism, as well as the self-reflexive theme in the existential absurd, postmodern and romantic irony traditions and the nouveau roman. This theme will be echoed and amplified in the HEP Spirituality one-day.

Section 3: The Holistic Evolutionary Paradigm

In this section we will examine Jeffrey Stamps’ holonomy (class 30), which relates existentialism and systems theory in a model of consciousness that is holistic and evolutionary, and, in class 31, the self-organizing systems tradition, which highlights the naturally emergent nature of consciousness in any sentient system, using scientific language, as well as, in class 32, dynamical systems theory, a scientific paradigm that highlights subtle order in apparently disordered, chaotically random systems, and how dynamic, stable identity is maintained, despite, and even through, (sometimes) catastrophic change in complex, sentient, self regulating systems. Kristin Trotter, who has conducted mental health research using this model, will teach the dynamical systems theory class, relating it to self-organizing systems theory as applied to family and couples therapy. In class 33 we will look at how these scientific themes integrate in the HEP model of conscious evolution. Jeff Warren will teach class 34 on consciousness and the brain, using his book The Head Trip - Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness, which has been made into a TVO teaching video.

Section 4: Homo Dei Cosmopolitos

Class 35 will be a summary overview of the thread of conscious evolution as understood in the HEP tradition’s reading of 20th (c) psychology, philosophy and culture, relating this to the long Western tradition of divine-human union mysticism.

Living Institute

Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy Diploma

Year 2 2009-2010

Courses

1.Clinical Skills Traditions

2.Clinical Skills Practice

3.Practicum

4.Navigating the Mental Health Internet

5. Cultural Activism Project

6. Year End Intensive

7. Annual Living Institute Conference

Class Calendar

1. Clinical Skill Traditions

Various clinical skill traditions will be taught in 18 six hour, one day classes, from 10:00am to 5:30pm, one Saturday and one Sunday per month, from Sept ’09 to May ‘10 (108hr)

Class 1, Sep 19: HEP Clinical Psychodynamics, Caroline Mardon

Class 2, Sep 20: Basic Therapy Skills, Linsay Cornfield

Class 3, Oct 17: Transpersonal Therapy Skills, Sally Johnson

Class 4, Oct 18: Transpersonal Ways of Knowing, Sally Johnson

Class 5, Sun, Nov 8: HEP Group and Individual Methods, David Cornfield (140 Galt)

Class 6, Sat, Nov 14: Pre and Perinatal Psychology (PPP) (3hr), Thomas R. Verny; Archetypal PPP (3hr), Jim McNamara

Class 7, Dec 5; Intermodal Expressive Arts, Fran Harwood

Class 8, Dec 6: Ethics and Record Keeping, Mary Ellen Young

Class 9, Sat, Jan 9: Emotion Focused Therapy, Les Greenberg (with Year 3)

Class 10, Sun, Jan 24: Psychodrama, David Cornfield

Class 11, Feb 13: Exploration of Cellular Consciousness; Fran Harwood, Jim McNamara

Class 12, Feb 14: Primal Bodywork; Jim McNamara

Class 13, Mar 13; Transpersonal Primal; Jim McNamara

Class 14, Mar 14: Toxic Womb Experience, Jim McNamara; Dissociation & Somatization, Caroline Mardon

Class 15, Wed, Apr 14, 6:30-10:30 & Sat, Apr 17, 10-5:30: Conscious Body as Sacred Container; Ursula Carsen

Class 16, Apr 18: HEP Shamanic Methods (3hr), Caroline Mardon; HEP Dream Work (3hr), Jim McNamara

Class 16, May 15: Video Clinical Skills; Jim McNamara, Caroline Mardon

Class 18, May 16: Video Clinical Skills; Jim McNamara, Caroline Mardon

2. Clinical Skills Practice

2.1 Foundation Skills: Wed, 6:30 – 10:30, Sept 9, 2009 to Dec 16, 2009 (Christmas Break: last class Dec 16, ’09, classes recommence Jan 6, ’10)

2.1.1 Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy: 1 class – (4hr), Jim McNamara, Wed Sep 9.

2.1.2 HEP Group and Individual Methods: 4 classes – (16hr), Jim McNamara, Wed Sep 16, 23,

Nov 25, Dec 2.

2.1.3 Assessment & Typology: 5 classes – (10hr theory, 10hr practice), Jim McNamara, Wed Sep 30, Oct 7, 14, 21, 28.

2.1.4 Research - Qualitative and Quantitative: 2 classes - Qualitative (4hr), Kelli Nigh, Wed Nov 4; Quantitative (4hr), Paul Wong, Wed Nov 11.

2.1.5 Systems Theory: 1 class – (4hr), Kristin Trotter, Wed, Nov 18 (with year 1)

2.1.6 Meditative Psychoanalysis: 2 classes - 8hr Dan Merkur, Wed Dec 9, 16.

2.1.7 Holotropic Breathwork: 1 class - 4hr, Kristine Trotter, Ronda Lobsinger, Wed Feb 3.

2.2 Video Clinical Skills: Wed, 6:30 – 10:30, Jan, 6, 2010 to May, 26, 2010 (March Break, March 18): 68hr, Core Faculty

3. Practicum

3.1 Group Observation and Supervised Facilitation: Timing depends on student progress and practicum site. Cost: There will be a separate fee for this depending on the venue.

3.2 Supervised Individual Psychotherapy Practice: The timing of the commencement of supervised individual psychotherapy practicum will depending on student progress through year 2 curriculum. Cost: The cost structure of this venture is in the process of being determined.

3.3 Living Institute Seminar Series: Assistance in mounting one workshop is required. This option is available from the beginning of the academic year. No fee.

4. Navigating the Mental Health Internet

5. Cultural Activism Project

Timing for participation in the Living Institute annual cultural activism event depends on the nature of the event. No fee.

6. Year End Intensive

Fri, June 11, (eve); Sat, June 12; Sun, June 13. With year 1 and 3. Jim McNamara, Caroline Mardon. Tuition cost included in annual fee. Food and accommodation separate

7. Annual Living Institute Conference

Course and Class Descriptions

Archetypal Pre and Perinatal Psychology: The late 20th (c) tradition of PPP is a manifestation of the divine child and great goddess archetypes, so prominent in depth psychologies such as psychoanalysis and primal therapy, but also in the existential tradition, the archetypal roots of which can be traced to the Gnostic, Hermetic, Sufi and apophatic traditions, where origin myths include a divine/human relationship that recapitulates pre and perinatal morphology and dynamics. Transpersonal primal and Grof’s holotropic breathwork show that access to the perinatal level of being is a gateway to mystical experiences that provide a sense of the cosmogonic nature of human consciouisness. Jim McNamara

Assessment & Typology: 5 classes - Using the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual as a basis, we will extend this to include a psychosomatic typology, a Jungian/archetypal psychospiritual typology, an experiential typology based in the HEP focus of integrating spirit/matter, inner/outer, masculine/feminine experiential qualities, and the Jungian focus of integrating polarized styles of perception and action. Reference will be made to the DSM system throughout. Students will be taught an intake and assessment system that will enable them to make a psychodynamic, psychosomatic, psychospiritual and experiential formulation. Jim McNamara

Basic Therapy Skills: This module covers some of the essential aspects of how to work with a client. Students will ‘get their feet wet’ by building new skills and sharpening the inate counseling skills they may already possess. Topics for discussion and practice will include the role of the therapist, active listening , mirroring, paraphrasing, interviewing, open questioning, deepening the client’s awareness or feelings, opening and closing a session, presenting issues, working with silence, concretizing. After discussing the topics, students will practice the skills in dyads as well observing a roleplay of the therapist /client session in front of the whole class. There will be a chance for direct feedback and discussion of alternate therapeutic possibilities from the whole group as well as the instructor. This class will have an active, hands on approach to learning through doing. Linsay Cornfield

Conscious Body as Sacred Container: 2 classes - Evening - About BodySoul Rythms ®: This will include a detailed discussion of The Pregnant Virgin, A Process of Psychological Transformation (Marion Woodman) Chapter 3, Psyche/Soma Awareness. This evening’s introduction into the origins of BodySoul Rhythms®, a quarter of a century after its inception, will provide students with an opportunity to learn about and share the experience of “subtle body” in their own life. What does the body as “that portion of Soul discerned by the five senses” mean to you now, how does “Body Awareness” appear in your dreams, and what are your preferred ways of nurturing and expressing your personal body-soul hunger? How do you encounter and befriend “shadow” elements? Students will be invited to pay special attention to their dreams during the following two nights, and bring with them a dream, a symbol or an image for the daylong workshop. One day - The Dance of Three: This will involve an experiential and interactive exploration of our role as “dancer” (conscious body), “mirror” (inner/outer reflection) and “container” (conscious witness) – three crucial aspects of psychological transformation and integration on the therapeutic journey. Small group work and inner-directed movement will be followed by expressive art making, writing, personal process and group processing. Students are encouraged to work with a dream, a personal symbol and/or a meaningful image (such as a favorite line from a poem, or something from the material discussed in the Thursday evening workshop). Ursula Carsen

Cultural Activism Project: Each year students participate in Living Institute public activity that enacts the Institute mandate to contribute to the evolution of the culture. In 2008, we mounted the Human Dimension of Psychotherapy conference with the participation of Year 1 students, drawing on international leaders in the field. In 2009, Year 2 students are participating in the creation of the Living Institute Wellness Network by creating the Living Institute Teaching Clinic, where members of the public can receive psychotherapy at affordable rates from students under supervision. In August 2009, we participated in the American Psychological Association Humanistic Psychology Division hospitality suite professional activities with the panel discussion Humanistic Perspectives in the Regulation of Psychotherapy in Ontario and the Living Institute Cultural Innovator Award as a cultural activism project. No fee.

Dissociation and Somatization: In an experiential, embodied, transpersonal tradition, as the work progresses, the issue of embodiment becomes central. Everyone has some ways in which they don’t ‘live’ in their body, and this will become evident as they stop, look and listen to themselves. When the person reaches the existential crisis phase this can become particularly intense. People become preoccupied with their experience of not really being ‘alive’, that there is profound deadness in their quality of being. They begin to experience themselves as if they are not ‘in their body’, sensation and sexuality are diminished and they may feel like they are floating in a trance. There may be a diminished sense of connection to ordinary reality. As this process unfolds, it is common for them to manifest some somatization reaction, according to their organ sensitivity and/or to symbolic expression. As they accomplish embodiment, it is also likely that there will be some expressive illness episodes, such as a cold or flu, a skin rash or headache, which is a kind of healing crisis illness in the homeopathic sense. The resolution of this through primal, gestalt, dramatic enactment, meditation and attention to lifestyle and health opens up embodied spirituality in someone who previously manifested idealistic, alienated, world denying spirituality. Caroline Mardon

Emotion Focused Therapy: EFT is an empirically supported, short term, humanistic psychotherapy for individuals, couples and families developed by Les Greenberg, Robert Elliot, Jeanne Watson and others. It is based on the principles of attachment theory, gestalt and client centred therapy. EFT views emotions as centrally important in the experience of self, in both adaptive and maladaptive functioning, and in therapeutic change. Emotion focused therapy proposes that emotions themselves have an innately adaptive potential that, if activated, can help clients change problematic emotional states or unwanted self-experiences. Emotions rapidly alert us to situations important to our evolution. They also prepare and guide us in these important situations to take action towards meeting our needs. Clients undergoing EFT are helped to better identify, experience, explore, make sense of, transform and flexibly manage their emotional experiences. EFT works on the basic principle that people must first arrive at a place before they can leave it. An important goal in EFT is to engage the lived experience of a maladaptive emotion (e.g., fear and shame) in order to transform it. The transformation comes from the client accessing a new, primary, adaptive emotional state in the session. With year 3 students. Les Greenberg

Ethics & Record Keeping

Ethics: In this world of litigation and public concern over a practitioner’s responsibility toward a client, the ethical principles governing the practice of psychotherapy need to be brought into sharp focus. This evening will explore those principles and engage the students in a discussion of some of the situations that may arise in the course of therapy. We will apply the ethical principles that govern our profession to some theoretical situations to become familiar with a hands-on approach to determining the parameters of our responsibility in more than just a legal and technical manner. Record Keeping: In addition to maintaining basic factual records for our own use and for tax purposes, record keeping involves providing sufficient information that another practitioner would be able to continue a therapy with any client in the event of the therapist’s absence for an extended period of time. In this evening we will explore some of the requirements for taking and maintaining notes, including some of the legal implications that will influence the way in which we establish and keep client records. Mary Ellen Young

Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy: 1 class - An outline of the tradition as developed by Dr Kirk J. Schneider and colleagues, drawing on the Existential-Humanistic tradition of Schneider, Rollo May and James Bugental. The HEP tradition is an existential-integrative model in that all the diverse traditions incorporated into HEP are done so within an existential framework, the overall experiential holistic theme being integrative in a intrapsychic sense (i.e. the focus of the work is integration of the differentiated psychic structure of the individual) and an interpersonal sense (i.e. the focus of the work is to promote cooperative, differentiated, empathic contact between individuals), as well as integrative in its mode of incorporating thematic elements of these diverse traditions, so that they amplify and refine the HEP theme of holistic, transpersonal existentialism i.e. what is my experience, what is its meaning for me, and how is it to be enacted in the service of life? Jim McNamara

Exploration of Cellular Consciousness: The experience and impact of birth has been known and enacted in ancient traditions, and in primal therapy, developed by Arthur Janov and others since the 1970’s. What has also emerged in the second half of the twentieth century is elucidation of the world before birth. Francis Mott’s exploration of foetal experience through dreams, and the primal therapy work of Frank Lake, Graham Farrant, and William Emerson, developed ways of accessing experience from the very beginning of life at conception. Dr Thomas R. Verny, founder of pre- and perinatal psychology, elaborated this in his book, The Secret Life of the Unborn Child, incorporating research results. From their experience, professional and sometimes personal, Farrant and others gathered images and specific patterns of movement that correlated with client’s internal experiences of the stages of embryonic and foetal development, and the nature of the traumas encountered along the way. In this class, we will investigate these stages and the obstacles to development, and explore ways of entering and facilitating this level of consciousness. Fran Harwood, Jim McNamara

Group Observation and Supervised Facilitation: In this year, students will be provided with the opportunity to participate in weekly and weekend intensives groups as observers and supervised facilitators. This will include traditional HEP groups and other related experiential models. Cost: There will be a separate fee for this depending on the venue. Institute faculty

HEP Dream Work: Dreaming can be understood as an imaginal, holistic mode of consciousness that informs the linear, empirical everyday world of Western culture. It is the phenomenology of the creative level of being from which determinate materiality arises, what in Buddhism is called Samboghakaya, and in the Sufi tradition the intermediate world of barzak. Sleeping dreams comment on our everyday waking world and also teach us the phenomenology of dreaming, an awareness we can bring to our participation in life, where all the world’s a stage and we are the author of our own fate, though not in a way that we can control it, more in a way that invites surrender into the play. This is terrifying for those raised with typical Western cultural attitudes to causality, work, success, outcome. Drawing on dzogchen Buddhism, the Western apophatic tradition, Romanticism, existential and shamanic mysticism, the Sufi beloved tradition, HEP teaches methods for living from this place. Jim McNamara

HEP Group and Individual Methods: 4 evening classes and 1 one day class - Drawing on the gestalt, encounter and bioenergetic traditions’ models of human nature, individuality and phenomenology, we will explore methods for experiential evocation of intra- and inter-personal psychodynamics through dramatic enactment experiments, awareness exercises with a ‘now’ focus on presence, embodiment and the contact boundary, communication based on self-expression balanced with empathy and using self-responsible language, the excitement of emergence, and the holistic tendency in the experiential field. The basic theme is how direct, yet complex, reflexively focused awareness facilitates the unfolding of the potential for authentic self and other encounters. This applies to both group and individual work. HEP group work builds an environment of connection, compassion and challenge in which it is possible to confront both deep shadow material and a person’s most positive potential. Group may be a place where incomplete family issues and dynamics can constellate and be worked through in the context of interpersonal relationships. Because of the containment and depth experience in this context, existential, and transpersonal material sometimes arises. This takes people beyond the social conditioning and expectations that inhibit self and other awareness, evoking deeply visceral archetypal material. The group can also work as a buddy system to help individuals with personal habit and lifestyle changes, and support people who are going through a difficult time. Jim McNamara, David Cornfield

HEP Clinical Psychodynamics: Within every therapeutic session, as well as therapist and client, there are the shadowy unconscious contents of an imaginal field that manifests the presence of characters from personal history, the collective unconscious and archetypal energies. As delineated in Jungian and archetypal psychology, HEP psychodynamics involves an attunement to these complex and interacting factors, and multiple levels of being. Students will begin to learn perspectives from the existential and phenomenological tradition that facilitate the aim of accessing the deepest possible level of consciousness available in the therapeutic moment. We will also draw on transpersonal, mystical and shamanistic methods in this hermeneutic endeavour. Caroline Mardon

HEP Shamanic Methods: HEP draws on the shamanic tradition to complement Vajrayana Buddhist deity work and Western theurgy. In this, individual suffering is seen as sometimes having a component of soul loss or of being ‘poisoned’ by energies of significant others (such as parents, lovers) when we are vulnerable and unprotected. HEP shamanic work involves entering the soul space of the sufferer to effect a ‘soul retrieval’ or energetic ‘extraction’ as taught by Eilleen Nauman (AI Ghabda Waya), and adapted over the years into HEP. This method is also relevant to transpersonal primal work where the client is coached to accomplish the same thing for themselves in cooperation with the therapist, thus teaching them a usable skill. Caroline Mardon

Holotropic Breathwork: Based on the research and methodology of Christina Grof and Dr. Stanislav Grof, a founding father of transpersonal psychology, this class will explore the findings of more than 30 years of Grof's research and study of nonordinary states of consciousness. The class will introduce Grof's dimensions of consciousness, including the sensory, biographical, perinatal, and transpersonal bands of consciousness. There will be special emphasis on the perinatal band and its intricate and complex construction of consciousness. Located within the larger theoretical frameworks of Jungian, Existential, Humanistic, and Transpersonal Psychology, Grof's studies in nonordinary states of consciousness have included LSD research as well as work with breath, evocative music, and focused body work in Holotropic Breathwork. The experiential aspect of Holotropic Breathwork were developed by Grof while he was Scholar in Residence at Esalen Institute in California. The class will consist of exploration of the theory that informs Holotropic Breathwork and the clinical applications, including a discussion of COEX systems. Kristine Trotter, Ronda Lobsinger

Intermodal Expressive Arts: The use of the arts in healing goes back to ancient times. However, the discipline of Expressive Arts Therapy is relatively new to the field. Over the past 20 years, Paulo Knill, Shaun McNiff, Natalie Rogers and Steve and Ellen Levine have been pioneers in the evolving theory of this psychotherapeutic form. Winnicott, in “Playing and Reality” asserts the centrality of creativity, play and the imagination in human development. Just as our basic experience is intermodal, involving all of the senses, so Expressive Arts Therapy recognizes that the expression and transformation of experience also needs to be intermodal. Actively and physically creating out of the deepest and darkest places in the psyche restores a sense of the agency that trauma removes and allows room for regeneration. The therapist enters into the imaginative play world created within the frame of the therapeutic container, and may engage and attune with the client in aesthetic response. In this class, we will look at the role of imagination and play and explore together the therapeutic value of intermodal expression, the aesthetic response and creative destruction. Fran Harwood

Living Institute Seminar Series: As part of the Living Institute Wellness Network, student facilitation at a workshop given by Living Institute faculty or associates is required. Institutefaculty and associates. No fee.

Meditative Psychoanalysis: 2 classes - When Freud introduced his technique of “free association,” he remarked on its proximity to hypnagogic states and compared it with Schiller’s description of states of poetic reverie. Freud employed “evenly hovering attention” as a means by which the unconscious of the patient would be able to communicate with the unconscious of the analyst, with the patient and analyst both in alternate states of meditative consciousness. In the 1950s, Erich Fromm, analyzed by Thoedor Reik, recognized the close proximity of Zen Buddhist meditation to Freud’s technique of “evenly hovering attention”, adding Martin Buber’s practice of I-Thou encounter to his analytic listening. In the 1960s Wilfred R. Bion, influenced by Christian practices of meditation, advised analysts to cultivate states of reverie by listening to patients without memory, desire or knowledge. Otto Rank and Sandor Ferenczi had suggested that the curative moment consisted of the patient’s experience (Erlebnis) of the analyst, after insight dissolved the transference and revealed the analyst as a totally unprecedented type of person. The notions that mystical experience constitutes self-actualization and is transformative were implicit in the word Erlebnis as used by Buber. Buber’s abandonment of mysticism in favour of his I-Thou philosophy continued to privilege Erlebnis, shifting its content from nondualism to a Zen-like, nonjudgmental sharing - a “meeting” or “encounter.” Applying Fromm’s procedure, I find that if I make myself available for patients to engage in an encounter, their perceptions of my availability arouses resistance, precipitating irrational fears, depressions, rage, sexual excitement and other transferences. My interpretation of the resistance is aimed to bring the patient to be able to join me in an authentic encounter. I also use my own inevitable failures to maintain my availability for encounter as a means to identify my countertransferences, for which self-analysis is appropriate. Dan Merkur

Navigating the Mental Health Internet: This internet based learning course is offered through the Spiritual Competency Resource Centre (www.spiritualcompetency.com). This course is designed to teach mental health professionals the search and navigation skills necessary to use the Internet as a communication and information technology tool. The Internet contains over 1.7 billion Web pages, including vast archives of mental health resources. The course includes: basic navigation training; an Internet Guided tour of clinical resources available for working with patients with substance abuse, PTSD, medical illnesses, depression, and other problems; search skills to obtain a wide variety of mental health information and resources; clinical topics of online therapy, technostress, and Internet addiction. At the end of the course, you will be a confident Internet searcher who can find resources necessary to stay up with developments in the mental health field. David Lukoff. Separate fee: $66.75 US.

Pre and Perinatal Psychology: PPP, founded by Dr Thomas R. Verny, has re-defined the nature of the human prenate as an aware, communicative, sensitive, and sensible being, re-set the starting time for parenthood from after birth to before conception and revealed the hidden connections between the quality of conception, pregnancy and birth, and the quality of individual wellness, public health and a compassionate society. ‘Womb ecology = world ecology’ is a key concept established by Dr. Verny. Thomas R. Verny

Primal Bodywork: Primal uses techniques of deep breathing, evocative music and bodywork to help people go beyond self-limiting ways of being. Primal bodywork focuses on release of psychosomatic blocks to full self awareness and self expression. This includes work with character armour, muscle tension, trigger points, postural exercises, dramatic enactment and subtle body energy work, drawing on massage, bioenergetic and tantric methods. It often involves the release of emotions long held in muscles and organs, and has the effect of bringing cathartic relief, renewed energy and psychodynamic insights. Because of the deep containment experience in this context, existential, archetypal and transpersonal material sometimes arises, providing the possibility for psychospiritual experiences. Doing this work in a group holds the benefit of being moved by the energy of other people's expression. Hearing other people speak afterwards about how they understand their experience facilitates a sense of commonality that supports each in their continued self exploration. Jim McNamara

Psychodrama: Psychodrama combines the power of imagination, spontaneity, dramatic flexibility, action stimulation and psychodynamic insights through animated, playful and adventurous dramatic enactments and flexible role playing. In this class, basic psychodrama methods will be taught, including the warm up, the double, role reversal, the sociogram, the empty chair, setting the scene and the use of props. David Cornfield

Research - Qualitative and Quantitative: 2 classes - these methodologies will be taught in a way that is usable in clinical practice. Qualitative, Kelli Nigh; Quantitative, Paul Wong

Supervised Individual Psychotherapy Practice: In the spring semester of 2009, the year 2 class commenced the supervised creation and staffing of a student clinic, and preparation for the supervised creation of a self generated practice, oriented toward individual clients. Each student will commence this training modality when they are ready by requesting an interview with the Clinic Supervisor. The cost structure of the clinic is in the process of being determined. Supervision cost to be arranged with supervisor

Toxic Womb Experience: As we enter life in our mother’s womb, we cross what, in Greek mythology, is called the River Lethe (forgertfullness), the linguistic root of lethargy. This has been mythologized also in the Gnostic, Hermetic and Christian traditions, in the latter of which it is called ‘original sin’, derived from the fact of existence as separation from our ground of being, where we are without determinate origin and a given purpose, requiring us, as in the existential tradition, to take responsibility for creating our own meaning. The depth of being to which we must descend in order to fully, authentically do this is a poisonous, lethal hell state of dense, suffocating materiality, where everything is broken and everything is wrong. This experience is, paradoxically, what reconnects us to our lost sense of our divine origin, as in the apophatic and beloved traditions. It is also the HEP reading of the passion of Christ mythology. For some people, this basic existential fact is complicated by a literal toxicity in their historical womb experience, from their mother’s smoking, drinking, emotional upset, family tension, illness, or a rigid body type that does not easily accept being pregnant. These people feel profoundly unwelcome in this life and can manifest autoimmune diseases, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and a tendency to addictions, as well as a borderline personality type and a suicidal, depressive aversion to life. Transpersonal primal is the core of a transformative therapeutic approach that must also include attention to lifestyle and health issues, with a significant element of re-parenting, approaching re-enwombing, in the therapeutic relationship. Proper assessment of ego skill and relational capacity is essential before embarking on this arduous journey, but those who complete it have a potential to be accomplished world healers, as in the Buddhist bodhisattva tradition, through realization of their Gnostic or awakened nature. Jim McNamara

Transpersonal Therapy Skills: What does Transpersonal Psychology offer the therapist in terms of how to work with clients in ways that differ from the other schools of psychology? What defines therapy as transpersonal, and what does the therapist bring to the session that makes it transpersonal as opposed to strictly existential, humanistic, cognitive, or behavioural? In this course we will discuss and practice the acquisition of transpersonal therapy skills such as transpersonal attunement, spaciousness, and the meditative approach. Sally Johnson

Transpersonal Primal: The deep psychophysical, emotional activation of primal methodology also opens up spiritual and archetypal material. This has also been shown in Grof’s holotropic breathwork, which documents dimensions of consciousness beyond the immediate, personal empirical. These traditions provide access to transpersonal levels of experience, through the sensory, biographical and perinatal bands of consciousness, particularly, but not only, through the perinatal, which seems to be a unique gateway to other levels. This places the personal level of experience in a larger cosmological context, and opens up mystical awareness from the divine/human union and apophatic traditions. The sensory activation of transpersonal primal also enacts tantric themes of spirit/matter, masculine/feminine, inner/outer union, through the fertile void experience of sunyata, as given in Vajrayana Buddhism, and the nothingness experience at the core of the existential tradition, given also in the ‘emptying God’ theme in mystical Christianity that enacts an (ego) death and (Self) resurrection motif that is, dialectically, an accomplishment experience in the Jungian individuation process. Jim McNamara

Transpersonal Ways of Knowing: In this class we will ask ourselves the question, “How are transpersonal ways of knowing different from more mainstream Western vehicles of inquiry?” We will look at the need to balance our more familiar, linear models of understanding the world with reflective and contemplative methods of inquiry from older World Wisdom traditions. We will address the rise in the use of processes such as mindfulness practice for stress reduction in mainstream healthcare, including the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn and others who have successfully integrated Eastern meditative practices into Western culture. This class will have an experiential component in which we explore our personal and cultural need to bring balance to the inner/outer, masculine/feminine, and individual/communal dimensions of who we are. This day will include contemplative inquiry and Council Practice (a group-based communication practice). Sally Johnson

Video Clinical Skills: Continuing development of foundation section teaching, including basic therapy skills, assessment, typology, therapeutic relationship, tradition specific techniques, ethics and record keeping. To develop their individual therapy skills, students volunteer to be client and therapist, the interaction is videotaped and reviewed by faculty and class. To develop their group therapy skills, one student volunteers to be group leader, the class acts as the group, the interaction is videotaped and reviewed by faculty and class. Core Faculty

Living Institute

Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy Diploma

Year 3 2009-2010

Courses

1. Clinical Skills Methods

2. Clinical Skills Integration

3. Practicum

4. Cultural Activism Project

5. Year End Intensive

6. Annual Living Institute Conference

Calendar of Classes

1. Clinical Skill Methods

Various clinical methodologies will be taught in 18 six hour, one day classes, from 10:00am to 5:30pm, one Saturday and one Sunday per month, from Sept ’09 to May ‘10 (108hr)

Class 1, Sept 26: HEP Emotional Yoga, Jim McNamara, Caroline Mardon

Class 2, Sept 27: HEP Clinical Methods, David Cornfield

Class 3, Oct 31: Sexuality, Caroline Mardon

Class 4, Nov 1: Improvisational Authenticity - Clowning and Creativity, Angela Düntsch

Class 5, Nov 21: HEP Meditation (3hr), Jim McNamara; Sound Healing (3hr), Michael Moon

Class 6, Nov 22: 20th (c) Archetypes (3hr), Jim McNamara; Goddess Mythology (3hr), Caroline Mardon

Class 7, Dec 12: HEP Shamanic Methods, Caroline Mardon

Class 8, Dec 13: HEP Ritual, Jim McNamara, Caroline Mardon

Class 9, Jan 9: Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT), Les Greenberg (with Year 2)

Class 10, Jan 10: Trauma Methods – an Introduction, Fran Harwood

Class 11, Feb 20: Couples Therapy – Basic Theory and Skills; Kristin Trotter

Class 12, Feb 21: Couples Therapy – Basic Theory and Skills; Kristin Trotter

Class 13, Mar 20; Dissociation and Somatization, Jim McNamara, Caroline Mardon

Class 14, Mar 21: Dreams in Psychotherapy and Health Care, Christopher Sowton

Class 15, Apr 24: Being With Dying, Kanae Kinoshita (3hr); Death and Dying, Paul Wong (3hr)

Class 16, Apr 25: Transpersonal Life Coaching (3hr), EAP Work (3hr); Sally Johnson

Class 17, May 29: Stages of Healing, Jim McNamara

Class 18, May 30: HEP Synthesis, Jim McNamara, Caroline Mardon

2. Clinical Skills Integration

Various clinical skills issues and topics will be taught on Thur, 6:30 to 10:30 from Sept, ‘09 to May, ’10, including opportunities for clinical case presentations by students and faculty. Christmas Break: last class Dec 17, ’09; classes recommence Jan 7, ’10; March Break; Mar 18, ’10.

2.1 Clinical Issues and Topics: 24 classes – 96hr, Institute faculty

2.2 Clinical Discussion: 10 classes – 40hr, Core faculty

3. Practicum

3.1 Group Observation and Supervised Facilitation: Arranged at the students convenience when they are ready to undertake this learning modality and space is available. Hours TBA. Institute faculty. Cost arranged with practicum site.

3.2 Supervised Individual Psychotherapy Practice: Each student will commence this training modality when they are ready by requesting an interview with the Clinic Supervisor. Hours TBA. The cost structure of this venture is in the process of being determined.

3.3 Living Institute Seminar Series: As part of the Living Institute Wellness Network, student facilitation at one workshop given by Living Institute faculty and associates is required. Dates to be negotiated with facilitators. No fee.

3.3 Student Workshops: Dates to be determined by student. Supervision fee TBA.

4. Cultural Activism Project

Timing for participation in the Living Institute annual cultural activism event depends on the nature of the event. No fee.

5. Year End Intensive

Fri, June 11, (eve); Sat, June 12; Sun, June 13. With year 1 and 2. Tuition cost included in annual fee. Food and accommodation separate.

6. Annual Living Institute Conference

Course and Class Descriptions

Authentic Movement: The discipline of Authentic Movement is rooted in the principles of modern expressive dance and Jungian Psychology. It has developed from the work of Mary Starks Whitehouse, Janet Adler, Joan Chodorow. It is practiced in a wide range of fields such as personal insight, mystical contemplation and the expressive and performing arts. Its potential is to bring to consciousness previously hidden elements of unique personal, spiritual and creative aspects of the self.

Authentic Movement invites and teaches the ability to listen to and follow deep internal cues from the body. In its external form it is very simple. A ‘Mover’ (or several ‘Movers’) moves, with eyes closed, yielding to spontaneous sensory/kinaesthetic impulses. A ‘Witness” (or several ‘Witnesses’), with eyes open, offers presence and attention to the Mover. Mover and Witness together participate in the practice of attending to their own direct, felt experience. The practice includes reflective speaking and other creative forms of articulation in order to deepen individual and collective insight and consciousness, and provide source material for individual and collective creation. Susanna Hood

Being with Dying: The degree to which we are aware and accepting of our own anxieties and suffering, informs how we are able to respond to others' suffering, and has radical consequences for the effectiveness of the therapeutic encounter. In this session, focus will be on fostering self-awareness as a means to be mindfully aware of what is happening to and within us as anxiety around death arises, and also, to be mindfully present to what is being communicated by our clients as they face the end of life. Students will explore psycho-spiritual and existential experiences of death and dying through discussion, personal sharing, self-awareness activities and meditative practice. Explorations will include: reflections of death and personal grief; identification of spiritual themes at the end of life; enhancement of students’ comfort level in being with people at the end of life. Kanae Kinoshita

Clinical Discussion: Students will have an opportunity to present clinical cases from their practice to their colleagues and guest faculty for discussion. Faculty will do likewise. Core and guest faculty.

Clinical Issues and Topics: These include; teaching clinic orientation; records; transference and countertransference(Dan Merkur); experiential phenomenology; HEP bodywork; subtle body issues; sexuality(Caroline Mardon); authentic movement (Susanna Hood); existential crisis issues; energy therapies (Sharon Cass Toole)and Therapeutic Touch (Crystal Hawk); trauma work- a systemic perspective (Kristin Trotter), and an attachment and expressive art model (Fran Harwood); abuse recovery; borderline personality issues; suicide (Fran Harwood); chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia; depression and anxiety; sleep problems; eating disorders (Caroline Mardon); addictions (Dani Hasset); grief; natural healing; holistic life coaching; cultural sensitivity (Tina Lopes); clinical applications of research; publishing; cultural activism; professional relations; marketing (David Cornfield, Caroline Mardon). Jim McNamara and Institute faculty

Couples Therapy: Basic Theory and Skills: This class will focus on working with couples from a systemic as well as an Emotionally Focused perspective. We will look at the work pioneered by Sue Johnson and Les Greenberg and explore the fundamentals of working with couples from an attachment as well as systemic perspective. Specific assessment techniques and interventions will be discussed. The course will also explore the basics of sex therapy with couples. Kristin Trotter

Cultural Activism Project: Each year students participate in Living Institute public activity that enacts the Institute mandate to contribute to the evolution of the culture. In 2008, we mounted the Human Dimension of Psychotherapy conference with the participation of Year 1 students, drawing on international leaders in the field. In 2009, Year 2 students participated in the creation of the Living Institute Wellness Network by beginning the creation of the Living Institute Teaching Clinic, where members of the public can receive psychotherapy at affordable rates from students under supervision. In August 2009, we participated in the American Psychological Association Humanistic Psychology Division hospitality suite professional activities as a cultural activism project, mounting the panel discussion Humanistic Perspectives in the Regulation of Psychotherapy in Ontario. No fee.

Death and Dying: This lecture introduces the current research on death attitudes and major theoretical frameworks for helping people cope with the process of dying. The main focus will be on exploring death anxiety as one of the major themes of existential psychotherapy and effective interventions in reducing death anxiety and resolving bereavement grief. Paul Wong

Dissociation and Somatization: In an experiential, embodied, transpersonal tradition, as the work progresses, the issue of embodiment becomes central. Everyone has some ways in which they don’t ‘live’ in their body, and this will become evident as they stop, look and listen to themselves. When the person reaches the existential crisis phase this can become particularly intense. People become preoccupied with their experience of not really being ‘alive’, that there is profound deadness in their quality of being. They begin to experience themselves as if they are not ‘in their body’, sensation and sexuality are diminished and they may feel like they are floating in a trance. There may be a diminished sense of connection to ordinary reality As this process unfolds, it is common for them to manifest some somatization reaction, according to their organ sensitivity and/or to symbolic expression. As they accomplish embodiment, it is also likely that there will be some expressive illness episodes, such as a cold or flu, a skin rash or headache, which is a kind of healing crisis illness in the homeopathic sense. The resolution of this through primal, gestalt, dramatic enactment, mindfulness and attention to lifestyle and health opens up embodied spirituality in someone who previously manifested idealistic, alienated, world denying spirituality. Caroline Mardon

Dreams in Psychotherapy and Health Care: Dream material can be effectively used within the context of any health care or psychothewrapy practice. This presentation will focus on the following topics: the benefits of dreamwork; the problems and difficulties associated with doing dreamwork; a five step method for dreamworking; recognizing dream motifs that have particular relevance in health care and psychotherapy. Christopher will use videotaped dream material from his own practice to illustrate various key concepts and ideas. You will also be invited to share your own dream material if you wish. Christopher Sowton

EAP Work: As psychotherapists it can be helpful to understand what our options are in choosing how we want to work with people. Employee Assistance Program (EAP) work involves working on contract with a company that has been hired by various businesses to provide human resource services to the employees of those businesses. This includes counselling and psychotherapy most commonly provided in a short-term, solution-focused model of therapy. We will look at how this actually works on a practical day-to-day level, how it differs from one company to another, and the advantages and disadvantages of giving therapy sessions within the EAP benefit models. I hope to address some of the common misconceptions about EAP work so that each person can decide for themselves whether it is appropriate to further pursue this type of work. Sally Johnson

HEP Clinical Methods: You will learn many skills in the training program, but the most important skill of all may be the skill of timing – which of your many techniques is the appropriate one to use in this particular moment? Is it time to listen and say nothing, or ask a question, or offer an insight, or do body work, or engage in role play? The simple answer to the issue of timing is that the therapist leads by following. The assumption underlying that answer is that the psyche of the client knows what it is ready to deal with and indicates in some way to the therapist what needs to happen next. But what does it mean to say that the therapist leads by following? In this all day workshop we will look at how to work with individual clients, asking what kinds of clues you are looking for, and what the process looks like when the therapist leads by following. The approach will be hands on, with students taking on the roles of therapist and client, followed by discussion of the therapeutic choices made and alternatives that might have been used. David Cornfield

HEP Emotional Yoga: Through a series of structured interpersonal exercises in a group setting, you will find parts of your identity that are not normally easily available. Emotional yoga helps to get to know yourself more deeply. It will open up the possibility for more authentic experience of yourself and relationship with others. These exercises are designed to be emotionally challenging. They are not how we usually behave. They are not the kind of thing one usually says to others. But when this is done in a structured setting, with good will and respect for the sacred dimension, the energy and self awareness that is released feeds the whole being, including the spiritual. This workshop is designed to activate the emotional body. It will show you aspects of self and relationship that are usually hidden and unconscious. Many people feel stuck because they are holding onto emotional and energetic postures based in the past. In becoming aware of these things you become more conscious, alive, vital, energetic and creative. Jim McNamara, Caroline Mardon

HEP Meditation: HEP meditative techniques draw on both the concentration and mindfulness or insight traditions. Concentration is a method of calmly paying attention to a specific meditative focus, one pointed attention to a single experiential object. This can give rise to absorption, tranquility, bliss and trance states. Mindfulness meditation follows what arises, the moment to moment awareness of changing objects of perception, into what lies beyond, and, through attention and reflection, gives rise to insight into the nature of mind itself, including revealing the illusionary impermanence of a substantive, enduring self. There are points in a client’s process when there is a need to train the mind to stay focused and not get lost in distractions, anxiety, obsessive ruminations, etc. This means not just following whatever arises, which is the usual phenomenological method, but rather to stay calmly focused on a particular visualization, thought or body process. There are also points in the process where the typical clinging focus of everyday experience needs to be on the transcendental, in a sense looking through the immediate arising experience into the nature of the arising of immediate experience. Concentration methodologies are relevant for breaking addictive personal habits, once the primal connections have been made, and for dealing with anxiety. Mindfulness and insight practice are part of the phenomenological basis of the experiential holism of HEP. Jim McNamara

HEP Ritual: This class will draw on the Jungian and archetypal model, and various traditions that highlight the mediating nature of the imaginal subtle body dimension (including the Sufi, shamanic and Vajrayana traditions, and Western theurgy) as they have been incorporated into the HEP psychodynamic, existential and archetypal model. This will include the use of ritual, the creation and use of an altar and methods for accessing the subtle body. There will be teaching on the evocation of helpful archetypal agencies and how to manage autonomous, threatening elements of the imaginal world. Tantric methods for psychospiritual integration, and HEP visualization techniques will be taught as part of ritual evocation and invocation. Jim McNamara, Caroline Mardon

Improvisational Authenticity - Clowning and Creativity: Clown work is a spiritual and therapeutic exploration of the paradoxical tragic/comic aspects of human life. As therapists, one of our greatest challenges is to stay present to the client and to hold their most difficult feelings and experiences with levity and a kind of foolishness that creates a greater freedom for revelation. Clowning is the art of non-doing. It teaches us to strip away preconceived agendas. Clown work asks us to dig deep into the present moment to uncover and show what and who we really are. The clown makes us look squarely at ourselves, our longings, our secrets and idiosyncrasies. And lets us recognize ourselves in the other. The ability to play through our basic human angst with humour and wisdom is freeing and provides a reminder that we can choose our responses to what life throws our way. Through personal and group exercises, working with memory recall, sound and movement work, masks and costume each person will create a character that will be presented to the group. Angela Düntsch

Living Institute Seminar Series: As part of the Living Institute Wellness Network, student facilitation at one workshop given by Living Institute faculty or associates is required. No fee.

Natural Healing: With an experiential, depth oriented approach, clients will manifest physical conditions that allopathic medicine will not understand or have any significant way of addressing except to use suppressive methods. While this is sometimes necessary and appropriate, the naturopathic, homeopathic, nutritional, herbal and Chinese Medicine approaches provide alternative holistic and natural supportive methodologies that work in conjunction with expressive psychological and spiritual methodology. The appropriate timing for referral to an allied practitioner is key. Jim McNamara

Sound Healing: In this half day introduction on sound healing Michael will share some simple techniques using sound and music as a healing tool. The intention is to gain a foundation and understanding of how to use sound in a therapeutic way for our own benefit as well as for use with clients. Michael Moon

Stages of Healing: In the full individuation process of working through the blocks to realization of full human potential, there are typical stages, including the entrance, engagement, descent, bottoming out, ascent, accomplishment and graduation phases. In the working through of any particular deep issue, there are a similar set of stages. Negotiation of each stage requires different methods and perspectives, including modifications to the basic therapeutic relationship. Jim McNamara

Student Workshops: Students will be expected to create, in conjunction with colleagues, a public workshops presentation, as part of their clinical skills training and to orient them to the need to reach out to the public in generating a successful practice. Dates to be determined by student. Supervision fee TBA.

Supervised Individual Psychotherapy Practice: In the spring semester of 2009, the year 2 class commenced the supervised creation and staffing of a student clinic, and preparation for the supervised creation of a self generated practice, oriented toward individual clients. Each student will commence this training modality when they are ready by requesting an interview with the Clinic Supervisor. Cost: The cost structure of the clinic is in the process of being determined. Supervision cost to be arranged with supervisor.

Transference and Countertransference: In psychoanalysis, transference names an unconscious process of transferring ideas and feelings from their original sources (directed at the self, the mother, the father, etc.) toward another person. Everyone unconsciously transfers or projects onto everyone all of the time, but Freud identified three types of transference that were important clinically: the unobjectionable positive transference, which is benign; and the two “transference-resistances” or “transference neuroses,” which are the erotic transference and the negative (chiefly aggressive) transference. Kohut added the selfobject transference and the idealizing transference of narcissists. Other transferences are repeating patterns of thought, feeling, and behaviour that have no name but are specific to individual patients, as well as patients’ fears of (and flight from) therapists. Countertransference names the therapists’ transference onto patients. Freud thought that all departures from the genuine benevolence of a caregiver were neurotic and required self-analysis (or further analysis); but beginning in the 1950s, analysts began to use some countertransferences diagnostically. Racker recognized three types of non-neurotic countertransference: the unobjectionable positive countertransference (affection and caring for the patient); concordant countertransferences, in which therapists share patients’ feelings; and complementary countertransferences, in which therapists experience feelings that complement patients’ feelings (as parent to child, or child to parent). Bion revised Melanie Klein’s concept of projective identification to describe the therapist’s emotional experience of unconscious feelings that the patient projects. In the 1990s, the older terms “acting out” and “acting in” (the session) gave way to the term “enactment,” in reference to clinical errors in conduct that the patient and the therapist share; the therapist’s self-analysis of the enactment (typically, as a complementary countertransference) may again be used diagnostically, to make new discoveries about the patients’ unconscious feelings and motives. Dan Merkur

Transpersonal Life Coaching: Transpersonal Life Coaching addresses how we live from day to day, as in our quality of life, our challenges in life, and how we deal with those challenges in an ongoing way. What is the coach’s or therapist’s role? How does the coach/therapist address the client’s lifestyle, particularly in those areas where the client’s behaviour is redundant, unhealthy, and holding the individual back from pursuing their greater potential and purpose? Transpersonal coaching also goes beyond the personal challenges of the ego and into the areas of meaning and spiritual pursuits and practices. Sally Johnson

Trauma Work – an Attachment and Expressive Art Model: This will include: biochemistry, relation to attachment and principles of treatment. Evening: What is trauma? Exploration of the biochemistry of trauma, how the body/brain responds to experience it cannot process. Implications of the biochemical shifts. One day: Aspects of trauma and its capacity to fragment consciousness. Relationship between attachment patterns and traumatic material, and exploration of the varieties of appropriate treament. We will be using expressive arts to provide experiential learning. Fran Harwood

Trauma Work – a Systemic Approach: This lecture will include a discussion of the signs and symptoms of trauma, measures of trauma symptoms, and interventions that target the three primary symptoms of trauma: intrusion; avoidance; and hyperarousal. It will also explore trauma from a theoretical perspective using the work of Ronnie Janoff-Bulman (1992), and John P. Wilson (2006). Trauma will be clearly placed within a systemic metatheoretical perspective and along with the signs and symptoms of trauma, lecture material and discussions will explore the characteristics of post traumatic growth. Kristin Trotter

Twentieth Century Western Archetypes: In the 20th (c) there has been a profound, complex archetypal activation in Western culture, manifesting massive, tectonic, simultaneous contradictions, focused through the following: the longing for a return to paradise alongside nihilistic apocaypticism; absolutist totalitarianism and absolutist relativism; global interconnectedness alongside national fragmentation and ethnic cleansing; the decline of God based religion and the ascendancy of humanity based depth psychology; the evocation of the existential self emptying God and the humanistic dialogical God; the return of the Goddess archetype and the emergence of the Divine Child archetype as part of a polytheistic revival; the Sophianic and Pentecostal hypostasis of eco-spirituality and environmentalism; the revolutionary divine child, fetal alien and the angelic, uterine UFO; the masculine Dionysian, Hermetic, Orphic, Luciferian/Satanic and Trickster archetypes; the feminine Lilith, Innana/Erishkegal, Persephone, Artemis, Sophia and Marian archetypes; depth psychologies humanistic, relational and unconscious focus, the valuing of direct personal experience, of process over outcome and a mind/body focus, including sexuality; pre and perinatal psychology; the primal, hidden, organizing variable, and remainder; garbage, refuse, refugees, tourists, fragmentation, marginalization; postmodernism’s multicultural, decentred alterity, indeterminacy and ‘sublime fragment’ themes; the displaced, deferred ,simulacral identity of the consumerist junkie and the cult of celebrity; the divine/human union theme as enacted in new forms of spirituality, in the romantic irony/ nouveau roman literary traditions, in consumer capitalism, and in the technology oriented extropian transhumanist movement; the practical and ideological triumph of the technological ‘solution’ to life’s problems; the scientific emergence of relativity, uncertainty, holism and chaos as foundational elements of ‘reality’; the re-emergence and popular embrace of ancient theurgic mystical traditions and cosmological models from both East and West. Jim McNamara