BASELINE MOOD & AMPLIFIERS In the past, I’ve written about our baseline mood in life, imagining it as a flat line that represents how we can check in with where we are. This baseline is neutral, neither good nor bad; it is simply a starting point. As things come in and out of our awareness, our … More Fields of Awareness
FEELING ACTIVATION IN A MEDITATION I had an experience in a deep meditation some months back, when the ground was still cold here in Colorado. The practice took place late at night, as I meditated for hours. As usual, I am listening to my meditation music in my studio, working to deepen my practice. There were convincing, … More Unfinished Business
INTRODUCTION I often encourage clients to track the narrative of their lives as we create space to explore their past experiences. Asking someone to track their narrative, I realize, can be at times confusing, as when doing this, I am often asking them to track the details – the story of their life as they see it unfold. This … More Fractals of the Mind
UNCONSCIOUS SHAPING I often talk about different practices in our lives to help ground ourselves and find insight. These practices often center around journaling, meditating, or expression through the arts. Some of this is simply about being present for our lives; another reason is being present for our pain or things we are trying to work on. We … More SHAPING OUR LIVES
In my first article on psychedelics, I explored the background around plant medicines, centering on mushrooms, and considered how a Jungian may navigate the unconscious imagery that rises in a journey. I concluded at what I refer to as Liminal Consciousness. In this second part, I want to explore Liminal levels in greater depth and continue … More A JUNGIAN’S THOUGHTS ON PSYCHEDELICS: PART 2: Trance State
CONTENTS In recent years, there has been an increasing use of psychedelics both recreationally and as a renewed part of psychedelic therapy sessions. Although I do not offer psychedelic sessions as part of my practice, I have made myself available to guide clients in preparing before sessions, and to help integrate a psychedelic experience afterwards. … More A JUNGIAN’S THOUGHTS ON PSYCHEDELICS: Part 1
RECALLING DREAMS Often, when I talk to people about dreams, people insist they don’t dream. I believe that research has shown that we all dream, and perhaps even that we must dream. Most people mistake not remembering dreams for meaning they don’t dream. Learning to remember our dreams usually takes some concerted effort. I learned early in my life … More DREAM ARCHETYPES: The Dream Stage
Awakening the Soul’s blueprint from Aristotle to Jung I’m thinking about the concept of stuckness in life, and how it’s challenging to recognize when we’restuck. We may be stuck in a certain job, a relationship, or a lack of a relationship. We may be stuck with a philosophy of life that is no longer serving us, and … More BECOMING UNSTUCK:
CONSTELLATIONS There is a term for a different way of seeing constellations in the night sky, dark constellations. Instead of seeing a constellation as those points of light that we have learned over millennia to think of as images, we can think of this differently, but it takes a shift in how we typically see things, at … More Dark Constellations
Working with clients lately I have felt aware of something being expressed that I have also become aware of in myself. If part of the purpose of psychotherapy is to make conscious something which is unconscious, at least for a Jungian, then I try to listen to the feelings and thoughts that may come up from inside. This … More The Doldrums of the Psyche
I’m thinking about self identity a lot this week. I found myself recommending a film twice when discussing parts of this subject with clients. I’ve written of this film before, it is the magician Derek DelGaudio’s, In and Of Itself. In this film DelGuadio, a magician from Colorado, creates a stage show which centers around … More Journey of Self: Escaping Plato’s Cave
I do not claim to be great at meditation, my goal is to help people start with meditation, just as I try to guide them with journaling. To listen to an audio version of this article, please use the audio file below. I want to outline the steps here that I will get into in this article … More MEDITATION: Learning to Fold the Mind
I often use metaphors to describe the human mind to clients. One commonly used metaphor, originally from Freudian psychology, compares the mind to an iceberg. The tip of the iceberg above water, represents the conscious mind– the thoughts and perceptions we are aware of. Just beneath the water’s surface lies the preconscious — thoughts and … More Fractal Lattices of the Mind
A DREAM REVISITED I have written in the past about the Ouroboros symbol of the snake biting its tail before. This symbol had adopted me, or I had adopted it after a dream I had in 2017. Perhaps it was always there, buried in my unconscious. The dream I’ve written of before was at my … More Trust in the Return: Ouroboros revisited
When I began this article, it was just meant as a short guide to understanding something I emphasize with clients all the time. The work in session continues outside of sessions and can be summarized by three words, Tracking, Processing, and Integration. Now this is a simplification of the process of psychotherapy. It is meant … More Indiana Jones and the Inner Crusade
This week I am writing another article on the value of journaling and doing other forms of self-work such as artwork as part of our own internal journey. At a time when our country and world may feel torn apart by disagreements it is important to not simply jump into the fray of disagreements, but to once again turn … More Symbols We Share and Why Writing Works
As a Jungian and Depth psychotherapist, one area I am interested in is finding new strategies to support us in mental health care. We all have coping mechanisms in our lives, and often our coping mechanisms are unhealthy or simply nonexistent. I use the word mechanisms because these are more like automatic ways we attempt to regulate ourselves. If a mechanism or habit is … More Journaling Tips
This article was originally published on medium.com on June 6, 2022. With the goal of collecting my articles in one place, I am re-publishing it here with an audio version above. For this father’s day inspired article I am borrowing my title as homage to the fictitious thesis written by Robin William’s character Henry/Parry in … More The Fisher King: A Mythic Journey for Modern Man: Part 1
RATIONAL MIND There is a phenomenon that occurs regarding the nature of the conscious mind, that is called the Split Mind. The nature of the split mind was observed when in the 1940s doctors severed the corpus callosum in epileptics, the thick fibers connecting the left and right side of the brain, to stop debilitating seizures. … More Red Alert! When danger comes in, and rational mind goes out.
I remember when I began my sessions in psychotherapy nearly 30 years ago. Aside from feeling lost in my life, depressed, anxious, and angry – I was under the distinct impression at times that therapy wasn’t doing anything for me. Therapy felt like a slow glacier moving down a mountain. It was a grueling process of showing … More TIMELAPSE OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
An audio version of this article is below, if you would like to listen instead. Although I am more familiar with western mythology and fairy tales than I am with eastern myth and fairy tales, today I would like to delve a little into eastern mythology – and this article may sound more personal in … More THE DANCE OF SHIVA NATARAJA
Follow Your Myth 