Life-Story: Embracing the Unfolding Narratives
Story and Symbol Therapy Courses Register Community Dates Contact
Story and Symbol Therapy Courses Register Community Dates Contact
Seminar Dates and Formats Articles Joseph Campbell Site Map Search
Available dates are listed on the registration page ~ Offered online via Zoom Meeting
In many ways, our identities are the products of the stories we tell. Creating a satisfactory biography is a lifelong project. We are continually revising expectations and self-concepts. How we describe major transitions contributes to finding resilience during subsequent challenges. Inner work involves appreciating the dream in which we find ourselves.
A sense of life-story can have a strong impact on our inner development. This course explores major themes in formative myths. We will look at how hidden motivations and expectations can shape the unfolding adventure. Such patterns influence perceptions, choices, and possibilities.
Maturation can be seen as a project of creating a satisfactory biography. It is crucial to cultivate a vision that nurtures our best qualities. Central tasks include finding authenticity, being loyal to cherished values, and having compassion towards oneself and others. Integration involves cultivating a radical sense of acceptance of our stories as they are.
This seminar will focus on coming to terms with our ongoing dramatic threads. Presentations cover the significance of a character arc - and the influence of forces larger than ourselves in shaping unique world-views. We will explore how storylines deepen over time. We will draw on noted memoirists to consider how we weave daily events into coherent tales. k
This course would be useful for writers and other storytellers, especially those working on memoirs. It would also be of value to helping professionals working with clients in creative fields.
Dates - Online via Zoom Meeting
Discern the shaping influence of life stories.
Identify plot patterns as unconscious scripts.
Recognize how crises of faith, courage, and identity can be calls for renewal.
Discuss methods of engaging the imagination to claim emotional resources.
Detect key psychological symbolism in favorite stories from childhood
Establish strategies for introducing story material in psychotherapy.
This seminar is taught at the introductory level and requires no advance preparation. However, participants are provided with a recommended reading list as part of their class materials.
Select a seminar from the Current Course Dates
Register online or call the Center at 805-687-7171
Dates - Online via Zoom Meeting
Jonathan Young, PhD is a psychologist (PSY10231) with an international online practice. He teaches at the Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara. His books and articles focus on personal mythology. Dr.Young assisted mythologist Joseph Campbell at seminars and was founding curator of the Joseph Campbell Archives and Library. He is currently featured in several documentary series on the History Channel.
Anne Bach, M.S., MFT 38891 is a specialist in uses of writing in psychotherapy. She gives presentations on creativity as inner work at major conferences, and lectures widely on psychological dimensions of expressive writing. She also appears in memoir drama performances for various theater groups, including the Marsh Stage in Berkeley. Her clinical background includes poetry therapy with seriously mentally ill patients.
Dr. Young also gives frequent media interviews, public talks, workshops, and in-service trainings throughout the U.S. and internationally.
Checking-in begins at 9:30 a.m. - Seminar 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
- Please return on time
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