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On this page, you will find the links to all Center for Story and Symbol courses and their respective course descriptions, reading lists, and learning objectives. Articles and community resources are listed on the Resources List. You can find the answers to frequently asked questions on the FAQ
Course Archives and links to days schedule and reading lists
Currently Offered Courses and Registration
You can find the Recommended Reading List for each course by following the link to the respective course page. Not all courses are offered every term. Currently Offered Coures are available here
Joseph Campbell and the Inner Journey:
Joseph Campbell made lasting contributions to understanding our life stories. This day draws on his explorations of the psychological dimensions of fairy tales and the goddess traditions. We will also examine how his own life and work illustrate the transformative journey model. The focus is on how to apply mythic stories to help with challenges.
Pilgrimage and Liberation: Whether by travel or inner exploration, Pilgrimage can kindle an experience of liberation. The way of the seeker bridges visible and invisible worlds.
The Good Life seminar is about savoring the harvest experience in adulthood and maturity. Enhanced self-knowledge is one of the benefits of age. While there can be challenges, adapting to changes creatively can deepen well-being. We will consider strategies for living authentically in the wisdom years.
Life-Story: Embracing the Unfolding Narratives: Lives have underlying patterns. We will look at maturation as a project of inventing a successful life story, cultivating a vision that nurtures one's best qualities, finding authenticity, and having compassion towards oneself and others.
These courses include finding key metaphors in movies to deepen understanding of emotional issues, how to discuss popular films to normalize perceptions of problems - and to help evoke personal qualities, such as courage, tenderness, and flexibility.
Movies & the Mythic Imagination: The course explores uses of movies to increase understanding of emotional life. The plots and characters in movies reflect a broad range of human concerns and difficulties. The day will include a symbolic analysis of Black Panther as an initiatory adventure. The training includes how to detect psychological themes in movies to explore personal issues. Discussion points out parallels between dreamwork and cinematherapy.
Cinematherapy and Inner Process: The mythic imagination comes alive when we contemplate movies that have influenced us. Our emotional reactions to films can stimulate significant psychological work. Those on the inner journey can reflect on how elements of a story parallel their own discoveries. The awareness aroused by movie can be used effectively in therapy and for self-care.
This is a day on using movies for inner work.
Invoking the Sage: Savoring the inner life and connections with others can be the rewards of our later years. We will discuss elder and mentor stories to explore how to plan well for the harvest experience in maturity. Anyone with an interest is welcome. Fulfills Aging and Long-Term Care course requirements.
Relishing the Third Act: This is a day on appreciating the unique pleasures of our later years while dealing creatively with the challenges. There is a freedom that can come from owning the role of elder. We will discuss rising to the tasks of aging with wit and imagination.
Pilgrimage and Liberation: Whether by travel or inner exploration, Pilgrimage can kindle an experience of liberation. The way of the seeker bridges visible and invisible worlds.
Beloved of the Soul: Through discussion of the film Casablanca, we will examine how love stories reflect psychological life in amazing detail. Romantic fantasies are a window into the world within the individual. This course goes beyond couple issues to focus on how the inner journey is revealed in film and folklore.
Finding Your Way Back Home: This seminar enters the mythic imagination to explore the journey toward wholeness. We will discuss Hansel & Gretel, and Little Red Riding Hood to see how timeless tales can help in our journeys. This course was previously titled Through the Dark Forest.
Psychology of Creativity: This course examines universal elements of the imagination - and draws on timeless stories, such as Alice in Wonderland and Robin Hood, to look at unique issues faced by highly creative people. We will discuss blocks and other challenges unique to artistic endeavors.
The Inner Life of Holidays: This course investigates seasonal issues as opportunities for growth. Instruction includes coming to terms with emotional vulnerability, and self-care for practitioners. The main focus is on autumn and winter events, but other special days are considered as well, in this exploration of the psychological dimensions of gatherings and celebrations.
The Symbolism of Fairytales: Favorite stories from childhood can have subtle influences on adult identity. This course covers how to analyze familiar tales for metaphors rich in psychological insights. Focus is on the Cinderella stories, to show how allegories can reveal elements of the inner life.
Peer Consultation: A meeting of the minds on case strategy using depth psychology perspectives. A day of therapy stories and insights into treatment options.
Vocation of the Mentor: Drawing upon familiar characters, such as Mary Poppins and Gandalf (in The Lord of the Rings), we focus on finding the most effective methods of supporting and expanding the skills of others and on how to serve as a worthy example of integrity.
Mentoring Identity Formation: Our second supervision course draws on Harry Potter to explore the inner life of training and managing others. Supporting those who are acquiring new skills is a delicate task worthy of care and reflection.
Soul of Ethics: More than a review of rules, this course strives to draw out the best in dedicated practitioners. The focus is on appreciating the values that attract people to the work of helping others. This day aims to inspire clinicians to claim their personal systems of applied ethics. To this end, we examine familiar stories and films about admirable professionals from a range of occupations. The goal is to evoke the essence of integrity. Ethics in depth involves awareness of our own personal qualities and counter-transference. It takes more than a good working knowledge of regulations to put values into practice on a daily basis. Attention is given to what moves distinguished colleagues to meet high standards consistently with grace.
Law & Ethics 2: A Jungian Perspective on Character: A day on the unconscious dimensions of honor and values. The course looks at the Shadow archetype and challenges of staying accountable for misplaced emotional reactions. Storytelling includes The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe plus scenes from other tales that reflect ethical issues, such as managing personal limitations. This philosophical exploration of integrity is for those who want to work from their best qualities and ideals.
Law & Ethics 3: Ethics in Depth Psychology: Our third course on ethics focuses on how shifts in our sense of identity can influence decision-making. Developing more complex access to inner states opens the possibility of working with others at deeper levels. This enhanced quality of engagement presents unique ethical challenges.
Law & Ethics 4, Phantoms in Risk Management: Intense work in the helping professions involves dealing with our own unconscious processes. Our fourth course on ethics uses The Phantom of the Opera to illustrate how personal issues can influence ethical choices.
Law & Ethics 5, Managing Difficult Situations: Our fifth course on ethics focuses on the emotional challenges of mental health callings. There are times in professional lives that seem like dark nights of the soul. Mythic lore sees such troubles as stages of transformation. We will focus on personal benefits and applications to clinical practice.
Law & Ethics 6, Supervision and Risk Management: Our sixth course on ethics focuses on Harry Potter and the wizard's guide to integrity. This one-day course combines Law and Ethics and Supervision. The six-hour course satisfies both the mandated class in law and ethics ~ and six-hour update on supervision. It would be of interest to anyone who finds themselves in a mentoring role. Virtually all work in the helping professions includes guidance or coaching, so this material has wide applications.
Law & Ethics 7: Risk Management Reliability: Our seventh course on Law and Ethics uses the tale of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to explore the place of sensitivity in ethical practice. This is a six-hour class on inner workings of character and values in the helping professions.
Law & Ethics 8: Minimizing Liability in Practice and Supervision: Our eighth course on Law and Ethics uses the tale of Anne of Green Gables to explore minimizing liability and risk management in ethical practice. This is a six-hour class on minimiing liability and ethics in the helping professions.
Law & Ethics 9: Suicide and the Soul: When the pain of life becomes overwhelming, thoughts of ending the suffering can rise. This is one of the most challenging situations in the work of anyone in a helping profession. Any possibility that a client might be considering taking their life mobilizes all of our skills. This day, our ninth seminar on Law and Ethics is on how to evaluate the risk and reduce the possibility of self-destruction.
Law & Ethics 10: Supervision and Practice:
Clinical practice and supervision share the mentor archetype. This day draws on the initiatory themes in Wonder Woman to meet the Law & Ethics requirement and six hours toward the mandate for active supervisors.
Law & Ethics 11: Diversity Humility:
Responding appropriately to clients from diverse backgrounds requires cultural sensitivity and clear ethical principles. We will use the film Avatar as a parable about otherness to strengthen skills needed to best serve unique populations.
Law & Ethics 12: Telehealth Touchstones: Online therapy involves unique advantages and challenges. This day covers clinical, technical, ethical and regulatory dimensions of online treatment. Discussion uses mythic characters such as Mercury, Hermes, Iris and Ariel to explore the depth psychology of communication. Meets Board of Behavioral Sciences required hours on Telehealth.
Law & Ethics 13: On Being Real:
This day is a day to reflect on being our authentic selves and to examine what it means to be human. A major focus will be on finding empathic ethics.
Law & Ethics 14: Supervision and Diversity:
Clinical practice and supervision share the mentor archetype. This day draws on the initiatory themes.
Law & Ethics 15: Diversity and Creativity An interdisciplinary exploration of legal, ethical and diversity-related challenges in clinical practice through exammination of the life and work of Frida Kahlo. We will consider at ethical issues, including cultural and identity.
Law & Ethics 16: Diversity and Trauma: New in December 2025! The seminar explores the practice of flexibility when encountering dissimilar frameworks of meaning.
The Search for Meaning: This course looks at the great quest stories as guides to finding place and purpose. We will draw insights from the legends of the Holy Grail and discuss how a strong sense of meaning can aid in identity formation.
Writing in Therapy: A series of workshops demonstrating uses writing for inner exploration. Activities include brief spontaneous writing activities with discussion of how such reflective expressions open awareness of the stirrings of the unconscious. The series does not have to be taken in sequence.