Depth Psychological Associates
presents

Healing Trauma:
The Lost and Recovered Soul
in Depth Psychotherapy

with

Donald Kalsched

and lorraine Freedle, Guest Presenter

to be scheduled

According to C.G. Jung, the human personality contains a ‘divine spark’ or ‘indwelling spirit’ that slowly evolves in the course of a person’s development through a process he described as ‘individuation’—becoming the individual you were intended to be. However when trauma strikes the developing psyche of a child, a split occurs in which the vital core of the self retreats into the unconscious where it continues to live in ‘suspended animation’ under a spell cast by the ‘great powers’ of the psyche’s survival system (described by Dr. Kalsched as a ‘Self-Care System’). Depth Psychotherapy offers the opportunity for renewed contact with the lost core of the self (soul) and hence for renewed feeling life, creativity and aliveness—but not without fierce resistance thrown up by the psyche’s defensive powers.

In this seminar, clinicians from a variety of disciplines will come together to explore the clinical, theoretical, and symbolic/spiritual dimensions of Donald Kalsched’s model of the inner world of trauma—as described in his two books, many articles, and four decades of Jungian analytic practice. The model’s application to Sandplay therapy will be introduced in a special case-presentation by Dr. Lorraine Freedle in dialogue with Dr. Kalsched.

The model describes a dissociative system of daimonic inner personifications representing powerful affects and defenses that structure the unconscious mind of the trauma survivor and define the universal struggle in human life to actualize a sacred core of true selfhood under environmental conditions that are often unfavorable. Myths and fairy tales record this struggle in their narratives, which always portray a heroic figure (often a “child”) suspended between the powers of light and darkness, aided by benevolent powers and thwarted by malevolent ones. When trauma enters this individuation story, it injures the capacity for feeling-in-the-body upon which the life-forces depend, thereby strengthening the malevolent anti-life forces of defense. These dark, depressive forces appear as powerful resistances in the psychotherapy situation and lead to a “repetition compulsion” of self-destructive activity in outer life. Learning how these oppressive forces operate, and how to intervene on behalf of the vital core of the personality, helps us to become more effective in our work with trauma survivors.

Participants are required to be in some form of clinical/healing practice and to be qualified in their respective fields. Students, not yet in practice, who are in training or are preparing for the vocation of psychotherapy in graduate or masters-level training programs are also welcome.

Donald Kalsched, Ph.D., is a Clinical Psychologist and Jungian psychoanalyst in private practice in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is the author of many journal articles and book chapters as well as two important books, The Inner World of Trauma; Archetypal Defenses of the Personal Spirit (Routledge, 1996), and Trauma and the Soul: A Psycho-Spiritual Approach to Human Development and its Interruption (Routledge, 2013), both of which have been translated into many languages. He is a member of the C.G. Jung Institute of Santa Fe, a training analyst with the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, and an adjun-0pct assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. He teaches and lectures nationally and internationally on the subject of early trauma and its treatment. For more information or to contact Dr. Kalsched, visit www.donaldkalsched.com

CE Credit will be available for Psychologists,
Marriage and Family Therapists, Social Workers, Counselors, and Nurses.

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The Good and Evil Angels Fighting for Possession of a Child by William Blake