Other Stuff
When I look at what I've done over the years I realize that much of my work has been with other people, setting up containers where people can come together, learn, be inspired, carry the seeds of their being touched away, and perhaps over time to be amazed by the birth of something new within, something new given to the world, something new given in relationship.
The Spirit of the Dream
I was the host of the 2007 international conference for the International Association for the Study of Dreams, The Spirit of the Dream. It was a wonderful inspiring conference of many many people from all over the world coming to teach and learn about dreams, to play, to dream, to sing, even, in best west county tradition, to drum.
Labyrinth Project
We have a short-term / long-term project going to build a labyrinth on the grounds of Sonoma State. If you would like to see this beautiful vision land on earth, if you would like to donate money toward its completion, please email me, or visit our website on the labyrinth project.
Re-Weaving the Broken Web
This was a conference I co-organized way back in 1997. It was the first conference back then that brought people from all areas, across disciplines and across organizations, to talk about family violence and how the community can work with it and work toward preventing it. My impetus for organizing it (also known as the last straw; what might yours be?) was reading in the local newspaper about a family whose father had shot his wife and left two children behind, in their rooms, to wake up the next morning with a dead mother. My heart was wrenched out and I felt like someone had to do something to stop the violence. Through synchronicity some years later, I taught the young man who was the young boy orphaned years before.
We offered the conference for university credit, had students and psychologists and probation officers and judges and police and social workers, attend.
Depth Psychology M.A.
I've already mentioned this elsewhere. In reality, this program began when I started teaching Jungian Psychology and Myth, Dreams and Symbols and other Jungian-related courses at Sonoma State back in 1995 and thereafter. Students started saying they wished they had more courses they could take at more advanced levels to study this type of work. I started having dreams of teaching Jungian psychology and having people from all over the world attend; having to make more space for people wanting to take these classes; being told "it's time." I started talking with fellow faculty, our department, Jungian analysts, colleagues at other institutions, and over the next few years I crafted a curriculum and took it through Sonoma State's sequence of committees that review and approve new programs. It was blessed at each institutional level and in 1999, at the end of the century, we took in our first students. Ten years later we're still going, still looking within and without and still asking ourselves how can we improve the program, how we can develop more in our faculty, our students, and our community.
Public Programs in Depth Psychology
The Depth M.A. program had a Visiting Scholars lecture series for program students and faculty only, since its inception. Last year we broadened the lecture series and opened it to the public, with a new name. If you're interested in depth psychology, psychological transformation, spirituality, dreams, Jungian psychology, earth and the sacred, mythology, initiation, rites of passage, alchemical change, and on and on, please come and join us for our public programs. They're held once a month on Saturdays, 10 am to 1 pm.
Sacred Sites in Egypt and Greece
On my sabbatical I traveled to sacred sites in Egypt and Greece, meditated and prayed therewithin, and took 1300 pictures or thereabouts to record the surroundings. The internal experiences cannot be conveyed in image, at least to my satisfaction, but they can function as a signpost for internal journeying. At some point I'll post some of the pictures with some narrative about them. It was a wonderful trip. My advice to you if you're drawn to travel: do it.
Formerly Chair
And in another life, well that would be only a few years ago, I was Chair of the Psychology department, the largest major on the Sonoma State campus. During this time our department completed what's known in educational parlance as a Self-Study, a reflection by our small core departmental group of who we are, where we've been, where we're going. This self-study resulted in recommendations for a curricular revision, which the department is still undertaking. We also took steps in this time to improve our undergraduate advising; our career advising; and our research offerings.
Dialogue Series
Also way back when, way back when, I started the Dialogue Series as impetus to bring in interesting and creative people who were working in the field of psychology, who could talk to students about their work and possibly inspire them to go on in their own direction in psychology. It's still going.
All Things Alchemy
I have a particular interest in alchemy as it is psychologically conceived and understood. To me, as for Jung, it is a visual and textual metaphor for psychological and spiritual transformation. Part of my sabbatical has been spent in studying the Atalanta Fugiens, a 16th century manuscript of 50 woodcuts, 50 fugues, and 50 textual narratives describing the alchemical (read psychological) transformational process.
Educational Assessment
I thoroughly enjoy, relish and am stimulated by, assessment. I was trained in personality assessment at Berkeley, and clinical assessment at CSPP and California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. I've participated in assessments of educational institutions through the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), and have engaged in educational assessment in our Psychology department at the undergraduate and graduate program levels.
And Other Interests
I'm a yogini and have been doing Bikram yoga for almost 10 years. I recommend John Reidy's studio in Cotati. In the past I've also meditated, written poetry, danced both Isadora Duncan and African / Congolese, drummed, and dreamed; and I am a mystic at heart. I also love the music of the violin, the cello, the piano, and the tabla, and opera.
Donate and Make a Difference
You may participate in some of these projects by donating with a check made payable to the Sonoma State Academic Foundation, mailed to me at the address at the bottom of the page. We have accounts for the Labyrinth Project as well as for Depth Psychology. You may specify what you would like your donation geared to; or leave it up to me to put it where it can make the biggest deepest and best difference. Donations are charitable contributions and are tax-deductible.