DREAMSCAPES: Experiencing Jung, a course by Sondra Geller

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This five-week class will be experiential in nature.  We will explore the interface between art therapy and Jungian analytical psychology, particularly as we work with dreams.  Jung considered dreams critical to the work of analysis.  Dreams were, he said, rites entrees to the unconscious.  But in Memories, Dreams, Reflections, when he questioned his own passion for using art to explore messages from psyche, he stated emphatically that the villages he built from small stones, the paintings and drawings that he made, were also rites d’entres.  He said that whenever he came up against a blank wall in his work, he reached for his drawing materials, and in this way he found his way through being stuck and blocked in his thinking.

Each participant will be asked to bring a dream that they would feel comfortable sharing with the group, and each will have an opportunity in the five weeks to present this dream.  The group will listen intently, especially to the imagery of the dream being shared.  Then the whole group will be invited to use basic art materials to draw the part of the dream that is most striking to them.  In this way we will explore what Jung called the symbolic attitude of the psyche.  We will have an opportunity to try active imagination and other ways of engaging with the dream.  It will give us a chance to experience Jung.

We will use pastels and clay, basic art materials.  No previous experience with art is necessary. The invitation is to draw from the kid place. The intention of the class is to demonstrate how combining art therapy with Jungian theory can deepen and intensify the experience of analysis.  It will be soulful and creative.

Sondra Geller,  MA, ATR-BC, LPC, is a Jungian Analyst, Board Certified Registered Art Therapist, and Licensed Professional Counselor.  She has a private practice in Washington, D.C., where she sees clients individually and in groups.  Her work reflects a synthesis of the principals of both Jungian Analytic Psychology and Art Therapy.  Sandy also teaches and presents experiential workshops focusing on the dynamics of making art in the presence of the analyst.  What happens in the silent space between client/artist and Jungian analyst/observer, and how does this dynamic facilitate the journey of individuation?