THE MOUNTAIN WOMAN ARCHETYPE: UNLEASH YOUR CREATIVITY

A WILD SOUL WOMAN WORKSHOP  

A dynamic writing workshop with:

Mary Reynolds Thompson and Kate Thompson

SUNDAY APRIL 14th 12.30-4.30pm

PLACES ARE LIMITED. BUY TICKETS HERE

Early bird pricing until March 9th - $85

After March 9th - $97

The Mountain Woman Archetype summons you to rise tall under pressure and take your place in the world as a wholly creative and visible presence. She shows us how every action we take, enlarges the story of Self and World.

“The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”—Mary Oliver

Women have often been told it’s okay to be in the foothills but never a soaring Long’s Peak. And yet, in these seismic times, the inner Mountain Woman begins to shake and stir. Down in the ache of all the broken and wounded aspects of Self and World, something new is bubbling up.

Here in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, we have a magnificent view of the snow-capped Continental Divide. Your inner Mountain Woman wants to soar to those high horizons.

In this experiential writing workshop you will awaken to your Mountain Woman Self, the part of you that longs to rise up and take your full place and space in the world.

• Are you ready to:

• Birth a creative project?

• Speak your truth?

• Stand in your own power?

Join co-facilitators Mary and Kate to explore through poetry, journal writing, and meditation what Mountain Woman is calling forth in you, right now.. And find a community of support to stand up and speak out for your own values in service of what really matters to you.

This lively session invites whole-hearted participation and requires only a journal and pen. Suitable for all levels of writers. Weather permitting, we will spend some of our time outdoors, so come prepared.

Location: Boulder Main Public Library

Time: Sunday, April 14th, 12.30-4.30 pm

This event is not sponsored or endorsed by Boulder Public Library.  Access to meeting rooms is a service of Boulder Public Library. For more information, please contact: kate@katethompsontherapy.com

Mary Reynolds Thompson, Founder of Live Your Wild Soul Story, is an award-winning author, internationally recognized speaker, and a facilitator of poetry and journal therapy. A pioneer in the spiritual ecology movement, her focus is on the transformative power of landscape archetypes and nature metaphors to reveal our true purpose and right relationship with the planet. Author of The Way of the Wild Soul Woman and Reclaiming the Wild Soul, a 2015 Nautilus Award-winner, Mary’s writings have also appeared in numerous publications and anthologies. She can be reached at: www.maryreynoldsthompson.com

Kate Thompson is an existential therapist and journal therapist working in meaning-based and creative ways with individuals, couples, and groups in her extensive private practice based in Boulder, Colorado, and the UK. Author of Therapeutic Journal Writing: an Introduction for Professionals, she has co-edited books on therapeutic and expressive writing and published in various volumes. She grew up in Yorkshire, England and now lives in the Rocky Mountains of Boulder Colorado. Landscape has always been an inspiration for her work, her life, and her writing.

kate@katethompsontherapy.com

Glen Slater, Ph.D.

April 12, 2024 | 7:00 - 9:00 PM MST

Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/5658270584

$30 for nonmembers, free for members

The intractable nature of the gun violence problem in the United States resists meaningful analysis. Even more so, the problem resists effective solutions. Perhaps this resistance itself is meaningful, pointing to the cloaking of deeper problems in the American psyche. 

Pushing beyond the usual historical background of the so-called gun culture, this presentation will examine both the psychology of homicide by firearm and the collective myths and complexes that make this violence so prevalent. These myths and complexes both heighten the propensity to target and shoot others and lower the capacity for the soul-searching necessary to effectively change this propensity.  

The presentation will conclude with a discussion of where responsibility for this violence lives, and where transformative possibilities may lie. 

Glen Slater, Ph.D. has taught for over two decades at Pacifica Graduate Institute where he currently chairs the Jungian and Archetypal Psychology Program. He has written articles and book chapters for Jungian publications, edited the third volume of James Hillman’s Uniform Edition, Senex and Puer, and co-edited the essay collection, Varieties of Mythic Experience. His research and writing interests concern Jung and film, the psychology of religion, and depth psychology and technology. His new book, Jung vs. Borg: Finding the Deeply Human in a Posthuman Age, will be published at the beginning of 2024.

Aaron Balick, Ph.D.

March 2, 2024 | 9:30 - 11:30 AM MST

Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/5658270584

Fee: $30 for nonmembers, free for members 

Social media can be understood as a psychological extension of the self into the digital world.This extension of self is both real and meaningful. The way in which online social platforms mediate selves has important consequences for individuals, interpersonal relationships, and for society as a whole. Drawing on his 2014 book The Psychodynamics of Social Networking, as well as research and thinking that he has developed further in the intervening years, Dr. Balick will share the highlights of what we should know about these important topics. Dr. Balick deploys theories from Relational Psychoanalysis and applies them to understanding the intrapsychic and interpersonal dynamics that are activated and conveyed by different forms of social media as well as the socio-cultural contexts in which they are happening. This event will consist of a lecture covering the major themes with plenty of time for questions and discussion to follow.

Aaron Balick, PhD. is an author, speaker, consultant, podcaster, and leading voice in the public understanding of psychology. Drawing on more than twenty years of experience as a clinical psychotherapist and academic, Aaron delivers high-quality psychological content in ways that are engaging, entertaining, and accessible to a variety of audiences.

Author of The Psychodynamics of Social Networking, Aaron is internationally recognized as an authority on the psychology of social media and technology. He is also the author of two self-help books and provides regular mental health content for the media. He is the co-host of the Time To Show Up podcast, and is an honorary senior lecturer at the Department for Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex.

Lori Pye, Ph.D. 

February 9, 2024 | 7:00-9:00 pm MST | Via Zoom

Zoom link:  https://us06web.zoom.us/j/5658270584 

Fee: $30 for nonmembers, free for members

It matters what ideas we use to think other ideas (with). – Marilyn Strathern

It matters what image we use to imagine other images (with).

Problems we face in the world today, from climate disruptions to the destruction caused by ecocide, culturecide, and genocide, are not new. These interrelated problems stem from unexamined narratives and their practices – from human psychology. Narrative entanglements such as purism-supremacism-individualism-exceptionalism form a rigidified psychic stance and their behavior and practices are deadly for the cultural ecology. This talk will focus on the narrative thread of human exceptionalism.  

My image for unexamined narratives or what Jung might consider a ‘complex’- emotionally charged group of ideas and/or images - is an assemblage of barnacles on a rock. When young, barnacles swim in the ocean, seeking a rock to cement themselves in place. One cannot pry a barnacle off the rock, so you might think that barnacles don’t move, but they can, and they do – by attaching themselves to a completely different animal. 

Barnacle behavior is like an exceptionalism narrative seeking a place in the psyche to cement itself. If left unexamined, the narrative, like a barnacle, becomes parasitic. We then take our barnacle (unexamined narrative) into the cultural waters, inducing the cultural ecosystem with our rigid, life-taking narrative, behavior, and practice. It does not take long for more barnacles to assemble and form what one might call a ‘cultural complex.’

In our time together, we will follow this eco-psychological metaphor to explore how one learns a narrative of human exceptionalism, how it becomes attached to a cultural ecosystem, how it protects and is protected by the cultural ecosystem (defense processes), and what it takes to move the barnacle off the rock or reconfigure the narrative into an altogether different animal.

Dr. Pye is a Founder and President of Viridis Graduate Institute (Ecological Psychology & Environmental Humanities - viridis.edu). As an executive director for international marine nonprofits, Dr. Pye worked with numerous NGOs to co-develop the Eastern Tropical Pacific Biological Seascape Corridor with the Ministers of the Environment from Costa Rica, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador.  

Dr. Pye has multiple publications in peer-reviewed journals and serves on the Editorial Board for Ecopsychology Journal. Dr. Pye lectures at Viridis Graduate Institute, and the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). She formerly taught at Pacifica Graduate Institute (clinical psychology, counseling psychology, depth psychology, and mythological studies programs), and at Kaweah Delta Mental Health Hospital Psychiatric Residency Program. Forthcoming textbook: Fundamentals of Ecological Psychology, Routledge.    

Presented by  Vlado Šolc

Are you concerned about the level of conflict in our communities and the spread of (or growing belief in) numerous conspiracy theories?  In his presentation and workshop, Vlado Šolc will explore the psychological dynamics of “dark religion”—what happens when spirituality ignores or separates itself from its own vital roots, leading to religions that by their very nature repress individuation. Groups and individuals overtaken by the unconscious energies of archetypes then are susceptible to all sorts of social ills, conflicts, terrorism, and wars. In the workshop, participants will focus on acquiring practical skills, including the basics of dream analysis and active imagination techniques. Through interactive exercises, we will experience the language of the unconscious, enhancing our understanding of the ego-Self dynamics.

Seating is limited. Please register in advance. 

Tax-deductible membership and tickets can be purchased on our website at boulderfriendsofjung.org/donate (join BFJ for $65).

Presenter: Vlado Šolc is a professional psychotherapist and Jungian Analyst practicing in Milwaukee WI. Vlado received training from C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago and Charles University in Prague. Vlado is a renowned Jungian analyst whose profound insights into the human psyche have contributed to the field of analytical psychology. With a career spanning several decades, Vlado Šolc has dedicated his life to unraveling the mysteries of the unconscious mind and helping individuals achieve wholeness and self- realization. Vlado lives in constant awe about the miracle of existence. He in an author of depth psychology-oriented books published in Czech Republic: Psyche, Matrix, Reality; The Father Archetype and In The Name of God – Fanaticism from Perspective of Depth Psychology. In 2018, he and George Didier co-authored Dark Religion, Fundamentalism from The Perspective of Jungian Psychology. His most recent book is Democracy and Individuation in the Times of Conspiracy Theories.

Presented by  Vlado Šolc

Are you concerned about the level of conflict in our communities and the spread of (or growing belief in) numerous conspiracy theories?  In his presentation and workshop, Vlado Šolc will explore the psychological dynamics of “dark religion”—what happens when spirituality ignores or separates itself from its own vital roots, leading to religions that by their very nature repress individuation. Groups and individuals overtaken by the unconscious energies of archetypes then are susceptible to all sorts of social ills, conflicts, terrorism, and wars. 

Seating is limited. Please register in advance. 

Tax-deductible membership and tickets can be purchased on our website at boulderfriendsofjung.org/donate (join BFJ for $65).

Presenter: Vlado Šolc is a professional psychotherapist and Jungian Analyst practicing in Milwaukee WI. Vlado received training from C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago and Charles University in Prague. Vlado is a renowned Jungian analyst whose profound insights into the human psyche have contributed to the field of analytical psychology. With a career spanning several decades, Vlado Šolc has dedicated his life to unraveling the mysteries of the unconscious mind and helping individuals achieve wholeness and self- realization. Vlado lives in constant awe about the miracle of existence. He in an author of depth psychology-oriented books published in Czech Republic: Psyche, Matrix, Reality; The Father Archetype and In The Name of God – Fanaticism from Perspective of Depth Psychology. In 2018, he and George Didier co-authored Dark Religion, Fundamentalism from The Perspective of Jungian Psychology. His most recent book is Democracy and Individuation in the Times of Conspiracy Theories.

“Gender Panic” was first coined by psychologist Kristen Schilt, meaning “a deep, cultural fear, set off when the ‘naturalness’ of a male-female gender binary is challenged.” In this interactive session, Bob Bongiovanni will explore the archetypal roots of “gender panic” that has become pervasive in American culture. Topics will include:

Anima & Animus

Archetype of the Hermaphrodite

Dark Religion & Resistance to the Nonbinary

Join us via Zoom

Meeting ID: 565 827 0584

Or participate by phone by calling +1 720 707 2699 (Denver)

Free to BFJ Members, $15 donation for nonmembers