Zoom Only: Painting Dreams: An Experiential Workshop

Presented by Marion Anderson, Ph.D.

4 Tuesdays: October 29, November 5, 12 and 19;  2-4 pm.

Painting Inner Images is a non-verbal method to contact and symbolically express the unconscious, often not yet possible to be formulated in words. Dream amplification is a Jungian method of exploring the unconscious. In this workshop, we will immerse into an archetypal dream as well as individually into personal dream images and amplify those images over the course of three weeks. In the last session, we will contemplate the series of three images created by each participant to further understand the enclosed message. The created images will not only reflect the individual’s personal situation at this moment, but also effect the group as a whole and provide symbol amplification for all. For mental health professionals, this exploration and lived experience of working with archetypal forces and personal inner imagery is a critical part of training oneself to guide patients in their own journey of working directly with the psyche as described by Jung. This mostly non-verbal and hands-on workshop for adults does not require artistic talent or knowledge. To contact the unconscious, the aesthetic quality of the image is secondary to the dynamic of the process and the expression of meaning.

Learning objectives:

• Describe how the process of using painting as a way of working with one’s personal imagery can be of value in the therapeutic process;
• Describe some of the difficulties that can occur when a patient is expressing inner images through painting;
• Describe what is meant by Jung’s concept of the shadow;
• Give an example of how working symbolically with inner images can help patients integrate and work more consciously with their shadow material;
• Describe how painting symbols from the unconscious can have a healing effect on clients by working more directly with defensive structures such as splitting, projection, and projective identification;
• Describe how this technique can be helpful during times of emotional transition;
• Describe how creating an image with the hands can stimulate a more active attitude and why this might be critical in working with patients with depression;
• Give an example of how symbolic content expressed through painting images of the unconscious can help mental health professionals guide clients through trauma and crisis situations.

Marion Anderson Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist, Jungian analyst, and certified Sandplay therapist (STA/ISST) in private practice in Santa Monica, and a member of the faculty at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles, where she teaches Jungian theory, Sandplay, and Active Imagination, as well as painting workshops. A native German, she is a founding member of the Sandplay society in Brazil, where she lived and practiced as a clinical psychologist for 13 years before her move to the US. She teaches and lectures nationally and internationally, and is the author of several articles in the Journal of Sandplay Therapy Psychological Perspectives and other international publications.

Refund requests must be sent by email at administration@junginla.org before noon (12:00 pm) prior to the program being paid for. No refund will be issued otherwise.