Saturday, May 10, 2025
Working with Children Through a Jungian Lens
Presented by Elizabeth Schofield-Bickford, M.A., L.M.F.T.
Jung searched for a method to heal himself. He was drawn to engage the impulses and images of the unconscious. While Jung himself did not see children, he found good medicine in listening to his own inner childlike impulses to engage his inner images to heal himself. In this seminar, we will explore some of the ways the unconscious emerges in drawing, dreams, play, and sandplay when working with children. We will look at these expressions of the unconscious separately and then use case vignettes to illustrate these developing aspects of the child’s psyche and their implications in the journey of individuation.
Learning Objectives:
- Discuss the symbolic underpinnings of working with children.
- Describe methods used in working with children from a Jungian perspective.
- Identify themes that are often woven through a child’s process.
- Discuss working with transference, countertransference, and parents.
Elizabeth Schofield-Bickford, LMFT, CST, is a certified Child and Adult Jungian Analyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles and a Certified Sandplay Therapist STA/ISST. She is Director of the Hilde Kirsch Children’s Center at the Jung Institute in Los Angeles and co-director of the ARAS Teen LA Summer Program. She teaches at the LA Institute in the analyst training program and in the 2-Year Sandplay Course. She is co-organizing the First North American Conference on Infancy, Childhood and Adolescence. This will be a hybrid event to held at the San Francisco Jung Institute in April 2025 and will be co-sponsored by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Jung Institutes. In 2022, she taught Working with Children as part of the Institute’s Certificate Program for Clinicians, and is happy to be doing so again this year. Her article Dying to be An Analyst was published in Psychological Perspectives in 2020. She has a private practice in Santa Monica where she works with children and adults.
This course will introduce Jung’s theory and give context for its place in psychological theory. Jung was influenced by the scientific and philosophical tradition of the nineteenth century, as well as his classical and religious education. We will introduce the basic concepts of his theory and describe why it initially appealed more to artistic, literary, and religious groups than the early psychoanalytic community. Today, his concepts not only find a place in many psychological modalities but also in neurobiology and trauma studies.
Shadow and complexes operate as dynamic forces in our lives but are often elusive to grasp. In this seminar we will examine some of the ways in which shadow material and complexes appear in dreams and daily life, particularly in our relationships with others. Learning to identify and work with these unconscious and often hidden aspects of oneself in the context of the analytic relationship can lead to a greater sense of integration and cohesion.
Archetypal images lie at the core of the depth and breadth of psychological practice. An ability to identify and experience the energy of the archetype, as well as its power and structure, is an essential element in the communication and intensity of the connection between the patient, the therapist, and the world they live in. In this workshop and lecture we will look at differences between personal complexes and the archetypal images that unite, inform, and so often unconsciously dominate our human behavior and guide our thoughts.
Myths, fairy tales and parables are reflections of human thoughts and consciousness. Embedded within these stories are archetypes imbued with symbolism and meaning that upon inspection and reflection allow the clinician to reach a greater depth in the clinical setting. Drawing from a variety of fairy tales, myths, and parables, we will identify some of Jung’s major theories such as complex, shadow, persona, and the unconscious, as a means of developing a greater curiosity and understanding of their symbolic representation in literature. We will use Jung’s tool of amplification as a means of increasing our understanding of the ways in which these aspects of the psyche can present in the context of analysis, as well as working to help patients better understand and integrate these aspects of the personality.
Jung said, “In each of us there is another whom we do not know. He speaks to us in dreams and tells us how differently he sees us from the ways we see ourselves”. This presentation will introduce key concepts of Jungian dream analysis with an emphasis on different types of dreams (e.g. initial dreams, transference dreams, compensatory dreams), as well as how to identify personal as well as archetypal dream motifs. We will explore different ways of working with dreams in clinical practice including association and active imagination as a way of helping patients find a more active relationship to these communications from the unconscious.
In his writings, Jung made contradictory statements about transference and countertransference, leading to discussion and debate about his point of view. His clearest views on the subject are described in detail in his essay Psychology of the Transference, which we discuss at length. We will identify the central differences between Freud’s and Jung’s positions on transference. We will also look at transference through the lens of post-Jungians. Most importantly we will discuss the use of transference/countertransference, as it is applied to psychotherapeutic practice.
In this seminar, the alchemical transmutation of base metals is explored symbolically and historically as a metaphor for the individuation process. The stages of the transformation process are delineated, from the dross of the prima materia to the gold of self-discovery. Attendees will gain insights into how alchemical principles can be applied to modern psychological practices and personal growth.
Jung searched for a method to heal himself. He was drawn to engage the impulses and images of the unconscious. While Jung himself did not see children, he found good medicine in listening to his own inner childlike impulses to engage his inner images to heal himself. In this seminar, we will explore some of the ways the unconscious emerges in drawing, dreams, play, and sandplay when working with children. We will look at these expressions of the unconscious separately and then use case vignettes to illustrate these developing aspects of the child’s psyche and their implications in the journey of individuation.
“Experience in analytical psychology has amply shown that conscious and unconscious contents seldom agree to their content and their tendencies.” – C.G. Jung CW 8 §132
Describe the transference/countertransference field and how it manifests in the consulting room;
