The Persephone myth conveys a natural movement in psychological life For Persephone, it is only as she is detached from her familiar world, and descends to the Underworld that she can bring the blessing and the gift of the seasons, of new green life, and fecundity. Sometimes the encounter with life’s circumstances and with the unconscious can seem like a sudden plunge into darkness and descent into the underworld. But the underworld has its own gifts that it brings. Only those who can accept those gifts, and eat the food of the underworld, can bring the gift of life and fertility back to the “surface world” of their everyday lives.
Entries Tagged as 'life passages'
Psychotherapy and Renewal: Persephone’s Big Comeback
April 5th, 2011 · No Comments · analytical psychology, archetypal experience, Carl Jung, depth psychology, inner life, Introversion, journey, Jungian, Jungian analysis, life passages, mythology, personal myth, personal story, psychological crisis, Psychology and Suburban Life, psychotherapist, Psychotherapy, renewal, Self, soul, therapist, therapy, unconscious
Tags:archetypes·CG Jung·counselling·depth psychology·Jungian analysis·Jungian psychology·life passages·Psychotherapy·unconscious
Escaping the Grip of Regret, Part 2: The Power of Regret
July 29th, 2010 · 4 Comments · complexes, compulsion, decision, depression, depth psychology, guilt, Hope, Individuation, inner life, Jungian analysis, Jungian psychology, life passages, midlife, Psychology, Psychology and Suburban Life, Psychotherapy, regret, soul, The Self, therapy, unconscious, wholeness
In my last posting, I tried to open up the whole subject of regret, and the powerful and sometimes crippling place that it can occupy in our lives, and how we can be held in slavery to regret of all the choices we could have made differently, or courses of events that could have turned out differently. In this posting, I’d [...]
Tags:analytical psychology·Carl Jung·CG Jung·counselling·depth psychology·Individuation·Jungian analysis·Jungian psychology·life passages·Psychology·Psychotherapy·The Self·wholeness
Escaping the Grip of Regret, Part 1
July 26th, 2010 · 2 Comments · complexes, compulsion, depth psychology, guilt, life passages, midlife, Psychology, Psychology and Suburban Life, Psychotherapy, regret, soul, therapy, unlived life, wholeness
Regret can be a potent emotion, and a great many of us have experienced its power. In my next few postings, I will be examining the phenomenon of regret, and the way it impacts us. It can have a huge grip on us. It can even imprison us, and embitter us beyond words. But, let me ask a question that might seem strange: Is there health in regret?
Tags:analytical psychology·counselling·depth psychology·Individuation·Jungian analysis·Jungian psychology·psychoanalysis·Psychotherapy·wholeness
Welcome to the New Home of “Vibrant Jung Thing!”
May 5th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Jungian analysis, Jungian psychology, life passages, Mississauga, Oakville, Psychology and Suburban Life, Psychotherapy
Dear Readers, With some great help, I’ve finally been able to move my blog onto my main website, which is something that I have been wanting to do for a very long time. I hope that you will continue to read and enjoy my posts. Having the blog on my main site makes it easier [...]
Tags:analytical psychology·burlington·Carl Jung·counselling·greater toronto area·Jungian analysis·Mississauga·Oakville·psychotherapists·psychotherapy counselling
Here in the Middle Years of Life: Is That All There Is?
February 28th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Anxiety, depression, depth psychology, Hope, Identity, inner life, life passages, Meaning, midlife, Mississauga, Oakville, Psychotherapy, soul, stress, suburbia / exurbia, The Self, therapy
The great jazz artist Peggy Lee performed the following beautiful, highly disturbing yet haunting song in 1969, at midlife, in her 50th year: I doubt that questions get much more real than those in this song. And the question that Peggy Lee sings about here is of the type, that, for many people, can become achingly [...]
Tags:analytical psychology·burlington·canada·clinical psychology·counselling·greater toronto area·medicine·mental health·Mississauga·Oakville·Ontario·psychoanalysis·Psychology·psychotherapists·Psychotherapy·psychotherapy counselling·suburban life·treatment of bipolar disorder
Identity and Anxiety in the Film, "Up In the Air"
January 22nd, 2010 · 1 Comment · Anxiety, Current Affairs, depth psychology, Film, Identity, Individuation, life passages, Meaning, midlife, persona, puer aeternis, unlived life, wholeness, work
Make no mistake, moving is living. -Ryan Bingham "Up in the Air", directed by Jason Reitman, stars George Clooney, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick. Clooney's character Ryan Bingham is a full-time corporate down-sizer whose life consists of an endless stream of business travel ("322 days last year"). He moves from place to place, letting people go [...]
Tags:analytical psychology·burlington·canada·clinical psychology·counselling·greater toronto area·medicine·mental health·Mississauga·Oakville·Ontario·psychoanalysis·Psychology·psychotherapists·Psychotherapy·psychotherapy counselling·suburban life·treatment of bipolar disorder
Job, Identity, Anxiety
January 13th, 2010 · No Comments · Anxiety, complexes, Identity, Individuation, life passages, Psychology, Psychotherapy, The Self, wholeness
I don't know what might motivate an employer to choose to lay people off 3 weeks before Christmas. However, judging from the calls I received from clients and potential clients prior to the New Year, there were quite a few employers who took such action this year. Having been on the receiving end of such news myself in prior times, my thoughts and [...]
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Remembering and Renewal
December 31st, 2009 · No Comments · archetypal experience, depth psychology, Hope, Identity, Individuation, life passages, The Self
New Year's Eve and the New Year, with all its joy, and its bittersweet recollection of another year gone by, will soon be here. Another year of memories, and another year of living behind us, with everything that entails. For many, 2009 couldn't end too soon. A year of stress and economic uncertainty like practically no [...]
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When You Hit a Brick Wall
July 9th, 2009 · No Comments · Carl Jung, depression, depth psychology, Jungian analysis, Jungian psychology, life passages, midlife, psychological crisis, Psychology and Suburban Life, Psychotherapy, soul, stress, The Self, unconscious, wholeness
Often people get to the point in life where they reach an impasse, and they don’t know how to solve a particular situation in their lives. There doesn’t seem to be a way forward and there doesn’t seem to be a solution. Although this can happen at any point in life, it seems particularly prevalent at mid-life. Often, the way one becomes [...]
Tags:analytical psychology·depth psychology·Individuation·Jungian analysis·Jungian analyst·Jungian psychology·life passages·Psychotherapy
Meaningful Life
June 17th, 2009 · No Comments · depth psychology, life passages, Meaning, meaningful life, midlife
The Toronto Globe and Mail in an article this morning cited research by Dr. Patricia A. Boyle and her colleagues at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and published in Psychosomatic Medicine, tending to empirically confirm something that psychotherapists and counsellors have known from their practices for a very long time: A more meaningful life [...]