by Jemma Elliot, MA, LMFT, LPCC, Co-Chair, Counseling Psychology Department

As Co-Chair of the Counseling Psychology Department at Pacifica, it is my joy to support our students as they navigate their education in our MA and PsyD Counseling Psychology Programs. Our program is unique and meaningful – a cauldron of ideas where incredibly diverse individuals, yet like-minded in spirit and focus, come together with an overarching goal to become helping professionals who impact the collective.

My path to a rich clinical and academic career began as a graduate of the MA Counseling Psychology Program myself. Like so many who come to Pacifica, I was always deeply called to be of service. As a survivor of 9/11 in Manhattan in 2001, I learned early in my adulthood about the textures of collective trauma and was propelled on a path to uncover healing ways of being with others. I decided to return to school to pursue an undergraduate degree specifically in Psychology, focusing my research on trauma, and then was led to graduate study at Pacifica, which allowed me to incorporate the tenets that felt most crucial in healing work to me – tenets inclusive of the whole organism, including, importantly, the unconscious.

by Matthew Bennett, PsyD, and Jemma Elliot, MA,, Co-chairs Counseling Psychology Department  

As chairs of the unified Counseling Psychology Department, which includes both the MA and PsyD degrees in Counseling Psychology, we appreciate the energy, focus, and good judgment it takes to apply for and enroll in graduate school. We would like to take this time to describe some of the more valuable, noteworthy, and special aspects of the PsyD program, in the hopes that this will help you make an informed decision about starting your future careers.  These are some of the meaningful ways in which the PsyD in Counseling Psychology Program at Pacifica stands out:

We crosswalk applied clinical practice with the perspectives of depth psychology.  While any effective doctoral degree preparing students for licensure as psychologists trains students in a broad range of skill-sets (such as psychological assessment, theories of psychotherapy and clinical intervention, risk assessment, cultural competence, and principles of psychopathology), Pacifica’s PsyD in Counseling Psychology provides students with relational, imaginal, and creative capacities which enhance each of these.  Depth Psychological models of human psychology encourage the kind of emotional honesty, attunement, curiosity, and cognitive flexibility which allow powerful and effective outcomes.  At the same time, we will help you prepare to hit the ground running in your applied practicum and internship training experiences.

Matthew Bennett, PsyD, Chair, Counseling Psychology Department and Jemma Elliot, MA, LMFT, LPCC, Co-Chair, Counseling Psychology Department

As Chair and Co-Chair of the Counseling Psychology Department at Pacifica, we are often asked, “What makes the MA Counseling Psychology Program at Pacifica unique?” We are hopeful that this letter provides a space to reflect upon that important question.

There are a number of wonderful MA Programs in Counseling Psychology to choose from, and we are proud to count these other programs among our colleagues, collaborating with them in various consortia and in other areas of our professional lives. While all of these programs offer the tools needed for learning clinicians, there are some meaningful ways in which Pacifica’s MA Counseling Psychology Program is unique:

• Focus on Depth Psychology: Above all, Pacifica’s MA Counseling Psychology Program offers a truly unique focus on the interweaving of depth psychology throughout all facets of the curriculum. While students gain education and training in all of the complex content areas required for licensure, they are also simultaneously gaining the opportunity to view this all through a depth psychological lens – a truly unparalleled experience in the world of higher education in Psychology.

Next week, Counseling will be holding a series of events for our "Counseling Community Commencement Weekend". On Thursday evening, we will hold the next in our series of webinars, this time a clinical round table with department faculty. On Friday morning, we will host Thesis Presentation Day. 

“The question of vocation is crucial, and choosing the right one requires listening to the voice within.  The root of the word “vocation” is Latin for voice.  Learning to trust that inner voice in the face of economic and social pressures that might urge otherwise is an act of courage.  Accessing that courage is key to finding the voice.”

~ Dr. Joseph Cambray, President and CEO

The Friday before commencement is the M.A. Counseling Psychology Program's Thesis Presentation Day. Students who wish to present their thesis to fellow classmates, family, staff, and professors have the opportunity to showcase their research findings and experiences throughout the process. Today we would like to highlight all of the presenters and the titles of their papers. Thesis presentations for the M.A. Counseling Psychology Program will take place on Friday, May 25th at Pacifica's Ladera Lane Campus from 9am to 5 pm in Classrooms A, B, and G, with lunch to be served from 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm.  This event is free and open to the public.

 Illness, Identity, and the Archetype of the Exile: Finding Meaning and Vitality through Depth Psychotherapy-An Interview with Dr. Brad Chabin. A Guest Blog Post by Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.

Listen to the full audio interview with Brad Chabin here (approx. 29 mins)

C. G. Jung viewed mid-life, the time midway between entering adulthood and the end of life, as a critical time of transition. Having focused primarily on priorities like career and family, people can be left with a sense that they are missing some fundamental meaning in their lives, a promise which might be revealed in the second half of life.[1] Dr. Brad Chabin, a depth psychotherapist with a practice in West Hollywood, California, had his own experience of a spontaneous and powerful mid-life transition.

Sandplay as a Healing Modality; An Interview with Jungian Analyst and Professor, Jorge de la O A. Guest Post by Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.

For Jungian analyst and professor, Jorge de la O, the desire to become a therapist began in the late 1970s when he saw Violet Oaklander,[1] who was instrumental in her work with children and adolescents using Gestalt therapy, at a confluent education conference at USC. Oaklander presented some slides on the process of sandtray (a somewhat different process from Sandplay, the Jungian approach to sandtray which was created by Jungian analyst Dora Kalff)[2]. When Jorge saw the trays and the work Oaklander was doing, he was completely taken by it. "It was magical," he reports. As a kindergarten teacher at the time, he knew he wanted Sandplay in his life, and a seed was planted.

An Interview with MFT Consortium Stipend Recipient, Naris Kesheshe
A Guest Post by Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.

When she was 13 years old, Naris Kesheshe—who recently finished her third year in the Counseling Psychology Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute—was dramatically uprooted from her native culture in Iran and forced to start anew as an immigrant to the United States.

The culture shock she experienced from moving from an all-girls school in her native country to a school in the U.S. where both genders were integrated was just one of several catalysts for her, and the ultimately, the trauma of her entire experience eventually led her to study whole group dynamics, sociology, and the psychology of the person and the whole psyche.

Counseling and Community Mental Health: A Soul-Based Calling An Interview with MFT Consortium Stipend Recipient, Minh Tran
A Guest Blog Post by Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.

In his senior year of college, Minh Tran, a “first and a half” generation Vietnamese immigrant who moved to the U.S. as a child, started volunteering community organizations doing lay counseling work, including HIV testing, harm reduction and substance abuse counseling, and outreach. Tran spent much of his time focusing on harm reduction, a specific approach to counseling which tends to bring the unconscious to the fore by restoring choice or changing thoughts and behavior. Harm reduction attempts to reduce harm by any means, especially by addressing an individual’s strengths, Minh states. Whatever one is already doing in their life that's working—such as exercising, for example—can be engaged.