Break through creative blocks using the transformative power of depth psychology. This advanced certificate program applies Jungian psychology, archetypal theory, and contemporary depth approaches to help you unlock dormant projects, navigate creative impasses, and develop a personalized methodology rooted in the wisdom of the unconscious.

Drawing on Jung’s understanding of the psyche, active imagination, shadow work, and archetypal energies, you’ll learn to work with your unconscious rather than against it. This isn’t surface-level creativity coaching, it’s a deep dive into the psychological forces shaping your creative life.

Through experiential practices, depth psychological inquiry, creative experiments, and expert guidance, you’ll transform blocks into breakthroughs and develop sustainable creative practices grounded in psychological insight.

 

What you will receive:

• 8 Interactive Live Webinar Sessions with world-recognized experts in applied archetypal astrology and relational and liminal process facilitation
• 8 Video Learning Sessions to watch at your convenience
• A Private, on-line Discussion Forum
• Pacifica Graduate Institute Advanced Training Certificate upon successful completion of the course

 

This course is ideal if you: 

• Are a creative professional experiencing blocks, resistance, or stagnation in your artistic practice and seeking depth psychological tools to unlock dormant projects and navigate creative impasses.
• Work as a therapist, coach, or consultant interested in integrating Jungian and archetypal approaches into your practice to support clients’ creative development and psychological transformation.
• Are an artist, writer, or maker wanting to move beyond surface-level creativity techniques and develop a personalized methodology rooted in unconscious wisdom and archetypal understanding.
• Seek to transform personal wounds and shadow material into creative fuel and are ready to engage in deep psychological work that bridges healing and artistic expression.
• Are a graduate student or educator in depth psychology, counseling, or the arts looking to deepen your understanding of the relationship between the unconscious, individuation, and sustainable creative practice.

 

Individual Session Descriptions:

 

Week 1: The Creative Psyche: Depth Psychology Foundations Understanding the Unconscious Sources of Creativity

Instructor: Susan Rowland, Ph.D.

Live zoom session: July 29, 2026, 12:00 – 1:30pm PT

• Introduction to Jungian psychology and the creative process
• The unconscious as wellspring: personal and collective dimensions with a little help from    fairytales
• Jung’s model of the psyche applied to creative work
• Ego, shadow, and Self in creative expression
• Depth Inquiry: What is your creative “edge”? What wants to emerge from the unconscious?
• Lab Work: Creative autobiography through a Jungian lens
• Mapping your creative blocks: psychological vs. practical
• Setting intentions for depth work

 

Week 2: Shadow, Resistance, and the Blocked Creative: Confronting What Hides in the Unconscious

Instructor: Susan Rowland, Ph.D.

Live zoom session: August 5, 2026, 12:00 – 1:30pm PT

• Shadow psychology and creative blocks
• What we repress, reject, and hide in our creative work
• The negative archetypes: Inner Critic, Saboteur, Imposter
• Perfectionism as shadow material  with a little help from myth and alchemy.
• Integration vs. elimination: working with (not against) resistance
• Depth Practice: Shadow dialogue using active imagination
• Lab Work: Identifying shadow content in your stuck projects
• Reclaiming creative energy from the shadow

 

Week 3: Chiron: A Mythic Lens on the Wounded Healer, Creative Transformation Depth Psychology, and Creative Expression

Instructor: Sandra del Castillo, Ph.D.

Live zoom session: August 12, 2026, 12:00 – 1:30pm PT

• Chiron: the wounded healer archetype in creative life
• Jung’s understanding of suffering and individuation
• Creativity as psychological healing and transformation
• The relationship between complex, trauma, and creative expression
• Depth Inquiry: Where is the “gold” in your creative wounds?
• Lab Work: A dialogue with Chiron, the Wounded healer, and integration
• From symptom to symbol: transforming pain into creative material

 

Week 4: Archetypal Forces in Creative Life Recognizing and Engaging Psychological Patterns

Instructor: Joanna Gardner, Ph. D.

Live zoom session: August 19, 2026, 12:00 – 1:30pm PT

• Introduction to archetypal psychology and creativity
• Key creative archetypes: Muse, Child, Trickster, Creator
• Recognizing archetypal patterns in your creative process
• Which archetype is blocking your project? Which is assisting? Which is calling?
• The transcendent function: holding tension between opposites
• Depth Practice: Archetypal amplification of creative blocks and flow
• Lab Work: Dialoguing with the archetypes in your project
• Engaging archetypal energies for breakthrough

 

Week 5: Dreams and Active Imagination for Creative Work Jungian Methods for Accessing Unconscious Material

Instructor: Victoria Stevens, Ph.D.

Live zoom session: August 26, 2026, 12:00 – 1:30pm PT

“Every good idea and all creative work are the offspring of the imagination, and have their source in what one is pleased to call infantile fantasy. Not the artist alone, but every creative individual whatsoever owes all that is greatest in his life to fantasy. The dynamic principle of fantasy is play, a characteristic also of the child, and as such it appears inconsistent with the principles of serious work. But without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable.” Jung, C.G. (2016). “Psychological Types,” p.88, Routledge

Both dreamwork and active imagination are ways of connecting with the creative unconscious. Jung felt that dreams provided a way for us to bridge the gap between our conscious mind and our unconscious. He perceived dreams as a kind of unwritten letter from the unconscious to our conscious selves. In many ways, active imagination is an invitation to enter the dreamscape while fully conscious and consciously entering into a dialogue with the unconscious, listening, and transforming inner figures, images, emotions, and voices into insight, healing, and integration. Unlike dreaming or dream analysis, this process requires conscious participation where you actually dialogue with the parts of your unconscious within your imagination.

In this module we will discuss both of these ways of learning from and building a relationship with our unconscious creative selves with specific steps for exploring and experiencing these techniques  with regard to both your ongoing creative process personally and specific creative projects or work in which you are currently immersed or starting.

 

Week 6: Alchemical Psychology and Creative Transformation: The Stages of Depth Creative Process

Instructor: Victoria Stevens, Ph.D.

Live zoom session: September 2, 2026, 12:00 – 1:30pm PT

Alchemy, as a metaphor, plays a vital role in Jung’s understanding of the psyche. He saw alchemy as the ancient language of the psyche, and the creative imagination as its living instrument and connection between the unconscious and conscious realms, guiding the soul toward its highest expression. His creative insight was that the alchemical process, and the cycles of death and rebirth mirrored stages of inner development in individuals over the lifespan and also in the development of a specific creative product. The alchemical process intersects with dreamwork and active imagination, as well as all forms of symbolic creative expression and is a vital tool for reframing psychological conflicts or crises, expanding creativity, and deepening spiritual experience.

Whether used in psychotherapy, our own personal self-awareness, or creative pursuits of any kind, the conceptual framework presented in the stages is a powerful guide to explore and connect with the depths of the psyche and. This cyclical journey through stages of dissolution, purification, and integration mirrors the creative process in the act of creation and in the transformative movement of the Self toward wholeness and integration.

In this module we will explore each stage of the alchemical process and link it to the creative process in general, opening up the space to utilize these lenses as ways of understanding ourselves in the context of the larger arc of individuation and in terms of specific creative projects.

 

Week 7: Myth, Story, and the Individuation Journey Personal Mythology and Creative Identity

Instructor: Joanna Gardner, Ph.D.

Live zoom session: Thursday September 9, 2026, 12:00 – 1:30pm PT

• The hero’s/heroine’s journey as individuation process
• Your creative life as mythic narrative
• Personal mythology: the stories shaping your creative identity
• Collective myths and contemporary creative expression
• Finding your creative lineage: ancestors, influence, legacy
• Depth Practice: Mythic mapping of your creative journey
• Lab Work: Rewriting limiting creative narratives
• The Self and creative calling: a teleological perspective

Week 8: Embodiment, Ritual, and Sustainable Depth Practice Integration and Ongoing Creative Individuation

Instructor: Sandra del Castillo, Ph. D.

Live zoom session: September 16, 2026, 12:00 – 1:30pm PT

• The body as vessel for unconscious creative material
• Somatic depth psychology approaches to blocks
• Creating psychologically meaningful creative rituals
• Temenos: sacred space for depth creative work
• Integrating body, psyche, and creative expression
• Depth Practice: Designing rituals for creative transitions
• Lab Work: Your personalized depth creative methodology
• Sustainable practice: working with creative cycles and seasons
• Community and witness in depth creative work
• Creating your creative manifesto rooted in psychological wisdom

 

Learning Objectives:

(12 CECs)

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Explain a basic understanding of how depth psychology provides a new relationship to creative work.
• Apply the psychic image to energize creativity.
• Utilize shadow experiences and material in the creative process.
• Demonstrate practical ways of integrating blocks and stuckness to release the spontaneity of the psyche.
• Assess limited narratives about personal suffering, to shift to mythic narratives, in order to facilitate creativity, and individuation.
• Apply an “archetypal eye” to discern when limiting beliefs about personal suffering block creativity and understanding in in our personal lives.
• List and describe key creative archetypes.
• Assess creative archetypes in creative people, projects, and processes.
• Describe and be able to creatively apply Jungian techniques for working with dreams.
• Apply both dream interpretation and active imagination to the deepening of creative work and the freeing up of creative blocks.
• Identify the main stages of the alchemical process as they correspond to the stages of the creative process.
• Apply understanding of the stages of synthetic transformation to the larger view of one’s own individuation and creative purpose, and to the process of creating specific creative works.
• List and describe stages of hero and heroine journeys.
• Analyze archetypal aspects of your own creative journey.
• Apply Jungian depth psychological approaches to creativity as a path to wholeness and individuation.
• Utilize ritual art as a sacred, embodied and sustainable path to wholeness.

 

Career Competencies:

1. Apply depth psychological frameworks to creative practice and consultation: Utilize Jungian psychology, archetypal theory, shadow work, and active imagination techniques to diagnose creative blocks, facilitate breakthrough processes, and guide individuals or teams through psychological barriers to creative expression.

2. Facilitate transformational creative processes using archetypal and mythic frameworks: Employ archetypal amplification, mythic narrative analysis, and the hero’s/heroine’s journey to help clients reframe creative identity, recognize psychological patterns in creative work, and navigate stages of creative transformation and individuation.

3. Design and implement depth-informed creative interventions and rituals: Develop psychologically meaningful creative rituals, sacred practices, and embodied methodologies that integrate somatic awareness, symbolic work, and alchemical stages to support sustainable creative development in professional and therapeutic contexts.

4. Interpret and apply unconscious material to creative problem-solving: Utilize dreamwork, active imagination, and symbolic inquiry to access unconscious creative resources, transform psychological wounds into creative material, and bridge conscious intention with unconscious wisdom in artistic and professional projects.

5. Integrate shadow work and complexity into creative leadership and coaching: Recognize and work constructively with resistance, perfectionism, inner critics, and shadow material in creative professionals, transforming blocks into generative energy while fostering psychological integration and authentic creative expression.

 

 

SCHEDULE FOR LIVE ONLINE LEARNING SESSIONS

Week 1: Zoom Session – July 29, 2026 – 12:00 – 1:30pm PT – Susan Rowland

Week 2: Zoom Session – August 5, 2026 – 12:00 – 1:30pm PT – Susan Rowland

Week 3: Zoom Session – August 12, 2026 – 12:00 – 1:30pm PT – Sandra del Castillo

Week 4: Zoom Session – August 19, 2026 – 12:00 – 1:30pm PT – Joanna Gardner

Week 5: Zoom Session – August 26, 2026 – 12:00 – 1:30pm PT – Victoria Stevens

Week 6: Zoom Session – September 2, 2026 – 12:00 – 1:30pm PT – Victoria Stevens

Week 7: Zoom Session – September 9, 2026 – 12:00 – 1:30pm PT – Joanna Gardner

Week 8: Zoom Session – September 16, 2026 – 12:00 – 1:30pm PT- Sandra del Castillo

 

Required & Recommended Readings:

Week 1: Susan Rowland

Required Readings:

Getting Started with Jung for Creative Breakthroughs (unpublished essay by Susan Rowland)

Read the selections from Jung on these links:

Jung on Ulysses

https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/02/02/carl-jung-ulysses-james-joyce-review-letter/

Jung on Creativity

https://www.themarginalian.org/2025/04/09/carl-jung-creativity/

Recommended Reading:

Sandford R. (2019) A Jungian Approach to Engaging Our Creative Nature. Routledge.

 

Week 2: Susan Rowland

Required Readings:

Rowland, S. “Jung’s “living mystery” of creativity, symbols and the unconscious in writing,” in Madden, K. ed. (2016) The Unconscious Roots of Creativity. Chiron.

Selections from:

Jung on the shadow – pacifica lib: https://pacifica.libguides.com/Jung/shadow

Recommended Readings:

Madden, K. ed. (2016) The Unconscious Roots of Creativity. Chiron.

 

Week 3: Sandra del Castillo

Required Readings:

Anzaldúa, G. (2015). Flights of the imagination. In Anzaldúa, G., Keating A.  (Ed.) Luz en lo oscuro: Rewriting identity, spirituality, reality. (pp. 23-46). Durham & London: Duke University Press.

Hillman, J. (1996). In a nutshell, Growing down. In The soul’s code: In search of character and calling (pp. 3-62). New York, NY: Random House

Quibell, D., Selig, J., Slattery, D. (2019). Fifteen principles of deep creativity. In Quibell, D., Selig, J., Slattery, D.  Deep creativity: Seven ways to spark your creative spirit. (pp. 7-8).  Boulder, CO: Shambhala.

The Astrology Podcast. (2020, September 16). Chiron in astrology with Melanie Reinhart [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/9mOaVT8pLao?si=SVLmMZHzg0V-lCO6

 

Recommended Readings:

Slattery, D. (2019).  Suffering the story into being. (pp. 174-183). In Quibell, D., Selig, J., Slattery, D. (2019).  Deep creativity: Seven ways to spark your creative spirit. (pp. 242-254).  Boulder, CO: Shambhala.

Dunlea, M. (2019) Bodydreaming in the treatment of developmental trauma. New York, NY: Routledge

The Weekend University. (2019, June 13). Bodydreaming & Healing Developmental Trauma–Marian Dunlea [Video]. https://youtu.be/heycAQP0Nmo?si=6AipuHftL0p86g3B

 

Week 4: Joanna Gardner

Required Readings:

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. (1996). Chapter 5, The flow of creativity. Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention (pp. 107-126). Harper Perennial.

Hillman, James. (1999). Creativity as a human instinct; An archetypal basis for the notions of creativity. The myth of analysis: Three essays in archetypal psychology (pp 31-49). Northwestern UP.

Recommended reading

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. Harper Perennial.

Hillman, James. (1999). Part one: On psychological creativity. The myth of analysis: Three essays in archetypal psychology (pp 9-113). Northwestern UP.

 

Week 5: Victoria Stevens

Required Readings:

Davis, J. (2019). Active Imagination in Psychotherapy, part of Springer Nature D. A. Leeming (ed.), Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27771-9_200208-2

Jung, C.G. (1974). The practical use of dream analysis. Dreams, pp. 87-109. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. (Trans. R.F.C. Hull)

Tozzi, C. Active Imagination. International Association of Analytical Psychology. https://www.iaap.org

Wells, M. (2016) posted on artistocratsofthesoul.com

Recommended Readings:

Johnson, R. A. (1986). Inner work: Using dreams and active imagination for personal growth. Harper & Row.

Jung, C. G. (1971). Psychological types (H. G. Baynes, Trans.; R. F. C. Hull Rev. ed.; Collected Works Vol. 6). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1921)

Jung, C. G. (1973). Letters (Vol. 1: 1906–1950) (G. Adler & A. Jaffé, Eds.; R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). Princeton University Press.

Jung, C. G. (1989). Memories, dreams, reflections (A. Jaffé Ed.; R. & C. Winston, Trans.). Vintage Books. (Original work published 1961)

Jung, C. G. (1997). Jung on active imagination (J. Chodorow, Ed.). Princeton University Press.

Jung, C. G. (2009). The Red Book (Liber Novus) (S. Shamdasani, Ed.; M. Kyburz, J. Peck, & S. Shamdasani, Trans.). W. W. Norton.

Keyes, M. F. (1983). Inward journey: Art as therapy. Shambhala Publications.

von Franz, M.‑L. (1980). Alchemical active imagination (A. Jaffé, Ed. A. G. Ebenstein, Trans.). Spring Publications.

 

Week 6: Victoria Stevens

Required Readings:

Anderson, D. (2018). The alchemy of play. Psychological Perspectives, 61: 241–256, C© C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles ISSN: 0033-2925 print / 1556-3030 online DOI: 10.1080/00332925.2018.

Rose, D. (2016). Accessing creativity: Jungian night-sea journeys, wandering minds, and chaos. Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 117 -139. 

Jung and Alchemy: The Psychology Behind the Gold (2026). Jungian Concepts 

Recommended Readings:

Edinger, E. (1994). Anatomy of the psyche. Chicago: Open Court.

Eliade, M. (1995). Rites and symbols of initiation. Woodstock: Spring Publ.

Hannah, B. (1988). Striving towards wholeness. Boston: Sigo. 

Jacoby, M. (1998). Individuation and narcissism. London: Routledge.

Jung, C.G. & Wilhelm, R. (1957). The secret of the golden flower. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,

Neumann, E. (1956). Amor and psyche. New York: Pantheon. 

von Franz, M.L. (1980). Alchemy: An introduction to the symbolism and the psychology. Toronto: Inner City. 

 

Week 7: Joanna Gardner

Required Readings:

Hudson, Kim. (2010). Preface; Introduction; Chapter 1: Archetypal theory. The virgin’s promise: Writing stories of feminine creative, spiritual, and sexual awakening (pp xvii-28). Michael Wiese Productions.

Recommended Readings:

Hudson, Kim. (2010). The virgin’s promise: Writing stories of feminine creative, spiritual, and sexual awakening. Michael Wiese Productions.

 

Week 8: Sandra del Castillo

Required Readings:

Anzaldúa, G. (2015). Now let us shift…conocimiento..inner work, public acts. In Anzaldúa, G., Keating A.  (Ed.) Luz en lo oscuro: Rewriting identity, spirituality, reality. (pp. 117-159). Durham & London: Duke University Press.

Halprin, A. (2006). Circle the earth with peace. In Ariadne, P. Women dreaming-into-art: Seven artists who create from dreams. Lakeville, MN: Galde Press.

DOP– The Door of Perception. (2019, September, 19).

Anna Halprin Documentary [Video]. https://youtu.be/h-6-vamOMxY?si=f4SO955wFk0pgz5m

Changing of the Gods. (2022, January 26). The Archetype of Oshun– Yeye Luisah Teish [Video]. https://youtu.be/2uo3_sWBFFQ?si=i65nrRxXyNp8QYgT

Recommended Readings:

Ariadne, P. (2006). Women dreaming-into-art: Seven artists who create from dreams. Lakeville, MN: Galde Press.

Jung. C.G. The Spirit in Man, Art, and Literature “Ulysses,” pp.109-134 and “Picasso”

Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1966) EBSCO

Quibell, D. Art as sacrament: In holy dialogue with the divine. In Quibell, D., Selig, J., Slattery, D. (2019).  Deep creativity: Seven ways to spark your creative spirit. (pp. 242-254).  Boulder, CO: Shambhala.