The most frequent questions I get asked are “What is Creative Depth Work? and “Why did you get involved with Creative Depth Work?”
Here are the answers (briefly!) to those questions.
1.) Creative Depth Work is a blended process of Jungian Depth Work and working with images through art making. It explores the Soul/Psyche using Jung’s concepts of the ego, personal unconscious, collective unconscious, and archetypes. It also uses his concepts of shadow, anima/animus, complexes, dreams, and active imagination in service to the individuation of the Self. Essentially, discover and become less divided in your being and move into wholeness and authenticity. Jungian work is then done through the creative process, creating or working with images, which Jung saw as the language of the Soul. James Hillman, a Jungian and founder of Archetypal Psychology, says, “The Source of images–dream-images, fantasy-images, poetic-images is the self-generative activity of the soul itself.”
2.) When I discovered Creative Depth Work, it gave me a way to understand, engage with and describe my inner life. It helped me recognize and express the deepest parts of myself. I love art making and creating, so the creative part was a natural fit. But, I also found that ritual and shamanic style inner journey work is essentially Jung’s active imagination. Not only was Jung a licensed medical doctor who practiced psychiatry he was also a modern mystic. This aspect of creative depth work opened up an entire spiritual path for me. I found creative depth work to be such a big container that it could hold everything that deeply interested me. Myth, folklore, the divine feminine, an animate earth, symbol, divination, and more comfortably fit under this umbrella. Creative depth work provided a path to deeper self-knowledge and personal and spiritual growth. It explores the Soul/Psyche using Jung’s concepts of the ego, personal unconscious, collective unconscious, and archetypes. It also uses his concepts of shadow, anima/animus, complexes, dreams, and active imagination in service to the individuation of the Self. Essentially, discover and become less divided in your being and move into wholeness and authenticity. Jungian work is then done through the creative process, creating or working with images, which Jung saw as the language of the Soul. James Hillman, a Jungian and founder of Archetypal Psychology, says, “The Source of images–dream-images, fantasy-images, poetic-images is the self-generative activity of the soul itself.”
2.) When I discovered Creative Depth Work, it gave me a way to understand, engage with and describe my inner life. It helped me recognize and express the deepest parts of myself. I love art making and creating, so the creative part was a natural fit. But, I also found that ritual and shamanic style inner journey work is essentially Jung’s active imagination. Not only was Jung a licensed medical doctor who practiced psychiatry he was also a modern mystic. This aspect of creative depth work opened up an entire spiritual path for me. I found creative depth work to be such a big container that it could hold everything that deeply interested me. Myth, folklore, the divine feminine, an animate earth, symbol, divination, and more comfortably fit under this umbrella. Creative depth work provided a path to deeper self-knowledge and personal and spiritual growth.
Ask me anything in the comments!
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