Humanistic Psychology Lecture Series

William James College is excited to announce the fourth lecture in the continuing lecture series that focuses on the current role of Humanistic Psychology in the context of the continually changing dynamics within the field of psychology and mental health practice. While evidence based treatments and behavioral protocols have come to prominence in recent years, humanistic psychology remains at the core of the human transaction and process that is psychotherapy. This lecture series aims to bring esteemed colleagues from around the country whose primary focus is on the humanistic perspective in psychotherapy to help articulate why this perspective remains so vital and necessary in contemporary clinical practice.

The Practice of Embodied Imagination in Psychotherapy

Wednesday, September 21, 2016 from 7:00- 8:30 pm

at William James College, Newton

Dr. Robert Bosnak will be giving the fourth lecture of the Humanistic Psychology lecture series entitled The Practice of Embodied Imagination in Psychotherapy. Embodied imagination is a therapeutic and creative form of working with dreams, images and memories pioneered by Dutch Jungian Analyst Robert Bosnak based on the principles first developed by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung and later expanded by James Hillman. The technique of embodied imagination takes dreaming as the paradigm for all work with images. While dreaming, everyone experiences dreams as embodied events in time and space; that is, the dreamer is convinced that he or she is experiencing a real event in a real environment. So from the perspective of dreaming, the image is a place. Based on this notion, the dreamer can re-enter the landscape of the dream and flash back into its images to more fully and deeply explore and experience them. The dreamer explores the images of the dream while in a hypnagogic state, a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping. Once fully immersed in the images that the dream environment presents, the dreamer is then also invited to feel and identify the feelings and sensations manifested in the body from a variety of dream perspectives. This is very different than the therapist interpretation and explanation the meaning of the various images.

Learning objectives:

• Discuss the theoretical background of embodied imagination in the context of Jungian Psychology

• Describe how to use embodied imagination in psychotherapy

• Explain how to work on dreams and other images without interpreting

HP04| 1.5 CE Credits | $30

No CE Credits | FREE | Pre-Registration REQUIRED

Robert Bosnak, Psy.A., trained at the Jung Institute in Zurich. He has authored several books. They are: A Little Course in Dreams, Christopher’s Dream, Tracks in the Wilderness of Dreaming and Embodiment: Creative Imagination in Medicine, Art and Travel. Robert is an instructor of Embodied Imagination® worldwide, and was co-founder of the International Society for Embodied Imagination, the National Nightmare Hotline (866-DRMS911), and since 1997, the premier voice program on the Internet for interactive work on dreams and imagery. He is past president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, and was visiting Professor of Clinical Psychology at Kyoto University in Japan. In addition to his clinical expertise, Robert’s interest in Alchemy has been channeled into the first in a series of novels entitled Red Sulphur: The Greatest Mystery in Alchemy. Books 1 and 2. 2015.