Alchemical Reflections
From Carl Jung to Astrology to Synchronicity
Words that Heal, Words that Empower: The Transformative Power of Language
"Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world." - Buddha The words that we chose, Language, is an extraordinary tool. They serve as gateways to our innermost thoughts, emotions and the way we perceive...
The Curious and Paradoxical Nature of Beliefs
"You limit yourself by reducing the number of viewpoints you see." - Meir Ezra A prison of our own mind Do you have this feeling that you are trapped in your life? Do you ruminate about past events? Worry about the future? Or engage in self-criticism? We all...
Outgrowing Being Stuck
". . .the greatest and most important problems of life are fundamentally insoluble…. They can never be solved, but only outgrown…." - C. G. Jung Being Stuck in a Rut What is the outcome of doing all the inner work? Why do we need to do it? Do we really solve our...
Finding Gold in the Mud – Integrity and the Shadow
"Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching." - C.S. Lewis Integrity – the Key to Individuation I will never forget the day that I was presented with the concept of “integrity”. It was early in one of my Jungian analyses. For several years, I had...
Midwife of the Soul and Soul-Making
"Psychoanalysis is a new version of the ancient theme shared by all great religions." - Margaret Arden Is there a connection between spirituality and therapy? Many people enter my consulting room experiencing a profound emptiness. They know that something is missing...
The Mystery of And . . . .
"Every explicit duality is an implicit unity" - Alan Watts The Stuckness of Either/Or Do we solve our problems? I mean, do we really solve our problems in the sense that we can say to ourselves, “that issue or situation is firmly in the past – been there, done that”?...
The Plague of Guilt
"Guilt is not a response to anger; it is a response to one’s own actions or lack of action. If it leads to change then it can be useful, since it is then no longer guilt but the beginning of knowledge. " - Audre Lorde Story of the Lena Lena (not a real person but a...
How do you answer the question of meaning?
"I don't think [the meaning of life] is what we're seeking. I think [it's] an experience of being alive" - Joseph Campbell Asking big life questions is natural. The search for answers is understandable. Human beings are "meaning-making" machines. We want to know our...
Navigating the Minefields of Failure
"Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing." ― Denis Waitley Navigating the Shame of Failure:...
The Art of Crucial Conversations
"But rather than relying on a thin, idealized hope that we will all one day just get along, we can approach conflict resolution as an art form that we are privileged to develop and hone." ― Diane Musho Hamilton The Challenge of Conflict and the Unconscious The...
When the Body Says No
“We have lost touch with the gut feelings designed to be our warning system. The Body mounts a stress response, but the Mind is unaware of the threat." Gabor Mate The Mind-Body Connection – Healthy Ways to Work with Stress “I am stressed out!” “Wow, that situation was...
The Shades of the Matrix – Red or Blue Pill
“Freedom stretches only as far as the limits of our consciousness” - C.G. Jung Which pill do you take? The red pill or the blue pill In the first installment of the Matrix franchise, The Matrix, Thomas Anderson meets Morpheus for the first time in a nondescript dark...