A Jungian Perspective On Trauma
This course is an exploration of the intricate landscape of trauma with renowned Jungian Analyst, John Van Eenwyk. He draws from decades of extensive expertise in trauma therapy. He merges mainly Jungian perspectives with insights from various psychological traditions. This generates an effective method of understanding and treating trauma.
This course starts with a general overview before delving into specific areas such as childhood trauma and the complex dynamics of sexual abuse-induced trauma. Participants will gain invaluable insights into effective therapeutic approaches aimed at fostering the healing journey. This is a beautiful addition to the many existing forms of working with trauma.
After fifty years, John Van Eenwyk has retired from practice as an Episcopal priest, Jungian analyst, clinical psychologist, and founder and Clinical Director of the International Trauma Treatment Program. He continues to teach here at Jung Platform.
For twenty-five years he traveled to conflict areas- Gaza, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Uganda, Croatia, South Africa, Zimbabwe – to help establish trauma treatment programs for people who were survivors of organized violence (fomented by governments and paramilitary groups). He collaborated with local practitioners in developing indigenously-based trauma treatment protocols. That, of course, is classically Jungian, for analysts collaborate with patients to discern and enhance their own unconscious adaptations to psychological assaults, particularly trauma.
He documented that approach in his book Clinical Chaos: The Strange Attractors of Childhood Trauma, which Inner City Books called: “the most important contribution to the logistics of trauma ever written from a Jungian perspective.”
Now Dr. Van Eenwyk will share his insights in this four-part series on Jung Platform. He will outline—and participants will discuss—how one’s unconscious responds and attempts to heal trauma.
His presentations will focus on the following questions: How do I know I’ve been traumatized? How does the unconscious attempt to heal trauma? Is a symbolic approach useful for understanding symptoms? How can we cooperate with the unconscious to heal trauma? What if all else fails?