Transmuting trauma and suffering through cultivating meaning and purpose.
From the trauma of culturally condoned hate, including systemic racism and its historical underpinnings, to under-recognized forms of trauma in childhood, to modern-day traumas of a global pandemic with its panoramic dance of death, we are living
a cacophony of traumatic events and collectively seized by history in the making. Informed by depth-oriented, Jungian and psychoanalytic perspectives, we will explore understanding trauma with patience, justice-seeking, peacemaking, curiosity, imagination, and the body. We will consider the archetype of the wounded healer and spiritual attunement in supporting the emergence of untold stories, meaning-making, and new understanding. We will explore how the capacity within each of us to grieve, forgive, make reparation, and live creatively can contribute, collectively, to transforming contemporary trauma. From micro-agonies of everyday life to manifestations of evil in power — trauma can catalyze growth and transformation. Even as we are seized by the disruptive darkness of these times, it is possible to churn our experiences into something new; to compost a creative will toward renewal and restoration, both individually and collectively.
