COVID-19 has altered our lives in ways that we never could have predicted. We are anxious, stir-crazy, and stressed – all very normal responses to a situation that is, in every way, the antithesis of the “normal” we know.
The Jung Center’s meditations and talks will help you cope with the stress, build resilience, and navigate our new normal. We hope they help you find a new perspective and breathe a little more deeply.
We are adding resources often, so please check back! And if you would like to receive emails about additions, enter your email address here:
Every time we wash our hands, we have a perfect opportunity to bring our attention to the present and let go of anxiety. In this brief video, Alejandro Chaoul, PhD, founding director of The Jung Center’s Mind Body Spirit Institute, has been teaching this easy practice to staff at the Texas Medical Center for more than a decade:
What does it mean to be human in a chaotic world? There are times, too many to count, in which we fall back into chaotic states: of anger, fear, confusion, ignorance, meaninglessness. In moments of chaotic breakdown, of individual or collective nature, our familiar and cherished positions become unraveled.Our former director, Jerry Ruhl, has generously allowed us to offer this lecture for free. Follow this link to access it.
Sean Fitzpatrick, PhD | Starting online May 8 | FREE | Click here to register
All four lectures have been posted! Click here to visit the webpage for this course.
Quiet resolve. Fear. Acceptance. Denial. Compassion. Human responses to life-threatening epidemics are as old as the illnesses themselves, and each time they have emerged, they have offered vital insight into the fundamental questions life asks of us. What does life mean? How do we relate to our mortality? What is our purpose? What roles ought duty, love, self-preservation, and the pursuit of happiness play in our lives? In this online class, we will use Albert Camus’ gripping, classic novel The Plague to explore these questions together (you do not have to read the book to participate — but it’s a great read). The instructor will post video lectures each Monday starting May 4, and we will have online live discussions each Friday at 1:15 – 2:45 pm. Click here to register.
Alejandro Chaoul and others | Tuesdays, March 31, April 14, April 28, May 5, and May 19 | 1 – 1:15 PM | Thursdays, April 9, May 14, and May 28 | 5 – 5:30 PM | Click here to register
Our Online Bookstore has hundreds of lectures with wisdom from Dr. James Hollis, Rev. J. Pittman McGehee and others, available to purchase as instantly-downloadable MP3s! Click here to browse our collection.
Many of these events will be accredited by the American Psychological Association and the Association of Social Work Boards, along with other state accrediting bodies for a range of mental health professionals (including chemical dependency counselors) and educators. Continuing education accreditation provided by R. Cassidy Seminars. For details about accreditation, click here.
We remain deeply grateful to The Houston Endowment, the family of Frank N. McMillan, Jr., Douglas Wyatt, and Carolyn Grant Fay for their support of our online classes.
Unconscious Wisdom: A Dreams Group | Jennifer Embry | Thursdays, April 23 – May 28 | 5 – 6:30 pm | $35 ($30 members)
Parenting in the New World: Nurturing Our Children and Ourselves | Herb Agan | Mondays, May 4 – 25 | 7:30-9 pm | $120 ($110 members)
How We Meet a Pandemic – Session Two | Sean Fitzpatrick | Fridays, May 8 – June 5 (no class May 29) | 1:15 – 2:45 pm | FREE
*POSTPONED* An Evening of Playback Theatre | Houston Playback Theatre | STAY TUNED FOR NEW DATE | $10
Book Study: LSD and the Mind of the Universe | Pamela Stockton | Fridays, May 15 – June 12 (no class June 5) | 3 – 4:30 pm | FREE
The Power of Community: A Weekly Meditation | Stan Merrill | Thursday, May 28 | 5 – 5:30 pm | FREE
Mandalas: Entering the Sacred Circle | Sean Fitzpatrick and Alejandro Chaoul | Friday, May 29 | 1 – 5 pm | 4 CE Hours | $90 ($80 members)
Awakening to Joy in Extraordinary Times | Deborah Eden Tull | Saturday, May 30 | 10 am – 12 pm and 2 pm – 4 pm | $100 ($90 members)
Jung Center Authors: A Virtual Book Club (Part II) | Mark Ryan | Thursdays, June 11 – July 2 | 2 – 3:30 pm | FREE
Community and Connection as Agents of Healing | Alejandro Chaoul and Michael Winters | Thursdays, June 11 – July 2 | 6 – 7:30 pm | $135 ($120 members)
Integrating Trauma: The Psychoemotional, Physical, and Subtle Bodies | Debbie Mills and Lance Westendarp | Saturday, June 13 | 10 am – 4 pm | $125
Biocognition, Breathing and Meditation: Flourishing by Reframing Past Experiences | Alejandro Chaoul and Mario Martinez | Saturday, June 27 | 9 am – 3 pm | $120 ($110 members)
Magee Ethics Workshop: Attacks of Conscience and the Complexity of Ethical Choice | Sean Fitzpatrick | Friday, July 17 | 9 am – 12:15 pm | $25 ($20 members) | 3 Ethics CE hours
More to be added soon — please check back!
Coronavirus Anxiety Workbook | TheWellnessSociety.org
A Six-Minute Breathing Exercise | Nevine Sultan
A Five-Minute Compassion Exercise | Nevine Sultan
Five Minutes of Tai Chi Chuan for Calm | George Hu
Tips for Self-Compassion | Lee Ann Hilbrich
Comparative Suffering, the 50/50 Myth, and Settling the Ball | Brené Brown
Anxiety, Calm + Over/Under-Functioning | Brené Brown
Meditation: Meeting Fear with a Healing Breath | Tara Brach
How to Handle Coronavirus Anxiety | Dan Harris (podcast)
Love in the Time of COVID | Dan Harris and Esther Perel (podcast)
Giving Ourselves Compassion During Quarantine | Dan Harris and Kristin Neff
Making the Most of the Quarantine | Oprah Winfrey and The Jung Center’s Fall 2020 Benefit Speaker, Anthony Ray Hinton
How to Find Strength Amid Uncertainty | Dan Harris and Mark Epstein
Can You Be Okay With Uncertainty? | Dan Harris and Jack Kornfeld (podcast)
To all who are on the front lines, responding directly to the COVID-19 pandemic: Thank you. With gratitude, we offer these resources to help you care for yourself as you care for so many others. Check back — we will be adding more resources soon.
You Are a Human Being (a quick introduction to self-care)
Twenty Second Self-Care Breaks
Headington Institute Pandemic Resources
Hosting His Holiness: Insights From The Dalai Lama (ONLINE) | 1 hour | $15 ($10 Jung Center members)
Ginger Clarkson and Mark Ryan, PhD
Examine the transformative power in the very presence of a spiritually evolved being. Drawing on their direct experience with His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama—especially on their personal hosting of his visit to Yale University in 1991—Ginger Clarkson and Mark Ryan discuss the Dalai Lama’s remarkable capacity to lift the spirits of those around him, relating it to his teachings on such themes as compassion, suffering, happiness, forgiveness, gratitude, acceptance, generosity, human interconnectedness, the fundamental goodness in human nature, and the relationship between intellect and a “good heart.” They share observations on how the Dalai Lama’s embodiment of delight, humor, humility, kindness, and inner peace—reinforced by his spiritual practices and his cultivation of joy and positive emotions—shapes his complicated and demanding participation in worldly affairs.
An Introduction to Jung’s Theory of Complexes WITH CE | 1.5 CE hours | $28 ($23 Jung Center members)
An Introduction to Jung’s Theory of Complexes | 1.5 hours | $23 ($18 Jung Center members)
Anna Guerra, JD, MA, LPC
What is a complex? We’ve all heard of the Oedipus complex, the inferiority complex, and the mother complex, but what do these ideas really mean? Jung placed great importance on the notion of the complex, which he referred to as “the architect of dreams” and “the via regia” (royal road) to the unconscious. This concept and its role in psychological distress and interpersonal conflict is explored in this lecture.
A Re-Memembered Past: The Sephardic Presence In South Texas | 1 hour | $23 ($18 Jung Center members)
Anna Guerra, JD, MA, LPC
Presenter Anna Guerra, drawing upon her own ancestry which also exists in the backgrounds of many contemporary Tejanos, will trace how Sephardic people settled in Texas following the expulsion of Jews from Spain in the fifteenth century. This lecture explores the Carvajal family, whose history includes conquistadores, Crypto- Jews, Jewish martyrs, “converso” priests, and a tragic but poignant end during the Mexican Inquisition. These fascinating historical events remind us of a narrative of intolerance and survival replayed throughout human history.
Working With Our Dreams: The Nuts and Bolts Basics of Jungian Dreamwork WITH CE | 1.75 CE hours | $28 ($23 Jung Center members)
Working With Our Dreams: The Nuts and Bolts Basics of Jungian Dreamwork WITHOUT CE | 1.75 hours | $23 ($18 Jung Center members)
Anna Guerra, JD, MA, LPC
What sense do we make of those confounding nightly visions we call dreams? Do dreams offer any practical purpose? How do we work with them? Jung offered an approach to understanding and dialoguing with dreams, whose roots lie in the “unfathomably dark recess” of the unconscious. This lecture will focus on the basics of Jungian dreamwork, and provide practical tools for understanding and working with our own dreams.
The Secret Lives of Emotions: Shame WITH CE | 1.0 CE hours | $28 ($23 Jung Center members)
The Secret Lives of Emotions: Shame WITHOUT CE | 1 hour | $23 ($18 Jung Center members)
Anna Guerra, JD, MA, LPC
Shame is the profoundly painful experience of feeling defective and unworthy of acceptance. Etymologically related to “covering up,” shame can leave us feeling disgraced and exposed. Shame is a universal emotion and not reserved for the few “unfortunate.” Despite its universality, shame lurks in the shadows, as it is a “negative” emotion that few will admit. In fact, the experience of the feeling itself constellates shame, and thus falls into what Jung called “the shadow,” making it one of the most difficult feelings to understand and manage. In this program, we will explore the meaning and value of shame to our psychological functioning, the role of shame to an individual’s socialization and development of identity, and we will distinguish the normal human emotion of shame from “toxic shame” which is shame as an identity and belief that one is flawed and defective.
The Seven Deadly Sins… and a Few Misdemeanors WITH CE | 1.0 CE hour | $28 ($23 Jung Center members)
The Seven Deadly Sins… and a Few Misdemeanors WITHOUT CE | 1 hour | $23 ($18 Jung Center members)
James Hollis, PhD, Jungian analyst and J. Pittman McGehee, DD, Jungian analyst
Think you know something about sin? In this enhanced online version of a presentation recorded Sept. 7, 2005, J. Pittman McGehee and James Hollis take a thoughtful look at our tendency to stray from the straight and narrow. How do our “sins,” these universal human behaviors, show up in both the classical and contemporary worlds? How do they affect our most important relationships — for good and ill?
The Poet as Depth Psychologist WITH CE | 6.0 CE hours | $80 ($70 Jung Center members)
The Poet as Depth Psychologist WITHOUT CE | 6 hours | $75 ($65 Jung Center members)
James Hollis, PhD, Jungian analyst
This is an enhanced online version of a class taught at The Jung Center by James Hollis in the summer of 2013. However troubled their personal lives, some poets intuitively embody profound insight into the nature and dynamics of the human psyche in their work. They are vehicles for the embodiment of the invisible world, which they render more accessible by making it visible through metaphor and image. This four week course will focus upon four who open apertures into the universal motions of the human psyche. They are: Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Mary Oliver.
C.G. Jung: A Brief Introduction
Sean Fitzpatrick, PhD | 1 hour | Free (no CE credit)
Why are experiences of meaning essential for psychological development? How does the absence of meaning maintain psychological suffering? This hour-long online presentation will introduce you to some of the key concepts, methods, and purposes of Jung’s psychological theory.
Happiness and the Pursuit of Meaning
Jill Carroll, PhD | 1 hour | $10 ($9 Jung Center members)
What is the relationship between happiness and meaning? Is there a certain kind of meaning necessary for happiness? Do those who are happiest have a higher purpose – or meaning – in their lives? Listen to this CARL Talk lecture for this, and so much more!
Jerry Ruhl, PhD | 1 hour | Free (no CE credit)
What does it mean to be human in a chaotic world? There are times, too many to count, in which we fall back into chaotic states: of anger, fear, confusion, ignorance, meaninglessness. In moments of chaotic breakdown, of individual or collective nature, our familiar and cherished positions become unraveled. Ancient myths about chaos uniquely transcend time and culture to speak to the universal human condition and the hopes, aspirations and fears that define our humanity. This lecture explores how these mythic patterns can help to guide us in our own heroic struggles and cultivate wisdom from impermanence and uncertainty.
Spiritual but not Religious: Jung as Guru and Sage in Adult Continuing Education
Sean Fitzpatrick, PhD | 30 minutes | Free (no CE credit)
This presentation, recorded at the joint IAAP/IAJS conference at Yale University in July, 2015, explores why Jung continues to appeal to people from a wide range of backgrounds and circumstances – and some of the hazards we encounter if we are not mindful of the gaps between who Jung was and who we want him to be.
Voices of Jung: Myth, Newton, and Complexity
Ronald Schenk, PhD, Jungian analyst | 1 hour | $23 ($18 Jung Center members)
Jung’s work was born out of 19th Century scientific certainty, Romantic inclinations, and Christian sensibility, and it matured amidst 20th Century insights regarding the relativization of consciousness. Now a careful “re-visioning” of the core of his project reveals a strong underlying accord with paradoxical post-modern precepts of the predictability of uncertainty and the rational nature of chaos. This lecture will explore ways in which “Jung” can be understood as on the cutting edge of contemporary consciousness regarding our everyday lives both as individuals and as a culture.