Existential Dialogues: The therapist in the mirror. Ten live dialogues between Prof Ernesto Spinelli and International Existential Therapists based on case studies illustrating key existential topics.
11 November “Dreams” with Prof Ernesto Spinelli and Dr Robert Romanyshyn
“My approach to dreams is an imaginal one, which draws not only on the traditions of existential phenomenology and depth psychology but also on my work over the years with theatre folk. In these contexts, I regard the dream as a play performed in the night theatre of soul, staged in the far county of a different world. As such, I begin not with interpretations of what a dream might mean. Instead, I begin with the dream as a display of the possibility of possibility, and, as such, emphasise that the mood of the dream is not indicative but subjunctive, which is the sense that Freud had in describing a dream in terms of the wish, but which his method of interpretation ignored. Then, through a series of procedures developed over the years, I invite the dreamer to rehearse or try on the different characters presented in the dream by embodying and enacting them within its setting. Who does one become and how does one act in a different country? Using this approach as the first step in which the dream is making sense of the dreamer, the second step of making sense of the dream via interpretations can be taken.” Prof Robert Romanyshyn
Robert D. Romanyshyn, an Affiliate Member of The Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, a Fellow of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, and a Professor Emeritus of Clinical Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute was recently awarded the Distinguished Lifetime Contributions to Humanistic Psychology Award from the Society for Humanistic Psychology APA Division 32. He has published eight books and numerous articles in psychology, philosophy, education, and literary journals. He is also a published poet and has written a one-act play about Frankenstein. In 2009 he created a multi-media DVD entitled Antarctica: Inner Journeys in the Outer World, which offers a psychological reflection on the melting polar ice. In addition to online seminars and interviews, he has given lectures and workshops at universities and professional societies in the U.S., Europe, Australia, South Africa, Canada, and New Zealand.
Professor Ernesto Spinelli was Chair of the Society for Existential Analysis between 1993 and 1999 and is a Life Member of the Society. His writings, lectures and seminars focus on the application of existential phenomenology to the arenas of therapy, supervision, psychology, and executive coaching. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS) as well as an APECS accredited executive coach and coaching supervisor. In 2000, he was the Recipient of BPS Division of Counselling Psychology Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession. And in 2019, Ernesto received the BPS Award for Distinguished Contribution to Practice. His most recent book, Practising Existential Therapy: The Relational World 2nd edition (Sage, 2015) has been widely praised as a major contribution to the advancement of existential theory and practice. Living up to the existential dictum that life is absurd, Ernesto is also the author of an on-going series of Private Eye novels.
Venue: Online Zoom
