LECTURE
The "heartbeat" of DreamTending, Dr. Aizenstat’s orientation to dreams, is the recognition that dream images are alive. In his Friday night lecture, he will describe his unique approach to dream work and invite us to experience dream images as living, embodied beings — engaged in their activity, not ours alone. DreamTending will be introduced as a system of healing, useful in working with the afflictions of personal life as well as the conditions of the world soul, the anima mundi. Examples and elaborations will be offered.
WORKSHOP
In the Saturday workshop, Dr. Aizenstat will expand upon the concepts presented Friday night. He will further elaborate on the idea that images are alive and, at root, elemental – part of Nature’s Dreaming. Participants will learn methods of phenomenological dream animation and tools to work with the "indigenous image." Attending to these potent "seed" images enhances psychological health and authentic being. This workshop combines DreamTending demonstrations by Dr. Aizenstat with experiential activities. Also, he will offer training in skills intended to help participants work with their own core images.
STEPHEN AIZENSTAT, Ph.D., is the founding president of Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, which offers programs in psychology, mythological studies, and the humanities. As a licensed clinical psychologist and credentialed educator, his focus includes depth psychology, dream research, and imaginal and archetypal psychology. His original research centers on a psychodynamic process of "tending the living image," particularly in dreamwork about which he has conducted seminars for over twenty-five years throughout the world. DreamTending: Teachings for a Dream-centered Life, will be released this fall. Other publications include : "Dreams are Alive" in Depth Psychology: Meditations in the Field, edited by Slattery and Corbett, and "Jungian Psychology and the World Unconscious" in Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Earth, edited by Theodore Roszak, et al.