Summer Intensive: Encountering Our Inner Lives in the Face of Outer Chaos

In-Person Only
Monday, June 22 – Friday, June 26, 2026 | 10am-4pm
M/T/TH/F @ C. G. Jung Institute (53 W Jackson Ste 438 – Map)
W @ Grace Episcopal Church (637 S Dearborn St – Map)
25 CEs Available

This program will not be recorded.

Tuesday sold out. Email [email protected] to join the waitlist.

Price range: $60.00 through $400.00

Continuing the theme of Community Day, “Bridging the Cultural Divide: From Complex to Consciousness,” this year’s Summer Intensive Seminar offers five days to explore unconscious complexes through engaging creative processes that transcend insight or intellectual awareness. Our belief is that experiential therapeutic methods incorporating myth, story, and image can act as powerful catalysts for an alchemical transformation. The result may be a new quality of consciousness that embraces the terrible reality of experience within a context of profoundly felt meaning. The modalities will include journaling, image-making, active imagination, shamanic ritual, astrological reflection, story-telling, and theatrical explorations.


Monday, June 22 at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago
Tapping the Inner Fountain: Creativity from a Jungian Perspective
Elizabeth Genovise, MA, MFA, MEd

This seminar will feature a brief reading, followed by a workshop addressing creativity from a Jungian perspective. The workshop will address the role of personality typology in locating one’s creative potential, exploring the power of the tertiary and inferior functions as well as the age-old concept of “muse.” We will acknowledge the content of the unconscious as the fountainhead of inspiration, and discuss the need to counterbalance numinous experiences with personal accountability; we will also review the concept of psychic libido from an artist’s perspective. Via experiential activities, we will explore the concept of the artist as “transceiver” and practice openness to transmissions. This workshop will also discuss the relationship between the individuation process and the artistic journey, i.e. complexes as fodder for artistic growth and the role of shadow, anima, and the Transcendent Function. In keeping with the Summer Seminars’ larger theme, lecture and activities will promote inner exploration in the interest of enriching consciousness and our sense of Meaning in a tumultuous world.

All workshop content will be supplemented by the work of Carl Jung and various Jungian scholars.

Note: It is recommended that participants bring a notebook and pen.

Suggested Readings

  • Literary short “Silas” by Nathan Poole (PDF will be sent before the workshop)

Learning Objectives

  1. Identify the role of typology in the creative process.
  2. Distinguish and integrate unconscious material and numinous experiences as sources of inspiration.
  3. Utilize the analogy of artist as “transceiver” and practice receptivity balanced with filtering and discernment.
  4. Recognize the concept of psychic libido as it relates to creativity.
  5. Conceptualize the role of complexes, shadow, anima, and the Transcendent Function in the artist’s journey.

Elizabeth Genovise carries an MFA in creative writing/fiction and has served as a workshop leader, course instructor, and private writing coach since 2010. She has been the recipient of the O. Henry Prize and several Pushcart nominations, and has published five collections of literary short stories, a novelette, and a novel via independent and university presses. Her two most recent books have been marketed as Jungian literary fiction (Lighthouse Dreams and Third Class Relics). She completed the Jungian Studies Program at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago in 2025 and is now serving as a Fellow in the Institute’s Jungian Psychotherapy Program. She has two dovetailed novels, Suspirium and Inspiratio, forthcoming from Texas Review Press/Texas A&M; these are tales of Jungian individuation. She also works as a counselor at a holistic clinic in Knoxville, TN where she employs sandplay therapy and other modalities. elizabethgenovisefiction.org


Tuesday, June 23 at C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago
Envisioning: Opening Portals to the Unconscious
Andrea Gaspar, PsyD & Cynthia Hellyer Heinz, MFA

The importance of images, symbols, and signs are evident in the individuation journey. Jung’s struggle to grapple with the division between interior and exterior life is expressed through an ongoing exploratory generative process. Daily methods of reflection, writing, and creating become the foundation for organizing a phycological, spiritual, and intellectual way of being in the world.

This is an experiential workshop that centers in imagery erupting from the underlying world of the unconscious. Not representational, it is a process of spontaneous expression created through dialogue with perception, materials and reflection. We are identifying and expanding our life patterns through intuitive exercises, reminiscent of Jung’s practice with active imagination, dream work, journaling and ritual.

Constructing a personal soul revival, relinquishing creative inhibitors, allowing us to open portals of imagination begins with where you are present, seeded by the past, and growing with potential transformation.

Learning Objectives
After attending this workshop, participants will be able to:

  1. Learn rituals that open the doorways of the creative imagination that encourage transformation and potentiality.
  2. Utilize processes, techniques and materials that express unrealized embedded images.
  3. Mediate resistance to exploring the psyche, discover compelling images and ways to encourage daily.
  4. Mine personal meaning through visualization, reflection and art making experiences that are related to social, cultural context.

Andrea Gaspar, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist practicing in the Chicagoland area with a focus on the treatment of trauma and sexual abuse utilizing Jungian and somatic approaches. She was a Fellow of the Jungian Psychotherapy Program (2018–2020) and graduate of the Jungian Studies Program (2014–2016) at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago and has served as the program’s Co-Director since 2021. Dr. Gaspar also co-developed and co-directed the six-month training program Memories, Dreams, Reflections: Exploring the Depths with colleagues Adina Davidson and Daniel Ross. Her current research is focused on collective psyche, cultural complex, and the application of trauma theory to the sociopolitical climate and she has lectured on psychodynamic theory, trauma, and culture.

Cynthia Hellyer Heinz is an artist and educator with a BFA from Pratt Institute and an MFA from Northern Illinois University where she has been teaching drawing for the last twenty-five years. Her background is in the field of illustration and drawing with an emphasis on the biology of nature and the body. Cynthia’s work has been exhibited and published nationally. She is concentrating on the connection between what is culturally seen as beautiful and the underlying sustainable mystery that is filled with creative potential through the imagination.

As an educator, Cynthia is focusing on the development of synergistic use between art making, significant learning, and the relevance of creative expression and invention. She has been a board member of the Illinois Higher Arts Association and past Vice President of Development for Integrative Teaching International. For the past five years Cynthia has been studying Jungian psychology at the Chicago Jungian Institute where she was a Fellow. The incorporation of Jung’s ideas is part of her mandala work and teaching. Cynthia is dedicated to the empowerment of students through acknowledging their strengths and promoting ongoing passion for innovative thinking through diligent, joyful practice.


Wednesday, June 24 at Grace Episcopal Church
Sacred Play: Touching the Archetypal through Theatre
Joanne Underwood, LCSW & Sarah Bendix, LCSW

Fairy tales and myths are dreams of the collective.  Our dreams are our personal fairy tales.  This workshop will be in two parts.  During the morning session we will use theatre games, journaling, and dream exploration to create small theatrical moments.  In the afternoon we will do a deep dive into one fairy tale, “The Fitcher’s Bird,” to explore key events on a personal level through journaling and on a collective level through guided theatrical exploration.

Learning Objectives
After attending this workshop, participants will be able to:

  1. Embody and dramatize their dream material in a public space.
  2. Create small theatrical moments from dream images.
  3. Explore a key event in the fairy tale, “The Fitcher’s Bird,” through journaling.
  4. Co-create a theatrical moment based on an event in “The Fitcher’s Bird.”

Joanne Underwood, LCSW, is a fellow in the JPP/JSP two-year program, a therapist in private practice, and a senior teacher at the Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston.  Trained in theatre games, story theatre, and fairy tale adaptation by Joyce and Bryne Piven, she has thirty years experience in creating theatrical spaces and exploring story events as both a teacher and a director.  She is particularly interested in the intersection of Jung’s idea of active imagination and Viola Spolin’s idea of releasing the unconscious through play.

Sarah Bendix, LCSW, is an alumnus of the faculty of the Piven Theater Workshop and a psychotherapist in private practice and at Northwestern Medicine. As a therapist she has received advanced training in the feminist relational model, Somatic Experiencing and Internal Family Systems. Her work in theater has focused on ensemble created work and visual story telling through movement, puppetry and masks.


Thursday, June 25 at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago
Living Seasonally with Astrology
Anita Ashland

Astrology, like tarot and the I Ching, is a form of divination—not as a causal force, but as a symbolic mirror; it is a language of synchronicity revealing the psyche’s relationship to cyclical time. Each season carries archetypal themes that can deepen our understanding of individuation, typology, and the soul’s journey through the year. In times of outer turbulence, these seasonal rhythms offer an interior compass—a way of staying rooted in cyclical wisdom when the world feels anything but cyclical.

At each station, participants will encounter curated materials: music, planetary chimes, zodiacal symbols, correlating I Ching hexagrams and tarot cards, Jungian typology connections, poetry, literature, and quotes from Jung, von Franz, Woodman, and many other depth psychologists. We will read aloud, listen, reflect, journal and share personal stories.

This session is designed to be accessible to astrology newcomers while offering depth for seasoned practitioners. The emphasis is on living the seasons consciously—transmuting astrological knowledge into embodied soul wisdom. Participants will leave with a repeatable framework for engaging any season or zodiacal energy psychologically and ritually.

No prior astrological knowledge required. Individual birth chart consultation is outside the scope of this seminar. Bring curiosity and willingness to engage symbolically with the turning wheel of the year.

Learning Objectives
After attending this workshop, participants will be able to:

  1. Distinguish astrology as an archetypal language and form of divination rather than a causal
    system.
  2. Identify the basic elements (earth, air, water, fire) and their correlation with Jungian typology (sensation, thinking, feeling, intuition).
  3. Recognize the archetypal themes of four consecutive zodiac signs (Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo) and their associated planetary rulers.
  4. Relate zodiacal energies with corresponding I Ching hexagrams, tarot cards, and cultural/literary symbols.
  5. Apply a multi-sensory, experiential approach to engaging seasonal and astrological archetypes in daily life.
  6. Create personal rituals or reflective practices for living seasonally with psychological awareness.

Anita Ashland is a writer and astrologer who weaves together Jungian psychology, astrology, tarot, and the I Ching to help people live more consciously through the seasons of life and the turning year. She is a graduate of the Jungian Studies Program at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago. She is a professional affiliate of the Institute and volunteers on their Program Committee. She writes weekly essays exploring the intersection of astrology, divination, and Jungian thought, and publishes a monthly newsletter, Reading in Depth, where she shares insights from her ongoing study of depth psychology literature.

As an astrologer, Anita offers consultations, bringing a Jungian lens to chart interpretation. Her teaching approach emphasizes storytelling, experiential learning, and the practical application of symbolic wisdom. She draws on years of facilitation experience to create sessions that are accessible, participatory, and psychologically substantive. You can find her work at AnitaAshland.com.


Friday, June 26 at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago
Bridging Collective and Personal Complexes through Shamanic Practices
Doris W. Klinkhamer, MA, LCSW & Lynn M. Hynes, PhD, LMFT

We live in a time of profound disruption — political fracture, social upheaval, and collective uncertainty press upon the individual psyche in ways both seen and unseen. The outer chaos of our cultural moment does not stay outside; it seeps into our dreams, our relationships, our sense of self and meaning. How do we meet this chaos without being consumed by it?

Drawing on the depth psychology of C.G. Jung and the ancient wisdom of shamanic traditions, this immersive training invites participants to cross inner thresholds where personal and collective experience converge. Jung understood that the individual psyche and the collective unconscious are not separate — what erupts in the world has roots in the deeper layers of the human soul. Shamanic traditions offer tools for healing, vision, and restoration of right relationship within these invisible realms.

Through teachings, ceremony, ritual, and guided journeying, we explore the personal and cultural complexes shaping our responses to an increasingly divided world — working with symbol, opposites, and the transformative potential of liminal space.

This is an embodied encounter with the unconscious — a reclamation of soul in turbulent times. Together, we become more conscious participants in collective transformation.

Learning Objectives
After attending this workshop, participants will be able to:

  1. Utilize shamanic practices to create a dialogue between the ego complex and the Self.
  2. Describe how Jung and shamanism inform the relationship of the ego to the unconscious.
  3. Understand working with dreams and hypnogogic states to explore cultural and personal complexes.
  4. Utilize shamanic practices of journey work and ritual to deepen their understanding of working with emerging symbols and the transformative potential of liminal space.
  5. Integrate Jung’s understanding that the individual psyche and the collective unconscious are not separate.

Doris Klinkhamer is a psychotherapist in private practice in Chicago. Doris graduated from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and completed the two-year clinical training program in Jungian Psychotherapy at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago. She has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and has taught at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago on topics related to Jung and shamanism. Doris has studied with the Q’ero shamans of Peru and weaves her training as a Jungian informed psychotherapist with the wisdom of indigenous shamanic traditions. Doris also leads retreats, lectures, and workshops rooted in Jungian psychology and shamanic practices and is the co-founder of Soul Spring.

Lynn Hynes is a psychotherapist in private practice in Indianapolis, holding an MA/PhD in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute and an MS in Marriage and Family Therapy from Walden University. Her deep interest in ecopsychology and indigenous cultures was awakened in 1999 when she travelled to Peru to hike the Inca Trail. Since then, Lynn has returned to Peru, other South American countries, and Mexico to study various shamanic traditions, including field work with indigenous sacred plant medicine during her graduate studies. Of particular interest to Lynn is the work of C.G. Jung and the intersectionality of his writings and shamanic traditions. Lynn has led retreats, lectures, and workshops helping people connect to their inner and outer landscapes and facilitate healing and growth in the natural world. Lynn and Doris are co-founders of Soul Spring.

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Recording Terms & Conditions

This program will be recorded and distributed by the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago for educational and historical purposes. By registering for this program, you consent to appear as an audience member on a recording that will be distributed by the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago. Without expectation of compensation or other remuneration, now or in the future, you give your consent to the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago, its affiliates, and agents to use your image and likeness and/or any interview statements from you in its publications, advertising, or other media activities (including the Internet).