Naomi Lowinsky, PhD is a Jungian analyst in private practice in California and poetry and fiction editor of Psychological Perspectives. She is the author of “The Sister from Below: When the Muse Gets Her Way” and also “The Motherline: Every Woman’s Journey to Find Her Female Roots”. Lowinsky is author of numerous prose essays, many of which have been published in Psychological Perspectives and The Jung Journal. Adagio & Lamentation, her third poetry collection, has recently been published by Fisher King Press. Its poetry speaks to “transformation and redemption through art”. Lowinsky has had poetry published in many literary magazines and anthologies, among them After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery, Weber Studies, Rattle, Atlanta Review, Tiferet and Asheville Poetry Review. Naomi has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize three times and is the recipient of the 2009 Obama Millennium Poetry award for “Madelyn Dunham, Passing On.”
#291 – Comparing Logotherapy and Positive Psychology with Marshall H. Lewis, MA
Marshall H. Lewis, M.A. received his terminal master’s degree in clinical psychology from Marshall University in West Virginia in 1986 and has practiced psychotherapy since. He earned his Diplomate in Logotherapy from the Viktor Frankl Institute in 2011. He is currently the director of a community mental health center serving three counties in southwest Kansas.
Marshall is writing a dissertation for his Ph.D. in Jewish-Christian Studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary. His dissertation combines logotherapy and hermeneutics to gain new insights into the Biblical Book of Job.
#290 Ally Work with Jungian Analyst Jeffrey Raff PhD
Jeffrey Raff, Ph.D. is co-founder of the C.G. Jung Institute of Denver and a senior Jungian Analyst who has been in private practice in Denver since 1976. Trained in Zurich in the early 1970′s Dr. Raff is the author of four books, including Jung and the Alchemical Imagination, The Wedding of Sophia, and The Practice of Ally Work. He has written many articles on alchemy, the Kabbalah, and the nature of evil. Currently President of the C.G. Jung Institute of Denver Dr. Raff is also an adjunct professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute and a Training Analyst in the Interregional Society of Jungian analysts. and has taught numerous workshops and classes all over the country.
#289 – Jung and Holding The Opposites with Jon Jackson MD
It was only after his psychiatric residency that Dr. Jon Jackson discovered Carl Jung. More specifically, he first discovered Marie-Louise von Franz, who remains one of his major influences to this day. He sees himself as an intuitive introvert who has somehow learned to be extroverted in the “real” world. He worked for 15 years as a psychotherapist, seeing particularly difficult patients, and gaining extensive experience in dissociative and personality disorders. When he returned to California, he worked for several years for Sonoma County Mental Health, working with the indigent and chronically mentally ill. He was then Chief of Psychiatry at St. Helena Hospital for just over two years.
Following no major tradition, Dr. Jackson believes in the necessity of developing “spiritual depth” in oneself. He is a great lover of literature, film, radio dramas, comic books, and a very broad range of music. He currently is the Chair of the Numina Center for Spirituality & the Arts – a Santa Rosa group that promotes a broad-based spirituality as experienced through the Arts. He continues to work in radio on KOWS FM in Occidental, CA, producing a show titled “Sound Mind”, which often features interviews with musicians and other performers. He and his partner, Liza Brickey, hold a monthly study group in their Sebastopol home focusing on depth psychology.
Read More
#288 – The Buddha Occupies Wall Street with Shoken Michael Stone
Michael Stone is a Yoga teacher Buddhist teacher, author and psychotherapist. He is the Founder of Centre of Gravity, a urban community in Toronto integrating Buddhist practice, Yoga and social action. He is a voice for a new generation of young people integrating spiritual practice with environmental and social issues. His most recent book is “Awake in the World: Teachings from Yoga & Buddhism for Living an Engaged Life.”
#287 – ePsychotherapy with Ofer Zur, PhD
Ofer Zur, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and forensic consultant practicing in Sebastopol, California. He is the director of the Zur Institute, which offers over 100 online courses and is one of the most extensive online CE programs for psychologists, counselors, LPC, social workers, MFTs and nurses. His teaching, consulting with therapists, and writing focus on private practice outside managed care, ethics, standard of care, boundaries, dual relationships, and Internet addiction. His books include Dual Relationships and Psychotherapy (Springer, 2002, co-edited with A. Lazarus), HIPPA Friendly (Norton, 2005), Private Practice Handbook, (ZI, 2007), and Boundaries in Psychotherapy (APA Books, 2007). Dr. Zur has deep concern regarding the harm inflicted by dogmatic, inflexible and ideologically rigid psychotherapeutic practices. His articles page at ZurInstitute.com provides dozens of free articles and guidelines for psychotherapists and the public.
Read More
#285 – A Jungian Initiation Process with Patricia Damery
Patricia Damery is an analyst member of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco in private psychotherapy practice in Napa, California, where she and her husband also farm a Biodynamic organic ranch. She has published numerous articles and poems, as well as a book detailing her analytic training and simultaneous entry into Biodynamic farming: Farming Soul: A Tale of Initiation. Her novel, Snakes, the story about the demise of the family farm and the impact on one family, was published by Fisher King Press in March 2011. She is co-editing an anthology, Marked by Fire: Personal Stories of the Jungian Way, to be published March 2012. Her children’s novel, Goatsong, is also be published in the spring of 2012.
Amazon Link for Farming Soul by Patricia Damery
#284 – A Jungian Vision to Save The Planet with Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD
Jean Shinoda Bolen, M. D, is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, and an internationally known author and speaker who draws from spiritual, feminist, Jungian, medical and personal wellsprings of experience. She is the author of Like A Tree: How Trees, Women, and Tree People Can Save the Planet (2011), The Tao of Psychology, Goddesses in Everywoman, Gods in Everyman, Ring of Power, Crossing to Avalon, Close to the Bone, The Millionth Circle, Goddesses in Older Women, Crones Don’t Whine and Urgent Message from Mother. She is a major advocate for a United Nations 5th World Conference on Women, a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. a past clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco, and past board member of the Ms. Foundation for Women, and was in two acclaimed documentaries, the Academy-Award winning anti-nuclear proliferation film Women—For America, For the World, and the Canadian Film Board’s Goddess Remembered.
Read More
#283 – An Update on The Positive Potential of Psychedelics with James Fadiman, PhD
James Fadiman PhD was one of the people involved with totally legal psychedelic research during the 1960s. Known for his wit and lively conversations, he is a popular guest and presenter. Dr. Fadiman delights in entertaining, educating, and enlightening audiences wherever he speaks, and is considered among America’s wisest and most respected authorities on psychedelics and their use. He did his undergraduate work at Harvard and his graduate work at Stanford, doing pioneering research with the Harvard Group, the West Coast Research Group in Menlo Park, and Ken Kesey. A former president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and a professor of psychology, he currently teaches at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, CA, which he helped found in 1975. An international conference presenter, workshop leader, management consultant, novelist, and author/editor of a number books and textbooks, Dr. Fadiman lives in Menlo Park, CA, with his filmmaker wife, Dorothy.
Here is a link mentioned in our discussion: http://entheoguide.net/wiki/Main_Page
The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide by James Fadiman
Read More
#282 – A Hollywood Perspective on Story with Producer Lindsay Doran
Lindsay Doran has worked in the movie business for more than 30 years as a studio executive and as a producer. She has served as the President and COO of United Artists Pictures and as the President of Sydney Pollack’s Mirage Productions. She currently divides her time between her producing duties and her work as “The Script Whisperer™” — anonymous consultation on high priority script development.
Lindsay’s first film credit was as Executive in Charge of Production on the mock-documentary “This is Spinal Tap.” She later became the Executive Producer on two films directed by Sydney Pollack, “The Firm” and “Sabrina.” As a Producer, her credits include “Dead Again,” “Sense and Sensibility,” “Nanny McPhee,” “Stranger Than Fiction,” and “Nanny McPhee Returns” (aka “Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang”).
As an executive, Lindsay worked on dozens of films including “The Sure Thing,” “Stand By Me,” “Pretty in Pink,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Planes Trains and Automobiles,” “Field of Dreams,” “The Naked Gun,” “Pet Sematary,” “Ghost,” “The Thomas Crown Affair,” and two James Bond films – “The World is Not Enough” and “Tomorrow Never Dies.”
She is the winner of numerous awards including the Golden Globe Best Picture award and the British Academy Award for Best Film, both for “Sense and Sensibility.”
Read More
#281 – Short Interviews from Positive Psychology Congress and A Laughter Yoga Session
Today’s episode is a two-parter. First it features short interviews with attendees at the Second World Congress on Positive Psychology, held in Philadelphia earlier this summer. The second part features brief interviews with the teacher and students at a local Laughter Yoga session, I recently attended in Petaluma, California. The photo is a picture of me when I was a young pup (probably in my 30’s).
Read More
#280 – Wrap-up on Hypnogogia Conversation with Jerry Trumbule
Gerald (Jerry) Trumbule, B.S. Univ. of Md. 1965, M.S. Univ. of Pa., 1970, has been a neuropsychological researcher (Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and NASA, Univ. of Md.) and Assistant Professor of Psychology, Univ. of Toronto, 1970. Disgusted with academia, he moved to Denver in 1971 where he founded Sebastian High School, a grade-less experiential learning center, founded the Western States Film Institute, with two winners of the Student Academy Awards, and, in 1980, founded Denver’s first computer training center (ECC). Now retired and living in obscurity, he is a videographer and blogger (DenverDirect.tv), where he expounds on local politics and pollution. He continues his life-long interest in the workings of the human brain, exploring his own brain through hypnagogia and REM sleep, and hopes someday to upload the contents of his brain directly to the internet.
Read More
#279 – Grief, Ritual, and The Soul of The World with Francis Weller, M.A.
Francis Weller, M.A., MFT is a psychotherapist and author of the 2011 book, Entering The Healing Ground: Grief, Ritual and The Soul of The world. He has been in private practice since 1983. During that time, he developed a style of working with people called Soul-Centered Psychotherapy. Weller says his approach to working with the wounds and challenges we face restores soul as the primary focus. He says he has come to have a deep faith in the way soul/psyche works, its moods and movements, how it speaks through symptoms and images, how it longs for intimacy with the world and its need for beauty. I see this every day in my work with people.
Weller says, we often struggle with the muscular demands of our culture to measure up, perform and be perfect. This leaves little room for those parts of us that do not match these expectations; the vulnerable, weak, inadequate and grieving parts of soul. And yet, it is precisely these parts of who we are that bring us closer to others, to the vitality of life and the world. Bringing these rejected and denied elements of soul-life, “those places where I said no to my life,” back into our daily rhythms is what adds meaning and depth to our days.
Read More
#278 – The Use of Active Imagination in Jungian Sandplay with Maria Hess, PhD
Maria Hess, Ph.D. has been a practicing depth oriented psychotherapist and therapist educator in Sonoma County for over 25 years. She was the founding clinical director and supervisor for Lomi Community Clinic and for Humanidad Counseling Services. An Associate Professor of Psychology at Sonoma State University Maria teaches clinical courses to prepare undergrads for advanced training as professional helpers such as Psychologists, Marriage and Family Therapists and Clinical Social Workers. Her own clinical training is grounded in psychodynamic, somatic, humanistic and transpersonal modalities.
In 2006 Maria was inspired by a workshop that included Martin Kalff PhD, the son of the founder of Sandplay Therapy. Over the last 5 years she has studied and implemented Sandplay in her undergraduate courses, in training clinic settings, and in her own psychotherapy practice. This June and July she traveled to Zurich to study with Martin Kalff more intensively. She has returned from her travels once again inspired about Sandplay as well as other non-verbal expressive modalities.
This is Maria’s third appearance on Shrink Rap Radio. She previously appeared on Episodes #20 – Teaching with Passion and #46 – The Narcissistic Personality.
Read More
#277 – At The 2nd World Congress on Positive Psychology: Part 2 with Dr. Ed Diener & Others
Ed Diener, Ph.D. is the Joseph R. Smiley Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois. He received his doctorate at the University of Washington in 1974, and has been a faculty member at the University of Illinois for the past 36 years. Dr. Diener was the president of both the International Society of Quality of Life Studies and the Society of Personality and Social Psychology, as well as of the International Positive Psychology Association. Diener was the editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and the editor of Journal of Happiness Studies. He is the founding editor of Perspectives on Psychological Science. Diener has about 300 publications, with about 200 being in the area of the psychology of well-being. Indeed, Professor Diener’s research focuses on the measurement of well-being; temperament and personality influences on well-being; theories of well-being; income and well-being; and cultural influences on well-being. Recently he has been studying the effects of subjective well-being on health and effective functioning.
I was privileged to attend this Second World Congress in Philadelphia during July of 2011. I recorded Dr. Diener’s opening keynote on my iPhone and later received his verbal permission to reproduce it here. Because it was recorded on an iPhone from my seat in the audience, the audio quality is less that regular listeners to Shrink Rap Radio have come to expect but is quite intelligible. Unfortunately, I missed the first few words but you should be able to get into the flow of it fairly quickly. By the way, the sound will get better after the first few minutes. So do keep listening. Also, Dr. Diener was kind enough to also allow me to upload his presentation slides to the SRR site (click here). You’ll definitely get more out of this by viewing those as you listen.
Also, included in this episode, are a few of the interviews I conducted with other presenters and attendees. I hope these will help convey the diversity and excitement of the event.
Read More
#276 – At The Second World Congress on Positive Psychology: Part 1 with Dr. Martin Seligman & Others
Dr. Martin Seligman needs little introduction. He’s arguably one of the most famous and influential psychologists alive. His work first on learned helplessness and later on optimism solidly established his reputation. Then, as president of the American Psychological Association in 1998, he essentially created a new field within psychology, which he called Positive Psychology. His book, Authentic Happiness , and more recently, Flourish, have helped both to popularize this new field and to solidify it.
I was privileged to attend this Second World Congress in Philadelphia during July of 2011. I recorded Dr. Seligman’s opening keynote on my iPhone and later received his verbal permission to reproduce it here. Because it was recorded on an iPhone from my seat in the audience, the audio quality is less that regular listeners to Shrink Rap Radio have come to expect but is quite intelligible. Unfortunately, I missed the first few words but you should be able to get into the flow of it fairly quickly.
Also, included in this episode, are a few of the interviews I conducted with other presenters and attendees. I hope these will help convey the diversity and excitement of the event.
Read More
#275 – Understanding Laughter as Medicine with Madan Kataria, MD
Madan Kataria, MD is the founder of Laughter Clubs International. We’ve all heard that laughter is the best medicine. If you’re old enough you may recall Norman Cousins’ 1979 book, Anatomy of An Illness. Norman Cousins was the editor of the Saturday Review magazine and he had come down with a serious, life threatening disease and he decided to treat himself using laughter. I seem to recall that he checked himself out of the hospital and into a hotel room where he watched old Marx Brothers movies and Laurel and Hardy comedies. In other words, he watched videos that would get him laughing. To the amazement of his doctors, he was able to heal himself from this life-threatening disease. Are you getting enough laughter in your life? I recently read that “Children laugh an average of 400 times per day whereas adults laugh an average of 15 times per day” I don’t know about you but I do think that I laughed a lot more when I was younger. And I like to laugh. I used to do a lot of business travel and to keep myself from getting burned out on it, I would find the local comedy club. Today’s guest knows a lot about laughter. You may have heard of him. He’s a medical doctor from Mumbai, India who is known as the Giggling Guru and he’s the inventor of laughter yoga and has started thousands of laughter clubs around the world. His name is Dr. Madan Kataria and he’s been featured on Oprah and Time Magazine among others.
Read More
#274 – The Secret Lives of The Brain with David Eagleman, PhD
David Eagleman PhD holds joint appointments in the Departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Dr. Eagleman’s areas of research include time perception, vision, synesthesia, and the intersection of neuroscience with the legal system. He directs the Laboratory for Perception and Action, and is the Founder and Director of Baylor College of Medicine’s Initiative on Neuroscience and Law. Dr. Eagleman has written several neuroscience books, including Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain (Pantheon, 2011), Wednesday is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia (co-authored with Richard Cytowic, MIT Press), and the upcoming Live-Wired: How the Brain Rewrites its own Circuitry (Oxford University Press, 2012). He has also written an internationally bestselling book of literary fiction, Sum, which has been translated into 22 languages and was named a Best Book of the Year by Barnes and Noble, New Scientist, and the Chicago Tribune. Dr. Eagleman has written for the New York Times, Discover Magazine, Slate, Wired, and New Scientist, and he appears regularly on National Public Radio and BBC to discuss both science and literature. He was also the subject of a profile featured in a 2011 issue of The New Yorker.
Read More
#273 – Victimization Nation with Ofer Zur, PhD
Ofer Zur, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and forensic consultant practicing in Sebastopol, California. He is the director of the Zur Institute, which offers over 100 online courses and is one of the most extensive online CE programs for psychologists, counselors, LPC, social workers, MFTs and nurses. His teaching, consulting with therapists, and writing focus on private practice outside managed care, ethics, standard of care, boundaries, dual relationships, and Internet addiction. His books include Dual Relationships and Psychotherapy (Springer, 2002, co-edited with A. Lazarus), HIPPA Friendly (Norton, 2005), Private Practice Handbook, (ZI, 2007), and Boundaries in Psychotherapy (APA Books, 2007). Dr. Zur has deep concern regarding the harm inflicted by dogmatic, inflexible and ideologically rigid psychotherapeutic practices. His articles page at ZurInstitute.com provides dozens of free articles and guidelines for psychotherapists and the public.
#272 – The Happiness Trap with Russ Harris, MD
Dr Russ Harris, MD is a physician, psychotherapist and executive coach. As a GP he became increasingly interested in the psychological aspects of health and wellbeing (and increasingly disenchanted with writing prescriptions). Ultimately this interest led to a total career change, and he now works in two different, yet complementary roles: as a therapist and as a life coach. He is also the author of the 2007 self-help book, The Happiness Trap, a best-seller, now published in over twenty-two countries and seventeen different languages.
Read More
#271 –“Happy,” The Movie, with Roko Belic
Director Roko Belic is co-founder of Wadi Rum Productions in Los Angeles and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary for his first feature film with Wadi Rum, the acclaimed Genghis Blues.
Roko Belic started making films in third grade with his brother, Adrian Belic, and a friend of theirs, Christopher Nolan, who borrowed a super-8 movie camera from his parents and started experimenting with the surreality of film. Heavily influenced by Star Wars, the young team experimented with special effects. Later, because his mother used a wrench to lock their TV to the local PBS channel, Roko became enchanted with programs through which he could explore the world. His first movie, Genghis Blues (1999), was made on a shoestring budget (using home video cameras), and was nominated for an Academy Award.
Belic recently directed the 44-minute documentary “Dreams: Cinema of the Subconscious,” which was released on the “Inception” Blu-Ray.
For his current project, Belic teamed up with Hollywood heavyweight Tom Shadyac (“Liar Liar,” “Bruce Almighty”), who executive produced, to direct the feature documentary HAPPY. HAPPY combines powerful human stories from around the world with cutting edge science to give us a deeper understanding of our most valued emotion.
Read More
#270 – Unlocking Psychological Wealth with Robert Biswas-Diener, PhD
Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener is widely known as the Indiana Jones of Positive Psychology because his research on happiness has taken him to such far flung places as Greenland, India and Kenya. He is a part-time instructor at Portland State University and sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Happiness Studies and Journal of Positive Psychology. Robert is a Certified Mentor Coach (CMC) and has worked with clients on four continents. Robert is author of Practicing Positive Psychology Coaching (2010), Happiness: Unlocking the mysteries of psychological wealth (2008) and Positive Psychology Coaching (2007). He is also co-founder of the charitable mission The Strengths Project.
Read More
#269 – The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism with Pilar Jennings, Ph.D.
Pilar Jennings, Ph.D. is a writer and researcher who has focused on the clinical applications of Buddhist meditation practice. She received her Ph.D. in Psychiatry and Religion from Union Theological Seminary, and has been working with patients and their families through the Harlem Family Institute since 2004. Dr. Jennings is also a researcher at the Columbia University Center for Study of Science and Religion, as well as a facilitator of a Columbia University Faculty Seminar. Dr. Jennings is a long-term practitioner of Tibetan and Vipassana Buddhism. She has also trained as a Buddhist chaplain through the Zen Center for Contemplative Care. Dr. Jennings lives in New York City.
Her 2010 book, Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism, explores the interpersonal dynamics between Buddhist teachers and their Western students, in comparison to the relationships between psychoanalysts and their patients.
Read More
#268 – Visual Thinking in Autism with Temple Grandin Ph.D.
Temple Grandin, Ph.D. is a Doctor of Animal Science and professor at Colorado State University, bestselling author, and consultant to the livestock industry in animal behavior. As a person with high-functioning autism, Grandin is also widely noted for her work in autism advocacy and is the inventor of the hug machine designed to calm hypersensitive persons. Grandin was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1947. She was diagnosed as autistic in 1950. Having been labeled and diagnosed with brain damage at age two, she was placed in a structured nursery school with what she considers to have been good teachers. Grandin’s mother spoke to a doctor who suggested speech therapy, and she hired a nanny who spent hours playing turn-based games with Grandin and her sister. At age four, Grandin began talking, and she began making progress. She considers herself lucky to have had supportive mentors from primary school onwards. However, Grandin has said that middle school and high school were the worst parts of her life. She was the `nerdy kid,` the one whom everyone teased and picked on. She would be walking down the street and people would say `tape recorder,` because she would repeat things over and over again. Grandin states that `I could laugh about it now, but back then it really hurt.
She is the focus of a semi-biographical 2010 HBO film, titled Temple Grandin starring Claire Danes as Grandin. At the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards, the film, nominated in 15 Emmy categories, received five awards, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie and Best Actress in a Drama for Danes.
Read More





























