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Tonight Florence Forrest, the society’s new Communications and Library officer, will be outlining her vision on The Toad Pond and will be discussing the new arrangements with the Society’s library and bringing the library materials and borrowings back to life after a hibernation period.

The Toad Pond is a new initiative to stimulate the conversation and excitement in Jungian understandings in the Queensland wilds. It is intended to make a place in which to share, encourage and be stimulated by not only our local conversation in the Society but also by the wonderful wellsprings of interest in the psyche taking place around the world. No experience is required, only curiosity and a friendly desire to be “in the room” for what might ferment with our coming together over coffee in a convivial environment.

The name is inspired by Marie-Louise Von Franz. In a 1979 interview she shares her favourite place around her tower, the toad pond, which she dug out herself from a very small pool. She spoke of the special toads that lived there, called Unke, which exist nowhere else but in the pre-Alps area of Switzerland and Austria. What she loved most about these little people, who emerged from winter hibernation in spring, was their beautiful bell-like call that echoed enchantingly around her tower. It was the place she did all of her deepest thinking and writing. Like Jung’s own tower in Bollingen, her tower was the place she was most herself.

The Toad Pond gatherings will be held at the GOMA cafe in the Southbank Cultural Precinct at 10am on the Saturday morning following the usual first Thursday of the month’s Society lecture.

The gathering will last about an hour, with the probability of overflow based on the day’s energy. Meet at the elephant sculpture in front of the café beforehand. For regular updates about The Toad Pond gatherings see the e-news reports and the C.G. Jung Society of Queensland Facebook page
Enquires or RSVPs to Florence – (text) 0417 975 970.

About Florence Forrest
Florence is a Jungian enthusiast with over fifteen years of personal involvement with Jungian material primarily using dreams. She studied Economics and Arts (majoring in Art History) at the Australian National University, Canberra. Other areas of her life have involved: being a carer; an art-toy designer – exhibiting both in Brisbane and group exhibitions around the world; she’s been a member of art/craft collective – The Umbrella Collective; and a former dramaturge with OzFrank Theatre Praxis.

She’s also a poet, artist, arts writer/ speaker. Currently, Florence is building a practice as a cartomancy consultant – The Book of Hermes. Having a great many interests reaching across the arts, literature, spirituality, esotericism, psychology and community, she sees herself as a life-long learner.

Come along and have a healthy laugh at this completely hilarious film with two of the greats of the profession of acting, Richard Dreyfuss and Bill Murray, where the neurotic patient bites the vain Psychiatrist in all the funny places.

Christmassy supper afterwards.

When Carl Jung sat on the shores of the lake at Bollingen, allowing himself to play with the sands and pebbles to construct imaginary worlds, he was not to know how this presaged a global group of soul-workers who would translate his analytical psychology through Sandplay.

Jung encouraged Dora Kalff to develop her Sandspiel, now called Sandplay Therapy, as a way of working in an analytic alliance with energies and image in the emergent elements of individuation.

In this one-day workshop participants will experience the power of Dora Kalff’s foundational work, in a non-confrontative manner. They will gain a comprehensive understanding of Kalff’s Sandplay Therapy, and the parameters of the growing global Sandplay international society. This Society, affiliated with IAAP, has now officially embraced Kalff’s Jungian heritage in Australia and New Zealand through STANZA, a new professional body of trained therapists. Heather Lesley-Swan, Teaching Member of ISST and Jungian analyst will co-present this workshop. Participants will see for themselves a full Sandplay Therapy case, presented by our former President, Marie Makinson, analyst and ISST Certified Sandplay Therapist. They will emerge with a deep understanding of the mysterium of which Jung spoke:

“Often the hands can solve a mystery the intellect has struggled with in vain”
CW 16, p.181

Heather Lesley-Swan, Jungian Analyst and Teaching Member of the International Society for Sandplay Therapy, reviews the worldwide diagnosis of autism, particularly in children, which is currently
flooding our society. She will show through a client’s images in art and sand how the Self seeks to emerge from psyche even where the neuro-typical elements of relatedness and emotion are truncated.

This talk will offer evidence to encourage those who are working with clients with autistic diagnoses to hold a temenos beyond popular behavioural education techniques and to respect the voice of the
Self. It will encourage all to enhance their understanding of the burgeoning rise of spectrum disorders, and to evaluate our collective response.

About Heather Lesley-Swan
Heather Lesley-Swan is a Jungian Analyst trained at the CG Jung Institute in Switzerland, and a member of the International Association for Analytical Psychology. She was the first Certified Sandplay Therapist, then Teaching Member of the International Society for Sandplay Therapy in Australia/New Zealand. She has held senior corporate roles, led her own global consulting company and educational organisation, and trains in-house counselling teams.

Heather has a particular interest in autism spectrum implications, bringing her knowledge of current neuroscience and the development of the capacity to symbolise. Her work is also informed by attachment and trauma research, including proven pathways for individual transformation and well-being.

About Marie Makinson
Marie Makinson is a Jungian Analyst and certified Sandplay therapist. She has a private practice at The Channon in Northern NSW. Marie is a former president of the CG Jung Society of Queensland and has presented many times for the society over the years. She is very much looking forward to being part of this in-person workshop and sharing some of the extraordinary things she has observed and learned in the practice of Sandplay.

“Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. At all counts, it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions.“
(Jung CW11. Para. 131)

In this seminar Dr. Beth Foley will explore the Jungian concept of The Shadow in clinical work. The everyday, autonomous and involuntary emergence of the shadow will be discussed. How the shadow presents in the consulting room and how it might be worked therapeutically in an ongoing way will be explored.

About Dr. Beth Foley
Dr Beth Foley completed her analytic training with the C.G. Jung Institute of ANZSJA and works in private practice as a Jungian Analyst in Coffs Harbour. Beth is an experienced clinical psychologist having practised for over 20 years. Her PhD researched the therapeutic effectiveness of mindfulness-based therapies in psychiatric and oncology settings and resulted in a number of academic papers. She has provided training and lecturing on acceptance-based therapies, existential issues and psychodynamic therapy for many years.

In this talk, the focus will be to narrate the defining milestones in Saibal’s journey through childhood in India, from being an introverted child to becoming the person he is today through many landmark events and incidents that were possibly triggers to bring out the unconscious need to explore, to seek and to find himself. Why did he become a Psychiatrist? Why did he change countries? Why was he ‘running’ throughout his life? What were the unconscious triggers? Was there synchronicity and acausality in his life progression?

Saibal always associated his inner restlessness as an impetus to seek salvation through achievement. His efforts have been conscious and sometimes strategic. But deep down, like Carl Jung believed, he always felt an unconscious need to push forward. The journey followed an ill defined and unchartered path, with inevitable twists and turns. However, Saibal always knew each destination he reached was only the beginning.

Saibal will present his perspective and understanding of his ill defined psyche, possibly unpacking the psychological construct of a Psychiatrist. This talk will be reflective, narrative and thought provoking. So he believes… And, those who come on this day to hear him speak will be part of his collective unconsciousness and his destiny to have your esteemed presence in his life. And Saibal’s story.

Saibal will unravel himself to you for the first time. So, if this talk evokes your interest, you are connected to Saibal and have always been.

About Dr Saibal Guha
Dr Saibal Guha is working at Marsai Clinic in Cleveland. Previously, he was at Belmont Private Hospital private practice for over a decade. His specific area of interest is Adult ADHD and Neuropsychiatry. He is also trained in TMS therapy and has set up a TMS clinic at his practice in conjunction with NeuroXcellTMS. Originally from an Armed Forces background in India, Saibal has been involved in this field of Psychiatry for over 26 years, trying to find pathways to enhance care, improve the quality of life and functioning of patients, and improve treatment parameters. He has recently published his first book.
‘Dying for Life – Defying Death and Destiny.’

This book is based on a real-life incident Saibal had been involved in as a child. This affected his later life choice of career and possible experiences with synchronicity and acausality. Saibal has a strong association with his family in Australia and also India. He works with a mental health foundation in India. This organisation Antara, has been involved since the 1970s in alleviating mental health for the poor and downtrodden in Kolkata. This is his birthplace. Saibal has a strong connection to exploring the unknown, the metaphysical and the spiritual aspects which are unseen and obscured.
Saibals’ core principle in life is –
‘Goodness is the key to Godliness.And seeking this is my destiny.’

Please note the CHANGE IN VENUE AND DATE for this meeting as renovations take place at our usual venue, St Mary’s Kangaroo Point, this month.

It is the simplicity of the dream, communicating to us in a language derived from the natural world that moves us so deeply.

Similar to the apparent simplicity of French composer Eric Satie’s music, we are mesmerized and taken to a realm far beyond everyday life into something that may be the domain of the Numinous. Just listening to the opening stanza of Satie’s Gymnopedie we sense that he was already transfixed, and needed to create music expressive of this world existing beyond the veil. Like the image, these sounds and rhythms convey the movement of the Self as it so gently transports us into relationship with the sacred.

In the dream, patterns of life, of growth, and of endings are revealed through a rich collective language. So too, the dream allows us to see that something in our life – perhaps a relationship, a job, or an attitude – is outdated, and that the Self, the soul is in need of renewal.

Carl Jung was once asked why the dream speaks through symbols and not in the language of everyday life. To this question Jung responded by saying that such a direct communication would fall on deaf ears, and that the Self speaks through an iconographic, pictorial voice of the ages, the language of the “Antique Soul”. So too he reminds us that from time eternal, humanity has been moved by images, by sounds, parables, and symbols.

Could the majesty and utter beauty of Satie and Debussy’s music or DaVinci and Michelangelo’s art ever be conveyed in words?

Offering a glimpse into the world of the archetypal, and closely aligned to Jung’s and von Franz’s work, this presentation promises to enrich your appreciation and understanding of the archetypal images in dreams and the relationship between our personally created meaning of symbols, to their innate, archetypal meaning

About Dr. Michael Confort
is a Jungian analyst and the Founder and Director of the Assisi Institute. He is a faculty member at the C.G. Jung Institute of Boston, the C.G. Jung Foundation of New York, and for many years served as a Senior Associate faculty member in the Doctoral and Master’s Programs in Clinical Psychology at Antioch New England. A pioneer in the field of matter-psyche studies, Dr. Conforti is actively investigating the workings of archetypal fields and the relationship between Jungian psychology and the New Sciences.

He is the author of Threshold Experiences: The Archetype of Beginnings (2007) and Field, Form and Fate: Patterns in Mind, Nature and Psyche (2002) and many journal articles. Dr. Conforti maintains a private practice in in Mystic, CT and consults with individuals and corporations around the world. He is also a Senior Fellow of the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership at the University of Maryland.

This talk will be an introduction to Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP), an innovative approach to clinical practice and psychotherapy, where clients are invited into safe relational experiences with horses to address therapeutic goals. It is a fast-growing modality across Australia and the globe. EAP is engaging and effective for diverse clients including adults, children, adolescents, organisations, and specialist client groups such as Aboriginal youth, veterans, and clients with trauma, anxiety, depression, and addictions. Meggin Kirby, founder of the Equine Psychotherapy Institute, will be joining us on our screen at St Mary’s via Zoom, to share her passion about this wonderful work with horses, animals and nature – supporting, assisting, facilitating, modelling and teaching us so much about health, relationship, leadership and wellbeing.

About Dr. Meggin
Dr. Meggin and her husband Noel have been working in the Mental Health and Wellness field for a collective 40 years. Together they have worked in the Psychotherapy, Mental Health, Psychology, Counselling, Consultation, Organisational Development, Therapist Training, EAP and EAL Practitioner Training, Trauma and Personal Development fields, and more recently Animal Assisted Psychotherapy and Nature Assisted Therapy.

Her clinical experience over the last 23 years began in Adult community mental health, moved into inpatient and outpatient Child and Family psychiatry, before settling into private practice as a psychotherapist working with adults, children, families, couples and organisations.

After over 10 years in psychotherapy and coaching private practice she moved into training psychotherapists, counsellors, social workers, psychologists, teachers and horse people in equine assisted practice, and has been doing that now for over 10 years.

This lecture is an expanded version of the introductory section of last October’s I Ching workshop. The history of Chinese divination, in which the I Ching has a very important role, is a fascinating one, and certain aspects of it will be explored here. And in regard to the I Ching and its arrival in the West, it has been suggested that C. G. Jung’s single most famous work is very likely his 1949 foreword to Richard Wilhelm’s translation of the I Ching.1

Jung first came into contact with Wilhelm in the 1920s, and was profoundly impressed by his understanding of the subtleties of the I Ching or Book of Changes. Indeed, it is more than likely that Jung’s theory of synchronicity was directly inspired by Wilhelm, and the religion writer Harold Coward has gone so far as to suggest that the whole notion of synchronicity is directly dependent on the I Ching.2 Concerning his encounter with Wilhelm, Jung wrote:

“He, as a Sinologue, and I, as a physician, would probably never have come into contact had we remained specialists. But we met in a field of humanity which begins beyond academic boundary posts. There lay our point of contact; there leaped across the spark that kindled the light destined to become for me one of the most meaningful events of my life.3 “

In addition to its function as an oracle, the I Ching was used in all sorts of other fields, including in the organisation of the Chinese imperial bureaucracy. In the opinion of Joseph Needham, principle author of the multi-volumed Science and Civilisation in China, the far-reaching influence of the I Ching also had the unfortunate consequence of preventing the development of Chinese science.4

All this and more will be discussed in this lecture and, time permitting, perhaps one or two consultations may be possible towards the end of the evening.

References:
1. Karcher, S. (1999). Jung, the Tao, and the Classic of Change, Journal of Religion and Health, 38 (4), 287- 304, p. 296.
2. Wilhelm, R. & Jung, C. G. (1972). The secret of the golden flower: A Chinese book of life. (R. Wilhelm & C. F. Baynes, Trans.). Routledge, p. 138.
3. Coward, H. (2003). Taoism and Jung: Synchronicity and the self. In Macfie, A. L. (Ed), Eastern Influences on Western Philosophy: A reader (pp. 279-296). Edinburgh University Press, p. 279
4. Needham, J. & Ronan, C. (1978). The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 183-89.

About Laurence Browne
Laurence Browne has a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Queensland, where he is an Honorary Research Fellow within the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry. He is the author of The Many Faces of Coincidence, published in 2017 by Imprint Academic, Exeter, U.K, as well as a number of journal articles, most recently: Coincidence in Chinese Fiction and Chinese-inspired Fiction, published in June 2022 in The Australian Journal of Parapsychology.

Jung asked what it is, in the end, that persuades a man or woman to go their own way? To rise from an unconscious identity with the masses as though emerging from a “swathing mist?” He called it vocation, and identified this illogical factor that destines a man or woman to emancipate themselves “from a herd and its well-worn paths.” Jung went further to say that any person with a vocation hears the voice of the inner man or woman. In other words, they are called.

In Jungian psychology, individuation is considered an important life goal. It occurs differently for each person and generally takes place in the second half of life. Individuation is the process of realising one’s true personality, including discovering our life purpose or calling. Our vocation.

Individuation sometimes occurs when a person loses touch with aspects of their personality through trauma or a major life event. They may then reintegrate certain parts of their nature, thereby finding it easier to maintain their spiritual (as well as social, emotional and mental) equilibrium. Trauma was the catalyst for Jung’s individuation process, and Jung’s experience provided a guide for Dr Toula Gordillo’s own healing process.

Using examples from Jung’s life, as well as her own, in this talk Toula demonstrates her individuation journey. She describes her personal reflection methods and the product of her vocation—the creation of Story Image Therapy (SIT®) based on Jung’s ideas and knowledge. In particular, Dr Gordillo will discuss Jung’s understanding of the Chiron myth and the archetypal wounded healer and how this has ‘played out’ in healing her own negative adolescent complex. This is the subject of her soon-to-be released second book, The Magic of Jung.

About Dr Toula Gordillo
Dr Toula Gordillo is a practicing Clinical psychologist and Jungian psychotherapist based on Australia’s Sunshine Coast. She is also a former school teacher, guidance officer intensive behaviour support and acting head of student services in some of Queensland’s largest state high schools. Dr Gordillo is a published author of numerous academic and non-academic journals, magazines and books including: Youth Voice Journal, Viewpoint, The Artifice, Immanence – Journal of Applied Myth, Story and Folklore and Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Toula is a member of the CG Jung Society of Queensland, the International Depth Psychology Alliance, the Australian Society of Authors, The Queensland Writer’s Centre and the Australian Child and Adolescent Trauma, Loss and Grief Network (ACATLGN).