Spring Programs at What a Shrink Thinks
what does pay-what-you-can mean, and more:
Pay-what-you-can means you are welcome to pay-what-you can.
Many people seem reluctant to believe that I actually offer my workshops and services by donation. I have never had to turn anyone away from a workshop for financial reasons.
It is important to me that not only do my groups cover my basic expenses (and I have found that they almost always do or nearly quite naturally) that they are full, robust, inclusive, generative, and welcoming to anyone who really wants to attend.
So if you would like to attend any of my workshops or discussions, and the suggested donation feels prohibitive - donate whatever is affordable to you without anxiety.
You do not need to worry about “taking a space” from another participant.
So please do join us without self-consciousness if you are considering it.
If you are financially comfortable and would like to make a small donation toward scholarship funds you are welcome to do so, by clicking this button:
Spring Calendar
March 29th: Community Discussion:
Facing Ruthlessness and Ourselves
with Janine de Novais and Martha Crawford
The Trump administration is “flooding the zone,” overwhelming us with ruthlessness as a matter of practice, with every executive order and policy change meant to show us their teeth, and terrify us. Ruthlessness is a human quality for better or worse and in this session, we will explore what we can know and understand about it, how to face it and how to face ourselves.
Community discussions are one-time, recorded events:
Ninety minute facilitated public discussions via Zoom, with opportunities for questions and response on specific topics.
April 5th - Dream Work as Praxis
ACCEPTING MEMBERS
Saturday Intensive:
TIME: Saturday mid-day - 11:15am Pacific, 12:15pm Mountain, 1:15 Central, 2:15 Eastern
DURATION: 5 sessions, each ninety minutes long
DATES: April 5 (skipping Passover) 19 26, May 3, & 10
Dream work requires encountering the structures of whiteness, colonization, supremacy, domination, extraction and control as they move through the body/psyche.
Sitting with the symbols that our dreams produce at night requires forging some comfort with uncertainty, with not knowing anything definitively.
It is a process that requires humility and discernment as we encounter natural instincts and archetypes that are more ancient and more powerful than our waking egos.
April 8th: Circling the Drain: Living Intentionally with Mortality
THREE SPOTS OPEN
Time : The workshop will be held via Zoom on Tuesday evenings at 4:30 Pacific, 5:30 Mountain, 6:30 Central, 7:30 Eastern
Duration: This workshop is sixteen weekly sessions via Zoom, each session is 90 minutes long.
Dates: April 8, 15, 22, 29 May 6, 13, 20, 27 June 3, 10, 17, 24 July 1, 8, 15, 22
Each session is a facilitated discussion focused around a theme and a series of discussion prompts: evocative excerpts from relevant works of memoir, non-fiction, poetry, psychology, philosophy, thanatology and theology.
Discussion is followed by a period of guided contemplation and brief silence, offering an opportunity to integrate the content. Before closing the session, time will be reserved to share any after-thoughts that may have emerged during reflection.
Some subjects covered in this workshop:
Cultural history of death and dying
Care taking and bereavement
Defining “a good death”
The psychological labor of dying
Racism, white supremacy and the distribution of death
Climate change and existential anxiety
Ancestors and Object Constancy
Dreams, visions, psychedelics and end of life
Memento Mori and impermanence practices
Living with dying as existential and political practice
April 16th: The Group-Group
ACCEPTING MEMBERS
Time: 4:00pm Pacific, 5 Mountain, 6 Central, 7 Eastern
Duration: This workshop will gather for 6 weeks, on Wednesday evenings for one hour and 15 minutes
Dates: April 16, 23, 30, May 7, 14, 21
Many people who have attended this workshop have found it useful, even if they didn’t have a consolidated idea about what kind of group they want to start, or even that they want to convene one at all. This workshop focuses on defining the kinds of community groups that feel welcoming, balanced, and right for you, as a facilitator, convener, or simply as a group member.
Each session’s discussion will be organized around a theme:
1. Who: Coming together, membership and outreach
2. Why: Defining the need, problem, or dilemma the group will address
3. What: The mission, purpose, and spirit of the group
4. How: Methods, materials and norms
5. When/Where: The implications of time, duration and frequency & environment
6. Endings: Departures, setting down a group and what next?
And More:
Some programs from colleagues and collaborators;
Read and subscribe to Kingdom of Culture: Janine de Novais Substack. Watch her newsletter for announcements about upcoming Brave Community workshops and more!
shea in the catskills is offering a workshop on how to form queries for contemplation with tarot as well as a longer series on the study of tarot
Elena Solano has a lovely Patreon that I encourage you to visit and explore, she is also available for collaboration, creative partnership (and or therapy for those in Texas) Visit her site to learn more about her services. She is also raising funds for the medical care of her adorable doggie elders.
And finally - Nina Hatfield has openings in her lovely Co-resting Groups for spring - a gentle, semi-introverted, semi-social community.
Subscription Writing Projects
I offer free essays at my primary website which you are always welcome to explore. I share my primary self-hosted free newsletter there as well (I post here at Substack very rarely).
One of the ways I subsidize my by-donation and pro-bono services is through the writings I offer behind a paywall.
I share two essays each month at the Lectio Subscription Essays: My more personal, meditative reflections from the various archetypal, metaphysical, theological, mystical, esoteric and depth psychological texts that populate my eclectic and idiosyncratic books stacks. (Here is the most recent post as a preview)
I am also sharing a memoir project a personal and investigative project about a priest who became my step-father and left my family shattered. The Good Thief Dilemma is available for a one-time fee.
Please feel free to share these groups and resources with anyone you think may be interested!
And wishing you a lovely Spring from myself and the whole menagerie:
in order: Totoro the tabby on the fireplace, Penny the mostly-beagle on the stairs, Pluto the dragon on the kitchen counter where he is not supposed to be, Moose the mutt looming over me as I do my morning stretches, and Puck, the mostly-chihuahua waiting for his favorite person, my daughter, to come out of the airport terminal for spring break.