Become Who You Truly Are

Course Description

Discover what is alive in you and how to express that in a fulfilling way. Master techniques and tools to stimulate your own psychological growth. Learn from professionals as they guide you through concepts and integrate theory with real-life. Create a more meaningful life and discover how to realize your true potential.

Twelve expert teachers explore the process of individuation as inspired by Carl Jung’s pioneering work on tending the soul. 

Themes addressed by these leaders in their fields include:

• the concept of individuation as developed by Carl Jung
• how to tend to our symptoms and symbols
• how to ground your sensual authority in the feminine erotic soul 
• following the law of your being to find your way back home
• adapting to a changing world by sensing into what’s dying and what’s emerging
• recognizing the gods and goddesses in each of us
• how collective nightmares can serve our individuation
• how typology and aging influence individuation
• embodiment, charisma, genius, pathology and acorns as ways to explore who we truly are

This course is interview-style. Machiel Klerk and Akke-Jeanne Klerk – Jung Platform founders and siblings –spoke with these 12 experts to create the Become Who You Truly Are Summit. This course is a remastering of that summit.

This course is ideal if:

• You want to understand yourself better
• You want to experience the life and mystery of the unconscious
• You want to learn about the Jungian concepts of persona, shadow, animus/anima and archetypes
• you are just discovering Jungian Psychology as well as if you’re a Jungian expert, professional or therapist.
• Create a more meaningful life and discover how to realize your true potential

Course Overview

Class 1: An Introduction to Individuation with John van Eeywyk

In this audio class, Jungian Analyst John van Eenwyk introduces Jung’s concept of individuation, the process of becoming who we truly are. John van Eenwyk explains how the unconscious psyche influences us in ways that are consistent with what we were born to be and what we can do to honor that process. We can engage in our own dynamic process by tending to opposites, symbols and symptoms, directing and assisting us into becoming who we are supposed to be. During this session you’ll discover:

• What individuation is
• The role of instinct, opposing energies, symbols and symptoms in individuation
• How to engage in the process of becoming who you truly are

Class 2: The Feminine Erotic Soul and Individuation with Erika Lorentz

Erica Lorentz explores the power that the feminine erotic soul holds for us in becoming who we are. It’s her view that ‘this aspect of the feminine, hidden and maligned in most modern cultures, is a healing life force crucial to our spirituality, our humanity, and our world’. Erica will explain how a healthy relationship with this part of soul can be established by men and women as well as how this relates to becoming who you are. During this session you’ll discover:

• What the feminine erotic soul is and how to begin to tune into it.
• How the feminine erotic soul can enhance your relationships and creativity.
• What Sensual Authority means in healing.
• What it means to ground your spiritual practice in the sacred feminine.

Class 3: The Individuation Process: Finding Your Way Back Home with Robert Romanyshyn

Robert Romanyshyn sheds light on how individuation can be a process of coming home to who you are meant to be; Individuation as Homecoming!!! For Carl Jung, individuation refers to those moments and occasions in one’s life when you’re called to follow the law of your own being, to become who you truly are. Romanyshyn’s life offered him chances to transform what seemed like fate, to destiny.
He shares how moments of crises turned out to be opportunities through the process of Individuation. Learn how the places on roads less traveled included steps of slowing down and adopting an attitude of hospitality which allowed him to turn back to those parts of himself that were forgotten, ignored, abandoned or otherwise sacrificed. In those moments Robert met those who have been waiting for him with the unfinished business of his life.During this session you’ll discover:

• The importance of tending to the shadow and monsters on the margins
• The significance of mistakes, failures and sorrow for individuation
• The value of sharing one’s journey with others

Class 4: Becoming Who You Aren’t Yet with Robert Bosnak

The COVID virus has altered our reality. As the world is changing, the old world is never going to come back, and we will have to change as well. So the challenge of this time is to become what we aren’t yet by way of the virus.
We’re dealing with the unknown and the most important thing is flexibility and adaptation with elasticity. We become more elastic by realizing that something is dying and that something new is emerging at the same time. We are sensing the loss and destruction of the old world. At the same time in the interaction between us and the world something new begins to happen in the sense of adaptation. This dynamic stretches us and asks a certain kind of consciousness of us. During this session you’ll discover:

• What it means to be embodied by the time
• Why dual consciousness is important
• How to tune into the creative force that is living through us

Note: this class was given during the Covid crisis of 2020. Robert speaks from the knowledge and atmosphere of that moment.

Class 5: The Goddesses and Gods in Every One of Us with Jean Shinoda Bolen

How can mythological gods and goddesses influence our individuation process? Jean Shinoda Bolen explains how archetypal gods and goddesses are a useful shorthand for describing or analyzing behaviors, patterns and personality traits we experience as humans. She explains how your understanding of archetypal patterns can play a central role in returning to your true Self.
Everyone has a leading role in their own unfolding life, a god/goddess-given gift to learn about and accept. Each individual needs to take responsibility for these to change, recognizing and surmounting these liabilities so that they can change and move closer to self-actualization on their journey of individuation. During this session you’ll discover:

• How the gods and goddesses play an active role in your life
• How to recognize their presence
• What you can do to understand and align with them for the benefit of your own individuation

Class 6: Coronavirus: A Collective Nightmare in the Service of Individuation with Robert Moradi

Psychiatrist and Jungian Analyst, Robert Moradi, talks about how we could become more of who we are in a world threatened by the coronavirus. Imagining the current collective fear of the pandemic as a nightmare, we could view the world’s panic the same way as we view and try to make sense of a frightening dream. Since we know that dreams and nightmares are in the service of bringing balance to the life of the individual, we can then consider a similar “purpose” for the experience of the current collective nightmare caused by the Coronavirus.
In the analogy to a nightmare we can say that despite its frightening impact on the dreamer, nightmares are for the individual in order to bring him/her out of an unconscious lifestyle and help him/her become who he/she can be, i.e. individuation. We can each respond to the global nightmare, both individually, and as a member of the human community. As a member of the human community the pandemic can serve the individual become conscious of his/her role and responsibility towards the planet/home that we all share. In other words, the experience of the pandemic can serve as a gateway to increased self-knowledge and understanding of what it means to be human. During this session you’ll discover:

• How a symbolic outlook towards a collective event could foster the process of individuation.
• How a pandemic, once viewed as a nightmare, could serve the expansion of self-knowledge.
• How a symbolic outlook could help make a painful experience meaningful and thus bearable and even psychologically valuable.

Note: this class was given during the Covid crisis of 2020. Robert speaks from the knowledge and atmosphere of that moment.

Class 7: Engaging with Your Genius with Michael Meade

Are you ready to tap into the unique part of you that can change the world – your genius? Everyone has been allotted one or multiple genii at birth. The genius is the personalized version of an archetype that is particular and specific to each individual. Take this journey With Michael Meade, a gifted story teller who will share mythological tales and personal stories to help you incarnate the genius in your reality.
Jung considered the connection with our own genius as part of the individuation process and Michael explores the different qualities that the genius has, the ways we can discover the genius in our own life and how we can build a relationship with this figure. During this session you’ll discover:

• What a genius is
• How we can recognize the genius in our life
• How to individuate by understanding our genius.

Class 8: Jung’s Typology and Individuation with John van der Steur

In a 1934 interview with the Cosmopolitan Magazine Jung said, “What nature asks of the apple tree is that it shall bring forth apples. And of the pear tree that it shall bring forth pears. Nature wants me to be simply man, a man conscious of what I am, and of what I am doing.” Jung called this process of becoming who you are as an individual and experiencing meaning, purpose, and growth the individuation process. Essentially it is a continuous transformation and growth of consciousness.
Jung called the four typological functions (Thinking, Feeling, Sensation and Intuition) functions of consciousness. It is through these functions that we can know ourselves and the world around us. His typology is a very useful tool to support the individuation process since you can easily find your conscious and unconscious polarities in it. You can then easily see the tension you need to hold for the individuation process to take place in your life. For individual or couples work it is an indispensable tool or compass as Jung put it. About the four functions, he wrote; “But one thing I must confess: I would not for anything dispense with this compass on my psychological voyages of discovery.” ∼ C.G. Jung, CW 6, § 959. During this session you’ll discover:

• How to understand the “spine of the personality”, the relationship between the dominant conscious function and the inferior unconscious function.
• How the different types “typically” individuate, and what risk they have to take.
• The alignment of your personality with your soul’s purpose, or as Edinger called it “creating the Ego-Self axis.”

Class 9: Aging and Individuation with Michael Conforti

Entrance into this later stage of life brings with it a totally new and novel set of needs. No longer can we live and prosper by those values that allowed us to succeed during our younger years. Now, living with the scepter of diminished time, we feel the pressure to live in accordance to the mandates of the Self, and to fully approach and accept our very personal road towards individuation-to the life we are meant to live. It is the benevolence of Psyche that continues to provide opportunities to find the road that’s right for our soul, however there is an endpoint and aging more than any other time in our life that forces us to face not only the issues of mortality but the profound missive to live in relationship to the values and callings of our destiny and the needs of the Self.
During this session you’ll discover:

• The archetypal pattern of aging
• The importance of aging for individuation
• How to engage gracefully embrace the aging process

Class 10: Embodiment, Movement and Consciousness with Tina Stromsted

Jung’s idea of individuation, the process of becoming who you are, is not only a theoretical concept… It’s true embodiment and exploration comes to life in one’s own body. The psyche manifests itself in the body and the body provides the symptoms, feelings and directions for your own individuation process. The body is the way of being in the world.
When one gets deeply embodied, one experiences increased kinesthetic awareness, better interpersonal skills, deeper empathy and intuition. These are all steps to restore a sense of authority to your own bodily-knowing. Come and discover new ways to become embodied, uncover your beauty through movement and in so doing, move closer to your higher consciousness. During this session you’ll discover:

• The role of the body in personal growth / individuation
• How to become more aware of the body
• How you can follow the impulses of the body to lead you in your own, unique journey

Class 11: Bedazzled, Charisma and Its Ways, An Individuation Challenge with Jan Bauer

Who has charisma? Who doesn’t? Is it good to have it or not? Everyone thinks they want charisma either in themselves or in their leaders. But charisma is not a commodity, it is a gift, a way of power and influence that can be used or misused, like any kind of power. Just as being in the thrall of another’s charisma can inspire us to express our best talents, it can also lead us to express our worst shadow. Everyone has some charisma, some in great quantity, some in very little. But without it, there would be no attractions between people, no desire to know the Other … Yet, Charisma is itself is neutral, it’s what we do with it that matters. And, that is one of the paths to Individuation. Join Jan Bauer to learn more about this. During this session you’ll discover:

• What charisma is and isn’t and how it can influence the course of our public and private lives for better or worse.
• Awareness of your own charisma using it well and not getting caught in the projections of others.
• Drawing inspiration from other people’s charisma as means of transformation without losing your identity.

Class 12:A Slightly Revisioned Take on Individuation with Patricia Berry

Patricia Berry explores in-depth the concept of individuation. She looks at how Carl Jung’s own difficult upbringing influenced his individuation and his ideas of individuation. Then she explores how symptoms are doors through which we enter into individuation. Plus gives some suggestions on how to read pathologies that can actually help the individuation process. Pat Berry also touches upon the individuation that happens to a culture. During this session you’ll discover:

• Individuation on a ‘deeper’ level
• James Hillman’s Acorn theory in contrast to Jung’s individuation
• New perceptions and more advanced approaches around the individuation process

Bonus Video: Invite Creative Genius into Your Life with Robert Bosnak

Do you want to learn how to force a crack in routine consciousness so that the light of your Creative Genius can enter? This 1.5 hours webinar is the first one of Robert Bosnak’s course around inviting the creative genius, and describes in more detail how we are hampered by our ego and almost always recreating patterns of response. These may have served us in the past but are no longer relevant ways of approaching the world today.

Bonus Audio: Healing Through the Imaginal Realm with Erica Lorentz

Awaken your imagination and discover how you can access healing through the imaginal realm. Your imagination is a living reality in the psyche where the psyche itself can guide you to commune with your unconscious parts. Will you engage with your unconscious through writing, drawing, the body, or other creative mediums? This 30 min recording will bring insight as to why Jung saw this as a preferred method of transformation.

Bonus Article: Authentic Movement and the Soul’s Body Work: PDF by Tina Stromsted

By the end of this course you will:

• Discover what is alive in you and how to express that in a fulfilling way
• Equip yourself with techniques and tools to stimulate your own psychological growth
• Learn from professionals as they guide you through individuation concepts and integrating psychological theory with real-life
• Discover new perspectives around individuation
• Create a more meaningful life and discover how to realize your true potentia