ON-DEMAND COURSE

Creating a Life: Finding Your Path

Jungian Psychology
TEACHER
James Hollis
TOPIC
Jungian
Format
8 class audio course
DURATION
12 Hrs

Payment options: Credit Card or PayPal.

Walk with a Living Sage into your Own Life

In this powerful audio course, the deeply-human mentor James Hollis makes a case for living an examined life. As he points out: The only person consistently present in every scene of our life is ourselves. He reminds us that creating a meaningful life is very much in our own hands. He illustrates how we can do this by bringing awareness to the hidden world of our core complexes, patterns and personal history.

What are the attitudes and practices which contribute to personal growth and maturation? How do we pursue an individual path through the maze of choices before us? What obstacles stand in our way?

This on-demand audio course engages these and other questions through lecture and discussion.

With James Hollis by your side, you will be surprised and touched by your own soul.

Course Description

Write your awesome label here.
In this extensive series, James Hollis guides us on the journey towards living a more conscious and authentic life. While acknowledging that this is a momentous task, Hollis explores ideas, practices, attitudes and values that are helpful on this journey.

In our time many people suffer a disconnection from meaning. At the same time, the loss of collective meaning is an impetus to create our own meaning. Hollis reminds us, with tremendous compassion, that we all have many powers within us. Perceiving and developing these powers places wide-ranging resources at the disposal of conscious life.

In his signature style, Hollis offers a myriad of questions that we can ask ourselves to navigate the thickets of our internal and external lives. As always, he draws from his vast vault of poetry, fiction, mythology, his own experiences and those of clients & friends to paint a robust picture of where to start and how to keep going in the crafting of one’s life.

Each class is enriched by discussions and Q&As with the audience from the original taping of the course. For those particularly interested in Hollis’ work, we see many of the themes he talks about throughout his body of work built upon here.

This program is being offered by the Jung Center of Houston and the Jung Platform. The original recording of this lecture took place at the Jung Center. The recording has been remastered.

The course is available now.

This program is ideal if you want to be able to

  • Gain a greater understanding of yourself and the world around you.
  • Become more thoughtful about the nature of your life.
  • Learn to question the assumptions that are keeping you from living a meaningful & fulfilling life.
  • Become aware of some of the patterns, influences & complexes that shape your identity and sense of purpose.

CLASS DESCRIPTIONS: CREATING A LIFE

CLASS 1 
In the opening class, James Hollis lays the ground for an exploration of what it means to create one’s life. He looks into some of the difficulties that emerge on this path. The class gets us thinking about living a life consistent with our values and with our inner lives. Do we create our life or does life create us?

CLASS 2 
This class is a reflection on the internal & external obstacles that come in the way of forging one’s life. Hollis uses the concepts of complexes and patterns to elaborate on the idea that inner obstacles are often far more difficult to tackle than outer. He shares examples of complexes as they are manifested in the accounts of famous writers. How do we recognize a complex and what do we do once we have?

CLASS 3 
In this class, we look at the constructs or ‘necessary fictions’ that consciously or unconsciously shape our lives. Many times the fictions choose us as opposed to us choosing them; many times we are living other people’s lives and not our own. What are the fictions I’m living and how can I live my own life?

CLASS 4
In this class the focus is on the human need for reflection and meaning. Hollis encourages us to think about fate & destiny and how we can engage fate in a meaningful way. Is it really possible to experience this life meaningfully and serve Destiny/Divinity/Nature?

CLASS 5
In this class, we discuss how we carry many messages within us that direct how we live our lives, particularly from our ancestors & our past. Hollis helps us see that if we don’t become aware of these messages, they will have greater control over us. How do ancestral presences show up in our lives and what do they make us do or keep us from doing?

CLASS 6
In this class, we talk about authority: what is drawn from within as opposed to what is imposed from above. Hollis tackles the question of how we can find our personal authority and assume accountability for the way our lives unfold. What is my path? What is true for me?

CLASS 7
In this class, Hollis reviews the themes that have come up so far and ties them together in preparation for the final workshop-style class. He also discusses conflict, duty, gratitude and the importance of being connected to a spiritual source. How do we access our inner reality and live a life of meaning and purpose?

CLASS 8
In the final class of this series, we are offered a set of questions that help us look at what we have learnt practically. We turn the gaze inwards and look at our own lives in the context of the many themes brought up in the course. This is a particularly enjoyable interaction between audience members & Hollis during the original taping.

Course overview

What you will receive

*You will receive a certificate of completion, but it’s not from an official accrediting body. Please check if it will be accepted by the organization you wish to use it with.
8 audio recordings
Companion Guide
Subtitles
Certificate of completion*
Available in English

ABout the teacher

James Hollis

James Hollis, Ph.D., is presently a licensed Jungian analyst in private practice in Washington, D.C. He is also a Core Faculty Member at Jung Platform since 2016, and one of the best Jungian teachers of our age.

Scholarships

We here at Jung Platform want to make these programs available to anyone. If you would love to participate yet can’t pay for the full course, then please send us an email at scholarships@jungplatform.com and describe why you feel you qualify for a scholarship, how much you can pay, and what you will do to help the Jung Platform promote this and other programs.

The Jung Platform Guarantee

We stand by our programs. If within 30 days of your purchase or the live course start, you're not satisfied, we offer a replacement or a full refund.

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FREQUENT ASKED QUESTIONS

What is this course about?
Creating a Life: Finding Your Path is a 12-hour audio course in which James Hollis guides you through one of the most important questions a human being can ask: how do I create a life that is genuinely my own? Drawing on Jungian psychology, poetry, mythology, and decades of clinical experience, Hollis explores the hidden complexes, patterns, and personal histories that either support or obstruct our path toward a meaningful life. This is not a course about productivity or goal-setting. It is a course about living an examined life consciously, honestly, and with depth.

What did James Hollis mean by the examined life?
Hollis draws on the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, who said that the unexamined life is not worth living. For Hollis, examining your life means bringing awareness to the forces that shape your choices : your complexes, your wounds, your unlived potential, and the expectations of others that you may have mistaken for your own desires. In Jungian terms, this examination is the beginning of the individuation process. Jung's term for the lifelong journey toward becoming who you truly are. If you want to explore this process further, his course Introduction to Jungian Psychology offers a comprehensive foundation in the concepts Hollis builds on throughout this course.

How does this course relate to finding meaning in the second half of life?
James Hollis has written extensively about how the questions of meaning and purpose become more urgent, and more possible to answer honestly, as we age. The first half of life is often about adaptation: fitting in, building a career, meeting others' expectations. The second half is an invitation to ask what we actually want, what we actually believe, and what life is asking of us. This course addresses those questions directly. If you are navigating that transition and want to go deeper into the psychological dynamics at play, Hollis's course Swamplands of the Soul explores the difficult emotions: grief, anxiety, depression, loneliness. These often accompany this turning point and what they are trying to tell us.

What role do complexes and patterns play in finding your path?
One of the central insights Hollis offers in this course is that we are rarely as free as we think we are. Our choices are shaped by unconscious complexes: emotional patterns formed early in life that continue to influence us long after the situations that created them have passed. A complex around worthiness, for example, may lead us to spend decades proving ourselves in work that never quite satisfies. A complex around belonging may keep us in relationships that no longer fit. Bringing these patterns into awareness is about reclaiming the freedom to choose differently. For a deeper exploration of how these unconscious forces shape our relationships specifically, Hollis's course Shadow of Relationships is a natural companion to this one.

Who is this course for?
This course is for anyone who senses that their life could be more fully their own . In this course you get practical Jungian tools. It is particularly valuable for people navigating a major life transition such as a career change, the end of a relationship, retirement, or a period of loss. It is also ideal for coaches and therapists who want to deepen their understanding of how Jungian psychology addresses questions of meaning and purpose in their work with clients. No prior knowledge of Jungian psychology is required. Hollis is known for making depth psychology accessible without ever making it shallow.