Fairy Tales

Course Description

Go on a transformative journey into the enchanting world of fairy tales with our soulful storytellers. Each class is guided by a seasoned therapist and teacher deeply attuned to the symbolic and dynamic nature of the soul. Through the exploration of these timeless narratives, participants will discover profound insights into their own life challenges and opportunities. You will learn to view your life through a symbolic lens.

Delving into the unfolding and transformation of the psyche, akin to the rhythms of nature itself, this course equips participants with essential skills to navigate the complexities of the human psyche in dream work, psychotherapy, and everyday life.

Each of the teachers will offer invaluable tips on how to work with symbols and fairy tales, each tale serving as a unique reflection of the profound human journey through the mysteries of transformation. We will travel through kingdoms in disarray, answering the call to start our transformative journey, and explore how complexes keep us in their grip. Through these timeless stories, we encounter power dynamics, trust and abandonment, and negative, critical, and utterly destructive forces. We will also learn to identify the supportive forces within the soul that allow for positive transformation.

Join us on this transformative odyssey into the wild landscapes of fairy tales and the depths of our own souls, where every lesson unlocks a new realm of initiation, personal development and individuation.

This course is ideal if :

• You want to have a deeper symbolic understanding of the ways the unconscious / psyche transforms.
• You want to deepen your therapeutic understanding of the psyche of your patient.
• You want to elicit your creative muse better, and understand how to be more creatively involved.
• You want to learn how complexes function, and are expressed symbolically in fairy tales (and myths and dreams).

Course Overview

Bonus Class: Dariane Pictect – ​​How to work with Fairy Tales

Pictet will discuss how understanding fairy tales can be instrumental for personal development. She will demonstrate methods for reading and interpreting the symbolic and metaphorical nature of fairy tales and their parallels with psychological processes. This provides a marvelous introduction to both fairy tales and this course!

Class 1: Tina Stromsted – The Handless Maiden

The fairy tale “The Handless Maiden,” tells the story of a young girl whose hands are cut off by her father under the influence of the devil. Abandoned and helpless, she embarks on a journey of profound suffering and resilience. As she wanders through the forest, she is eventually aided by a kind king who marries her and provides her with silver hands. Despite this, she must endure further trials, including separation from her husband and child. Throughout the tale, the handless maiden’s journey symbolizes the struggle to reclaim personal power and integrity after deep trauma. 

Class 2: Lionel Corbett – Rapunzel

The Grimm’s story of Rapunzel describes the unconscious dynamics involved in a couple’s difficulty conceiving a child. Rapunzel and her husband are trapped in a powerfully negative mother complex, here depicted as a wicked enchantress. The story also has an Oedipal theme and illustrates the notion of the reverse selfobject, the way in which a parent may use a child to enhance the parent’s sense of self. The story depicts maternal envy, rage and hatred- the intense suffering this produces, and the redemptive power of empathic recognition of suffering in the other.

Class 3: Dariane Pictet – All kinds of Fur

The fairy tale “Allerleirauh,” or “All-Kinds-of-Fur,” tells of a princess who escapes her father’s incestuous intentions by hiding in a forest cloaked in fur. This tale symbolizes the struggle against oppressive power structures and the journey toward self-identity. The king serves only himself, representing rigid norms and a tyrannical inner critic. The princess’s journey to the prince’s castle, where she regains her identity, symbolizes healing and self-actualization. She transforms personal trauma into true relatedness, affirming core values. The story concludes with a marriage symbolizing a renewed world order and balanced consciousness.

Class 4: Akke Jeanne Klerk & Machiel Klerk – Hansel and Gretel

The story begins with the challenges around trust and abandonment of Hansel and Gretel in the forest by their parents. The encounter with the witch and their subsequent capture reflect the confrontation with the destructive and negative mother complex. An exploration on how to engage with negative forces, and the inner or outer supportive sibling are central psychological dynamics that will be addressed.

By the end of this course you will :

• Understand how the psychological dynamics of Fairy Tales are very accurate representations of psychological dynamics.
• Deepen your understanding of how psychological complexes operate and how to engage with them.
• Have an improved symbolic understanding.
• Be able to apply fairy tales to your own life.