Stephen Aizenstat, PhD, is Chancellor Emeritus and Founding President of Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is a professor of depth psychology with a PhD in clinical psychology, licensed marriage and family therapist, and a credentialed public schools teacher and counselor. Dr. Aizenstat lectures and consults internationally, particularly with global corporations, and is affiliated with the Earth Charter International project through the United Nations.
Dr. Aizenstat’s book, Dream Tending (2009), describes applications of dreamwork in relation to health and healing, nightmares, the World’s Dream, relationships, and the creative process. Dr. Aizenstat’s methodologies extend traditional dream work to the vision of an animated world, where living images in dream are experienced as embodied and originating in the psyche of Nature as well as that of persons.
His other recent publications include The Pacifica Story: Money as Psychic Libido, Eranos Yearbook 72, 2013—2014; The Dangers and Opportunity of Cyberspace: A New Vision of Global Dreaming, Eranos Yearbook 71, 2012; Fragility of the World’s Dream, Eranos Yearbook 70, 2009—2010—2011; Imagination & Medicine—The Future of Healing in an Age of Neuroscience (co-edited with R. Bosnak, 2009), ‘Dream Tending and Tending the World,’ in Ecotherapy—Healing with Nature in Mind (2009), and ‘Soul-Centered Education: An Interview with Stephen Aizenstat,’ in Reimagining Education—Essays on Reviving the Soul of Learning (with N. Treadway Galindo, 2009).
His major work, Dream Tending, appeared also in Italian by Moretti & Vitali as Vegliare il sogno. Teoria e pratica del Dream Tending (2013).
Melissa Jones Cantekin, PhD
Co-Chair
Melissa Jones Cantekin is a licensed Psychologist in private practice in Santa Barbara, CA and current President of the Santa Barbara County Psychological Association (SBCPA). Prior to this she practiced in Pittsburgh, PA for many years as a Jungian psychotherapist and as a group facilitator for the Dr. Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease and other wellness programs for BC/BS. She values the mind-body-spirit connection in finding balance and meaning in life and works to help others integrate physical, emotional and spiritual issues. “Cura personalis” or “care of the whole person” is what she aspires to in all areas of her life.
Dr. Cantekin’s expertise is in working with life transitions, relationships, dreams, grief and loss, trauma, sexuality, chronic illness, creativity, and self-development. She works with adolescents, college and grad students, mid-life and elderly individuals, couples, families and groups. She has also been a volunteer for the Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care of Santa Barbara for the past 7 years and a primary supervisor for graduate students in Psychology at various institutions in the area.
Willow Young, MA, LMFT
Co-Chair
As Professor Emeritus, Willow Young teaches in Pacifica Graduate Institute’s DPT Program. Willow served as Program Chair of the Counseling Department, 2011-2018; Director of Clinical Training 2005-2011, Adjunct faculty 1999-2005, and has taught Analytical Psychology, Clinical Practice, Cross Cultural Mores and Values, and Crisis Intervention. She has taught at the graduate level for 24 years. She received the Distinguished Service Award in 2008 and the Star Service Award in 2014. Willow is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified Jungian Analyst, and a CAMFT Certified Supervisor 2009-2019.
In her work with students, she integrates her training in analytic, archetypal, and cultural studies with solid theoretical and clinical skills of Marriage and Family Therapy and Professional Counseling. Willow values the presence of Psyche in our lives and engages the multifaceted expressions of psyche, listening deeply to that which wants to come into relationship. In her private practice, Willow works with a Depth Psychological approach that integrates a Jungian understanding of the psyche and uses modalities appropriate to individual and family needs. Her research interests include Jungian theory and practice including archetypal and alchemical symbolism, the process of individuation, and native healing practices.
Willow has taught and presented internationally in Switzerland, Japan, and China, and serves as a Training Analyst at the C. G. Jung Study Center of Southern California. She represented material from the Opus archive in her archival research at The XXI congress of the International Association for Analytical Psychology in Vienna. Willow is a Clinical Member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, Santa Barbara Chapter of CAMFT, Jung Study Center of Southern California, and an Analytic Member of the International Association for Analytical Psychology.
In 1979 after a decade as an arts educator and production manager, director, and playwright on Broadway, off-Broadway, and in major regional theaters, Bob took an hiatus from the professional theater to begin working with Joseph Campbell, who subsequently named him editorial director of his Historical Atlas of World Mythology. In 1982, Bob, Campbell and Alfred van der Marck founded Van der Marck Editions, to develop and publish, not only Campbell’s Atlas, but also “works that contribute to an understanding of our cultural heritage, the complex world in which we live, and the uncertain future that we face.” When Campbell died in 1987, Bob, his literary executor, completed unfinished portions of the Atlas and supervised the posthumous publication of Volume I (two books) and Volume II (three books).
In 1990, Bob and Jean Erdman, Campbell’s widow, created the Joseph Campbell Foundation (JCF) “to preserve, protect, and perpetuate Campbell’s pioneering work,” and Bob was named JCF’s executive director. Appointed JCF president in 1998, Bob continues to serve as executive editor of the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell, supervising the print, audio, and video publication of Campbell’s oeuvre.
A founding Trustee of United Religions Initiative (URI) who formerly served as its Treasurer and a member of its Global Council, Bob is on the Advisory Board of Spring: a Journal of Archtype and Culture and the Board of Mentors of Immanence: The Journal of Applied Mythology, Legend, and Folklore.