Jung Embodied: Active Imagination in Movement - with Tina Stromsted, Ph.D.

A meeting of The Analytical Psychology Club of San Francisco
This event occurred on March 14, 2021 as a Zoom Video Conference

In our gathering, we explored inner-directed movement as a way to bridge the realms of conscious and unconscious, body and psyche, instinct and spirit, affect and image, memory and emergence.

Our session began with how Jung discovered Active Imagination, an overview of the four steps of this approach, and how to integrate our learnings into everyday life. We explored how one of Jung’s early patients embodied this process and learned about other key pioneers in integrating the body in healing, including Mary Starks Whitehouse who pioneered the Authentic Movement approach. We discussed how dreams images, symbols, and body symptoms can be used as starting points for movement and explore different polarities in the body and the importance of recognizing “the Shadow."

Tina shared an inspiring story about how Jungian Analyst and author, Marion Woodman, used natural movement and dream symbols to heal from her kidney disease and “addiction to perfection.” Then we were guided through a brief exploration of active imagination in movement.

Through presentation, guided embodied exploration, drawing and reflection this workshop explored dance/movement as a form of active imagination, with special attention to the living body in analysis, healing, and transformation.

DR. TINA STROMSTED, is an analyst member of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco where she teaches candidates, clinic interns, as well as the general public.
She also teaches at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and is a core faculty member for the Marion Woodman Foundation.

She was the co-founder of the Authentic Movement Institute in California, and she was a founding faculty member of the Women’s Spirituality Program, in the Somatic Psychology and Expressive Arts Therapy departments at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.

She has over 40 years of clinical experience in hospitals, community mental health, and in private practice. She has published numerous articles, webinars, and book chapters that explore the integration of body, psyche, soul, relationship, community, and nature in healing and transformation.

Dr. Stromsted lectures and teaches at universities and healing centers in many parts of the world. She maintains a private practice for individual Jungian analysis, body-oriented/movement psychotherapy, and consultation in San Francisco.

“If we can reconcile ourselves to the mysterious truth that the spirit is the life of the body seen from within, and the body the outward manifestation of the life of the spirit— the two being really one—
then we can understand why the striving to transcend the present level of consciousness through acceptance of the unconscious must give the body its due.”

~ Jung, C.G. (1928). ‘The spiritual problems of modern man’. CW 10, para. 195)