Steven Galipeau M.A., M.Div, LMFT

My life journey has taken me from a traditional Roman Catholic upbringing in New Jersey to one in which I seek to unify the best of depth psychology and the value it places on the individual with our various spiritual traditions.  Equally important I've discovered is our connection with nature and our environment.

 

C. G. Jung's psychology has had a particular appeal as it does not pathologize human experience, and offers a lens to explore the human personality in greater depth than other approaches while honoring the integrity of each individual.

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The work of psychotherapy is often about staying in touch with our own true natures, and when we have become lost, finding our way back to our most authentic selves.  This process usually includes learning to accept the best of other people while not being unduly affected by the worse of human nature, especially when we have suffered past trauma at the hands of others.

 

My approach to the work comes from my long time passion to stay as close to nature as possible, whether it is where I live, where I work, and where I travel to restore my own soul.

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In college the human potential movement steered me in a direction of service to other people from a spiritual perspective.  I was touched by the psychologies of such people as Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow.  Exploring C.G. Jung's psychology moved me to study for the ministry and combine my counseling background with religious studies.  In 1978 I was ordained an Episcopal Priest, and after five years of doing parish work in the late 1970's and early 80's, I found I was most drawn to specialize in individual work. I kept dreaming about being a private investigator. When I began my studies to be a Jungian Analyst, these dreams ceased.  In addition to my clinical work I enjoy teaching, lecturing and writing.

 

Two articles published in 2013 reflect my passion for our connection to the natural world.  My article "Dancing With Wolves" was published in the first 2013 issue of the Jung Journal: Culture and Psyche, the quarterly journal of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, The article explores our projections on this creature of the wild and describes our developing history with this deeply misunderstood creature of nature that came to represent the out of control aggression that exists in the human psyche, and the recent remarkable restorative ramifications of introducing wolves to their former habitats. I not only talk about the role of the wolf in the wild, but what wolves can represent in our dreams.

 

My article, "Jung, the Wilderness, and the Call of the Wild," was published by Psychological Perspectives, the quarterly journal of the C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles at the end of 2013.  In this article I address Jung's deep concern about our growing disassociation from nature, my own heritage going back to the late 1600s of early settlement in the North American Wilderness, and the unique work of the early Canadian environmentalist Archie Belaney/Grey Owl, an Englishman who took on a part Native American identity to help protect the beaver and other wildlife.  

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