Archetypes in the Therapy Room

I write for therapists who are curious about the unconscious life of their clients—and of themselves—but who have sometimes found psychoanalytic and Jungian writing unnecessarily difficult to enter. In this series, I translate depth-oriented ideas into clear, clinically grounded reflections that therapists can use without reducing the mystery or complexity of the human psyche.

Rather than offering archetypes as labels or interpretations, I invite therapists to use them as lenses: ways of becoming curious about the identities, defenses, longings, relationships, and cultural expectations shaping a client's life. I am especially interested in what happens within the therapist and how greater self-awareness allows us to respond with intention rather than react from our own unexamined material.

— Dr. Donna Schmid, PhD, LCSW, CPC