Fanny Brewster, PhD
On Complexes & The Racial Complex
Dr. Fanny Brewster is a Jungian analyst, author, and professor of Depth Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She has written several books with a focus on Africanist and Jungian psychology, including The Racial Complex: A Jungian Perspective on Culture and Race (Routledge). Dr. Brewster lectures internationally and writes on topics that include Dreamwork, Creativity, and African American psychology. Dr. Brewster's other books include: Race and the Unconscious, African Americans and Jungian Psychology, Archetypal Grief, and Racial Legacies.
John Bucher, PhD
Why Myth Matters: Mythology and Daily Life
John Bucher, PhD, is a renowned mythologist and story expert who has been featured on the BBC, the History Channel, the LA Times, The Hollywood Reporter, and on numerous other international outlets. He serves as Executive Director for the Joseph Campbell Foundation and is a writer, storyteller, and speaker. He is the author of six influential books on storytelling and has worked with New York Times best-selling authors, YouTube influencers, Eisner winners, Emmy winners, Academy Award nominees, magicians, and cast members from Saturday Night Live.
Elinor Dickson, PhD
The Wisdom Option
Elinor Dickson is a psychologist with a deep background in Jungian psychology and mythology, who also spent almost two decades as the Director of Psychological Services at an inner-city trauma hospital in Toronto. She is the co-author of the bestselling book Dancing in the Flames with Jungian analyst Marion Woodman, and Dancing at the Still Point, about her forty-year friendship with Woodman.
Avni Doshi
Hindu Goddesses: Myths of Dismemberment & Desire
Avni Doshi is a writer. Her first novel, Burnt Sugar, was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize and the 2022 PEN/Hemingway Award. It was also longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2021. Named a Book of the Year by the New York Times, Guardian, Economist, Spectator, and NPR, it has been published in 26 languages and is being adapted for the stage. Her other writing has appeared in British Vogue, Granta, and The Sunday Times. Avni’s second novel, The First House, will be published in 2026.
Suzanne Gieser, PhD
Synchronicity & Spirituality
Suzanne Gieser, PhD, served for ten years as Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor at the Institute of Analytical Psychology (IAP), a private institute for Jungian scholarly studies in Stockholm. She is a board member of the Swedish C. G. Jung Foundation and a co-founder of the Swedish Association for Imago Relationship Therapy. She works both in private practice and as a clinician at a specialist clinic for survivors of sexual trauma. Her book, The Innermost Kernel: Depth Psychology and Quantum Physics. Wolfgang Pauli’s Dialogue with C. G. Jung, was published in English in 2005. She is also the editor of C. G. Jung’s 1937 and 1938 seminars held in Bailey Island and New York, published in 2019 as Dream Symbols of the Individuation Process.
Ayana Jamieson, PhD
Ayana Jamieson, PhD, is an educator, mythologist, and depth psychologist. She is the founder of the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network, a global community established in 2011, committed to highlighting Octavia Butler’s life and work and to creating new works inspired by her legacy. Ayana’s essay, “Far Beyond the Stars,” appears in the Black Futures anthology, 51 Feminist Thinkers, Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction, and elsewhere. She is Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies and African American Studies at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
Elise Loehnen
The Myths of Envy and Reclaiming Its Value
Elise Loehnen is a writer, editor, and host of Pulling the Thread, a podcast exploring life’s big questions with today’s leading thinkers, experts, and luminaries. She is the author of the instant New York Times bestseller On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good, which weaves together history, memoir, and cultural criticism to explore the ways patriarchy lands in the bodies of women and embeds itself in our consciousness. Elise is also the co-author of Choosing Wholeness Over Goodness—the official companion guide to On Our Best Behavior, as well as True and False Magic, which she wrote with legendary psychiatrist Phil Stutz. Elise is a frequent contributor to Oprah and has written for The New York Times, Elle Decor, Stylist, and more.
Michael Meade
Michael Meade is a renowned storyteller, author, and scholar of mythology, anthropology, and psychology. He is the founder of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation, a nonprofit network of artists, activists, and community builders that encourages greater understanding between diverse peoples. He is also the author of many books, including Awakening the Soul, The Genius Myth, Fate and Destiny, Why the World Doesn't End, and The Water of Life, as well as the creator of The Living Myth Podcast. Michael combines hypnotic storytelling, street-savvy perceptiveness, and spellbinding interpretations of ancient myths with a deep knowledge of cross-cultural rituals. He has an unusual ability to distill and synthesize these disciplines, tapping into ancestral sources of wisdom and connecting them to the stories we are living today.
Mindy Nettifee, PhD
Why We Need Symbolic Intelligence
Dr. Mindy Nettifee is a poet, professional teaching artist, and somatic therapist specializing in trauma healing and expression. She is the author of three full-length collections of poems: Sleepyhead Assassins, Rise of the Trust Fall, and Open Your Mouth Like a Bell, as well as a collection of essays on writing, Glitter In The Blood – A Poet’s Manifesto for Better, Braver Writing. She is a three-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize, a Powell’s Books Indie Press Best Seller, and she co-edited the anthology Courage – Daring Poems for Gutsy Girls. Her latest work is her doctoral dissertation, Voice as Embodied Sense: Rethinking Voice and Language in Trauma Healing (ProQuest), which investigates the sensory capacities of the voice and their role in trauma healing and integration. She holds a doctorate in Depth Psychology with a specialization in Somatic Studies, and is a registered Somatic Experiencing practitioner, the trauma resolution method developed by Peter Levine. She currently writes the Substack In the River of What’s Happening Now, works with individuals and groups at Center for Artist Resilience, and teaches at Inner Doors.
Nazli Rahmanian, PhD
Warriors for Life: A Creation Story for the Iranian New Year
Nazli Rahmanian, PhD, is a physicist, storyteller, and musician. She seeks and tells stories that carry the seeds of the sacred, invite the soul to come closer, and break the spell of this time of deep forgetfulness. Drawing from the teachings of her Sufi path, Eastern mythic traditions, and Jung’s work, she shares stories, songs, and reflections on our belonging to the Earth, to Life, and to each other. Her storytelling often weaves personal memory and dreams with myth. Nazli was born and raised in Iran and left her beloved home in 2000 in hopes of reclaiming her life away from an oppressive regime. Along the way, she discovered that the return of the Feminine is a desperate need not only in Iran but everywhere, in the outer and inner world. She later pursued a PhD in Physics and moved to Portland, where she lives with her husband.
Sara Sage
Feminine, Emergent Energy and Gender Expansiveness in Jungian Psychology
Sara Sage, MS, LMHC, LPC, LCPC is a therapist in private practice and a diplomate Jungian analyst with the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts, practicing in the northern Indiana/southern Michigan area. She specializes in work with LGBTQIA+ clients, and combines Jungian work with trauma-informed practice, feminist and queer theory, indigenous wisdom traditions, and the living symbolism of nature. Sara is a member of the International Queer Jungian Initiative organizing committee and has presented at several international Jungian conferences. She provides seminars on updating Jungian gender theory and other topics.
Kwame Scruggs, PhD
The Myth of Parzival
Kwame Scruggs, PhD, has over 25 years of experience using mythology to assist in human development. He holds a PhD in Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. He was formally initiated into the Akan System of Life Cycle Development (African-based rites of passage) in 1993. This process led him to change his worldview and introduced him to the power of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell’s work to transform lives. He is the founder and director of Alchemy, Inc., a non-profit located in Akron, Ohio. In 2012, Alchemy was one of 12 programs to receive the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, presented by First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House. He is also a board member of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, and was featured in the documentary film, Finding the Gold Within, about his pioneering work with Alchemy, Inc.