Ben Russack
Special guest
After Graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in English literature, I received my MFA in Creative Writing in 2001.
Also, I made my living, of all things, as a chess instructor. As my students began to improve their game I noticed that they were each experiencing growth on a deeper level.
Intrigued, I decided to return to school at Pacifica Graduate Institute to pursue yet another graduate degree, this time in Counseling Psychology.
In 2014, after grinding through 3000 hours of intern work, I finally obtained my licence and could call myself an MFT. Currently, I have offices in San Francisco’s Marina district as well as in the Western Addition, near Alamo Square.
A few random facts about me:
I hold a black belt in Brazilian Jujitsu, I love to cook, write (I recently had a piece appear in the 2019 summer edition of The Mississippi Review–yay!) and yes, I still play chess.
In addition, I now host a podcast called “Look, Just Tell Me What To Do.” which is available on iTunes.
Ben Russack has been a guest on 3 episodes.
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Bonus: Tiger King . . . and Carl Jung?
June 26th, 2020 | 43 mins 17 secs
archetypes, big cats, carole baskin, conscious, depth psychology, dream, dream interpretation, dreams, images, joe exotic, jung, jungian psychology, psyche, symbols, tiger king, unconscious
What unconscious motivation could these people possibly have in their desire to dominate big cats? Why is Joe Exotic so convinced that Carol’s second husband Is buried under a septic tank, of all places? How is Carol Baskin’s relationship to cats tied to her taking control of her own destiny? And how is that related to the strange photo of her husband on a leash…on their wedding day?
Depth or archetypal psychology, a philosophy propagated largely by C.G. Jung in the early 20th century, accepts the reality of the unconscious and studies its effects on our conscious activities and attitudes. Today, we talk with Dr. Amy Lawson, MD, pediatrician, and soon-to-be PhD in Jungian and Archetypal Studies. She schools us on how to look more deeply into anything we watch on TV, read in a book, or witness in everyday life.
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Bonus: How Depth Psychology Changed Me as a Doctor
June 26th, 2020 | 56 mins 13 secs
archetypes, conscious, depth psychology, dream, dream interpretation, dreams, images, jung, jungian psychology, psyche, symbols, unconscious
Amy Lawson, MD, and Benjamin Russack, LMFT, (her former therapist and current friend) discuss her journey through depth psychology and how it has affected her life and career as a physician.
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3: Strong Emotions are Your Dreams Yelling, “Pay Attention!”
May 13th, 2020 | 30 mins 58 secs
archetypes, conscious, depth psychology, dream, dream interpretation, dreams, images, jung, jungian psychology, psyche, symbols, unconscious
Dreams speak in the language of symbols, but they also speak through evoking emotions, and that’s one of the ways they convince us of their importance, even if we aren’t sure exactly what they mean. In this episode we’ll look at 4 dreams with important emotional components in order to learn dream interpretation by actually doing it. From dreams of musicians to birds in trees, munching on kittens to ice castles in the sky, I’ll show you how to make sense of the language of dreams.