Psychology & Spirituality

Psychology and Spirituality combines ongoing guidance from a core faculty adviser, foundation courses and a choice between three areas of specialization: Depth, Transpersonal or Buddhist.

ISP Seminar (12 credits)

The ISP Seminar is the consistent thread across six quarters over two years (fall, winter, spring). Two specific areas of study are developed based on your areas of focus in Developmental Psychology and in Ethics. The ISP Seminar also supports your written work for the program to meet APA standards.

Required Content Area (9 credits)

All Psychology & Spirituality students are required to take coursework to meet the following three areas of proficiency:

Communication Skills
Multicultural Perspectives
Systems Thinking.

These are classroom-based courses that can come from any program across the campus and must be approved by you core faculty adviser.

Required Courses (9 credits)

There are three required courses specific to all Psychology & Spirituality concentration students and integrate both theory and practice. You may also include a personal practice component:

Ways of Knowing: A course that covers more traditional quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, as well as nontraditional methods of inquiry.

Comparative Spiritual Traditions: A course that studies an array of Eastern, Western and Indigenous religions and spiritual traditions.
Contemporary Spiritual Orientations: A course that studies contemporary orientations to spiritual practices including personal, shared and community-oriented paths towards understanding self, others and the world.

Foundations (3 credits)

This is a one-credit course taken three times during the first year of the program (fall, winter and spring terms). Creates a shared context of experience and exploration, focused on developing a deeper understanding of self and community through a variety of sacred practices from both traditional and contemporary wisdom. The format includes extended time frames, such as one-day retreats.

Area of Specialization (18 credits)

There are three areas currently offered in Psychology & Spirituality. Additional areas could be developed based on student interest. Each area involves three quarters of contiguous study (fall/winter/spring) in both theory (3 classes, 3 credits each) and practice as it relates to your personal interest (3 classes, 3 credits each):

Depth Psychology
The focus is on the structure and dynamics of the psyche and the history of the discovery of the personal, collective and world unconscious in the work of Freud, Jung and James Hillman. Key themes in depth psychology relevant to spiritual studies include dreams, mythology, individuation, alchemy, initiatory process, shamanism, the evolution of consciousness, the dynamics of the god-image and the anima mundi (the soul of the world). Students learn to apply these ideas to the healing of self, other, community and earth. Click here to see the curriculum.

Transpersonal Psychology
The focus is a theoretical and experiential understanding of the intersections of psychology with the wisdom and practices of various spiritual traditions, as explored in the field of transpersonal psychology since the 1960's. The work of Maslow, Wilber, Grof, Washburn, Walsh, Vaughan and many others emphasizes study of the entire spectrum of human development, including the potential for stages of growth "beyond the personal." Students become familiar with research and theory on such topics as states of consciousness, meditation and other transformative practices, and spiritual emergencies, as well as the currently evolving integral framework which applies multiple perspectives (body, mind and spirit in nature and culture) as it engages with human experience and the challenges of the times. Click here to see the curriculum.

Buddhist Psychology
The focus is on the theoretical and philosophical models and ideas that have emerged from Buddhist tradition, and how this informs an understanding of human psychology. This includes the Buddhist concepts of personality, identity, perception, mindfulness and being in the world. Students explore the work of a variety of contributors to this field, which may include such writers/practitioners as Suzuki, Abe, Benoit, Epstein, Kornfield, Welwood and Rahula. Click here to see the curriculum.

Application Project (9 credits)

The final culmination of learning is the student's Application Project, a formal document of work (research, applied project, nonclinical internship, creative arts project, formal thesis). In all cases, Application Projects incorporate an Introduction, Literature Review, written narrative of the project itself and a Summary and Evaluation.

Sample Schedule

Year 1

ISP Seminar (6 credits)