C G Jung, Dreams, lived experiences, reflections, therapy

CG Jung in Zürich: Stepping deeper into the roots of Depth Psychology

aleksandrastaneva

This week, I walked the path back to the source, training at the C.G. Jung Institute and visiting Jung’s home in Küsnacht.

To sit where he sat, to study where the language of symbols was born, was way more than professional for me, it was somewhat devotional.

Jung’s home sits at the Zurich lake (absolutely breathtaking) and only 10 mins away from the Institute so my time was spent attending lectures and visits to his home.

The CG Jung Institute was an impressive building at the lake, with rose gardens and a stunning sculpture of a female goddess, access to the water for breaks and reflection. I walked the lake each morning. Took my time to arrive.

Lectures were held at a spacious sun-lit room that was bathed in the sounds of the lake, swans and duck and children, very much alive. Or that was its impact on me.

Jung along with his wife Emma lived in this lake house for over 50 years, where they raised 5 children and where he saw his patients. He eventually built another home (The Bollingen tower) where he spent long stretches of time completely alone, writing and creating. When he had visitors there, he would often ask them to stay for a day or two in a close by village before seeing him, to shake off their “city vibes and energy” (imagine!, I have things to say about this but that’s for another piece).

Fascinating details about his life, work, and what always interests me – his process of being an analyst and going about his life, is what I am taking with me.

What I witnessed was a deep fusion between his day to day life and his work. He saw patients right next to the sleeping quarters in his home. He converted the family laundry room into the waiting room. He also saw patients in his tiny little wooden shed on the water of the lake in his garden, during the hotter summer days. Patients walked freely through the yard and encountered his family. Something modern therapy warns and trains against. Privacy and separation between life and work remain important for modern practice yet it was reassuring to note his humanity, spontaneity and his groundbreaking approach at the time of removing the power imbalance between the Doctor and the patient.

I loved the dark and most quiet sanctuary of his office. His chair and his papers, left untouched. The patient’s seat. The temple-like energy of introspection and silence…

His library, filled with most ancient manuscripts (especially his Alchemy collection), artifacts from all over the world (gifts from patients-again a big No in modern times) and importantly – the smell of his pipe deeply infused in the furniture and the sheets of history. All this allowed for me to really land in the imagination of those time. Unforgettable. (photos weren’t allowed inside the house)

I came to listen more deeply, to honour the lineage, and to keep refining the art of healing.

And yet, what moved me most was discovering Emma Jung. His wife. A fierce intellect, analyst, and soul companion who helped midwife the very foundations of analytic psychology. Her work on the anima, her silent constancy through storms of shadow, her writing, and her influence were profound. Her patience with Jung’s not only fame but also unfaithfulness were humbling. Not surprisingly, another brilliant woman whose light was absorbed into the myth of her husband’s greatness. But she was there. Always there.

And now, I see her. I purchased a book about her and her important contributions.

I am feeling full. There is so much to unpack and give voice to within myself. Seeing the human behind all my projections of Godliness in the people who have inspired me has been so rewarding.

This work is not just what I do. It’s who I am becoming. And I am taking it home to myself.

I also found a 5 leaf clover in his garden!

Serendipity.

With love,

Aleksandra

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Published by aleksandrastaneva

Aleksandra She, who remembers. I work at the threshold, where psyche speaks in symbols, and the soul remembers. Rooted in Jungian depth psychology and Internal Family Systems, my work invites women and seekers into the quiet, often forgotten places within: the underworlds of grief, the wild terrain of desire, the sacred chambers of the inner child, inner mother, the Shadowlands, and Self. With a background in women’s heath research, in ritual, and in lived experience spaces, I do not offer diagnosis or treatment, I offer devotion to the unfolding Self. On the threshold of becoming- where we always are. Through dreams, parts work, myth, and the body, I walk beside those ready to meet themselves fully, fiercely, and tenderly. This is not fast work. It is sacred work. It is not about fixing, it is about remembering. I do not promise certainty. I promise presence, and a deep trust in the wisdom already within you. My work is rooted in the wild: in the seasons and the body, in the wisdom of the land, and in the deep ecology of the soul. I honour the personal as political, and the psychological as inseparable from the cultural. Feminism, ecopsychology, and embodied awareness are not add-ons here, they are the soil this work grows from. I offer one-on-one soulwork sessions, women’s circles, and immersive psychoeducational experiences that weave together depth psychology, parts work, and embodiment. Some of this work unfolds indoors, some in wild places—always with reverence for the wisdom of nature, the nervous system, and the feminine psyche. Welcome to the HORÓ nest. I think you might just be ready to re-member your Self.

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