Author Archives: Renee Beck

HAPPY EQUINOX!

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 Renee’s upcoming events: CIIS Talk, & Group Supervision

If you or folks you know would be interested in either of the following, please share!

Tomorrow – Monday, 23 September, 6pm – Free public talk in San Francisco at California Institute of Integral Studies: The Shadow Knows: Countertransference for Beginning Therapists.  

Starting in October: Group Supervision focusing on relational & therapist process for Trainees & Interns working toward LMFT, LPPC, LCSW. Friday afternoons, 2-hour group.

May the autumn bring you balance & bounty,

Renee

Free Countertransference Talk in SF. CIIS 23 Sept.

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The Shadow Knows: Countertransference for Beginning Therapists with Renee Beck, MFT

When you have an emotional, energetic, or judgmental response to a client, how do you tell if it’s a natural relational response, your own unresolved issues coming up, or information about the client? (It’s often all three!) What can you do with your own material that arises in sessions? How do you decipher what your unconscious is telling you about your client? And, most importantly, how can you use all this to be of best service to your client’s process? Through examples, discussion, and short exercises, begin to explore these important questions.

A Supervisor Talk at California Institute of Integral Studies  Monday 23 September 6:15pm

Feeling Blue this Blue Moon?

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    A Blue Moon is the second full moon in a calendar month OR the third of four full moons in a season — as it is tonight.

We note the cycles in our lives, the rhythms in the world around us; we celebrate passages & anniversaries; we mark events that vary from the norm, both in caution & in delight.

Take a few moments each day to be aware of the changes in light, to notice the movement of life forms that share our world, to feel the shifts in winds & weather: This can help reset our inner balance, connecting us through our senses to the larger Nature of which we are each a moving, dancing part.

There are times when this inner balance eludes us, when we need a little help to right our compass. If this is one of those times for you, call me to see how I can help.

Renee Beck, Oakland Transpersonal Therapy & Dreamwork. 510-287-0341.

The Benefits of Therapeutic Tarot

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The Tarot is a collection of images of archetypes — concepts common to our shared human experience — that show up in different cultures in different forms. For example, all cultures have images of a Creator/Destroyer, the Journey, the Hero, & Death/Rebirth. These archetypes are readily found in religion, myth, & stories. (Can you think of a good film or book that doesn’t have those in some form?) Images are the language of the unconscious, just as words are the language of the conscious mind.

We live in a very conscious-mind culture, & imagery (& music, or poetry, which is a way of using words to evoke the imaginal) is a way to get below/beyond just the logical, rational normal way of doing things. It’s a way of accessing the relational aspect of consciousness, where we can connect things &create understanding in ways that our “thinking brain” doesn’t. A Therapeutic Tarot reading is about a specific question, & the way the cards are laid out specifies a different aspect of the question in each card position; the cards are drawn, & the archetypes are synchronistically shown in relationship to each other.

What happens then depends on the purpose of the person doing the reading. Some people want to foretell the future (which I don’t do, since everything that happens between “now” & “then” can & does change the future); some people want to tell people what they want to hear. I like to have a dialogue about what the person sees in the cards, talk about the archetypal meaning, discuss how that relates to his or her inner & outer life (especially inner), & how she or he might use & apply this insight to make better choices or to create changes in how to do things that might improve his or her life.

When integrated into psychotherapy, Therapeutic Tarot can add richness of dimension into your own healing or growth.

For a free 15-minute interview about Oakland Transpersonal Therapy & Dreamwork, or to schedule a Therapeutic Tarot Consultation, contact  reneebeckmft.com. 

Free Dreamwork Talk in SF 4/15:

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Elemental Archetypes in Dreamwork with Renee Beck

  Do you dream of overwhelming ocean waves or of calm streams? Raging fires or gentle hearth heat? Caves, mountains, and mighty winds? These experiences all symbolize different aspects of the self in process. Calling on Jungian and Western esoteric symbolism, we’ll begin to explore how we use the archetypes of Earth, Water, Air, and Fire in our dreams to help convey messages to our waking selves.

Come to this FREE presentation on Monday, April 15, 6:15-7:30pm at the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco.

The Fool

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In the Tarot, The Fool card is represented by the number 0. While 0 numerically means “nothing”, looked at mystically, the zero, an image of a circle, represents the all & the nothing, the center & the surround, connection & continuation. The Fool card represents a state of being in touch with the larger oneness, with a sense of the numinous.

The Fool reminds us to maintain a childlike wonder & joy at the simple marvels of existence. The word “fool” means empty-headed, insane, & is derived through French from the Latin word “follis” for blacksmith’s bellows: a leather bag filled with air. When we are in touch with the sacred, we do go a little out of our minds, because what we are experiencing goes beyond normal, day-to-day thinking.

And as wonderful as our minds are, they are only part of our experience. The Fool suggests that we embrace the entirety of who we are, to open to the mysteries of life, to the beauty & knowledge present in any moment, if we can just go a little out of our heads.

Happy April Fool’s Day: May we all be able to be a little Foolish, sometimes!

What are the origins of the Easter Bunny?

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Spring rituals traditionally celebrate life, rebirth, the return of growth, & fertility. Pre-Christian Europeans celebrated the return of Spring with ceremonies honoring the Triple Goddess, who signified the Mystery of the Trinity. (Three is the geometric requirement for moving beyond a point, to a line, to giving form.) The Triple Goddess was believed to live in the Earth, & to find her, you needed to be guided by her helper, the Hare.

In Britain, the Lunar Goddess of Fertility was called Eostre or Ostara, & the egg was used as her symbol. The Orphic Egg represents the full potential & birthing of the the cosmos.

However you celebrate the rebirth of Spring, may your life blossom & be fruitful!

The Lovers

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The Archetype of The Lovers: The yearning for union is a basic human drive. We see it expressed in romantic love, in religious & spiritual practices, in political causes, in creativity, in the search for self. The desire to give over to something larger than our individual personae, to be swept up & embraced by a Beloved, by a Muse, a God or Goddess, to lose ourselves & become more than who we are, is shared by all humans. Internally, it can be viewed as the motion towards uniting parts of the self that we feel are separate or other than ourselves. It is an dance with shadow, with all that we can become, a movement towards wholeness & grace. Embrace & be kind to your loved one, your self, & your passion for union! Happy Valentine’s Day!