When lives are shattered by grief and loss, an internal invitation often arises, guiding us to embrace the chaos, and to find a new ordering that challenges our assumptive world while undergoing a process of meaning reconstruction. This module introduces learners to the mandala as spiritual medicine, for the act of creating into a circular structure helps to both contain and express deeply felt emotions. “My mandalas were cryptograms concerning the state of the self which was presented to me anew each day… I guarded them like precious pearls…. It became increasingly plain to me that the mandala is the center. It is the exponent of all paths. It is the path to the center, to individuation.” ~ C.G. Jung
This didactic and experiential module is centered in the creation and use of mandalas in clinical practice, enriched by poetry and writing, as they relate to grief and loss. Jung’s techniques of active imagination grounds and enhances this presentation’s integrative approach to expressive therapies techniques in conjunction with Neimeyer, Worden, and Rynearson’s models of grief and bereavement. The Mandala as Soul Medicine invites learners to engage circular, poetic forms that safely contain both light and dark night journeys or complex dual processes. This mythic journey serves as an inspiration to those wounded by personal loss, for a sense of trust emanates from a helper who has the inner confidence to have circled through.
