A Program for Therapists

Although the Strange has long been a part of the human experience, here in the West the mental health industry dismisses such narratives in the name of a supposed biological model of mental disease. A collective vision of the Virgin Mary is discarded as a hallucination. UFO reports are considered psychotically driven. Mystical experiences are ranked as delusional. And near-death experiences are reduced to some neurological explanation.

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Entering the Strange is a bold program for a couple of reasons. It challenges mainstream psychiatry that has long claimed to be a medical specialty only without conclusive evidence. Moreover, the program honors cultural diversity and epistemological relativity rather than subscribe to a materialistic western epistemology of mainstream psychiatry and psychology that tries to hold leverage over what is normal and real.

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Entering the Strange is a process-oriented program that helps you: (1) flush out mental health constructs that inhibit the integration process needed when working with clients who have experienced very odd events; (2) wrestle with your own internal chaos and madness; and (3) integrate all the pieces you hold and that make you the unique therapist you are.

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The 12-week program is outlined as follows:

• The Shadow of the DSM and Mainstream Psychiatry

• Why Entering the Strange is a Must

• Me and My Shadow 

• Psychosis? Me?

• Why Feeling Crazy Makes You the Right Therapist

• Integrating the Pieces You Thought You Didn't Have

• Dancing with the Strange

• Why Investigation Doesn't Work

• What Does Death have to do with It?

• Allow Me to Introduce Myself

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Upon completing the program, you will receive a certificate of completion, maintain free membership with SPAE, and become eligible to apply for a position in the SPAE network.