"The psyche's reality is lived in the death of the literal."(Gaston Bachelard)

Imaginal Psychology

If you saw an advertisement for life coaching or imaginal psychology, welcome. You may want to read the section at right, "Psycho Credo," for a more in-depth understanding of the way my work has developed. Although my work has much in common with "life coaching," it is different in that I have an extensive background in psychology, including a clinically oriented MA in psychology, with two years of clinical training, and a PhD in a program whose purpose was to find ways to put the insights of depth psychology to use in ways other than the usual psychotherapy. So, my work is solution-oriented but it is also "deep," in the tradition of depth psychology, particulary the branch of it called "imaginal psychology," whick works directly with the imagination. ("Depth psychology" is the general term used to encompass both the psychoanalytical work of Sigmund Freud and the analytical psychology of C.G. Jung.)

My work, which normally occurs one-on-one but can occur in limited-term groups, differs from psychotherapy in that it assumes the client is not suffering a serious mental-health disorder and is well motivated to change some aspect of his or her life. Whereas a traditional therapist often acts within a medical model, making a diagnosis and planning a cure, my role is often more as a mentor. My work is about clarifying goals, creating new possibilities --not about curing an illness.

The goals may pertain to one's personal, spiritual or career life. But what all of my work has in common, though, is that I work with the imagination. This does not mean you have to have an artistic temperament. It means that I have developed ways of opening the imagination so that you can begin to see yourself and the greater world differently.

Because I have worked over 20 years as a journalist and opinion columnist, I have particular sensitivity to people who feel creatively blocked. I've worked with jazz musicians, writers, painters and dancers, as well as lawyers and doctors.

I realize my work is difficult to understand without experiencing it, so i offer a reduced-price initial consultation. Cll 404-525-4774 or write me at grazer@mindspring.com.

Muse 101

We will soon schedule a session of Muse 101, a daylong workshop for people who want to improve creative functioning or develop a keener sense of life purpose. This workshop is the usually required predecessor for participation in the Greeting the Muse 11-week workshop. But it's also a good way to seize a glimpse, often a radical one, of what is blocking self-expression.

This session is directed to newcomers and people who have taken workshops with Cliff Bostock before and would benefit from a refresher.

Muse 101 situates creative inhihbition in the body as well as the mind. The workshop is "playful," in the sense that participants experiment with alternative ways of being through work Cliff Bostock has developed. The work can include music, writing, enactment.. If you want some sense of the way this work affects people, click HERE

Cost of the day is $95. A sliding scale fee is available for one place. You should contact us to apply for that. These workshops are kept small -- five to seven people -- so there are no refunds for last-minute cancellations. (Cost includes breakfast pastries and coffee.)

Contact Cliff Bostock, 404-525-4774, grazer@mindspring.com. I prefer emaill. (Please put "Muse 101" in the subject line of your email.)

Theater of Dreams
Six Mondays, 7 -9 p.m

This workshop, which runs six weeks, involves the study of dreams in an experiential way. Like all my groups, this one is usually kept to 5 to 7 people.

Participants keep a journal of their dreams during the workshop's term. (Don't worry: I've never had a client who was unable to remember some of his dreams with a few tricks.)

Freud called dreams "the royal road to the unconscious." During sessions, we enact dreams, rather than just discussing them, in order to more readily discern their varied meanings. The only way to approach the contents of the unconscious is through images. Thus dreams are ideal in that respect, since they are spontaneously created by the psyche. This means that dreams can often clarify what is inhibiting a person or disclose change the psyche is demanding.

Unlike much dream analysis, this work does not attempt to afix a definitive meaning to any one dream. We often enact a dream several times and new material seems to arise with each enactment. We also experiment with changing the dream's narrative, imagining how the dream might continue. Over time, most clients are surprised to see a pattern develop that does reveal the central conflict or problem being processed by the unconscious.

Cost of the group is $50 weekly, $300 total. If you pay in full 10 days in advance, you receive a discounted rate of $250. Usually, if more than 7 people have signed up, we add one or two sessions at no extra cost.

Contact Michael Saunders, 404-234-5866 or write srfnturf@bellsouth.net. Or you can contact Cliff Bostock, 404-525-4774, grazer@mindspring.com. Both of us prefer email. (Please put "Theater of Dreams" in the subject line of your email.) Checks should be made out to Cliff Bostock, 403 Milledge Ave., Atlanta Georgia 30312.

Body-Life Coaching

I'm excited about a new direction I am taking -- combining life coaching with personal training in the gym. I've worked-out religiously for more than 25 years and I worked part-time as a personal trainer at a YMCA in my 20s -- before it was cool to work out.

I know from personal experience and from many studies that exercise is often more effective for the treatment of anxiety and depression than drugs. I also know that it's hard to get the typical depressed client motivated to go to the gym. Thus my idea to directly combine life coaching and personal training at a gym.

By combining the two, the client can directly address body-image issues (including the dysmorphia so common among gay men) with immediate support. Many other "issues" arise when people become more conscioius of their bodies, so there is no limit on what can be discussed in the coaching portion of a session.

And it doesn't hurt that by combining life coaching and personal training in one session, clients can save a lot of money.

I am still working out location details for this, but please call 404-525-4774 or write me at grazer@mindspring.com .

It's Not Therapy. It's Training.

Here's another take on the way my work differs from psychotherapy. My associate, Michael Saunders, says my work is less like psychotherapy than "training" (which is consistent with "coaching"). I asked him to elaborate and he says it far better than I could:

"I see the work as training first because it's focused on developing skills, tekhne. You teach people practical methods of engaging particular activities that serve as catalysts--journal-keeping, dialogues, even structural work* in the way you use it.

" Secondly, it's like training in that it infuses emotional experience with a rational element. You engage people in their work to take various steps which lead them to see something, and then you direct them to observe what they have conjured up, rather than correct it, as someone like Al Pesso* would do.

"The infusion of a rational element into an encounter with unconscious material doesn't have the quality of rationalizing or defusing; rather it allows people to linger longer over something and really see what they've conjured up. Therapy tends to rush past the initial encounter with the retrieved vision, treating it as a Skylla and Charybdis to be carefully and quickly navigated past.

"And finally, therapy tends to assert somehow, however muddily, that a person can wash their sins and hurts away. Your work invites people to learn, like Odysseus, to be known by their wounds in meaningful ways. That, again, is tekhne, skill, training."

(*Note: Al Pesso is the founder of psychomotor therapy, which has very much inspired my own work, although I eventually came to see its value mainly as cathartic. As Michael says, I question its capacity to "correct" or "cure" the wound. Indeed, I question the wisdom of such an undertaking at all.)