I’m excited to bring back Vlado Šolc for the third time. He’s a Jungian analyst and psychotherapist practicing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, my hometown. Vlado has authored many articles, and he is the co-author of the book, Dark Religion: Fundamentalism from the Perspective of Jungian Psychology.

Listen to our chat about self-reflection in a time of conspiracy theories.
Listen to our chat about a depth approach to therapy or watch on YouTube.

Today’s episode is a spontaneous conversation about the rule of creativity and imagination in healing and growth. There will be props and vulnerable sharing of stories, drawings, and poetry by Vlado and me of how imagination has contributed to our unfolding and how that’s related to what’s going on out there in the world. 

Enjoy! 

Deborah Lukovich, PhD
Depth Psychology Coach, Author, Podcaster & Blogger

Support Dose of Depth with a monthly donation of $5. Click here to learn more.

Check out my work at www.deborahlukovich.com, where you can also subscribe to receive notifications of all kinds of FREE content.

Check out my book, Your Soul is Talking. Are You Listening? 5 Steps to Uncovering Your Hidden Purpose. You can now buy it on www.bookshop.org if you're looking for an alternative to Amazon.

Follow me on Instagram @dlukovich engage with 4,700+ followers on Twitter @deblukovich or become a friend on Facebook. Check out Soul Talk 101, a series of mini-lessons on how to explore your unconscious offered through my YouTube Channel. 

#individuation #shadow #innerwork #transformation #self #CGJung #depthpsychology #depthpsychologycoach #imagination #activeimagination #poetry #poet #creativeintelligence #creativity #unconscious #spirituality #selfgrowth #selftransformation #collectiveunconscious 

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In this episode, I read a blog post I wrote on May 1, 2020, after being interviewed for the Moms Meet Sanity online campaign. The title of the post is: The Evolving Relationship Between a Mother and Her Children.

It was also five days before I left my hometown, not knowing COVID was just getting started, and leaving my young adult children behind. They smiled as I drove away to start my new life in a beach town, but I was in shock I think, because I had no idea what was next except that I would be defending my dissertation two weeks after moving into my new place. 

I was overwhelmed, lots of people were overwhelmed, and as I drove away from my smiling children, I stopped and asked them to take another photo looking sad.

Our starting point with our children is our own experience as a child. Whether you remember your childhood as joyful, mediocre, or traumatic, our deepest and most ingrained patterns of how we relate to others were established during this time.

These patterns helped us survive childhood AND they often run their course at some point during our lives. They stop working . . .

Enjoy!

Deborah Lukovich, PhD

Read the blog post and enjoy my interview with Moms Meet Sanity

Support Dose of Depth with a monthly donation of $5. Click here to learn more.

Check out my work at www.deborahlukovich.com, where you can also subscribe to receive notifications of all kinds of FREE content.

Check out my book, Your Soul is Talking. Are You Listening? 5 Steps to Uncovering Your Hidden Purpose. You can now buy it on www.bookshop.org if you're looking for an alternative to Amazon.

Follow me on Instagram @dlukovich engage with 4,700+ followers on Twitter @deblukovich or become a friend on Facebook. Check out Soul Talk 101, a series of mini-lessons on how to explore your unconscious offered through my YouTube Channel. 

#parenting #consciousparenting #projection #parentalcomplexes #complexes  #depthpsychology #depthpsychologycoach #CGJung #unconscious 

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In this episode, I have a conversation with Walter Williams, host of Deep Discussion podcast, certified life coach, and a poet; and he’s a dad and a husband too.

I came across Walter on Twitter. His response to one of my reflection questions got my attention so I checked out his profile. All I had to know was that he was a poet and I swooned. I love poets, I’m a groupie for many, I had been trying to find one who was brave enough to chat with me. I’ve found poets are amazing and shy.

Poets are special people, because they seem to be at least semi-aware of their role as vessels for creative intelligence, which wants to mix with their unique experience of being human to create something that can only be created in partnership with creative intelligence.

Those people who say things like, “I just don’t get poetry,” usually say it with a defensive attitude and I wonder if that comes from a semi-awareness of the fear of what’s in their unconscious.

Anyway, poets have an openness that’s rare, a willingness to surrender to something bigger than themselves, and the capacity to be vulnerable, which is the number one requirement for connecting at a deep level with other human beings.

I think you’re going to like our chat.

Deborah Lukovich, PhD

Walter's website
Walter's podcast, Deep Discussion

Sharing my poem

Support Dose of Depth with a monthly donation of $5. Click here to learn more.

Check out my work at www.deborahlukovich.com, where you can also subscribe to receive notifications of all kinds of FREE content.

Check out my book, Your Soul is Talking. Are You Listening? 5 Steps to Uncovering Your Hidden Purpose. You can now buy it on www.bookshop.org if you're looking for an alternative to Amazon.

Follow me on Instagram @dlukovich engage with 4,700+ followers on Twitter @deblukovich or become a friend on Facebook. Check out Soul Talk 101, a series of mini-lessons on how to explore your unconscious offered through my YouTube Channel. 

#poetry #poet #depthpsychology #depthpsychologycoach #creativeintelligence #creativity #CGJung #unconscious #creativity #spirituality #selfgrowth #selftransformation 

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In this episode, I read a blog post I published this week, August 2023: A Framework for Self-Reflection in a Time of Conspiracy Theories.

About a year ago, I had a chat with Jungian Analyst Vlado Solc about his book, Dark Religion: Fundamentalism from the Perspective of Jungian Psychology, which he wrote in partnership with George Didier.  This post is a follow-up article about the book and the topic.

 The book is a big read, but dense academic language is brought to life through examples of relatable lived experiences. Importantly, rather than being left with a feeling of diminishment or dismissal of religion, this book reinforces the need to respect the religious/spiritual instinct that seems to be part of what it means to be human.  

Enjoy!

Deborah Lukovich, PhD

YouTube Video: Jesus was a liberal wimp
Podcast episode: Self-Reflection in a Time of Conspiracy Theories
Podcast episode: Three Ways of Why: A Chat with Vlado Solc
Root of "to know"
Book: Nice Racism, by Robin Diangelo 2022
YouTube video:  A Chat with My Gen Z son
Blog Post: What is Generation Z Mirroring Back to Us?

Support Dose of Depth with a monthly donation of $5. Click here to learn more.

Check out my work at www.deborahlukovich.com, where you can also subscribe to receive notifications of all kinds of FREE content.

Check out my book, Your Soul is Talking. Are You Listening? 5 Steps to Uncovering Your Hidden Purpose. You can now buy it on www.bookshop.org if you're looking for an alternative to Amazon.

Follow me on Instagram @dlukovich engage with 4,700+ followers on Twitter @deblukovich or become a friend on Facebook. Check out Soul Talk 101, a series of mini-lessons on how to explore your unconscious offered through my YouTube Channel. 

#darkreligion #radicalreligion #conspiracytheories #extremism #spirituality #religion #depthpsychology #newbook #depthpsychologycoach #CGJung #shadow #evil #unconscious #archetypes #projection #self #fundamentalism #misogyny #intolerance #justice #racism #spirituality #Christianity #feminism #collectiveunconscious #trauma #trumpis

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In this episode, I have a fun and feisty chat with Natasha Carter, about her first novel, Unfinished Business. 

Natasha and I share a passion for writing about romance and sex, but we have difference experiences and perspectives. So much has changed since I was her age, and yet so much hasn’t changed. We’re both feisty and rebellious. In a way, Natasha is more rebellious than I am. She’s more obnoxious in a good way, and at the same time, her posts reveal her vulnerability. But she learned earlier than me not to hide her vulnerability, in fact it’s likely what attracts people to her, like a siren’s song. She’s a fighter in public, where I’m not really unless it’s on behalf of others. 

 Anyway, I know you’re going to love this conversation, and for sure, you’ll want to buy her novel whether you’re into erotic romance or not. 

Visit Natasha's website
Check out her book, Unfinished Business
Follow Natasha on Twitter or Instagram

Blog post: What if You're Not Supposed to Find the One?
Blog Post: When is Sexual Attraction Not About Sex?
Podcast episode: Creative Monogramy, Consensual Non Monogamy, Sexual Shadow

Enjoy!

Deborah Lukovich, PhD

Support Dose of Depth with a monthly donation of $5. Click here to learn more.

Check out my work at www.deborahlukovich.com, where you can also subscribe to receive notifications of all kinds of FREE content.

Check out my new book, Your Soul is Talking. Are You Listening? 5 Steps to Uncovering Your Hidden Purpose. You can now buy it on www.bookshop.org if you're looking for an alternative to Amazon.

Follow me on Instagram @dlukovich engage with 4,700+ followers on Twitter @deblukovich or become a friend on Facebook. Check out Soul Talk 101, a series of mini-lessons on how to explore your unconscious offered through my YouTube Channel. 

#sexuality #eroticnovel #projection #author #depthpsychology #polyamory #shame 

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In this episode I read a blog post from January 2021. This one needs no introduction. Let’s jump in. The title is: I Didn’t Become a Romantic Until I Got Divorced: Midlife Reflections.

Did you come of age in the 1980s? What kinds of messages did you internalize having to do with gender roles? Have you thought about how those messages may have shown up as limiting beliefs that stand in the way of fully expressing yourself in midlife.

Only now can I appreciate the complexity of my own coming of age experience.

It was a time of great progress in many ways. But the price of admission to the cold professional world was detaching from any sense of feminine or focus on relationship.

The excitement of new possibilities was matched by an almost equal amount of intense anger that found righteous validation in political movements couched in religious belief. The impact on women of being constantly demonized as family wreckers and sexual deviants cannot be overstated, especially when the chorus included other women.

Any of this sound familiar?

In this post, I share a little bit about how I came to find and begin healing my wounds related to the feminine, masculine, sexuality, and spirituality. Then I offer an exercise you can try to strengthen the relationship with your feminine through your body. Enjoy!

Deborah Lukovich, PhD

Other links:

Blog post: Men Are NOT The Enemy
Blog post: Sex, God & Transcending Patriarchy
Dose of Depth episode: Can Christianity Transcend Patriarchy?

Support Dose of Depth with a monthly donation of $5. Click here to learn more.

Check out my work at www.deborahlukovich.com, where you can also subscribe to receive notifications of all kinds of FREE content.

Check out my new book, Your Soul is Talking. Are You Listening? 5 Steps to Uncovering Your Hidden Purpose. You can now buy it on www.bookshop.org if you're looking for an alternative to Amazon.

Follow me on Instagram @dlukovich engage with 4,600+ followers on Twitter @deblukovich or become a friend on Facebook. Check out Soul Talk 101, a series of mini-lessons on how to explore your unconscious offered through my YouTube Channel. 

#projection #selfreflection #psyche #soul #CGJung #Jungian #depthpsychology #Jung #meaning #purpose #personaldevelopment #unconscious #coaching #depthpsychologycoach #midlife #newbook #spirituality #transformation #relationships #sexuality #hermes #aphrodite #midlifecrisis #midlifeunraveling #feminine #masculine #shame #anxiety #depression #jungianfilmtheory #movies #dreams  #midlifewomen #masculine #feminine #gender

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In this episode, I have a conversation with Rev. Cynthia Brix and Dr. William Keepin, founders of Gender Equity and Reconciliation International, and lead authors of a new book, titled Gender Equity & Reconciliation: Thirty Years of Healing the Most Ancient Wound in the Human Family.

This is one of my favorite topics, the dreaded and stubborn patriarchal wound that wreaks havoc within the psyches of men and women. Even those who have successfully detached from the conventional and limiting labels of gender and sexual orientation, meaning they are more conscious about these perceived opposing energies of masculine and feminine, they too suffer.

William is a mathematical physicist with training in contemplative spirituality and transpersonal psychology, his research on global warming and sustainable energy influenced international environmental policy.

Cynthia and William are joined by sixteen other authors in this new book, which offers such a wide range of thoughts on various aspects of this complex gender wound. What a fantastic anthology of writers considering this topic from so many angles.

Blog post: Men Are Not the Enemy: Healing the Collective Wounds that Prevent Deep Connection Between Men and Women

Blog post: Sex, God & Transcending Patriarchy

Deborah

Support Dose of Depth with a monthly donation of $5. Click here to learn more.

Check out my work at www.deborahlukovich.com, where you can also subscribe to receive notifications of all kinds of FREE content.

Check out my new book, Your Soul is Talking. Are You Listening? 5 Steps to Uncovering Your Hidden Purpose. You can now buy it on www.bookshop.org if you're looking for an alternative to Amazon.

Follow me on Instagram @dlukovich engage with 4,600+ followers on Twitter @deblukovich or become a friend on Facebook. Check out Soul Talk 101, a series of mini-lessons on how to explore your unconscious offered through my YouTube Channel. 

#projection #selfreflection #psyche #soul #CGJung #Jungian #depthpsychology #Jung #meaning #purpose #personaldevelopment #unconscious  #therapy #coaching #depthpsychologycoach #midlife #newbook #spirituality #transformation #relationships #sexuality #archetypes #midlifecrisis #midlifeunraveling #feminine #masculine #shame #anxiety #depression #jungianfilmtheory #movies #filmtheory #dreams  #midlifewomen #masculine #feminine #reconciliation #genderreconciliation #genderequity #lgbtq 

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In this episode, I read a blog post I wrote almost three years ago, fall of 2020. I had been trying to settle into a new life in a beach town after leaving my hometown. I had already gone through the unraveling part of midlife, and I was in the phase I fondly refer to as midlife reconstruction. A synchronicity had led me to an online writing community, I gathered up the courage to launch myself as a writer, and I wrote my first short story, an erotic romance based in real life. I never saw that coming. So, a lot was going.

Let’s get into it. The post is titled: What Does it Mean When a Penis Shows Up in Your Dream? The Deeper Meaning of Sexual Images. Wait . . . don’t go just because I said PENIS. Come on. Don’t tell me you haven’t had that dream where your sister is performing oral sex on you. You’ve at least dreamt about having sex with someone other than your partner or spouse, right?

Except for those who have been victims of sexual assault, the embarrassment or shame you feel when you have dreams like this may have less to do with literal sex and more to do with coming into relationship with a part of yourself that has been neglected or a part of you that others disapproved of shamed you for.

These images are how your unconscious gets you to explore those repressed or denied urges, and if you have the courage to linger in those difficult emotions, you could release a new creative urge – or overcome some literal sexual hang ups – both of those things happened to me.

Enjoy!

Blog version of this episode

Deborah

Support Dose of Depth with a monthly donation of $5. Click here to learn more.

Check out my work at www.deborahlukovich.com, where you can also subscribe to receive notifications of all kinds of FREE content.

Check out my new book, Your Soul is Talking. Are You Listening? 5 Steps to Uncovering Your Hidden Purpose. You can now buy it on www.bookshop.org if you're looking for an alternative to Amazon.

Follow me on Instagram @dlukovich engage with 4,600+ followers on Twitter @deblukovich or become a friend on Facebook. Check out Soul Talk 101, a series of mini-lessons on how to explore your unconscious offered through my YouTube Channel. 

#projection #selfreflection #psyche #soul #CGJung #Jungian #depthpsychology #Jung #meaning #purpose #personaldevelopment #unconscious  #therapy #coaching #depthpsychologycoach #midlife #newbook #spirituality #transformation #relationships #sexuality #divorce #dating #romance #romantic  #archetypes #midlifecrisis #midlifeunraveling #feminine #masculine #shame #anxiety #depression #jungianfilmtheory #movies #filmtheory #dreams  #midlifewomen #fantasies #penis #phallicsymbol #phallus #dreams #dreaminterpretation 

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In this episode, I have a conversation with one of my clients, Angela. She’s a teacher and a mom of two preteen kids, and she fills lots of other roles.

Recently, Angela and I realized that that she has been seeing me for depth psychology coaching more than four years. I sometimes call her Junior Depth Psychologist because she’s getting so good at exploring her dreams and finding the metaphor in her waking life. Angela’s journey also brings to life CG Jung’s theory of individuation, which he defines as consciously exploring your own unconscious.

Angela is a great story with an interesting arc of ups and downs, painful realizations, new empowering ah ha moments, and consciousness about entrenched patterns, a consciousness that helps her see she has options and choices that she didn’t realize she had before.  Angela is also unique among my clients in that she can really feel the difference between who she was that first time I met her and who she is now, and she can sense how she’s being pulled into a future version of herself too. Not all my clients have that capacity.

So, for those reasons, and the fact she said yes to my invitation, we’re having a chat today about her experience of depth psychology coaching. Plus, Angela is just a delight and such a lovely person and has also developed that important midlife survival trait of having a sense of humor about her own experience of coming into deeper relationship with herself.

Blog post - A Dream About Ferrets Leads to Insight About First Post-Divorce Relationships

Blog post - Dissecting Midlife: There's a Point to Unraveling

Deborah

Support Dose of Depth with a monthly donation of $5. Click here to learn more.

Check out my work at www.deborahlukovich.com, where you can also subscribe to receive notifications of all kinds of FREE content.

Check out my new book, Your Soul is Talking. Are You Listening? 5 Steps to Uncovering Your Hidden Purpose. You can now buy it on www.bookshop.org if you're looking for an alternative to Amazon.

Follow me on Instagram @dlukovich engage with 4,600+ followers on Twitter @deblukovich or become a friend on Facebook. Check out Soul Talk 101, a series of mini-lessons on how to explore your unconscious offered through my YouTube Channel. 

#projection #selfreflection #psyche #soul #CGJung #Jungian #depthpsychology #Jung #meaning #purpose #personaldevelopment #unconscious  #therapy #coaching #depthpsychologycoach #midlife #newbook #spirituality #transformation #relationships #sexuality #divorce #dating #romance #romantic  #archetypes #midlifecrisis #midlifeunraveling #feminine #masculine #shame #anxiety #depression #jungianfilmtheory #movies #filmtheory #dreams  #midlifewomen 

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In this episode, I read a blog post I wrote two years ago, Spring of 2021. I had settled into my new life in a beach town and renewed my lease for another year. I had found an online writing community and finished a real draft of my memoir. I was feeling good . . . except for one thing. My sleep sucked.

Sometimes, I would be wide awake for three hours, just lying there as if I was on alert for danger. Other nights, I would wake up with a hot flash so intense, I’d whip my covers across the bed, and then when my body cooled down enough to fall asleep, I’d wake up shivering. This went on for months.

One day, I decided I wanted to know more about this menopause thing. The more I reflected, the more I realized that women have been trained to resist and reject this part of their lives.

I hope you enjoy my reading of this blog post about coming into relationship with menopause. Don’t kid yourselves, men, you have your own version of hormone fluctuations, and you can be just as moody as women. It’s just more accepted for you.

Enjoy, learn something, and be entertained!

Click here to read the post
Click here to view my workshop
Click here to check out Linda Leonard's book, Meeting the Madwoman

Deborah Lukovich, PhD

Support Dose of Depth with a monthly donation of $5. Click here to learn more.

Check out my work at www.deborahlukovich.com, where you can also subscribe to receive notifications of all kinds of FREE content.

Check out my new book, Your Soul is Talking. Are You Listening? 5 Steps to Uncovering Your Hidden Purpose. You can now buy it on www.bookshop.org if you're looking for an alternative to Amazon.

Follow me on Instagram @dlukovich engage with 4,600+ followers on Twitter @deblukovich or become a friend on Facebook. Check out Soul Talk 101, a series of mini-lessons on how to explore your unconscious offered through my YouTube Channel. 

#projection #selfreflection #psyche #soul #CGJung #Jungian #depthpsychology #Jung #meaning #purpose #personaldevelopment #unconscious  #therapy #coaching #depthpsychologycoach #midlife #newbook #spirituality #transformation #relationships #sexuality #divorce #dating #romance #romantic  #archetypes #midlifecrisis #midlifeunraveling #feminine #masculine #shame #anxiety #depression #jungianfilmtheory #movies #filmtheory #dreams #menopause #midlifewomen #hormones #hotflashes #nightsweats 

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