Parenting in Depth: Soul, Consciousness, and Presence Microcredential

As each parenting moment unfolds, so does the opportunity to broaden and deepen the parenting relationship. Parenting is fully an iterative process rich with opportunity as well as challenge. Recognizing how the unconscious influences each moment as well as understanding the psychological structures that inform the parent-child relationship, supports choice as to how the parent shows up in the child’s world and how the child is revealed in the world of the parent.
The purpose of this course is to offer a depth psychological perspective on parenting, which provides a way to understand and approach the parent-child relationship with an eye for both conscious and unconscious dynamics within it. How much do we act to shape the child to fit into the image, values, and world that we have inherited and created for them? How much do we adjust this world so that it is receptive to the unfolding nature of the child? This is a dialectic process that requires attending to what is at work in the soul of the parent and requires being present to what this communicates to the soul of the child.
Parenting is an opportunity to start fresh each day. We must be willing to live with our questions and hold our answers gently. Parenting is not a problem to be fixed, nor are children. There is not a formula that when mastered will be effective in every situation. Parenting requires a willingness to learn, to become more conscious of what we are unconsciously enacting, communicating, and modeling to our children, understanding what images or ideals govern our attitudes, words, and actions, and whether these further the wellbeing of both parent and child and their relationship. We will investigate and invite the possibility of a depth psychologically informed transformative opportunity to broaden and deepen a holistic and healthy relationship between parent and child.