Building a Mystery: The Impact of Cultural Humility on Spiritual Practice (Hybrid)

The ancient, living religious traditions of Tibet and indigenous America understand humanity as inextricably interconnected with its environment. Many psychologically- and spiritually-minded individuals find themselves incorporating the environmental wisdom of these traditions into their personal spiritual practices. Less well-understood than their inherent care for the environment are the cultural and societal contexts in which these traditions formed and grew, and the largely-unspoken ways that these contexts – not often thought of as spiritual – fundamentally inform the practices of those spiritual traditions. If we take up these practices without considering their cultural and societal background, we run the very real risk of misunderstanding the imaginal or mythical worldviews at the hearts of these traditions, inadvertently and inappropriately adopting culture-bound behaviors that do not accurately reflect our own deep and complicated histories, and allowing ourselves to remain blind to our own unconscious attachments to ideals that deepen the environmental crisis.

How can we honor the profundity and pragmatic usefulness of these spiritual worldviews without succumbing to the western world’s deeply-embedded tendencies to intellectual colonization and cultural appropriation? How can we remain curious and reflective about the ways we treat the earth, and not use these powerful spiritual ecologies as a way of bypassing our responsibility to the lands we inhabit? Join us for this all-day conference as we explore the many ways that the realms of culture, society, and religion support each other, and how we can respectfully and authentically adopt the valuable perspectives embedded in these wisdom traditions.

Michael R. Sheehy (PhD) is a meditation researcher and scholar of Tibetan Buddhism. He is a Research Assistant Professor and the Director of Scholarship at the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia, and the Executive Editor of the Journal of Contemplative Studies. Michael studied extensively in Buddhist Asia, including three years training in a monastery in eastern Tibet and twelve years of fieldwork on the Tibetan plateau. He has authored dozens of articles, edited and authored books on Tibetan Buddhism, and is an active collaborator in transdisciplinary research that investigates historical contemplative practices. His current research translates practices from Tibetan meditation manuals to contribute to interdisciplinary dialogues in the humanities, cultural psychology, and the cognitive sciences.

Hannah Armbrust (PhD, LMHC, NCC), is an adjunct faculty at Saybrook University in the Department of Humanistic Clinical Psychology. Dr. Armbrust is also a Jungian-oriented psychotherapist in private practice, a fellow faculty at The Jung Center of Houston, and a former professor at the Federal University of Rondonia (UNIR). Dr. Armbrust has presented at various US, South American, and Europeam conferences. She also has international clinical experience working with historically marginalized populations and advocates the use of decolonial options in psychotherapy and Jungian studies. Dr. Armbrust's research is focused on postcolonial and decolonial studies and epistemic practices, Jungian studies, archetypal intersubjectivity, Brazilian Amazonian mythologies, eco-spirituality, and ecopsychology.

This program is being offered both IN-PERSON and ONLINE. Please select how you will attend when registering. Recordings will be distributed to registered participants only, and will not be available for individual purchase.

All times are CT. Please contact onlinelearning@junghouston.org with any questions.

Please register early. Programs with four or fewer participants are subject to cancellation, 48 hours prior to their start.

*The Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council (TBHEC) has stopped pre-certifying ANY Continuing Education or Professional Development for mental health providers. The Jung Center cannot guarantee that the programs we provide will qualify for continuing education or Professional Development, nor can any other agency. The Jung Center uses high educational standards when selecting to designate events as "potentially appropriate for CEs", and in evaluating the outcomes of our educational services, and we believe them to meet the requirements of state licensing bodies. To find out more about the TBHEC changes to Continuing Education and Professional Development, click here.