C. Michael Smith, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist, certified Focusing Trainer, and Member of the American Psychological Association, in private practice in Niles and Dowagiac, Michigan. For nearly 25 years he has been seeking to integrate his own shamanic path of the heart with his depth psychological practice. While his formal education in psychology took place at the University of Chicago, the Chicago Theological Seminary, the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago, and The Focusing Institute of New York, his initiation into the shamanic path began long before with an awakening and the receiving a vision for his life and work in 1969. For the past 9 years he has been in shamanic apprenticeship with the Kichwa Elder and Taita Iachak don Alverto Taxo, from the High Andes of Ecuador. His shamanic experiences also took him deep into the world of Jungian analysis in an effort to understand his own calling and to address his own personal wounds and seek a way to integrate shamanic wisdom with modern depth psychotherapy.
For more than 20 years Michael has sought through teaching, books, and other publications to be of service as a bridge figure between the spiritual wisdom of indigenous and earth-honoring shamanic traditions and the culture of modern professional psychology and psychiatry. His book PSYCHOTHERAPY AND THE SACRED [Chicago: CSSR Press 1995]--was acclaimed at the Gradiva Awards, 1996 NAAP at New York University, and JUNG AND SHAMANISM IN DIALOGUE: Retrieving the Soul/Retrieving the Sacred [Paulist Press, 1997, and 2nd Edition Trafford Publishers, 2007], and through the founding, and editing, along with Dennis Waite, Ed.D of 8 volumes of the SHAMANIC APPLICATIONS REVIEW, Michael has made a substantial contribution to the emerging field of transpersonal psychotherapy practice, in shamanic perspective. He teaches workshops in shamanic and Jungian psychology in Europe, S. Africa, and the USA.
Through the ongoing process of his apprenticeship with don Alverto, and through his attuning to The Great Force of Life [Spirit] Michael responded to the Invitation to set into writing a psychological theory and set of practices which were based on the path of the heart, such that the shamanic perspective could easily be brought into contemporary psychological practice in a variety of formats and specialties. This little theory and its potent set of practices is simply called “ THE ARCHETYPAL HEART” -- the book is in progress and scheduled for release in December 2007, but much of the theory and practices can be found on this website.
Michael has lectured on the integration of shamanic wisdom and psychotherapy at various conferences, and workshops throughout the United States, and at the University of Chicago, the Chicago Theological Seminary, the Illinois School of Professional Psychology, and at various Jung Societies in the USA. He has been involved as a dissertation adviser with doctoral students in the areas related to shamanism and Jungian psychotherapy, with students from Pacifica, University of Washington, University of Minnesota, Harvard, University of Chicago, Argosy University, and the Washington School of Professional Psychology, and the Chicago Theological Seminary,
He lives at Crows Nest, a wilderness Retreat Center in southwestern Michigan, which he founded and which serves as the hub of his retreats, workshops, Wilderness Quests, drum circles, and mentoring program in the integration of the shamanic path of the heart and psychotherapy practice.
Michael is available, in addition to his regular clinical practice, for shamanic consulting via telephone, shamanic retreats, the annual South Manitou Island Wilderness Quest and Wounded healer Summer School, and various mentoring arrangements, including study in a context of community. He is also available for drumming circles, workshops, conference speaking, and creativity consulting, and advisor of various graduate and Ph.D. dissertation projects.
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