About the Presenter

John Gosling is a psychiatrist and Jungian analyst. He trained at the C.G. Jung Institute of New York and returned to Cape Town in 2004. He is a past president of SAAJA, serves on several committees of SAAJA and the C.G. Jung Institute of New York, and is also a training analyst. He also co-facilitates SAAJA’s Jung and Film events. He is a Trainer for the International Association of Expressive Sandwork that he co-founded in Hanover Park in 2015. John has a special interest in the effects of unprocessed trauma and the options available to reduce its impact.

Abstract – No More Lies: The Truth About Unprocessed Trauma

What are the lies we tell ourselves? That our childhood was just fine… well maybe not totally fine, but “alright”? To acknowledge the trauma inflicted on our trapped, helpless, younger selves takes enormous courage. We fear what we may discover – and go to great lengths to avoid our unprocessed trauma.

In this seminar, John Gosling will present the myth of the Wounded Healer (Chiron in Greek mythology). Chiron has become a symbol of the transformative power of suffering and the capacity to empathize deeply with others’ pain. He will discuss how our willingness to suffer the traumas inflicted on us can initiate us into our individuation process and our deep humanity.

He will explore the consequences of our unprocessed trauma and how it may influence every facet of our lives; and offer a group experiential experience of processing a recent trauma as an example of one of the ways of reducing the impact of trauma in our psyches.