Dawn Altman Psychotherapy and Wellness

07/26/2025

Jungian Psychology is the Psychology of the Soul. I'm proud to be aligned with this field of psychology and practicing from this lens.

The celebrations of Carl Gustav Jung’s 150th birthday (happening all over the world this year) echo the lasting power of his ideas and perhaps the growing need for his psychology. Jung was one of the most fearless, original, and irreverent thinkers of the past two centuries. His psychology boldly challenges the dominant scientific and reductionist view of life by reintroducing the notions of soul and mystery into our understanding of the human experience. In a world increasingly shaped by materialism and hyper-technology, Jungian psychology stands as a small but steadfast island—a place of refuge for the curious, the contemplative, and for those called to deeper meaning.
– Luis Moris, PhD. Jungian analyst at ISAPZurich

07/15/2025

I've been away in Maine for the last two weeks at my little hovel by the sea. On our first night here, while eating dinner on the deck overlooking the ocean, a bald eagle flew right in front of our faces, landing in a tree not twenty feet away where he or she proceeded to eat its prey. It was magnificent and awe-inspiring, a true encounter with the numinous. While somewhat disturbing to watch, we could not look away, knowing we were in the presence of magnificence. What is the spiritual significance of this encounter? From what I have read, the eagle represents power, focus, and freedom. Its close presence may be an invitation to step into your personal authority, to trust your instincts, move forward with courage, and claim your space. An eagle may be a reminder of inner strength, particularly if you've been doubting your path, the eagle brings assurance that you possess the resilience and insight to navigate it. I never cease to be inspired and awe-stricken by the power of the unconscious and the invitation of psyche to become whole. While here in Maine, I had every intention of writing work that I have to submit by September for my analytic training. Instead, I have been sitting by the ocean, listening to the birds, procrastinating, and questioning my path. This eagle, so close and so timely, is an invitation to trust myself, and focus on my work.

05/19/2025

Feeling the poignancy and the passage of time with my daughter’s college graduation. I’m feeling it all-happy, sad, proud, joyful, melancholy. Wasn’t it just yesterday that my husband drove myself and our tiny newborn daughter home from the hospital after her birth, driving so slowly that he was a hazard to other drivers? It is such a cliche, but cliches are often grounded in the truth. These life transitions are so poignant. We are letting go of something or someone in order to open up to something new, even if it is just a newness to an old relationship. Yesterday I was proud and joyful. Today I am still proud but a little melancholy too, wanting to hold on to her just a little bit longer.

02/25/2025

Light beach reading for my upcoming trip. Can't wait to dive into this one!

01/15/2025

In the quiet and sacred space of my consultation room, we are simply two souls, working to come into a deeper relationship with the Self. What a sacred privilege this work is to me.

01/14/2025

Bathed in the light of the moon 🌖 Feels like the watchful eye of The Great Mother

01/10/2025

The End is in Sight

At this time last year, I was buried in books, studying for my propadeuticum exams to become a Jungian Psychoanalyst. Exams have been passed, and now the final stage of my analytic training has begun. The next 18 months will be spent writing a thesis and writing up several cases for two separate committees. This psychoanalytic training is the most difficult task I have ever undertaken, a task that requires more of me than I sometimes think I have.

Today I am hunkered down in my third floor meditation room for a full day of writing. There are times when this feels out of my reach. I distract myself with nonsense, checking email, looking up various references, tending to clutter that somehow needs to be tended to RIGHT THIS SECOND. But I am reminded of a sentence written by one of my favorite fiction authors, Elizabeth Strout. I don't remember in which of her books it appeared, but it said simply "Work gets done if you do it."

01/06/2025

Snowy day but my space is cozy and warm ❤️

09/13/2024

Back to School!
Jungian Analytic Training-Year 3

09/08/2024

I never cease to be gobsmacked by the brilliance of Marie-Louise von Franz. I can often find Jung difficult to read, parsing through many words to find what he is actually saying. MLVF just nails it succinctly, directly, every single time. We all have the direct knowledge of where to go, what to do, how to proceed in our lives. This is not a gift that is given to some and not to others. We all come to this life with the innate ability to individuate, or to become our own unique selves. But as MLVF so directly states, the "clown we call I," meaning the ego, gets in our way, distracting us from our real work in the world. We behave and live in ways that are in direct opposition to what the soul wants, but we cannot hear what it is saying through the noise.

09/07/2024

You can also follow on Instagram to see more.

09/07/2024

Yes, yes, a thousand times YES.

I would also add that social media "influencers" are not therapists. Yoga teachers are not therapists. Reading quotes from psychologists and posting them on social media is not therapy. These are bypasses of the real, deep, dirty, and very painful work we have to do in order to heal and become whole.