M.A./Ph.D. in Depth Psychology with Emphasis in Jungian & Archetypal Studies
FAQ List
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY A “HYBRID” PROGRAM?
A hybrid program combines online learning with residential sessions. Specifically,
in this specialization, students spend 4 days a quarter learning on campus (32
hours total), and 28 hours online.
WHY MAKE THIS SPECIALIZATION A HYBRID ONE?
Prospective students from around the country and from other parts of the world
have long been requesting a degree program that allows them to study at Pacifica
without making the 9 to 10 trips to campus a year that the other degree programs
require. This specialization is in response to that request. Being in residency only 4
times per year over an extended weekend allows some students to participate at
Pacifica who might otherwise not be able to do so.
WHAT DOES A TYPICAL QUARTER LOOK LIKE?
Each quarter lasts approximately 11 weeks, though they may extend longer to
accommodate holidays and other breaks for rest, relaxation, and reflection.
Students take two 3-unit courses in the fall, winter, and spring, with three 2-unit
courses in the summer. The first few weeks of each quarter is spent reading at
home and engaging online in discussion and activities with the faculty and one’s
classmates. Students and faculty then gather together on campus for a 4 day
residential weekend (see below). Students return home and back to the online
format to continue reading, discussing, and completing final assignments.
WHAT CAN I EXPECT DURING THE RESIDENTIAL SESSION?
Classes begin at 9:00 a.m. on Thursdays, and end at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, in order
to accommodate students who wish to travel back home that afternoon. Classes
are in session from 7 to 9 hours a day, and faculty are encouraged to combine
lecture, pair work, student presentations, and group discussion with experiential
and embodied learning to accommodate different styles of learning and to keep
the pace of the day flowing. Students can meet with faculty one-on-one during
lunch and dinner breaks, and every session contains an opportunity to meet as a
group with the program’s director to address concerns, raise questions, or discuss
how the program is progressing.
The session extends to 8:30 or 9:00 in the evening, with a variety of social
gatherings, special events, forums, and guest speakers. Every Saturday evening,
students and faculty will gather as a community to watch a film and discuss it from
a Jungian/archetypal perspective.
HOW MUCH TIME SHOULD I EXPECT TO BE ONLINE?
Students are expected to log in to our distance learning software (Desire2Learn)
several times a week, for a total of three hours per week (90 minutes for each 3
unit course, 60 minutes for each 2 unit course). This will typically include time
spent reading any online presentations, posting and responding to discussion
boards, listening to an audio file, or watching a video, though there may be other
activities as well, including teleconference calls (these would require you dialing
into an 805 area code). Assignments typically need to be completed weekly by
Wednesday evening.
Experience has shown that students learning in an online format have a tendency
to spend more time per week online “in class” than their residential peers. We
have several measures in place to protect our hybrid students from online burnout:
we designate certain weeks “reflection weeks” where students and faculty are not
online, including the week when students are traveling to and taking classes on
campus and the last week of the quarter, allowing students time to complete their
final assignments. In addition, we maintain strong boundaries around how much
online material there is to read, especially with discussion boards: students are
asked to make note of the requirements of the course and post no more or no
fewer than the prescribed number of posts or words per post. If students wish to
continue a conversation outside of the boundaries of the assignments, each course
has an online Classroom Café, which is an open discussion board where students
may converse freely about a topic. Even with these protective measures, students
should be prepared for a rigorous course of study, and should carefully assess
whether they have the time to enter graduate school at this moment in their lives.
ARE THERE REQUIRED DAYS OR TIMES I HAVE TO BE ONLINE?
Pacifica requires that all students log into their online courses on the first day of
the quarter, and post something that indicates attendance. This is a Federal
Financial Aid requirement, and it can be done anytime during the 24 hours of that
first day. Other than this mandatory sign in requirement, most assignments will be
due weekly so you can log in and complete them at your convenience.
BESIDES PARTICIPATING ONLINE, WHAT OTHER SORTS OF WORK SHOULD I EXPECT?
Reading, of course. The number of books and articles will vary by instructor but in
general, expect between 600-1200 pages of reading per course. Other assignments
may include virtual group work, participation in telephone and/or teleconference
calls, research, and paper-writing.
WHAT CAN I EXPECT FROM FACULTY IN A HYBRID PROGRAM?
When you are on campus, your experience of a faculty member will be the same as
any residential student at Pacifica and will include a combination of lecture,
discussion, group work, student presentations, engagement with film and art, and
experiential learning exercises. Faculty will be available for office hours during
meals so students can sign up for one-on-one time together.
Teaching styles online vary, but in general, online learning takes as its motto that
instructors are to be “guides on the side” versus “sages on the stage.” Learning
online is truly a communal venture, with students benefiting greatly from the
interaction with their peers and not just with the faculty.
Faculty are asked to review and participate in the online discussion two or three
times per week. They will typically offer general guidance to the group, rather
than to individual students in this format. In other words, a student will not
receive feedback on each of his or her postings; however faculty will help to
facilitate the discussions for the group by offering insights and commentary.
Individual faculty members’ personal teaching styles may differ, so expect
variations in this regard.
Faculty are also asked to be available for students for phone conversations during
the quarter. Faculty will list their phone numbers on the syllabus, but it is
preferable that students should send a request for a phone conversation to the
faculty via email, indicating the content of the conversation, and suggesting a few
good times they can be reached. Our faculty is comprised of academics and
analysts with full lives, and it is not expected that they are online or available
every day of the week; the expectation is the same as it is for students, that both
will log in several times a week.
WHO ARE THE FACULTY WHO TEACH IN THIS PROGRAM?
The program will be taught by Jungian analysts and scholars of depth psychology
drawn from Pacifica’s core faculty and supplemented with adjuncts from around
the world. Faculty will be selected not only for their knowledge and experience in
the subject matter, but for their interest in mentoring students in applying and
advancing Jungian and archetypal studies beyond the traditional analytic
encounter.
PART OF THE REASON I’M DRAWN TO PACIFICA IS FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO
STUDY WITH PEOPLE OF LIKE MINDS. HOW DOES A HYBRID PROGRAM LEND ITSELF
TO A SENSE OF COMMUNITY?
Very well. People who have been enrolled in learning programs with an online
component, including those in Pacifica’s pre-existing hybrid M.A. Program in
Engaged Humanities, will tell you that community and intimacy builds quickly in
that environment. While you may not “see” your classmates every month like a
traditional Pacifica student, you will “hear” from them weekly. In fact, online
learning is particularly conducive to hearing the voices of all students, as it
requires participation from everyone; students who normally may be very quiet in
a traditional classroom may be more comfortable “speaking” online.
Remember, too, that you’ll spend a little more than half of each course meeting
face-to-face with your classmates, and over those four days per quarter on
campus, you’ll continue online discussions over shared meals together, you’ll
watch films and have social time together, you’ll attend classes and guest lectures
together, and work together in pairs and groups.
Community has been at the heart and soul of this specialization from its inception.
In 1948, when Jung gave his dedication speech on the occasion of the founding of
the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, he called for a community of scholars to come
together to imagine extensions “without limit” for depth psychology in the world.
This specialization aims to be such a community, one where students and faculty
come together to support each other in exploring, applying, and advancing Jungian
and archetypal studies “without limit” in the world. As part of every course,
students will share their understanding of how the material is relevant to their
lives and their vocational callings, with their classmates and instructors serving as
sounding boards and tuning forks who will provide support, share resources, and
help refine each other’s theories and practices.
Besides creating a community of scholars and researchers, this specialization has
as part of its vision the creation of a community of writers. The online format is an
ideal platform for honing one’s written expression. Students will be encouraged
early on to form writing groups, to read each other’s papers, to provide supportive
feedback and offer constructive commentary on those papers, and to seek venues
for publication for their papers in order to reach an even larger community.
I’VE NEVER TAKEN AN ONLINE CLASS BEFORE. WHAT SORT OF SUPPORT IS
AVAILABLE TO ME?
When it gets closer to the start of the program, all students will be required to
participate in an online tutorial to become familiar with the delivery software,
and we will have mock classrooms set up for you to explore. For ongoing questions
or support once you begin the program, you may contact the IT department via
phone, or chat with them live online. The Program Administrator will also be
available to answer your questions and provide support.
HOW FAMILIAR DO I NEED TO BE WITH DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY OR WITH JUNGIAN AND
ARCHETYPAL STUDIES BEFORE I ENTER THE PROGRAM?
It is expected that students will enter the program with varying degrees of
foreknowledge about depth psychology. A reading list is provided on the
www.depthstories.com website for interested applicants; reading books from this
list, especially in the categories of Jungian and archetypal psychology, will help
prepare students to enter the program.
WHAT DO STUDENTS DO WITH AN ADVANCED DEGREE IN DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY?
There are multiple ways to answer this question. One way is to tell you directly
what you can’t do with a degree in Depth Psychology, which is to practice
psychotherapy under a state license. Another way is to direct you to our website,
www.depthstories.com, where you can read about current students and alumni
and the work they are doing in the world. Another way is to mention some general
venues where you’ll find our alumni, like education, business, health care,
community work, the arts, etc. Another way is to tell you that you’re in good
company in asking the question! Some students come into our program knowing
exactly what they want the degree for, or what they plan to do with it, but it’s
just as common for students to enter the program saying “I don’t exactly why I’m
here, or what I’m going to do with the degree when I’m finished, but I just know
I’m supposed to be here, and the answers will come.”
But none of these answers will answer the question of what you can do with a
degree in Depth Psychology. As James Hillman writes in The Soul’s Code, vocation
or “calling” is “the essential mystery at the heart of each human life.” We’ll
explore that mystery in classes like “Our Soul’s Code: A Depth Psychological View
of Vocation,” and in the Reflective Studies sequence at the end of each year, and
we’ll raise the question “What can we do with this material in the world?” in every
course you take. It is our hope that through this education for individuation rather
than education for information, our students will discover, uncover, or recover
the heart of the work they have been called here to do.
