Pacifica Graduate Institute | Educational Environment

Flexible Educational Formats for Adult Learners

Pacifica has developed two unique educational formats that are particularly well suited to individuals who wish to pursue graduate education while continuing their existing professional and personal commitments.

Monthly Three-Day Learning Sessions

Students in Pacifica's Psychology and Mythological Studies Degree Programs attend three-day learning sessions on campus once each month during the fall, winter, and spring quarters. These monthly, three-day learning sessions create an educational environment where mature students can "work" the material which is, in turn, "working them." Between sessions, students continue their course work through reading, research, and practicum experiences in their community settings.

A Unique Blend of Distance-Learning and On-Campus Classes

Pacifica's M.A. Program in Engaged Humanities with an Emphasis in Depth Psychology combines online distance-learning with two on-campus weeks in residence each year. It offers students both the convenience of learning from home and the benefit of valuable on-campus experiences during which they are able to join classmates from around the world in forming professional collaborations and networks of like-minded individuals.

Accreditation

All of Pacifica's graduate degree programs are accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).

Pacifica's Campus Settings

Pacifica's Lambert Road Campus is on the site of a former private estate that was built in 1924. Special efforts have been taken to enhance and maintain the campus in a manner appropriate to the history of the property and its geographic location. In addition to classrooms and lecture halls, the 13-acre Lambert Road campus houses faculty and administrative offices, the Graduate Research Library, the Joseph Campbell Archives and Library, extensive organic gardens, and the Pacific bookstore.

Just three miles away, the 35-acre Ladera Lane Campus is a fully equipped educational retreat center. In addition to classrooms and lecture halls, it includes conference facilities, residential buildings, a dining hall, and a swimming pool. There are also faculty and staff offices, a large organic garden, an IT center, and a branch of the Pacifica Library and Bookstore.

Both of Pacifica's campuses are located in the coastal California foothills of the Santa Ynez Mountains, approximately 90 miles north of Los Angeles, and eight miles south of Santa Barbara. These two quiet and beautifully landscaped campuses offer ideal settings for contemplation and study. In forming the setting for its campuses, Pacifica has taken special care of the land. The plantings and structures have been designed to blend in with and give back to the environment. The gardens and "people paths" are arranged in such a way as to invite the birds, insects, and other animals of the area to make their homes in these places. Existing orchards have been converted to organic production. By growing fresh fruits, herbs, and vegetables on campus, Pacifica moves toward its goal of environmental sustainability.

Diverse Student Backgrounds

While depth psychology developed as an academic discipline within the context of late 19th and 20th Century Europe, much of its insights and wisdom draw on and resonate with indigenous psychologies and spiritualities from different corners of the globe. Pacifica is enriched by students from many parts of the United States, Canada, Central and South America, as well as Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. They bring to the classroom the richness of their varied ethnicities, religious and spiritual paths, racial identities, age, gender, and diverse life experiences. This diversity is central to the hosting of the multiple perspectives that Pacifica desires to foster in the classroom

The Institute encourages an environment that is culturally sensitive, appreciates racial and ethnic uniqueness, and affirms diverse lifestyles. Courses attempt to include material, clinical examples, and readings that reflect experience from a variety of cultural groups, while at the same time inviting into dialogue the diversity present in the group itself to address the issues under study. Such an appreciation for the diversity of voices is central to the depth psychological tradition.

The courses of study have a variety of practical applications. Many students have brought the visions of depth psychology and mythological studies back with them to such diverse disciplines as psychotherapy, business, education, medicine, performance arts, architecture, politics, cinematography, environmental studies, writing programs in prisons, and creative arts with youth.

"When you have seen the radiance of eternity . . . when you follow your bliss, and by bliss I mean that deep sense of being in it and doing what the push is out of your own existence . . . doors will open where you would not have thought there were going to be doors."—JOSEPH CAMPBELL