“Connection Within, Between and Beyond” with SEPI President and Program Chair Kristin Osborn

“Connection Within, Between and Beyond” with SEPI President and Program Chair Kristin Osborn

 Kristin Osborn, LMHC, LPCC is an author, consultant, and internationally recognized educator with an appointment at Harvard Medical School where she teaches Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy to residents in the Department of Psychiatry. She is also the 2026 President and Program Chair of the Society of the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI). Ahead of the SEPI 42^nd Annual Conference on June 11-13, Kristin talks with Loralee M. Scott, Pacifica’s Interim Provost, about a Pacifica faculty-led panel, the work and partnership of both organizations, and her hopes for the future of psychotherapy.

Pacifica Faculty will be presenting a panel titled “Depth Psychological Approaches to Moral Injury in Veterans and First Responders” at the SEPI Conference. This multi-panel discussion brings together depth psychological perspectives on moral injury in veterans and first responders, expanding prevailing frameworks beyond trauma and other-harm to include often-unrecognized psychological self-injuries. Featured Pacifica presenters include Elisabeth Gonella, LMFT, Dylan Francisco, PhD, and Juliet Rohde-Brown, PhD.

 

Loralee M. Scott: Your work has emphasized the importance of integration between research, clinical practice, embodiment, affect, and relational healing. Why do you think conferences like SEPI are increasingly important spaces for interdisciplinary collaboration between clinicians, researchers, and institutions like Pacifica that are exploring more holistic approaches to healing?

Kristin Osborn: I train and supervise psychotherapists using video excerpts of psychotherapy sessions. Through the process of coding these video segments, students learn to recognize and understand the nuances of psychotherapy while strengthening their skills in assessment, intervention, and the identification of therapeutic change.

As part of their training, students also place themselves in the “hot seat” by video-recording their own clinical work and presenting a 20-minute segment for supervision with me and a small group of peers. These supervision sessions are themselves video-recorded and coded to explore whether the therapist’s own emotional conflicts may be influencing their clinical work or signaling areas that warrant further personal and professional growth. The goal is not only clinical competence but also movement toward greater wholeness as practitioners.

SEPI has long provided a valuable home for clinicians who are also researchers, as well as for practitioners who thoughtfully integrate research into their work. Pacifica, in turn, offers a rich tradition rooted in the work of Carl Jung—a perspective that remains underrepresented in many contemporary psychological communities.

After decades of observing psychotherapy through video analysis, I have become increasingly convinced of the vital role that metaphor plays in the therapeutic process—not only for patients, but for therapists as well. Metaphor often serves as a bridge between experience and understanding, helping both participants access deeper layers of meaning and transformation.

My hope for this upcoming conference is that it will help bridge these worlds and foster a greater sense of inclusiveness across theoretical orientations within psychotherapy and psychotherapy research. By bringing diverse perspectives into meaningful dialogue, we can enrich both our clinical practice and our understanding of the therapeutic process.

 

Loralee: SEPI’s 2026 conference theme, “Connection Within, Between and Beyond,” speaks directly to healing, relationality, and integration. What made Pacifica Graduate Institute a meaningful partner for this year’s conference, and why did you feel it was important to include a depth psychological perspective in the broader conversation on psychotherapy integration?

Kristin: Pacifica embodies the very theme of this conference and stands at the forefront of exploring the spiritual dimensions inherent in psychotherapy. Its longstanding commitment to depth psychology, symbolic understanding, imagination, and meaning-making offers a unique and much-needed perspective within contemporary psychotherapy discourse.

If the goal is to deepen our understanding of the relationship between psyche, healing, and human transformation, why not engage with one of the leading institutions in this domain? Pacifica has cultivated this conversation for decades. Its intellectual and clinical traditions provide an invaluable opportunity to broaden the dialogue and enrich the conference experience for attendees from all theoretical orientations.

Bringing together the strengths of psychotherapy research, clinical practice, and the depth-oriented traditions represented by Pacifica could create a truly integrative conversation—one that honors both empirical inquiry and the profound symbolic, relational, and spiritual dimensions of therapeutic work.

 

Loralee: This year’s conference includes a Pacifica-led panel on “Depth Psychological Approaches to Moral Injury in Veterans and First Responders.” Why do you believe moral injury is such an urgent issue for the psychotherapy field right now, particularly beyond conventional trauma frameworks?

Kristin: Veterans and first responders have been at the forefront of bringing attention to the concept of moral injury. Their experiences have helped illuminate the profound psychological, emotional, spiritual, and relational consequences that can arise when individuals witness, participate in, or feel unable to prevent acts that violate their deeply held moral beliefs.

At the same time, moral injury is not limited to military personnel or first responders. It can affect anyone exposed to violence, suffering, betrayal, or circumstances that challenge their fundamental sense of right and wrong. Clinicians, healthcare professionals, educators, humanitarian workers, and many others may encounter experiences that leave lasting moral and existential wounds.

The more we expand our understanding of moral injury, the broader our capacity becomes to recognize and treat those who suffer from its effects. By exploring moral injury through multiple theoretical, clinical, cultural, and spiritual lenses, we can develop more comprehensive approaches to healing and deepen our understanding of the human response to violence and trauma.

 

Loralee: SEPI has long been committed to building bridges across therapeutic orientations and disciplines. In your view, what unique contributions can depth psychology—and Pacifica specifically—bring to contemporary conversations around trauma, moral injury, resilience, and post-traumatic meaning-making?

Kristin: Human beings are meaning-making creatures. We seek to understand our experiences in ways that provide a sense of direction, purpose, coherence, and safety in the world. When suffering, trauma, loss, or moral injury disrupt these frameworks of meaning, psychological distress often follows.

One of Pacifica’s greatest contributions has been its sustained exploration of the symbolic, imaginal, spiritual, and existential dimensions of human experience. Through its depth psychological tradition, Pacifica has cultivated a sophisticated understanding of how individuals create meaning from adversity and how that process can facilitate healing and transformation.

As psychotherapy continues to evolve, the field stands to benefit from greater exposure to these perspectives. Expanding the audience for Pacifica’s work would enrich contemporary conversations about trauma, moral injury, resilience, and human flourishing, while fostering a more inclusive dialogue among diverse theoretical orientations. At a time when many individuals are struggling to find meaning amid personal and collective challenges, Pacifica’s voice offers an important and timely contribution to the future of psychotherapy.

Loralee: Veterans and first responders often carry experiences that challenge identity, conscience, meaning, and spirit—not simply mental health symptoms. How do you see integrative psychotherapy evolving to address these deeper existential and soul-level dimensions of suffering?

Kristin: Integrative psychotherapies offer veterans and first responders additional pathways through which meaningful change can occur. By drawing from multiple therapeutic traditions, integrative approaches recognize the complexity of human suffering and provide clinicians with a broader range of tools to address the psychological, emotional, relational, and spiritual dimensions of distress.

Psychotherapy can help individuals develop greater insight into their struggles, strengthen motivation for change, and discover new ways of responding to life’s challenges. For those grappling with trauma, moral injury, grief, or exposure to violence, the therapeutic process can foster a deeper understanding of both their suffering and their capacity for resilience.

Central to this process is empowerment. As individuals gain a greater sense of agency in their lives, they become better equipped to transform suffering into acceptance, meaning, and growth. Healing does not require forgetting painful experiences; rather, it involves integrating them into a larger narrative that supports wholeness, purpose, and renewed engagement with life.

 

Loralee: Looking ahead, what possibilities do you see emerging from the growing relationship between SEPI and Pacifica Graduate Institute? Are there areas—particularly around trauma studies, moral injury, clinician resilience, or integrative education—where you see opportunities for deeper collaboration in the future?

Kristin: My hope is that SEPI and Pacifica can forge a meaningful partnership that expands these conversations and enriches the field of psychotherapy as a whole. Together, they have the potential to teach not only the science of change but also the art of living a fully integrated life—one in which intellectual, emotional, relational, and spiritual dimensions are brought into greater harmony. In doing so, they can help cultivate a more comprehensive understanding of what it means to heal, grow, and flourish as whole persons.

Loralee: What gives you hope right now in the psychotherapy field, especially as clinicians and educators respond to increasing levels of collective trauma, burnout, and social fragmentation?

Kristin: My hope is for psychotherapists to move beyond viewing countertransference solely as a clinical phenomenon and to recognize it as an invitation to their own continued growth and integration. The therapist’s inner life is not separate from the therapeutic process; it is one of the instruments through which psychotherapy occurs.

As clinicians, we ask our patients to engage in the difficult work of self-examination, healing, and transformation. To do so authentically, we must be willing to undertake that same journey ourselves. The more aware therapists become of their own emotional conflicts, vulnerabilities, biases, and unresolved struggles, the greater their capacity to remain present, responsive, and effective in the therapeutic relationship.

Personal integration is not merely a professional asset—it is an ethical responsibility. A therapist who is committed to becoming a more whole person is better equipped to recognize when personal dynamics are influencing clinical work and to use that awareness in service of the patient rather than unconsciously acting it out. In this sense, the pursuit of wholeness is not only a personal endeavor but also a clinical one.

Through the combined strengths of SEPI and Pacifica, psychotherapists can be encouraged to embrace both the science of psychotherapy and the lifelong process of self-integration. In doing so, they can more fully embody the qualities they seek to foster in others and engage in the work of healing as whole persons themselves.

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To learn more about the SEPI 42^ND Annual Conference on June 11-13, in Malibu, CA, please visit here. To learn more about Kristin Osborn, please visit her site here.