Austin Chandler is a student in Pacifica’s M.A./Ph.D. Clinical Psychology. I’m delighted to speak with him about Pacifica, Clinical, and the upcoming Journey Week 2024. Journey Week is an immersive week of learning and connecting at Pacifica Graduate Institute, September 26th – 29th, 2024. For more information and to register, visit us here.
Angela Borda: Before beginning your PH.D. in the clinical program at Pacifica, you worked as a Wilderness Therapy Field Instructor, a Clinical Assistant & Pursuits Guide, and a Family Peer Support Specialist. What in that formula led you to Pacifica?
Austin Chandler: When I graduated from UCSD, I had very little desire to pursue higher education at the time. During my undergraduate studies in psychology, most of what I learned felt dry and removed from the practical human realities. Something felt lacking, a lot of the content felt too far abstracted from life, lacking practical application, which is one of the reasons I pursued psychology, as practical knowledge for living. Also, the quantitative/rational way it was taught lacked the spark that brought me into psychology; the beauty, vitality, and numinosity wasn’t portrayed in this teaching of psychology. So for a while, I went towards a more spiritual path to find this spark, thinking psychology was more concerned with abstracted statistics than the living human realities that we all face. That changed when I went into wilderness therapy, where I felt like I had to throw out all the textbooks. In the wilderness, I sat with people struggling with themselves. I was faced with the living realities of people struggling and through experience I learned how to sit with people, listen, hold emotions, and support healing. The head therapist who ran my wilderness therapy program had a Jungian lens and he really opened the door to what therapy could be, and I saw it could integrate the elements of spirituality, soul, and imagination I was seeking. It opened the door to therapy for me.
Pacifica stood out in that it felt like it was holding the original purpose of psychology, following it back to the study of the soul, and tracing that lineage back to Jung and Freud.
Angela: What in particular drew you to the Clinical Psychology program, and how have you found it to be so far?
Austin: The Clinical degree I found to be the most flexible and dynamic degree, in the sense that there’s a lot you can do with it, especially at the doctoral level, whether that’s writing, teaching, or private practice. I liked the idea that pursuing the Clinical degree and becoming a doctor would allow me to work in creating theory and putting my own spin on it.
My experience of the Clinical program is the scholarly skills of research and writing are more focused on, less the hands-on clinical experience. However, the theory we learn I’ve found deeply speaks to me and has had profound impacts on my life, it is far more alive than what I experienced in undergrad. I’ve found Pacifica to be a transformative learning experience one walks and the theory becomes one’s guide and touch points on this journey. My experience of Pacifica is that it calls one to transform their very being through becoming a depth practitioner. In the Clinical Program there’s a call as an intention to bring depth psychology into our community, to live it in our program and the way we operate as Pacifica.
Angela: I see that you have been a trainee Therapist at New Beginnings since 2023. What has that process been like?
Austin: Learning as you practice can be intimidating at first. That seems to be common for clinicians though. However, it’s been really a beautiful way to integrate what I’m learning at Pacifica through getting to see how these concepts land and adjust. It expands and deepens the learning, because now I have some life experiences to inform what I’m learning. Supervision, both group and individual, are really helpful. Being able to get live feedback of how I’m interacting with my clients has been extremely useful, I use a lot of video recordings to get feedback.
Angela: The upcoming Journey Week is something you’ve experienced before. What was that like for you?
Austin: It was really powerful to see the essence of Pacifica from many different angles. It felt like the whole wide range of what Pacifica has to offer, because our programs are silo’ed and we don’t interact much with the other programs. There are so many different facets of Pacifica’s personality, yet there’s such a beautiful shared ground and sense of depth psychology and the anima mundi. Pacifica attracts a unique type of person, and at Journey Week, I got to interact with them, as well as the greater community. I liked the way it was set up with multiple events happening at the same time, often with numerous different types of experiences to choose from. Some were more experiential, some were more theoretical. That diversity of different ways of learning was really helpful.
Angela: Is there anything you’re particularly looking forward to for this year’s Journey Week? You’ll be working as a student volunteer, correct?
Austin: I’m really excited about the subject (Beyond Boundaries: Caring for Psyche, Soul, and Imagination in a Posthuman Age). It’s important for Pacifica to confront and address technology and AI, because it is going to impact psychology. Similar to psychedelics, Pacifica is tackling current topics through their conferences that are really essential for the field. It can be tempting to demonize technology and differentiate it from the depth tradition. But if we ignore it, it becomes the shadow, which isn’t healthy for us. Hillman said we’ve stripped soul out of the world and out of technology, and I wonder what it will be like to look at technology from a depth lens.
Angela: What do you most love about Pacifica?
Austin: Pacifica stands on its own as something really unique and rare in the world and especially in modern psychology. It’s anchoring us back to the essence and core of how Jung and Freud and other psychologists saw psychology to some extent. Both Freud and Jung walked that line that I think Pacifica walks, of how to appeal to the voice of the times, which is more rational and scientific, while also appealing to the depths, which is more intuitive, and how to hold the tension of the opposites in that. Especially in the Clinical program, we’re trying to be depth psychology, which is more intuitive and feeling, and then also to be clinical practitioners in psychology. Holding both of those at the same time is something unique to Pacifica. We have to learn the regular quantitative stuff, but we also have to learn the qualitative. It’s a beautiful calling to try to hold both and integrate them together. I do think Pacifica stands for that.
Angela: Thanks so much for speaking with me and best of luck with your future career!
Journey Week is an immersive week of learning and connecting at Pacifica Graduate Institute, September 26th – 29th, 2024. For more information and to register, visit us here.
Austin Chandler is currently a student at Pacifica Graduate Institute pursuing a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and a therapist trainee at New Beginnings Counseling Center. Here he is further cultivating his therapeutic approach integrating his past experiences with a depth psychological perspective. His current therapeutic approach is deeply rooted in his own healing and unique journey, believing in each person’s innate wisdom and potential. At Pacifica, Austin hopes to deepen his knowledge and understanding to better support clients in unlocking their potential.
He is a Clinical Assistant, facilitating intensive retreats alongside doctorate-level therapists and a Pursuits Guide, crafting individualized outdoor experiences to provide therapeutic support and healing with Evoke Therapy Programs. Austin has also held numerous therapeutic roles that helped him develop a dynamic, versatile, and holistic approach to his clients. He has lived in the wilderness providing comprehensive support to his clients, helped create a new outpatient program and position on a team of 5, collaborating with a diverse team as a Family Peer Support Specialist, and supported students holistically at a Waldorf school working together with teachers, administration, and parents. Austin has learned to use his skills and sensibilities developed in these positions to craft a unique space to support individuals in unlocking their potential, fostering growth, discovery, and clarity.
Angela Borda is a writer for Pacifica Graduate Institute, as well as the editor of the Santa Barbara Literary Journal. Her work has been published in Food & Home, Peregrine, Hurricanes & Swan Songs, Delirium Corridor, Still Arts Quarterly, Danse Macabre, and is forthcoming in The Tertiary Lodger and Running Wild Anthology of Stories, Vol. 5.
