Faculty Spotlight: Jan Fisher
Consciousness through Creativity
After a degree in business administration and a career in banking, Jan, long-dedicated to personal growth and her own spiritual life, began her career at ITP as a doctoral student in 1991. "I always knew I wanted to combine psychology and spirituality. ITP combined all of that." During her education Jan "fell in love" with Creative Expression, or utilizing creative processes within therapeutic practice and personal process. This became a central focus of her doctoral studies and led to her dissertation research on dance as a spiritual practice.
In addition to her growing passion for the expressive arts and her clinical training as an intern at the Transpersonal Counseling Center, Jan's strong administrative background led to several teaching assistantships and ultimately, after her graduation, she become the Director of the Creative Expression program and a part-time faculty member. Two years ago, Jan, took on the role of Assistant Dean and is involved in the administration of the academic programs as well as playing an integral role in the current application for APA accreditation for the Residential Clinical PhD program.
Jan's areas of interest and specialization include the expressive arts which she considers a "driving force" of her work both as an academic and a clinician. She also has extensive clinical and theoretical grounding in object relations, work with trauma, and the importance of the client/therapist relationship. "My current role is a great fit for me and combines all my skills. I don't have to sacrifice the creative, or my beliefs. What better place could there be to work in terms of using those skills in a spiritual orientation. And I clearly love the theoretical orientations; I am teaching the clinical practicum, which is a real reward and feeds me clinically as well. My spiritual life is at the center of everything. It's what drives my own personal quest. So to have that be harmony with my work is core."
One of the most important aspects of Transpersonal Psychology, to Jan, even beyond the walls of ITP, is the field's emphasis on the transformation of consciousness through personal growth and spiritual development. Jan uses the example of the work of artist Alex Grey to illustrate the powerful transformational potential of transpersonal psychology and how the expressive arts play a role in the field. To her, the work of this artist is an exemplar of how visionary artists are expressing the shifts and developments of consciousness unexpressed in mainstream culture. "That's how the expressive arts and spirituality feel really relevant and important to me in daily life…that we might be contributing to improving the lives of ourselves and everyone we touch and talk to. "
Jan brings this same ethos to her work with the students of ITP. "One of the most enjoyable things that I do is work with the students. It's seeing people motivated to grow and change, and do their work…A lot of the students are very creative and intelligent and have interesting ways of looking at the research and the material and putting it together. Transpersonal Psychology is so broad that each person enters it from a very different viewpoint. Our students are a special group of people."
Another of Jan's responsibilities at ITP is teaching a section of the clinical practicum that integrates Creative Expression into clinical training. Through this work, Jan is involved in helping students learn the skill, or the "art form" of working with clients. She is dedicated to helping students integrate their own transpersonal perspective into their developing clinical practice. A focus of her practicum course—utilizing the expressive arts—is learning "how to work with the self and work with the creative energy and to contact a deeper part of the self. That's a tool, to me, that enhances everyone's work."
Jan's dedication to promoting an integrated, holistic education for ITP students includes a wish that each student can create for her or himself "a broad perspective that incorporates and transcends everything: all of experience, all of reality. I hope students can sit in that and the flip-side, the complete irrelevance of the phenomenal world. It is important to expand one's consciousness or perspective while at the same time having a genuine respect for and understanding of the phenomenal world, such as daily activity, a traditional theory, or a specific clinical application. . Being able to sit in both of those is my hope for ITP students."
You can find Jan's faculty profile page here.
