The 2020 Florence Seminar
July 20-25, 2020
Florence, Italy
July 20-25, 2020
Florence, Italy
Due to the worldwide effects of the COVID-19 virus, we have decided to cancel the 2020 and 2021 Florence Seminar.
We apologize to those hoping to join us and engaging with us in the life of the mind and the life of the heart in one of the most magnificent cities on earth. We hope you will consider resuming this interrupted journey by being part of future Seminars. Details for future seminars will be published in November, 2022. In the meantime, we send our best wishes for good health, safety, and peace along life's way.
We apologize to those hoping to join us and engaging with us in the life of the mind and the life of the heart in one of the most magnificent cities on earth. We hope you will consider resuming this interrupted journey by being part of future Seminars. Details for future seminars will be published in November, 2022. In the meantime, we send our best wishes for good health, safety, and peace along life's way.
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“Evocative and inspirational!"
~ 2019 Seminar Participant |
The 2020 Seminar
From Dante's Divine Comedy to Therapeutic Practice
Archetypal Principles for the Restoration of the Fractured Soul
Archetypal Principles for the Restoration of the Fractured Soul
Amelio A. D'Onofrio, PhD
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“Midway in the journey of our life
I found myself in a dark wood,
For the straight path had been lost."
~Dante Alighieri, Inferno, I:1-3
“...we seem, by our practice, to act on the wish that we could pass over despair or mortification and
know only the exaltation of ascent. We seem to believe that we can be reborn without ever dying.”
~Rollo May
“Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most."
~Fyodor Dostoevsky
“I have gone free. It is the truth that sustains me."
~Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
I found myself in a dark wood,
For the straight path had been lost."
~Dante Alighieri, Inferno, I:1-3
“...we seem, by our practice, to act on the wish that we could pass over despair or mortification and
know only the exaltation of ascent. We seem to believe that we can be reborn without ever dying.”
~Rollo May
“Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most."
~Fyodor Dostoevsky
“I have gone free. It is the truth that sustains me."
~Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
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The experience of relational trauma can leave patients frozen in time wandering through their existence in disembodied form, unable to experience the fullness of their inner lives and the richness of possibility for being-in-the-world. They are encircled with an abiding sense of, what Samuel Beckett called, the feeling “of never having been born properly”—roaming through life fossilized, searching for what has been lost and is forever elusive. Their ontological guilt obstructs graceful receiving; and the hope of making contact with their inner realness feels forever remote, if not altogether futile.
This seminar will explore the fractured and demoralized soul’s journey toward greater wholeness. We will examine the nature of this inward turn by immersing ourselves in a story—the story of Dante Alighieri’s passage through the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Through the fusion of horizons of Dante’s poetic tale read through a psychotherapeutic lens, we will work to create a space that will allow for unfolding. Specifically, as we examine healing aspects of relationships fleshed out in the Commedia, we will attempt to identify archetypal principles that can inform our own therapeutic relationships and the clinical frames we establish. We will also walk through the sequential phases of psychotherapy as mirrored in Dante’s movement through the circles of hell, the terraces of purgatory, and the spheres of paradise. The focus of the seminar will be less on the content of Dante’s epic poem but on the sequence and process of his journey and the relationship Dante has with his guides.
Our fundamental therapeutic question will not be: how do we get rid of our patients’ symptoms? But, rather, we will endeavor to imagine what kind of therapy the soul might need? How might we help our patients--by how we are with them--to approach the truth of their lives in fuller consciousness in order to become more ‘ensouled’ and integrated human beings?
Themes for our conversation include: constructing narrative identity in psychotherapy, holding on and letting go in the therapeutic relationship, moving from despair to hope to freedom, the power of guilt and therapeutic forgiveness, and reconstituting desire by rewriting our relationship to suffering.
Please join us for a week of conversation, and a journey—one that will enkindle, elevate, and, perhaps, even transform. You'll be challenged and inspired to broaden your understanding of the therapeutic passage and deepen your participation in the renewal of your patients’ lives.
This seminar will explore the fractured and demoralized soul’s journey toward greater wholeness. We will examine the nature of this inward turn by immersing ourselves in a story—the story of Dante Alighieri’s passage through the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Through the fusion of horizons of Dante’s poetic tale read through a psychotherapeutic lens, we will work to create a space that will allow for unfolding. Specifically, as we examine healing aspects of relationships fleshed out in the Commedia, we will attempt to identify archetypal principles that can inform our own therapeutic relationships and the clinical frames we establish. We will also walk through the sequential phases of psychotherapy as mirrored in Dante’s movement through the circles of hell, the terraces of purgatory, and the spheres of paradise. The focus of the seminar will be less on the content of Dante’s epic poem but on the sequence and process of his journey and the relationship Dante has with his guides.
Our fundamental therapeutic question will not be: how do we get rid of our patients’ symptoms? But, rather, we will endeavor to imagine what kind of therapy the soul might need? How might we help our patients--by how we are with them--to approach the truth of their lives in fuller consciousness in order to become more ‘ensouled’ and integrated human beings?
Themes for our conversation include: constructing narrative identity in psychotherapy, holding on and letting go in the therapeutic relationship, moving from despair to hope to freedom, the power of guilt and therapeutic forgiveness, and reconstituting desire by rewriting our relationship to suffering.
Please join us for a week of conversation, and a journey—one that will enkindle, elevate, and, perhaps, even transform. You'll be challenged and inspired to broaden your understanding of the therapeutic passage and deepen your participation in the renewal of your patients’ lives.
Previous familiarity with Dante’s Divine Comedy is not required.
For further details about the seminar, please click here.
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What participants of the 2019 Seminar said:
“I didn't know what to expect honestly, but am profoundly grateful for the depth of this experience and the language
and tools I gained towards better understanding of myself, my relationships, and my movement through life."
“Really great. Part therapy and nourishment for our whole beings. Made life easier and made me feel cared for."
“I thought I was going into a lecture style seminar. Instead it was an ongoing exploration
with an attentive and responsive facilitator / mentor / guide."
“Instructor was both confident and passionate about the subject. It is clear that this work matters to him
at the microscopic level--and that everything in the work is about holding and then listening."
“Although there isn't a doubt that it was all well thought out ahead of time, the delivery was so
seamless and natural that it seemed as if the instruction was divinely crafted for the week.
“The location was like a spa for the spirit. Amazing."
“I loved the Villa! It felt like home."
“The food: OMG!! We spoke of Hell and the Inferno... the food was where we got to Paradiso!
It was nice to also be able to sit together after class and commune in this way."
“Thank You for your generosity of knowledge and spirit."
and tools I gained towards better understanding of myself, my relationships, and my movement through life."
“Really great. Part therapy and nourishment for our whole beings. Made life easier and made me feel cared for."
“I thought I was going into a lecture style seminar. Instead it was an ongoing exploration
with an attentive and responsive facilitator / mentor / guide."
“Instructor was both confident and passionate about the subject. It is clear that this work matters to him
at the microscopic level--and that everything in the work is about holding and then listening."
“Although there isn't a doubt that it was all well thought out ahead of time, the delivery was so
seamless and natural that it seemed as if the instruction was divinely crafted for the week.
“The location was like a spa for the spirit. Amazing."
“I loved the Villa! It felt like home."
“The food: OMG!! We spoke of Hell and the Inferno... the food was where we got to Paradiso!
It was nice to also be able to sit together after class and commune in this way."
“Thank You for your generosity of knowledge and spirit."
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The 2020 Florence Seminar will be held at
Georgetown University's
Villa Le Balze
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The Mission of the Florence Seminars
The Florence Seminars are annual week-long symposia held in Florence, Italy, designed for mental health professionals who desire to expand the scope of their clinical imagination and bring greater sophistication to their practice. The seminars are intended for individuals who are committed to their life-long learning, who pursue excellence in their work, and who welcome the personal and professional transformation that can unfold from that learning. The goal of the seminars is to offer participants more than simply an intellectual exercise. Rather, the environment created offers participants a retreat from our day-to-day responsibilities and opens up a space for encounter—an encounter with ourselves and with how we bring ourselves to the therapeutic process. The authentic conversation that emerges, the mutual learning and support created, and the willingness to play with new ideas, inspire and refresh the soul. The hope is that participants will emerge from the experience with greater self-understanding, a more coherent therapeutic narrative, and greater courage and grace to live out that narrative with their patients.
The authentic calling to help alleviate suffering and cultivate a renewed sense of hope in our patients' lives challenges us to be on our own continuous journey of self-discovery. Join us in Florence this summer to continue your journey in refining and unleashing your potential as a more sophisticated, effective, and compassionate healer.