Our Haven-ish Ways

By Louise Amuir

I just spent 25 days in New Horizons Phase III.  Honestly, I could spend another 25 days (or even another 50) in New Horizons.  It was a lot of fun gathering every day with others in the spirit of inquiry.  We went on a whirlwind tour of Freud, Adler, Reich, Lowen, Klein, Perls, and Jung, learning/revisiting psychology theory, model after model superimposing over the last.  Because we’re at The Haven, the material manifested itself in experiential examples.  We had opportunities to practice body work, gestalts and other therapeutic practices amongst ourselves.  I found this to be the most interesting Psych course I’ve ever taken.  But there was so much more! 

Our leader team was the cool combo of Wayne Dodge and Jane Olynyk.  Other than their names rhyming, they had a lot of complementary qualities.  Wayne is a practicing physician of Western medicine and Jane is a practicing doctor of Chinese medicine, so our learnings were expertly informed by both traditions.  We learned about Chinese medicine – meridians and points that will be helpful to those of us on the intern path.  We dove into biology, cell structure, Mandelbrot sets, quantum mechanics, Existentialism and Essentialism.  New Horizons challenged my thinking, my patterns and my beliefs, in highly entertaining and deeply core ways.

I loved learning the theory of our Haven-ish ways and watching Jane and Wayne attach it to personal experience.