Jungian training is an extended process. Over an average of six years, individuals from many countries and diverse backgrounds develop their depth understanding through the study of psychoanalytic theory and its application to themselves and their clinical work with patients.
Training is a costly process. Candidates are aware of this from the outset and must be prepared to make sacrifices. One might say it is this that makes the work sacred. However, conditions can change dramatically: war erupts, major economic disruptions occur with radical falls in currency values, family circumstances change and one might find oneself caring for an ill or elderly relative. These changes can be sudden and unexpected.
The Foundation seeks to aid individuals who are well engaged in the training program, and can demonstrate both significant financial need due to such changes, and the ability and commitment to complete Jungian psychoanalytic training leading to membership of the IAAP – The International Association for Analytical Psychology https://iaap.org/
The Foundation is looking to support individuals who, upon graduation, have the capacity to practise Jungian analysis in either private and/or public mental health settings. We also encourage recipients to become donors of the Foundation when their practice is established.
Below are testimonials from some of the recipients of the scholarship fund.
Quite a journey it has been through the training. At first, it was pure joy and curiosity, but it only took a short time for me to notice that it required more than these two. From the first day on, my dream was to share whatever I learnt with people in my homeland. As I studied further, I founded an education center, and I started to teach analytical psychology in my native language, in Türkiye. Writing articles, and giving speeches in universities let me meet with so many Turkish people that were enthusiastic about the field. I hoped that one day we would create a community that would honor Jung’s work. I never stopped teaching what I learnt and experienced through my process. However, soon after the pandemic, like many other countries, also Türkiye was hit by a serious economic turbulence. Honestly, I did not expect it to be that worse, and I could not imagine what other difficulties it would bring. In a year or so, I had to endure not only my inner struggles, but also the outer ones that we had to embrace as society. At the end, I could not find the energy that would help me finish the work. It was then that I wrote to Mr. David Genty. He welcomed my worries with a warming embrace, and soon, I was back to my work with the support of the Foundation. That meant everything to me. I could find the courage and the inspiration to move forward, and this brought me new perspectives on how to create new things. Having been blessed with a wonderful kick starter, I could find the inspiration to invite people to a gathering – and this gathering of analytical psychology happened for the first time in Türkiye in 2024 with 40 people, mostly younger than 30, and with 6 lecturers. I still feel honored to have organized this gathering, and I am looking forward to doing it yearly, with an expanded audience. Now, writing the thesis and coming to the end of the training, I am getting ready to spread the word in a more holistic way. Hopefully one day, I will be supporting other Turkish friends, who would love to study Jung’s work in his hometown, in the same way that the Foundation did to me. This path, I believe, is real when one takes another’s hand, and gives his/her own to someone else.
AK
The events of February 2022, namely the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, were extremely difficult and the most traumatic for me over the past ten years. It was hard to believe in everything that was happening. Like any trauma it happened quite unexpectedly and it was therefore extremely painful. During dissociation one can often feel dizzy, puzzled and overwhelmed with affects. It was a state of “air in the whole body”.
Being at the C G Jung Institute in February 2022 for the semester after the covid time seemed to feel the first relief after two years of a pandemic. We discussed with colleagues the impossibility of a military conflict, the threat of which was growing in the news and the world. Unfortunately we would have been naive. After the semester, I was planning to fly to Ukraine, but the news was alarming and I decided to postpone the trip and returned to Moscow, as I live now most of the time in Russia.
Those feelings when I woke up at 5 am in the morning from the words that the war had begun, are forever in my heart and touch me still to tears. This is a point to which I can return many times in my memories and the pain doesn‘t fade.
I remember the confusion in the voice of my loved ones, video calls of clients leaving Ukraine during rocket attacks, who needed advice and at least some support. This experience was new for me as a psychotherapist and a person, and I understood that it was important for me to stay with people – just as a human being.
It really was all dizzying and it seemed there wasn’t enough air to breathe to calm down.
I am grateful to my supervisor from Slovenia, she was on neutral territory and helped me to find a feeling of support and to keep working, volunteering and continuing my practice in Moscow.
Events such as war plunge me into a state of complete helplessness, acute sensitivity and trauma penetrates deep into everything in the body. Every rocket seemed to be flying at me, I could feel with my whole body what was happening in Ukraine. I was mentally as if I were there, the dissociation was strong, I split into a million parts and lost my dreams. I kept coming and coming to my analyst sessions without dreams…
Mother Nature helped me recover. All this time I was in a country where society was split, and it was hard to find understanding in general. Every day I saw my loved ones, my clients who wander around the world with small children and a completely carefree life of people. It was the most difficult of contrasts that I saw and observed – horror in some eyes, carelessness and denial in others.
I was between Ukraine and Russia and needed a third. Most of all I wanted to go to Zurich for the summer semester 2022 at the C.G.Jung Institute, to a neutral territory where I could feel like myself, without fear of being misunderstood.
Considering the speed at which my life was getting more complicated, I was worried it would affect my further studies. I wrote to the Institute for guidance and was redirected to the C G Jung Foundation.
The phone call I got from David, of the C G Jung Foundation, was completely unexpected. He was so warm and gentle and for me the 40-minute conversation turned out to be extremely therapeutic. I also remember how I caught this feeling that I wasn’t globally alone. The situation in which you are being helped was absolutely amazing for me, because I was supported by the C G Jung Foundation, the C.G.Jung Institute, the teachers, and it was the first time in my life that I felt so much kindness, responsiveness and support. And I feel great gratitude, cordiality and compassion.
The flight which increased in duration 6 times and the sleepless night meant nothing when I came to the Institute and didn’t remember at all which seminar I had registered for and by chance (certainly not by chance) I went into the classroom and talked to the teacher who after learning that I was Ukrainian asked me to stay and share with the group my experience of the last 6 months, saying that part of the seminar concerns Ukraine. It was probably the first time I spoke about what I was experiencing openly and calmly, a sense of relief and calmness filled me in the same proportion as I spoke about my own pain and the pain of others. I found myself in a circle of colleagues, in a magical container in a different energy that healed me with my attention and empathy.
The seminar ended with an active imagination exercise, where I felt something powerful and big inside me. It was the image of a large silver-white cobra with bright shining eyes in the center of the square, rising in the air and looking at me and the world – an unforgettable experience and image.
The Institute itself, the group dynamics, and the connection with the Jungian community were healing. Returning after the first day, I felt strength, centrality, my integrity and a great feeling of love inside me. That same night my dreams came back to me. I felt as if I had recovered from some serious illness and began to return to “normal life”…
AK
There are times when energy expands and times when it constricts. Constriction can stop movement when it is severe, this can happen with financial irregularities, changes in relationship to others or self, career and life path enigmas, traumas (new or reignited), anxieties…even the complete freeze of an archaic style world plague. Jungian training is a heavy draw on psychic processing and energy, and that heavy introspective lifting can dwindle to a muddled strain -or stop entirely- when too many limiting factors compound. The scholarship from the CG Jung Foundation Zurich was a tremendous help to me personally in 2022, when I found myself in a maelstrom of challenges.
The aid from the foundation is manifold, going beyond just assistance to an individual. Helping trainees to avoid a quagmire of debt or pauses in their training allows them to begin practicing more quickly and can support their seeing clients on a sliding scale. The support from the foundation moves out into the greater community in this way. Skilled analysts are very much in demand, perhaps now more than ever before.
Training is not easy, and in isolation a tiny book encircled urban apartment can quickly lose any sort of gnostic allure and begin to feel more like a tomb. Especially during the pandemic when much training was remote, and many students had expressed a sense of disconnection and absence of community feeling. This is another way that support helps a trainee, not just in the form of finances, but in reaffirming connection to a broader global Jungian community and in knowing that a group of folks further along their analytical path ‘have one’s back’.
The foundation is an extremely important entity in helping trainees in flux resecure their footing. It can help one palpably to feel again the connection to the larger community of Jungian practitioners. The directed growth energy and supportive nature of the CG Jung Foundation Zurich are invaluable, hopefully it will continue to expand and thrive in companionship to need.
JH
My encounter with the Jung Foundation, represented by Mr. David Genty, was truly meaningful, heartwarming, and unforgettable. I reached out to the foundation during the final stage of my studies at the CG Jung Institute, seeking financial support for what is, as we know, a significant investment in one’s personal and professional growth. To my surprise, I heard back from the foundation very quickly and soon had my first meeting with David. From the start, he struck me as empathetic, supportive, and genuinely understanding. Our conversation was not only practical but also deeply meaningful, leaving me with a sense of being truly seen and heard. Shortly after our meeting, once the rest of the foundation members had been consulted, I received the financial aid I needed to support the process of writing my thesis. It wasn’t just about the funds—it was about feeling supported on my path, as if the universe itself was affirming, “You’re on the right track.” Even after my graduation, I’ve remained in touch with David, who continues to be generous with his guidance and kindness. This has shown me that the Jung Foundation is more than just a place for financial assistance—it’s a space where lasting relationships are nurtured, and ongoing career support is offered with warmth and sincerity.
AG
Training in a war time
Every time when I thought about WW II the image of happy schoolchildren who left school came into my mind. It was a warm summer evening, they prepared for graduation ceremony and dreamt about future life, but the beginning of war broke their plans. I always imagined their feelings in that terrible situation. When the unexpected destructive event emerges in people’s life it brings suffering, death, and divides life into “before” and “after”. Of course, I felt compassion for graduates and all people who met the horror of that war and was happy that such dramatic events stayed in the past. “Never again”-was the motto of life of the next generations not only in my country but also in the world. “We can repeat” – the motto which we, Ukrainians, heard often from our neighbors from Russia, but could not imagine that it would happen with us in so called civilized period of world’s history. We continued to live and make plans for future. So did I.
As I had an interest in the analytical psychology, I planned to come to Zurich and participate in the Jungian Odyssey, which held in Grindelwald, Switzerland, in summer 2015. It was the time after Maidan Revolution in my country, when people rebelled against regime of Yanukovych (former president of Ukraine who escaped to Russia) and defended European democratic values. It seemed that a turbulent time have passed, and we could renew our country. But our neighbors, living in Russia, had its own plan towards us. They annexed the Crimea and started a war in the Donetsk region on the East of Ukraine. It was a difficult period in our history, as Odyssey on his way home we were pushed away from our dreams, wishes and plans. I hesitated a lot about coming to Zurich at that time but nevertheless decided to come. After participation in the Jungian Odyssey, I applied to the training program at the Jung Institute, Zurich. So, my training started at the war time in my country, and I could not imagine that it would finish under the sounds of missiles and occupation of my home place Irpin, by Russian troops.
As my family and I were in a safe place far away from home we could not return to our house. Only brief news from public channels gave us some information. The Russian tanks standing in our yards, a lot of people who were tortured and killed, the destroyed and marauded houses, burned cars – it was a picture not from a film of horror but from reality. We did not know could we ever return home. The war broke our lives on “before” and “after” as it had happened in the life of the school leavers from my memory. It was the darkest days in my life.
My training at the Institute was coming to an end when the full-scale military attacks started in February. I have passed the first part of diploma exams in January and would plan to do the second part of exams and thesis discussion in the summer. The perspective of finishing the training in time was under threat. As I was not at home at that time, I was left without books which I needed for preparation, without my computer, without possibility to pay for semester and exams. At first, I decided to postpone my training until more stabilized situation, but then, like it usually happens in the fairy tales, the helpers from different countries appeared. Some helpers from USA, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Australia, Poland, and Armenia supplied me with digital library. The computer came to me from Italy through Switzerland. The financial help came from the C G Jung Foundation Zurich, who supported me with a scholarship. The warm words from many colleagues, teachers, supervisors, and friends gave me resources, and I decided to finish my training as I planned to do it-in summer. I had enough time to prepare for final exams and finish my thesis which I wrote about music and analytical psychology. Now it’s obvious that music was one more helper for me in this tragic situation. It helped to keep my soul and spirit alive.
I had an opportunity to come back home in May. We were glad to return to our house. Even it was marauded by Russian soldiers, and we needed a lot of time to put everything in order, the feeling of being at home was my next resource. It helped me to pass final exams and thesis discussion and to receive the Diploma of the Jung Institute, Zurich. I am very grateful for the help and support to everyone and very proud of myself)).
I want to end my story with an image of my country and countrymen which I also included in my thesis.
The most powerful image for me during war time was a photo of a damaged piano, which is named “Ukraine.” Dmytro Iv, a sculpture and designer from Kharkiv, Ukraine, created this installation in 2014, when the Russian troops occupied the Ukrainian lands in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Nowadays it is a symbol of Ukrainian lands and souls destroyed by Russians in 2022.
The piano as a musical instrument has 88 notes and 3 ranges of sounds: low, middle, and high. Primarily, the low range serves for playing base bass function, the middle range for harmonic chords, and the high range for melody.
The low and part of the middle ranges of the piano on this picture are damaged and burned, but the high range is saved. It means that it is possible to play some melodies. I decided to check the notes of some musical pieces which I usually play and found out that such pieces as “Melody” by Myroslav Skorik or “The Red Viburnum in The Meadow,” a famous Ukrainian protest song, are possible to play on the damaged piano. These pieces of music symbolize the soul and the spirit of Ukraine, the spirit of resistance. Musical language expresses the feelings of Ukrainian souls which are difficult to express verbally but are safely kept in musical codes which are not possible to destroy.
These lines I write now in the year 2025. It was very unexpected for me to receive a letter from David (C. G. Jung Foundation) again with the question how my life goes on. Not only has the war continued for 3 years but the warm support from him and the Foundation continues too. It gives me a feeling of continuity and belonging to the family of Jung society again.
For 3 years after graduation I still have an opportunity to work with clients and work on my musical topic which I started at the institute. The most important experience which I receive during this period is a feeling of continuity. When it seems that life is broken and there is no hope it is difficult to keep in mind the opposite aspect, constructive and creative. I am sure that it became possible for me due to the supportive container which the World Jungian Society is so generous of.
O.K.