The Monster's Journey: From Trauma to Connection with Mark Forman PhD

The Monster's Journey: From Trauma to Connection
with Dr. Mark Forman, Integral Psychologist

The Monster’s Journey describes a new way to think about and therapeutically approach childhood, developmental trauma. This conceptualization is grounded strongly in the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) research literature. With this grounding, this presentation will offer a psychological alternative to Joseph Campbell’s well-known Hero’s Journey called The Monster’s Journey. Drawing inspiration from modern story forms, The Monster’s Journey describes the unique developmental challenges faced by survivors of early life trauma; a journey where their innocence is lost prematurely and thus a new, trusting connection to the normal world must be generated and maintained. This presentation is in support of the recently published and well-reviewed text, The Monster’s Journey: From Trauma to Connection (2020) by Mark Forman, PhD.

Mark will give our group a unique presentation of his work, with relatable examples from popular culture, with plenty of time for Q&A afterwards. This meeting will be of interest to integralists, therapists, people who experienced trauma in their past, as well as anyone who knows others who have trauma in their backgrounds.

In February, 2017 San Diego Integral began the Focused Integral Group Discussion (FIGD) which is a meta-structuring format where we briefly switch into an agreed upon process to optimally utilize the We-Space. The objective of FIGD is to collectively feel deeper into any topic and promote a causal state experience where we briefly switch from a collective I to a collective we. A Focused Integral Group process is "running in the background" until a salient moment rises that we want to explore. This may be derived from a presentation, a poignant comment by a member, a poem...whatever has resonance and can be horizontally expanded by the collective. This moment is identified by the "moderator" who helps maintain focus.

FIGD have three parts. It begins with a formal focus, followed by commentary on the process and then a discussion. Each segment lasts for 3-8 minutes. We have committed to a minimal of three FIGD per meeting. We have found that the intensity of these collective focused moments have increased with experience and skill and seem to delightfully persist throughout the three phases. This is very much an experimental process we have been Improving upon after each meeting.

As previously mentioned FIGD was initially described for the February, 2017. The sequential evolution of FIGD can be seen in the PAGES tab above. New or returning members are encouraged to read these brief papers in preparation for participation. Updates have followed each SDI meeting.

SDI is committed to the creative advance into novelty.

If you have a topic suggestion please let us know and we'll bring it to the conversation.