Pacifica Graduate Institute - History

History

Pacifica Graduate Institute dates its life as an educational institution from the 1976 inauguration of a nine-month, para-professional Counseling Skills Certificate program offered by the Human Relations Center. The Institute's first name was the Human Relations Institute.

The M.A. in Counseling Psychology was initiated in 1982 under the direction of Gary Linker and Marti Glenn. In 1984 the Institute announced a new M.A. Counseling Psychology program with an emphasis in depth psychology. The program was launched in 1984 by Stan Passy, who drew on his doctoral work in archetypal psychology with James Hillman at the University of Dallas. Faculty and visiting lecturers have included Marion Woodman, Thomas Moore, Robert A. Johnson, and Marija Gimbutas.

In the Fall of 1987, the Human Relations Institute inaugurated a fourth phase – a Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology with emphasis in Depth Psychology. Much care and attention took place in the development of a rigorous curriculum that offered a strong academic background in the theories, ethics, methodology, and historical foundations of clinical psychology, as well as providing course work in the effective development of therapeutic skills.

The name of the school was changed to the Pacifica Graduate Institute in 1989 under the leadership of president Stephen Aizenstat.

One of the supporters of the Institute's vision in the early years was the late mythologist, Joseph Campbell. He offered guidance to the school's founders and appeared many times as a guest speaker in the Institute's public conference series. After his death, his widow, Jean Erdman Campbell, felt that Pacifica would be able to carry Campbell's work into the future and, thus, would be the most appropriate home for his archives. After careful consideration, she donated his 3,000-book library and archival collection to The Center for the Study of Depth Psychology, an independent non-profit organization housed at the Pacifica campus. The Joseph Campbell Archives and Library were installed in the school's Seminar Building, and the home of the collection was formally dedicated in 1992 .

The mythological studies program was created in 1994 by Jonathan Young, building on his work as founding curator of the Joseph Campbell Archives. The program combines folklore, literature, creative studies, and archetypal psychology.

In 1995, following several years of careful design efforts, Pacifica announced the development of an innovative and unprecedented doctoral program in Depth Psychology, which examines the philosophical, cultural, and experiential foundations for the depth perspective. Over the years these commitments led to a branching of interests that call for a further diversification of coursework and training. Beginning in 2010 students have the option between three specializations: Somatic Studies, Jungian & Archetypal Studies, and the Combined emphasis in Community Psychology, Liberation Psychology, and Ecopsychology.

Reaching full capacity for Santa Barbara County permitted operations at the Lambert Road campus in 1999, Pacifica began offering additional sections of existing programs at La Casa de Maria's newly-established Ladera Lane Retreat Center (site of a former Jesuit Novitiate). Pacifica became a two-campus school by purchasing the Ladera Lane center from La Casa de Maria in September of 2005.

The Engaged Humanities & Creative Life program, along with the Jungian & Archetypal Studies specialization of the M.A./Ph.D. program are the two online/hybrid programs Pacifica offers, with the majority of coursework accomplished online by students. The online studies are combined with quarterly four-day visits either on campus or at the New York Open Center. All other degrees are completed in monthly three-day or four-day retreats and one summer week annually.

On the weekend of June 16-18, 2006, members of the Pacifica community gathered at the new Ladera Lane campus to celebrate the school's 30th Anniversary.