Sven Doehner

Jungian Archetypal
Transpersonal Psychoanalyst

Alchemical Psychology:A Science of the Imagination

Alchemical Psychology is a "Science of the Imagination"  
because it recognizes the role that The IMAGINATION  
plays in all processes of deep and lasting transformation.
C.G. Jung showed us how The Imagination is not merely a
faculty for make-believe, but a crucial organ of the psyche,
the one that, in fact, gives form to all life experiences.
By way of practices such as Dream-Work, Journaling,
Artistic Expression, Active Imagination, and Vocal
Sound-work – involving both developing and exercising
LISTENING skills, and VOICE work – individuals
can learn how to engage their Unconscious in ways
that are both imaginative and transformative.
We want to learn how to “cook” our images in ways that
alchemically transform the psyche from within, converting
challenges and difficulties into opportunities for genuine
psychological and spiritual health and growth.
Method of transformation called:

A SOUND IMAGINATION

My experience, after a bit more than 43 years of clinical work,
as both a Jungian Archetypal Psychoanalyst and as an Educator
(teaching theory and supervising the practice of others), and as
a Guide of Retreat Experiences … my work has clearly become
a psychological/spiritual METHOD for genuinely deep and
lasting transformation, whose results speak for themselves.

Nowadays, I feel more motivated than ever to share what I
can of what in Alchemy is called “the work”. It truly inspires
me to see how my theoretical and practical experience can
take on new life in the lives of others.

The Method is called “A Sound Imagination” – because the
fundamental work is with both the Imagination … and with
Sound, particularly the sound of the Human VOICE.

Additionally, beyond being something that we hear and emit,
the word sound implies both Health and Wholeness.

Imagination

"By ‘image’ I mean a psychic reality expressed in any form at
all – whether dream, fantasy, memory, idea, or perception.
Image is the primary datum of psychic life, and the psyche
is nothing but a continual self-presentation in images."

James Hillman, Re-Visioning Psychology

Sound

“Dissolve that which is Coagulated … 
and Coagulate that which is Dissolved”.  
 
Alchemical Maxim

Ethos

Einstein is known to have said that insanity is doing the same
thing over and over again expecting to get different results.

For some reason, we often insist on repeating the same old
thing, again and again, as if we were addicted to the negative
side of our complexes.

The work of transformation inevitably involves making a
great effort to go against our natural – in the sense of habitual –
ways of going about things. We can only know how we do
NOT want to proceed.

Alchemy

The true “Opus Contra Naturam” is a “Vía Negativa”.
Alchemical Maxim

Ancestral Wisdom

"We are born with the living remains of a primordial past, a past that we inherit in our blood and bones as well as in our minds." 
C.G. Jung 
 
Carrying this primordial past in our blood and bones is not  
merely a memory – it is a living, accessible wisdom.  
 
Ancestral Knowledge is actively practiced to this day in  
the healing and spiritual practices of Native Healers around  
the globe, and is the very essence of the Alchemical teachings.  
 
These traditions offer a path to make the Unconscious  
deliberately Conscious, thereby restoring genuine harmony  
between humanity and the natural world.

Testimonials

“Sven is a kind of modern-day Virgil,
here to guide us through dark times.”

Diego del Río, Milan, Italy

“What is most challenging about working with Sven is
that if he does not catch and challenge you in your thinking,
he does so with somatic awareness, or emotional sensitivity …
one cannot escape facing what one wants to avoid – and
experience an inner transformation, with inevitable
constructive effects in the external world.”

Tom Crockett, North Carolina, EEUU

“Sven´s invitation to me was to let him teach me how to
go from fearing my feelings and emotions to learning how
to use them to be sensitive to myself and to others, and
to go from complaining about things into creative and
constructive actions in relation to them.”

Paola Gonzalez, Buenos Aires, Argentina

“What most surprises me is the reach of Sven´s work with me,
as it is obvious how the changes in me have had constructive
effects on most everybody that I come into contact with,
beginning with my family and close friends.”

Carlos Gómez Alcatráz , Mexico City, Mexico

“Working with Sven is like being initiated into how all outer
events have an effect and resonate with our inner experience –
but how the true work of transformation is when the work
with the inner has an effect on the external world .

Shujo Hernandez, Mexico City, Mexico

“What most helped me with Sven was the clearly genuine
interest that he had in getting to know me – far more than
I had myself.”

Curt Schmitt, Dallas, Texas, USA

“More than a psychotherapist, Sven is an artist in the way
that he guides one into finding one´s own way .”

Guida Gastelumendi, Lima, Peru