I was eager to interview David Gordon, Ph.D., having heard him present twice at International Association for The Study of Dreams conferences.
Currently, Dr. Gordon lives and practices in Norfolk Virginia. I was lucky enough to coach him for a live interview during his recent visit to San Francisco and Sonoma County. I’ve grabbed the following biographical information from his delightful and informative web site, which you will find at www.studioforthehealingarts.org:
After many years of work as a clinical psychologist providing Jungian-based psychotherapy, David became aware that the work of healing, his own and his clients, was greatly facilitated by learning how to listen to his dreams and theirs. Over many years his work with dreams transformed his perspective on life and healing–and led to the establishment of the Dreamwork Institute.
Through the Institute, David has offered workshops and dream sharing groups locally and nationally. He helped develop and co-host a popular call-in radio program, Dreamworks for NPR affiliate WHRV in the Norfolk area and was guest expert on the topic of dreams for NPR’s Voices in the Family on WHYY in Philadelphia. He has also been an invited guest on the topic of nightmares for KAZU radio in Monterey, CA. and appeared on Morning Break, to discuss the benefits of dream work for CBS television affiliate, WTKR.
David is presently authoring a book, Dreaming the Path of Your Heart: Using Your Dreams to Chart the Course of Your Own Mythic Journey: A Guidebook for Spiritual Practice based on Joseph Campbell’s research. He has been a regular contributor to local publications including Visions Magazine and Dream Artist Tribe: A Newsletter for Urban Shamanic Practitioners.
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The Hero’s Journey is hitting home for me very closely in the current stage of my life. I’m in a kind of midlife crises and at a threshold, so to speak. The old life doesn’t fit me any more and the new life hasn’t manifested yet. So I’m in a kind of no mans land right now.
And that is the reason why the topic of the Hero’s Journey is resonating so strongly with me. For years I wanted to read Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero With A Thousand Faces” and I never quite came around to it. After listening to some shows of our all beloved Dr.Dave I was pushed some more and read a few pages online. And I was hooked and ordered the book.
The strength of Campbell’s book is IMHO that allthough it is written very scholarly and in a very sophisticated style it is also very compelling and very accessible to read. Fascinating stuff.
Another book I wanted to recommend concerning this topic is “The Hero Journey In Dreams” by Jean Dalby Clift and Wallace B.Clift.
It’s a nice “mix” of these two archaic themes, the Hero Journey and what Jung called “Big Dreams”. The book is mainly structured around the phases of the Hero’s Journey as Campbell defined them and Dreams different people had in these phases and what they meant to them. Very inspirational.
Reinhard from Austria