East-West Psychology Department Faculty Members

Department Chair
Jorge N. Ferrer, PhD

Core Faculty

Craig Chalquist, PhD, holds a master's degree in Marriage and Family Therapy and a doctoral degree in depth psychology, as well as certificates in Permaculture Design, sustainable landscapes, and Master Gardening (University of California Cooperative Extension).

He is the author of several books, including Terrapsychology: Reengaging the Soul of Place (Spring Journal Books, 2007), editor of the anthology Rebearths: Conversations with a World Ensouled (World Soul Books, 2010), and co-editor of the anthology Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind (Sierra Club Books, 2009). He has also written extensively about the colonial, mythological, and depth-psychological history of California, the land of his birth.

Brendan Collins, PhD, has been a clinical psychologist since 1978. His areas of interest include the relationship between contemporary psychology and Eastern and Western spiritual traditions. He serves as a core faculty member in both the East-West Psychology and Integral Counseling Psychology programs. He studied with Haridas Chaudhuri at California Institute of Asian Studies and earned his PhD in Clinical Psychology in a program developed by Carl Rogers at United States International University (1977).

He was a postdoctoral fellow in psychoanalytic psychotherapy (1977–78), and completed a Master of Theological Studies degree at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, in 1995, the year he joined the CIIS faculty.

For 12 years Brendan was a member of a Benedictine monastic community, and he is currently a lay associate of St. John’s Abbey, in Collegeville, MN. He has a strong interest in psychology and the arts, especially photography and dance.

Jorge N. Ferrer, PhD, department chair, holds a degree of Lic. Psicologia Clinica (1991) from the University of Barcelona and a doctorate in East-West Psychology from CIIS (1999). He is the author of Revisioning Transpersonal Theory: A Participatory Vision of Human Spirituality (SUNY Press, 2002) and coeditor of The Participatory Turn: Spirituality, Mysticism, Religious Studies (SUNY Press, 2008).

Jorge serves on the editorial board of The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, ReVision, Spirituality and Health International, The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, and The Journal of Transpersonal Research. Jorge is a leading scholar on transformative practices and integral epistemology at the Esalen Center for Theory and Research, and teaches courses on transpersonal studies, embodied spiritual inquiry, comparative mysticism, integral development, theoretical research, and spiritual perspectives on sexuality and relationships. He offers workshops and presentations on integral spirituality and education nationally and internationally.

In 2000, Jorge received the Fetzer Institute's Presidential Award for his seminal work on consciousness studies, and in 2009 he became an advisor to the organization Religions for Peace at the United Nations on a research project aimed at solving global interreligious conflict.

Janis Phelps, PhD, received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology (1986) from the University of Connecticut. Her research and scholarly writing has focused on child development, clinical studies in enhanced expectancies and treatment, and mind-body wellness as it correlates to psychotherapy outcome. Her theoretical orientation is in transpersonal and wellness therapy models, Eastern disciplines, and the interaction of meditation and creativity. Janis teaches courses on qualitative research methods, spiritual counseling, and principles of healing.

Carol Whitfield, PhD, has an MA in Sanskrit from the University of California, Berkeley (1982); a PhD in Phenomenology of Religions from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley (1992); and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the San Francisco School of Psychology (1997). During the 1970s, Carol lived a monastic life in India, where she studied Advaita Vedanta and Sanskrit in a traditional gurukula setting under Swami Dayananda Sarasvati.

Since her return from India, she has taught Vedanta extensively on both coasts and was one of the founders and the administrative manager of Sandeepany West, Institute for the Study of Vedanta and Sanskrit, located in Piercy, CA, and later of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, Institute for the Study of Advaita Vedanta and Sanskrit, in Saylorsburg, PA. One of her primary interests is the synthesis of Western psychology and Eastern spirituality.

Carol is also clinical psychologist with a private practice in Berkeley. She has written two books, The Jungian Myth and Advaita Vedanta (Chennai, India: Arsha Vidya Centre Publications) and The Vedantic Self and the Jungian Psyche (Chennai, India: Arsha Vidya Centre Publications).

Adjunct Faculty

Greg Bogart, PhD
Susana Bustos, PhD
Mariana Caplan, PhD
Martina Dannecker, PhD
Kimmy Johnson, PhD
Judith Kinst, PhD
Jürgen Kremer, PhD
Brian L. Lancaster, PhD
Sophia Reinders, PhD
Marina Romero
Renée Soule, MA
Stuart Sovatsky, PhD
Alessandra Strada, PhD