In My Own Words
By David Zirin

We talked with psychologist David Zirin, who received a master’s degree in Integral Counseling from CIIS in 1980 and a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. Since 1999, he has worked in the Native American community.

David is currently a therapist for the Indian Health Service at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center.

CIIS: Looking back, what did you gain from your education at CIIS?

At CIIS, I learned about a variety of spiritual vehicles of transformation, and how to combine these in a counseling context, which was very beneficial to my therapeutic practice.

I was also encouraged to combine traditional or older spiritual knowledge with current conventional knowledge, without being absorbed into a dogmatic representation of one knowledge over another.

CIIS: As a practicing therapist for the past 25 years, what do you see as the value of the integral approach to psychotherapy?

Conventional psychology has tended to narrowly focus on the client’s problem story and to interpret it from the singular perspective of a preferred psychological theory. Holistic perspectives conversely tend to extend beyond the problem story to alternative accounts of a person’s lived experience. They also set aside a singular interpretive system, and instead consider the client’s story from many angles and multiple perspectives, both traditional and conventional. Through this approach, you can usually stumble upon some truth that will liberate your client from the problem-saturated story in which he or she lives.

CIIS: You’re not Native American. What drew you to work primarily with Native Americans since 1999?

I have been interested in Native American spirituality for as long as I can remember. I value how they honor the natural entities, the various ways they pray, how they think about spirituality, and how they honor the extended family and the wisdom of their elders and ancestors.

CIIS: How has working in this community altered your view of psychotherapeutic practice?

Along with their struggles, Native Americans have the rich resources of their culture. As Michael Foucault suggested, it may be more fruitful to understand a culture in its own terms rather than to analyze it from a modern interpretive mode, as modern psychology tends to do. As a therapist, I’ve learned that sometimes it’s best to put aside my psychological theories and belief systems and simply listen. In this way, I often find out the true meaning of the stories my clients tell me.

CIIS: Why as an alumnus do you donate money to CIIS?

I give because I want to support CIIS’s spirit of inclusion. The Institute is a force for broadening the scope of psychology to include those voices of wisdom from older and minority cultures, spiritualities, philosophies, and traditions. In the modern psychology movement, there are few institutions that are as fostering of inclusion as CIIS.

In My Own Words
By David and Norma Lewis

We talked with David and Norma Lewis. David is the founder and former CEO of Welder Industrial Services and a cofounder of Airgas, Inc. Both companies specialize in marketing industrial and medical gases. Norma is a sculptor and painter whose works are in museums and private collections worldwide. For the past two years she has served as a reader for Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness professor Rick Tarnas’s upcoming book, Cosmos and Psyche. Both David and Norma are members of Friends of the Arts at CIIS.

CIIS: How did you find out about CIIS?

Norma: In 1993, I bought a copy of Rick Tarnas’s new book, The Passion of the Western Mind. I just knew that the book was going to be important to me. I decided to start a yearlong class focused on the book at the local Unitarian Church and I called Rick to ask him to speak to our group. He did and we became fast friends.

CIIS: What about Rick Tarnas’s work resonates for you?

Norma: I have always been really interested in ultimate questions. Rick probably has one of the most creative minds I’ve ever known, and he takes ideas that I intuitively had and clarifies and enlarges them. We share the same interests and the same worldview.

CIIS: Which is?

Norma: That there’s an intelligence at work in the universe.

David: Also, that there is a basic interdependence of all elements of the universe: nature, humans, the cosmos.

CIIS: Why do you donate to CIIS?

Norma: We believe that single human minds can change the course of history. Funding individual human beings is tough, however. So, we feel giving to CIIS is one way of bringing forth scholars who can and do change the world.

David: Also, we think CIIS is dealing with issues, such as meaning, priorities, and human values, that most of the world is not handling very well. We believe that many of the problems of our world can be dealt with by thinkers from institutions like CIIS, rather than say, through politics, violence, and warfare.

CIIS: Why do you personally support the arts at CIIS?

Norma: Because art is one of the heights that humankind reaches. It’s one of the things that stays in our unconscious and affects our lives. What we remember about the Renaissance is not how many soldiers were killed on the battlefield. Rather, we remember the works of Michelangelo, da Vinci, and other great artists.

David: Art at its very best gets you in your soul. Psychology, philosophy, and cosmology at their very best can do the same thing.

CIIS: Why do you believe in philanthropic giving?

David: Our experience has been that one’s life tends to move in the direction you have chosen to give yourself. Giving doesn’t mean just money, but includes your energies, abilities, as well as your creativity. It therefore becomes critically important where you give yourself. If you give to things that fracture our society, you become more fractured. If you give to truth, love, and justice, your life will become truer, more loving, and just.

In My Own Words
By Tricia Grame

We talked with Tricia Grame, an artist, sculptor, educator, and curator who received a doctoral degree in Humanities with a concentration in Women's Spirituality from CIIS in 2000. Tricia is a member of Friends of the Arts at CIIS, and has curated numerous art exhibitions at CIIS and abroad on the theme of the female symbol.

CIIS: How did you, an artist and sculptor in suburban Danville, California, discover CIIS?

A synchronicity took place that led me here. About 15 years ago, I read in the newspaper that Professor Elinor Gadon was giving a lecture on the goddesses of India at the Blackhawk Museum, five minutes away from my home. I had been searching for other artists and scholars interested in this research, especially since my art contained strong female symbolism. So, I went and Professor Gadon informed me that she was starting a doctoral program in Women's Spirituality at CIIS.

CIIS: What motivated you to apply to the doctoral program?

After attending several Friday night lectures at CIIS, I became captivated with the school's philosophy, the study of prehistoric imagery, and Women's Spirituality's political, social, and cultural content. It was so different from my previous education. My education was more about technique and the medium rather than about the creative process—what lies beneath the surface of the canvas, the soul of the artist.

CIIS: What impact did your experience at CIIS have on your artwork?

My studies at CIIS became a spiritual autobiography, beginning with my childhood experiences. It was extremely emotional to unveil these symbols from my childhood, and my work became more demanding. A new body of work emerged, titled Raise the Veil. My art now spoke of religion, undocumented history, and oppression.

CIIS: Professionally?

There are very few artists with a doctorate. Having this degree has given me greater credibility in the art world and in academia. It has enabled me to lecture, teach, and to successfully curate exhibitions domestically and internationally, joined by other artists and researchers concerned about the position, history, and symbol of women.

CIIS: Why do you think it's important—critical even—that CIIS be involved in the arts?

Spirituality comes through art. Art has always been the language of the spirit. It is the language of our culture—it talks about our heritage, our traditions. I can't think of a better way to educate people than through the arts.

CIIS: Why do you donate—your money, time, and curatorial skills—to CIIS?

I believe in the mission and goals of CIIS, which clearly symbolize a spirituality cultivated by the arts. The research, faculty, and students at CIIS continue to nourish my creativity. In return, I hope to preserve and support the work being done at CIIS—to promote, curate, and to celebrate the creative process, resulting in increasing CIIS's respectability in the art world.

In My Own Words
By Frank De Luca

We talked with Frank De Luca, Ph.D., a psychologist in private practice in San Francisco and Carmel, California. He specializes in integral counseling, organizational consulting, and professional coaching. Frank received an M.A. in Integral Counseling Psychology from CIIS in 1994 and a doctoral degree in East-West Psychology in 2001.

CIIS: What motivated you at age 39, with a flourishing career as a business consultant and organizational trainer, to pursue a graduate degree in counseling at CIIS?

There was an emptiness to my work. In my earlier years as a facilitator of personal growth workshops, I got to be a part of transforming people's lives. In business training, I was being paid to make sure that people were more effective for the business's sake. As a result, people may have gotten better at their jobs, but sometimes worse personally. Although I was doing well enough, I felt I had taken on a professional persona that wasn't quite me. I thought that in order to go into that deeper dialogue with people again, I needed to find a profession that facilitated that. Being a therapist seemed like the best route.

CIIS: What attracted you to CIIS?

In 1990 when I discovered CIIS—and it was a discovery—I was looking into graduate schools to do a master's in counseling. None of them really satisfied me. Then someone mentioned CIIS. I came up to look at it and it just felt like the right place—a sanctuary. I found a school where I could study what really interested me. It was a place where I could move in the direction of my heart. I could engage in the deeper conversations with people about the things that were meaningful to me both personally and professionally.

CIIS: What impact did CIIS have on your life, professionally and/or personally?

During my time at CIIS, so many things that I had experienced as identities or ways of being in my life fell apart. But what came from this reduction was a new, reconstituted self. At CIIS I was able to take the personal and professional questions that I had accumulated through the years and explore them with other people who were also in a midterm course in their lives. Being exposed to some of the leading thinkers in the field of integral psychology, learning new skills, and integrating all this with my experience gave me the chance to create a professional self that was more closely aligned with my personal and inner life.

CIIS: Why do you donate to CIIS?

I think it's important to put my money where my values are. CIIS's integral vision and viewpoints are important to the world. By donating to CIIS, I feel like I'm participating in expanding that vision. I've found that tithing helps me to feel that I am someone who can make a difference. Ultimately, it's an act of faith: you give your money and let it go.