Our Programs

We bring together scholars and activists to engage in co-learning, inspired by a long and beautiful history of education developed in popular universities, modern schools, universities of earth and without walls, and free schools. Our learning community is a convivial space where we collectively consider social movement histories and create a shared understanding of how to influence the movements we are a part of.

Our graduates are trained for professional careers in academia, policy, social-political journalism, advocacy, and community, legal, and environmental organizations. Our faculty have a wide range of research interests, among them urban social movements, agri-food studies, politics and filmmaking, post-structuralist philosophy, gender equality, forced migration and refugees, radical oral history, and psychoanalytic time.

We believe another world is within our grasp. Systematic research of counter-hegemonic knowledge and practices has gained supreme relevance with the world in crisis. Our PhD program will equip you with the necessary skills to participate in the "nowtopian" task of constructing social scientific knowledge that looks beyond capitalism, hierarchy, and ecological disaster.    

Our graduates are trained for professional careers in academia, policy, social-political journalism, advocacy, and community, legal, and environmental organizations. Our faculty have a wide range of research interests, among them urban social movements, agri-food studies, politics and filmmaking, post-structuralist philosophy, gender equality, forced migration and refugees, radical oral history, and psychoanalytic time.

The online M.A. in Asian Contemplative and Transcultural Studies teaches and researches the contemplative traditions, practices and experiences of South and East Asia as agents for change in the modern world. The program offers a field of study for scholar-practitioners interested in experiencing personal transformation and in becoming leaders who catalyze world transformation.

Our graduates are prepared for professional careers in academia and research, activism and organizational leadership, and spiritual counseling or coaching. Our faculty have a wide range of research interests, among them: Asian wisdom traditions, yoga studies, Integral Yoga, traditional Chinese medicine, Depth and archetypal psychologies, Western religious and esoteric traditions, folklore and mythology, ecopsychology, indigenous psychospiritualities, plant medicines, non-ordinary states of consciousness, and transpersonal and existential psychologies.

The Psy.D. program at CIIS is carefully designed to prepare students for practice-focused careers in clinical psychology. Rooted in the practitioner-scholar model, our students engage in rigorous academic coursework and comprehensive clinical training, in addition to completing their dissertation.

Graduates of our clinical psychology Psy.D. program are eligible to become licensed psychologists in the state of California as well as engage broadly in the ever-expanding field of clinical psychology in professional careers that include: therapy and assessment, supervision, management, administration, consulting, research, advocacy, and public policy.  Our faculty have a wide range of research interests among them: the many intersections between psychodynamic psychotherapy and humanistic, existential, somatic, and transpersonal psychotherapies.

CIIS’ Community Mental Health program integrates the fundamentals of psychotherapy with cultural humility and an understanding of the impact of trauma and social systems on the individual. Developed in partnership with public and non-profit mental health agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area, this program is one of five offered through the Counseling Psychology department at CIIS. 

Graduates are prepared to practice counseling in hospitals, clinics, schools, government agencies, community non-profits, and more. Our faculty have a variety of research interests, among them: social justice advocacy for Native American Communities, social support, social capital, and social sustainability in the context of intentional community, psychoanalysis, the discourse of capitalism and the California Dream.

CIIS’ Drama Therapy program explores how dramatic processes work overtime to heal wounds for lasting change, and to help people reach their full potential. The Drama Therapy program is one of five master’s programs offered through the Counseling Psychology department, and offers an engaging, embodied, and interactive experience to students. It integrates experiential, didactic, and clinical courses in a curriculum designed to train students to become personally and culturally attuned to become master drama therapists.

The M.A. in East-West Psychology is a non-clinical-, non-license-oriented psychology degree that prepares a new type of integral psychospiritual practitioner and scholar who is educated at the intersection of the world’s wisdom traditions and sacred practices of East, West, and Earth. Our students become “meta-psychologists” who bring mentoring, healing, knowledge, communication, and mindfulness skills into a rapidly changing world.

Our graduates are prepared for professional careers in academia and research, activism and organizational leadership, and spiritual counseling or coaching. Our faculty have a wide range of research interests, among them: Asian wisdom traditions, yoga studies, Integral Yoga, traditional Chinese medicine, Depth and archetypal psychologies, Western religious and esoteric traditions, folklore and mythology, ecopsychology, indigenous psychospiritualities, plant medicines, non-ordinary states of consciousness, and transpersonal and existential psychologies.

The mission of the PhD in East-West Psychology at CIIS is to explore the convergence of Eastern, Western, and Indigenous psychologies and spiritualities in the spirit of dialogue and integral inquiry. Our students engage in research subjects that explore the meaning of this convergence for a diverse, multicultural, and peaceful world.

Our graduates are prepared for professional careers in academia and research, activism and organizational leadership, and spiritual counseling or coaching. Our faculty have a wide range of research interests, among them: Asian wisdom traditions, yoga studies, Integral Yoga, traditional Chinese medicine, Depth and archetypal psychologies, Western religious and esoteric traditions, folklore and mythology, ecopsychology, indigenous psychospiritualities, plant medicines, non-ordinary states of consciousness, and transpersonal and existential psychologies.

CIIS’ online master’s degree in Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion emphasizes an embodied, engaged approach in which contemplative practice and career exploration complement rigorous study. Our master's students are motivated by their deep concern for the state of Earth and their determination to find creative solutions for the future. In an engaged learning community with faculty and peers, students examine ecological issues from a variety of religious studies, social science, and policy perspectives.

Our graduates pursue professional careers in academia, the nonprofit sector, the arts, and other paths involving human-animal relations, religious rites and practices, ecopsychology, ecofeminism, environmental humanities, wilderness studies, and related themes. Our innovative and diverse faculty work to shape the global dialogue linking spirituality, religion, and cosmology with ecology and sustainability through research in environmental ethics, socio-ecology, evolutionary cosmology, theology, and religious studies.

CIIS’ Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion Ph.D. offers a nurturing community engaged in revitalizing relationships to Earth while exploring the intersections of world religions, Indigenous traditions, eco-spirituality, eco-justice, and eco-feminism.

Our unique curriculum explores traditional cultures and emerging worldviews within a critically-informed methodological framework in order to help students understand, articulate, and address ecological trauma and transformation. Students gain skills and insight needed to transform practices, worldviews, and consciousness in service of a more just, sustainable, and flourishing planetary future.

Our graduates pursue professional careers in academia, the nonprofit sector, the arts, and other paths involving human-animal relations, religious rites and practices, ecopsychology, ecofeminism, environmental humanities, wilderness studies, and related themes. Our innovative and diverse faculty work to shape the global dialogue linking spirituality, religion, and cosmology with ecology and sustainability through research in environmental ethics, socio-ecology, evolutionary cosmology, theology, and religious studies.

The Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology with a Concentration in Expressive Arts Therapy is a BBS-approved, 3-year, low-residency degree program for California residents. The pedagogy provides an engaging online, hybrid curriculum that weaves multimodal expressive arts, such as visual and digital arts, music, dance and movement, poetry, spoken word, and drama into all courses.

The Expressive Arts Therapy program trains future leaders in the expressive arts therapy field. Our graduates are prepared for professional careers in private practice, mental health facilities, healthcare organizations, human services agencies, and schools. Our faculty have a variety of research interests, including creativity and spirituality among African Americans, multicultural and social justice counseling, education and supervision, neuro-diverse populations, homeless women, adolescents in residential rehabilitation, and the integration of the arts into spiritual practice.

CIIS’ Human Sexuality Ph.D. is an interdisciplinary program in critical sexuality studies, exploring the intersections of power and sexuality. Through coursework, students undergo an analysis of power structures by exploring the many socio-cultural organizations of sex and gender that influence societies. 

Graduates of our Human Sexuality Ph.D. program are prepared for professional careers in research, education, clinical and organizational settings, advocacy, policy, and more. Our faculty have a wide range of research interests, among them social and economic justice issues for the LGBTQ community, feminist conversations on power and gender, the biopolitics of HIV-prevention, reproductive journeys of transgender and nonbinary people, bioethics of sexual reorientation interventions, and bisexual representations in film and media.

CIIS’ Integral Counseling Psychology program has trained students in a vision of psychotherapy that combines major spiritual traditions of the East and West and contemporary therapeutic practices. The holistic orientation of this unique counseling program invites students to articulate their personal vision of psychology within modern theoretical approaches.

Our graduates are trained to become licensed therapists who go on to work in private practice, schools, and non-profit organizations. Our faculty have a variety of research interests, among them ecopsychology, trauma theory, dreams and imagination, mystical practices, work with incarcerated people, LGBTQIA+ and activist communities, psychedelic assisted therapy, and Transpersonal, Jungian, and Gestalt psychologies.

CIIS’ Integrative Health Studies program prepares students to become integrative health and wellness practitioners. Our non-clinical program is committed to bridging biomedical and alternative or complementary approaches to treatment. Students take all required courses as a cohort and experience supportive, collective learning on their way to becoming National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coaches or pursuing related careers in whole-person wellness.

Our faculty have a variety of research interests, among them: naturopathic, botanical and Ayurvedic medicine, behavioral medicine, stress physiology and neurobiology, health psychology, women's health, community-based and culturally-adapted interventions, health disparities, social connection, fitness and sports nutrition, psychoeducational and behavioral approaches to chronic disease prevention, health policy, ecological stewardship, mindfulness-based interventions, and guided imagery in psychotherapy.

CIIS’ Interdisciplinary Arts department offers a unique Master of Fine Arts degree that focuses on the vital role of inquiry in artmaking. We value the complex range of human experience that provokes art and welcome artists from all disciplines — literary, visual, performing, media, and interdisciplinary — into an innovative laboratory for individual and collaborative artmaking.

Our graduates are prepared for professional careers in journalism, coaching, arts administration, academia, and more. Our faculty have a wide range of research interests, among them: cognitive science, creativity, poetry, and the brain, pluralism in the arts, social construction of whiteness, critical media literacy, and social justice comedy.

CIIS’ Psychology Ph.D. with a concentration in Integral Transpersonal Psychology is one of the few programs in the world that offers an online Ph.D. in whole-person approaches to psychology. It is a research-oriented program dedicated to systematic knowledge-building and the advancement of transpersonal psychology.

Our doctoral graduates are trained for professional careers in education and academia, activism and organizing, psychology, and fields related to personal development, social change, and environmental protection. Our faculty have a wide range of research interests, among them: cultural and historical consciousness studies, spiritual experiences, tantric meditation, altered consciousness and unusual/anomalous experiences, neuroscience of hypnosis and meditation, brain architecture and neurorehabilitation, creative process and cognition, and somatic, developmental, psychoanalytic, and trauma-based psychological theories.

CIIS’ master’s in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness has been designed to help shape the intellectual, moral, and spiritual leadership necessary for meeting historic global challenges. Drawing upon some of the most powerful ideas and impulses of our philosophical, scientific, and religious traditions, our faculty has constructed an intensive multidisciplinary course of study to help accelerate students' journeys into their leadership roles.

Our students pursue a unique interdisciplinary curriculum which prepares them for professional careers in academia, writing and research, consulting, counseling and coaching, and entrepreneurship. Our faculty have established international reputations and a wide range of research interests in fields such as: evolutionary and archetypal cosmology, philosophy, religious studies, Jungian and transpersonal psychology, ecology, and the evolution of consciousness.

CIIS’ Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness Ph.D. program is dedicated to reimagining the human species as a mutually enhancing member of the Earth community.

The heart of the program is its focus on knowledge that is transformative—of ourselves and of our civilization. Our program attracts intellectually engaged individuals who are to varying degrees dismayed by what they see happening in modern societies and who are striving to find meaningful ways to develop their gifts to serve the future of the world.

Our students pursue a unique interdisciplinary curriculum which prepares them for professional careers in academia, writing and research, consulting, counseling and coaching, and entrepreneurship. Our faculty have established international reputations and a wide range of research interests in fields such as: evolutionary and archetypal cosmology, philosophy, religious studies, Jungian and transpersonal psychology, ecology, and the evolution of consciousness.

Students in the Somatic Psychology program develop an integral approach to counseling psychology that includes evidence-based modalities and a broad understanding of individual and family systems. A range of disciplines are explored, including neuroscience, traumatology, Jungian psychology, and socio-cultural approaches. Clinical skills are emphasized, as well as key academic competencies in research and presentation.

Our graduates are trained as conscientious and culturally-aware experts in approaches to psychotherapeutic embodied cognition. Our faculty have a wide range of research interests, including early childhood mental health, somatic and movement therapy in foster and adoptive care systems, refugees and immigrants, underserved communities, depth psychology, queer theory, neurodiversity, and creative transformation.

CIIS’ Psychology Ph.D. with a concentration in Somatic Psychology is a unique online doctoral program that approaches psychology from the lived experience of being human, while incorporating scientific rigor in building a more insightful, effective psychology of the living person. Students explore the implications for understanding human complexities that emerge from serious, prolonged cultivation of direct bodily experience: breathing, touching, sensing, moving.

CIIS’ Master’s in Transformative Leadership is a degree program ideal for passionate and innovative leaders who want to attain personal growth and practical skills in the service of a greater future. The coursework in the Transformative Leadership master’s program invites you to engage in self-exploration around what matters most to you and how you can draw on all of your internal and external resources to lead your life. Through rigorous academic study, deep personal inquiry, and a culminating Capstone Project, the program provides the framework to envision, initiate, and engage in transformative change processes. 

Our graduates go on to be passionately engaged in work that manifested as a result of their experience in our program, whether it’s leading a non-profit, teaching in academia, working for environmental or social justice initiatives, or creating their own consulting firm. Our faculty have a broad range of research interests, among them systems thinking as a catalyst for personal and social change, consciousness, education reform, creativity and improvisation, personal growth, leadership development, future studies, coaching, and spiritual intelligence.

The mission of our Transformative Studies Ph.D. program is to develop transdisciplinary scholars committed to exploring leading-edge issues in innovative ways that combine scholarship, creativity, and self-inquiry. We invite students to take a systems view of a topic of interest, interrogating its context and complexity. From there, students will design a dissertation drawing on a wide range of qualitative and theoretical research approaches.

Our graduates are trained for professional careers as both thought and action leaders who work in fields such as broadcasting, coaching, academia, and policy. Our faculty have a broad range of research interests, among them systems thinking as a catalyst for personal and social change, consciousness, education reform, creativity and improvisation, personal growth, leadership development, future studies, coaching, and spiritual intelligence.

CIIS’ master’s in Women, Gender, Spirituality, and Social Justice honors the spiritual impulses that have guided movements for equality and justice across the globe. This program is best suited to those who are interested in developing a visionary approach to their work as activists, educators, healers, facilitators, artists, and socially conscious entrepreneurs.

Our graduates pursue a unique interdisciplinary curriculum which prepares them for professional careers in academia and research, teaching and education, coaching and counseling, media, and entrepreneurship. Our innovative and diverse faculty pursue research interests in the three areas of the curriculum: Women and World Religions; Feminist and Ecofeminist Philosophy and Activism; and Women's Mysteries, Sacred Arts, and Healing.

The Ph.D. in Women’s Spirituality is a rigorous transdisciplinary online program building students towards thought-leadership and propelling change. The program explores varied spiritual, ecological, and political perspectives rooted in care for the Earth, each other, and the Sacred. Through your coursework and unique research, you will explore transpersonal and embodied ways of knowing holding womanist, feminist, Indigenous and decolonial lenses.

Our graduates pursue a unique interdisciplinary curriculum which prepares them for professional careers in academia and research, teaching and education, coaching and counseling, media, and entrepreneurship. Our innovative and diverse faculty pursue research interests in the three areas of the curriculum: Women and World Religions; Feminist and Ecofeminist Philosophy and Activism; and Women's Mysteries, Sacred Arts, and Healing.