Contemplative. Creative. Clinician.

In the early 1980s, Cervine knew exactly what he wanted but was unsure where to find it. He had just graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in Religious Studies, where he'd studied Buddhism and psychology. He wanted to become a therapist, but not at the expense of his contemplative life. A traditional clinical program didn't seem likely to make room for that. The Integral Counseling Psychology program at CIIS did.

"I was astonished at how intimate yet professional the program was," he recalls. "Professors and students alike with a wealth of practical experience, and a broad array of expertise." The CIIS counseling center gave him direct clinical experience, and the program helped him bridge his previous work in psychiatric hospitals with a wider range of mental health concerns — including the spiritual and existential questions that had drawn him to the field in the first place.

The shift he experienced wasn't a change in direction so much as a coming-together. "It allowed me to integrate the threads of my various interests and practices, rather than having to choose between them," he writes. Asked about the impact of CIIS' mission of integral education, his answer is brief: "It was a life changer."

It allowed me to integrate the threads of my various interests and practices, rather than having to choose between them.
Dane Cervine, Class of 1984, Counseling Psychology, Integral Counseling Psychology

After graduating, Cervine moved to Santa Cruz County, where he spent three decades in children's mental health — eventually rising to director of the county's clinical programs for children, teens, and families. "I'd initially thought to go straight into private practice," he says, "but found that I really enjoyed working collaboratively in organizations."

Even in an administrative role, the instincts formed at CIIS stayed close to the surface. Over the years, Cervine coordinated with local poets and writers who worked with youth in juvenile hall, schools, and other agencies. When he became director, he decided the annual report to the Board of Supervisors would include poems and stories written by the young people and families the department served, spotlighting their creativity rather than reducing them to diagnoses or legal statuses.

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Cervine's creative life has run alongside his clinical one for decades. He is a member of Sixteen Rivers Press, a poetry collective in San Francisco, and the author of several collections, including Nine Volt Nirvana. After retiring from county work, he helped connect Sixteen Rivers Press to youth in Santa Cruz through a grant that supported students writing their own poems in response to a social justice press anthology. Farnaz Fatemi, the Santa Cruz Poet Laureate at the time, helped steward the resulting youth chapbook, Waking Up — Teen Poets Respond to "America, We Call Your Name." The original anthology, America, We Call Your Name, had already been produced and distributed nationally; Santa Cruz was one of several cities to produce a youth chapbook in response.

He sees no hard line between the clinical and the creative. The work of Dr. Mark Epstein, particularly his book The Zen of Therapy, reflects what Cervine describes as his own deepening approach to psychotherapy and mindfulness. Today he maintains a small private practice where he draws on everything CIIS made room for: the contemplative, the clinical, and the creative. "I doubt that a more traditional clinical program would have nurtured these skills in me," he says. “I continue to appreciate my graduate program at CIIS as the portal that carried me into the rest of my life. I am forever grateful.” 

Cervine remains active in organizations that mirror the integration he first found at CIIS. He publishes with Sixteen Rivers Press, practices with the Pacific Zen Institute, and sits with Insight Santa Cruz, a mindfulness community.

And when asked what built his community at CIIS, his answer comes without hesitation: "Friendships, friendships, friendships — both personal and professional. At CIIS, I never felt isolated, even though I was initially shy by nature. I continue to appreciate my graduate program at CIIS as the portal that carried me into the rest of my life. I am forever grateful.

Learn more about Dane Cervine's work at danecervine.com.