Master of Arts
Transpersonal Psychology (Master's)
Degrees and Certificates
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Master of Arts in Transpersonal Psychology (MATP), -
Certificate in Dream Studies, Certificate -
Leadership and Transformative Life Coaching Certificate, Certificate
Courses
MTP6214*: Anomalous States of Consciousness
Credits 3An altered state of consciousness may be defined as any state of consciousness that deviates from normal waking consciousness in terms of marked differences in the level of awareness, perception, memory, thought, emotion, behavior, and the way we experience time, place, and self-control. In this course, we explore ways these states may be induced by meditation, psychoactive medicines, fever, psychosis, sleep, and religious experiences. Particular interest in the ways altered-state experiences may inform and transform ordinary, daily life.
MTP6411*: Psychology of Extraordinary Dreams
Credits 3This course focuses on the experience of extraordinary dreams and how they impact the dreamer's behavior. These unusual dreams are characterized by a vividness and intensity that makes them difficult to forget. They have been known to launch religious movements, inspire creative productions, and to change the course of relationships, vocations, and personal mythologies—the cognitive-affective maps that direct people's life decisions. The conventional scientific approach has been to focus on recent dreams gathered from surveys or sleep laboratories, considering extraordinary dreams "outliers" or exceptions. This course assumes the position that highly memorable dreams need to be at the forefront of dream science, as they afford an invaluable route into psychology's understanding of the psyche. These dreams tend to be "transpersonal" because their content extends beyond the socially constructed identity of the dreamer. They have been termed "big dreams" by Carl Jung, "mythic dreams" by Mircea Eliade, and "dreams of the light" in the Upanishads. Extraordinary dreams may foretell the future, may initiate social movements, and may provide breakthroughs in art, science, and technology.
MTP7201A: Opening Seminar
Credits 1Explore transpersonal approaches to personal and professional growth in a group setting. Meet transpersonal psychology faculty, classmates, and staff in person. Share personal stories and unique perspectives to begin to build and foster relationships within learning communities. Experience transpersonal speakers, workshops, and activities and see what makes Sofia a unique place where the epistemologies of our hearts and intellect are embraced, embodied, and held with equal importance.
MTP7201B: Transitional Seminar
Credits 1Continue to explore transpersonal approaches to personal and professional growth around a particular theme. Meet transpersonal psychology faculty, classmates, and staff in person. Experience transpersonal speakers, workshops, and activities. Expand awareness of transpersonal education where the epistemologies of our hearts and intellect are embraced, embodied, and held with equal importance.
MTP7202: APA Writing Style
Credits 1APA Style is a writing format developed by the American Psychological Association that is typically used in creating academic or professional papers at a graduate level. This course explores APA Style to learn this standard method of communication utilizing a common format for presenting information and a method of highlighting works cited in academic papers to give appropriate credit to the author(s) of that work and to avoid the risk of accidental plagiarism.
MTP7401: Embodied Spirituality
Credits 3Explore what it means to embody spirituality through reading, reflections, discussions, and personal experiences. Increase your understanding of theories, principles, and practices related to embodied spirituality and apply them to your uniquely creative spiritual autobiography. Integrate and awaken self within the context of living co-creatively with all of life and seeing it as sacred.
MTP7403: Introduction to Transpersonal Studies
Credits 3Become familiar with the concepts and theories of transpersonal studies. Learn the origins of transpersonal psychology, the contributors to the field, the research that is being conducted, and the applications of transpersonal studies to personal growth and academic fields. Discuss contemporary perspectives, counseling, education, society, and human well-being.
MTP7406: Foundations in Transpersonal Studies
Credits 3This course introduces theories and concepts of transpersonal studies. Students will learn about the origins of transpersonal studies, the contributors to the field, the research that is being conducted, and the applications of transpersonal studies to personal growth, counseling, education, society, and human welfare.
MTP7601: Creative Expression and Transformation
Credits 3Explore the relationship between creative process, psycho-spiritual awareness, and wholeness in self and community. Participate in creative explorations using art, music, movement, writing, and Earth’s inspiration around a variety of themes. Read material related to creativity, creative process, and healing through the arts. Design one professional application project that integrates creativity more fully into one’s profession in community life.
MTP7603: Theories of Personality: Cross-cultural Perspectives
Credits 3Learn personality theory, psychological inquiry, and psychological concepts by exploring Eastern, Indigenous, ecological, and Western perspectives on being human. Integrate cross-cultural personality theories, transpersonal practices, and personal experiences as a way of identifying own beliefs about being a healthy human.
MTP7801: Spiritual Development Across the Lifespan
Credits 3Become aware of psycho-spiritual approaches to life development. Learn how psychospiritual evolution informs all aspects and stages of personal and professional lives throughout our lifespan. Explore universal themes that can transcend established spiritual traditions and apply them personally and professionally.
MTP8201*: Archetypes, Myths, And Symbols
Credits 3Explore archetypes, myths, and symbols as living energies that that move through the world of dreams and transcend time and culture. Reflect both personally and conceptually on themes from several different cultures, and express insights in writing and symbolic art.
MTP8202*: Transpersonal Approaches to Dreams and Dreaming
Credits 3Be introduced to the world of dreams and dreaming. Explore projective dream work, multiple layers of dream awareness, synchronicity, and culturally diverse ways to engage with dreaming. Record dreams in a dream journal. Work alone and with others to gather greater insight into their dreams. Deepen their understanding of how dreams can facilitate transpersonal awareness.
MTP8204: Spirituality, Creativity, and Transformation in the Second Half of Life
Credits 3Identify what it means to bring consciousness to the second half of life, the dynamic role of creativity in affirming and expressing the inherent gifts to be found. Examine the tasks of becoming an elder (personal growth and transformation, increased spiritual awareness, self-transcendence, and the development of wisdom) through reading, writing, and experiential activities. Gain an understanding of the myths of aging and articulate ways to assist people in experiencing the second half of life with vitality and meaning.
MTP8205*: Eco-Spirituality: Our Spiritual Connection to Gaia
Credits 3Explore eco-spirituality and reciprocal connection with other beings. Through reading nature-writers, scholarship, writing, and spending time in nature develop a respectful relationship with the natural world. Bring awareness into the personal community through nature-walks, projects, and writing. Articulate shifts in eco-consciousness through writing.
MTP8206*: Ecopsychology—Remembering Our Place in The Natural World
Credits 3Be introduced to the field of ecopsychology, eco-shamanism, and related fields. Explore the illusion of separation between humans and nature through scholarship, nature encounters, practices, and reflective discussions. Consider how to shift consciousness to a more reciprocal, intimate relationship with the natural world. Discover practical ways to actively bring ecological consciousness into personal, service, and professional life.
MTP8207*: Sustainability, Culture, and Sacred Ecology
Credits 3Understand, through an eco-psychological lens, the origins of human beings, who human beings are, and what communities human beings comprise. Introduce the concepts of sustainability from a new, broader systems-thinking approach and from a sacred, ancient Native-peoples approach. Engage the material through several ways of knowing: reading, listening, watching, experiencing, reflecting, and creating. Reimagine a new ecologically conscious community.
MTP8208*: Nature-Based Programs and Wholeness
Credits 3Nature-based programs are grounded in the idea that coming home to our natural roots promotes wholeness, healing, and sustainability for all beings on this planet. This course focuses on the many ways that ecopsychology, ecospirituality, and ecotherapy are being applied in professional settings and outdoor places to facilitate healing, reconnection with place, education, health, and wholeness. Examples include animal-facilitated programs, garden and farm therapies, wilderness experiences, bringing nature into therapeutic practice, and prison-based programs. Students will design an innovative community service project that brings an eco-centered approach into a professional or vocational experience.
MTP8210: Bodymind Healing
Credits 3Offers an overview of multiple paths of body-centered practices through an exploration of historical, familial, and personal trauma relating to racism and othering experiences and how these are stored in the nervous system as embodied traumas. Drawing on the neuroscience, somatic experiencing, and collective wisdom of emergent voices from African American, Indigenous, Latin American, and Asian Embodiment traditions, students will explore a variety of experiential bodymind healing practices. Students will write a short paper on a chosen bodymind practice and its relationship to transgenerational, cultural, and community healing.
MTP8212: Contemplative Practices in Heart, Mind, and Community
Credits 3Reflect on the value and application of a range of contemplative practices within personal and professional life. Engage in self-selected contemplative practices as well as designated practices in the areas of embodied, nature centered, and mindfully focused contemplation. Delve into Eastern and Western approaches. Envision/create a plan for the integration of contemplative practice within a personally relevant setting in society. Reflect on research evidence related to the benefits of various contemplative practices.
MTP8300: Creative Expression and Transformation
Credits 3This experiential course explores the relationship between creative process, psycho-spiritual awareness, and wholeness both in self and in community. Students will participate in creative explorations using art, music, movement, writing, and Earth’s inspiration around a variety of themes that students may also wish to apply or explore with others. Students will read material related to creativity, creative process, and healing through the arts and choose one professional application project designed to integrate creativity more fully into their work life.
MTP8303: Empowering Community Through the Expressive Arts
Credits 3Use of the expressive arts to facilitate community healing, empower voice, and support social change. Case studies illustrate the use of community art, and performance as a way toward empowerment and social transformation.
MTP8373: Professional Practicum I
Credits 1The Professional Practicum I and II include two sequential courses totaling 3.0 units. Professional Practicum I supports the integration of a transpersonal practice into an area of professional interest. Design a practicum experience in a home locale that is relevant and appropriate for the area of professional concentration. Focus on right livelihood and meaningful contribution.
MTP8374: Professional Practicum II
Credits 2Implement a practicum experience in a home locale relevant and appropriate for the area of professional concentration proposed in the first practicum course. Ground professional development and apply transpersonal learning to this area. The practicum can have an educational, social, political, ecological, wellness, or other focus. It provides hands-on opportunities for practical work with individuals, small groups, larger groups/organizations, or the global community/ecology.
MTP8387: Ways of Knowing
Credits 3Explore creative, transpersonal, and collective ways of knowing. Engage more flexibly with professional life and learn to lead others as they develop self-awareness and professionally apply skills, methods, and processes in a fully embodied, multimodal fashion. Broaden their ability to access information, express themselves, and to work with others.
MTP8399: Inquiry into Creative and Innovative Processes
Credits 3Use Intuitive Inquiry to explore personal and collective themes related to creativity. Explore theories, models, and practices of creative and innovative processes through numerous lenses of awareness including: (a) scholarship; (b) contemplative practices; (c) biographical (case study) accounts of people; and (d) visualization, writing, and creative exploration. Write a final paper that addresses shifts and developments in thought processes and assumptions in a topic of interest.
MTP8799: Inquiry into Embodied Spirituality
Credits 3Use Intuitive Inquiry to explore spiritual listening, spiritual companioning, and theories, models, and diverse perspectives related to spiritual unfolding. Explore a growing awareness of the ways embodiment in our community and world is an integral aspect of our spirituality and world consciousness. Exercise skills in self-reflection, discernment, deep listening, and research through inquiry into a personally relevant question related to spiritual embodiment. Write a final paper that addresses shifts and developments in thought processes and assumptions on a topic of interest based on their inquiry.
MTP8800: Introduction to the Transformative Coaching Process
Credits 3Receive a foundation in the theories, principles, and practices of transformative coaching. Explore the roots of coaching in psychology and other fields, and inquire into the ways in which our interpretations of reality shape that reality. Participate in skill lessons needed to be an effective transformative, transpersonal coach and practice coaching strategies with faculty and peer feedback. This low-residency course begins as part of the seminar and continues in an online and teleconference format for the duration of the term.
MTP8804: Psychosynthesis: Journey Toward Wholeness
Credits 3Explore theories, core concepts, and practices associated with Psychosynthesis and how they contribute to conscious living and psychospiritual wholeness. Enhance the ability to use inner dialogue, guided imagery, drawing, role-playing and movement in order to access their unconscious and draw upon inner wisdom.
MTP8805: Entrepreneurial Spirit
Credits 3Entrepreneurial spirit is living from the future and allowing for unknown possibilities and opportunities to emerge in the moment. Work from personal vision to develop inner and outer resources to align, ground, and manifest your intention and create a practice or business that serves the community. Learn professional strategies for vision and mission clarification and develop a strategic action plan. Develop marketing strategies through multiple venues such as websites, social media, and collaborative alliances.
MTP8811: Practicum in Transformative Coaching I
Credits 3Work collaboratively with peers, guided/supervised by the instructor, and practice core competencies associated with professional coaching organizations. Meet online and through synchronous teleconferences to discuss coaching scenarios, case studies, and personal experiences as coaches. Begin coaching practice with actual clients and be expected to receive coaching by qualified coach practitioners.
MTP8812: Practicum in Transformative Coaching II
Credits 3Focus on the relationship between coach and client, including the responsibilities of the coach, as well as client’s role and process before, during, and after the coaching experience. Deepen awareness of core competencies, the psychology of coaching, and ethics related to personal and professional coaching.
MTP8813: Advanced Practicum in Transformative Coaching
Credits 3Master coaching ability under the supervision of a qualified coaching instructor. Receive more in-depth guidance of the coaching process by building upon and assessing competencies practiced in Practicums I and II. Focus on the relationship between coach and client, including the responsibilities of the coach, as well as client’s role and process before, during, and after the coaching experience. Deepen awareness of core competencies, the psychology of coaching, and a variety of coaching approaches to personal and professional coaching.
MTP8994: Inquiry into Professional Concentration
Credits 3Use an Intuitive Inquiry immersion approach to focus on the theories, models, and practices of transpersonal psychology and to explore an area of research within the concentration area. Inquiry will evolve through a number of lenses, including: (a) literature; (b) contemplative practices; (c) biographical (case study) accounts of people; (d) visualization, writing, and creative exploration. Topics of study will be relevant to community application.
MTP9041: Transpersonal Integration Paper
Credits 3This 20–25-page capstone project requires students to use reflective scholarship to integrate their transpersonal studies into their own lives. Students bridge transpersonal psychology with professional aspirations and consider how their transpersonal education can contribute to a more fulfilled life for themselves and the communities they serve.
MTP9042: Showcase Portfolio
Credits 1Demonstrate mastery of academic and professional goals. Gather artifacts, build, reflect upon, and publish high-quality electronic portfolios suitable for showcasing educational and professional competencies. This capstone course is taken at the end of the program.