Testimonials
Colleen's Dream Translation Workshop offers a practical,
no-pressure, low-key way to learn the Jungian approach to understanding
dreams.
At each meeting, Colleen guides us through a real dream, defining and
explaining
Jungian concepts such as individuation, anima/animus, archetype, and
complex.
Having the dream as a context within which to apply these concepts
allows them
to make sense and to come easily to life. Having a coherent, focused method makes this
approach
different and more satisfying to me than the more
eclectic analysis
I've experienced previously.
Anonymous 2010 Workshop Participant
The Analytical Psychology Society
of Western NY hosted Colleen Hendrick in Buffalo, NY in 2009. The all
day workshop revealed the rich tapestry of Guinean culture, woven
archetypically with music and dance. Jung's concepts of the Great
Mother, shadow, anima/animus were exemplified through lecture and
performance and audience participation.
"Colleen artfully and soulfully ignited the attending members. Her
workshop opened a musical/dance movement window into how interwoven and
interdependent the human psyche is - bravo."
Jan
Beurskens, Board member and officer of APSWNY, Buffalo, NY
A review of Colleen Hendrick's presentation at the Assisi Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont
By Janet Brown (Mental Health Counselor/ MEd,
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Boston, MA)
Colleen’s broad experience in understanding the depth and
integrity of the authentic matriarchal language has led her to
caution against taking the power of this archetype lightly.
She warned that the initiation into the inherent mysteries of
The Great Mother brings with it an eruption of "archetypal
fermentation", and a startling glimpse of the archetype’s
enormous power and range.
She is wise to recognize that
archetypes are neither human nor humane and that their power,
unmediated by consciousness, is as blind and savage as animal
instinct.
It is clear both from her considerable talent
as a professional dancer, and her likewise considerable
scholarship, that Colleen has spent now half a
career personally integrating the complicated, collective
features of West African dance: the athletic, aesthetic, disciplined,
replicated sequence of movements, the navel -outward energies
that define the temenos (or sacred circle) within which the
dance is performed; the percussive insistence of the drum
rhythms and sounds that signal the beginning, shifts, and end
of the dance; and the central, critical, unifying
recognition that the dance is a prayer within which the dancer
is held.
Of particular interest, is her recent
suggestion that West African dance is not only an opportunity
to catch the spark of an archetype and feel it ignite your
soul, but also a potential healing space for those of us who
have grown up in patriarchy. She sees the sacred circle of an
individual’s dance as a potential psychological container
for both the conscious and unconscious aspects of Self – a
place for partnering with The Other(s) within ourselves. This emphasis
widens the focus of the dance’s meaning to include not only
the interpersonal realm of objective reality, but also the
transpersonal and intra-personal realms of subjective
integration.
The idea of dancing with our Inner Other
or Others invites us into the powerful mysteries of the deep
unconscious, both personal and collective, wherein the
archetypal energies are as dangerous and un-transformed as
lightning, and it’s hard to separate fear from excitement.
As she continues her work, hopefully Colleen will
offer to guide us precisely through the treacherous steps of dancing
with the Janus-faced, inner Divine/Demons that offer
their Trickster hands simply, and choreograph our steps
quickly, imperceptibly, to match their particular style of
stampede.
Any serious student interested in "dancing"
with the concept of psychological depth and the archetype of
The Great Mother would benefit from attention to
the on-going work of Colleen Hendrick who lives, teaches and
performs in Rochester, NY.
