Mandorla Creative Workshops was born from "keeping the channel open." While on a solo writing retreat sitting on a deck overlooking the Pacific Ocean, I picked up the journal lying at my feet and furiously scrawled the outline for an eight week creativity course. It wove concepts from Jungian psychology with right-brain exercises I had been teaching for years to free up blocked writers. Week by week, the course content and its accompanying exercises in writing, art, and visualization materialized. It was not something I had contemplated previously or planned to work on during this retreat. It simply came to me and I wrote it down. Ecstatically! That was over twenty years ago, yet I vividly remember how it felt to be swept into a creative space not of my own making. 

The mandorla symbol is the almond shape made by two interconnected circles. School children know it as a Venn diagram, but it is an ancient symbol that represents the precious intersection between all parts of self working seamlessly together.  It is the sense of timelessness you experience when you're doing something you love. Meister Eckart calls these "rapture moments", and Mandorla Creative Workshops seek to clear out and away the obstacles that keep you from your "Mandorla Moments". At Live Mandorla, we believe that creative expression is a key ingredient to living a vibrant, happy life which in return, makes the world a more vibrant and happy place. Join us in our quest to live fully and create freely!

core concepts

Jungian psychology looks deep below the surface and engages conversation about the unknown parts of self. Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist (1875-1961) was the father of analytic psychology. He focused on the collective unconscious, believing that there is more to us than our individual experiences and that we are all connected through a larger reality. This course specifically explores the Jungian concepts of symbols, the unconscious, the collective unconscious, dreamwork, the shadow, and archetypes. Furthermore, the workshop's exercises connect us to our desires for creative expression and an enlivened existence.  We learn to see life through a symbolic lens where all events in our lives conspire to bring us closer to our emerging selves. We are never too old or too young to embrace what's most important to us.

creativity as a birthright

Our culture tends to categorize certain people as "creative." We think of people who paint or sing or write poems as those with the right to this title. If we can begin to view creativity as a birthright, available to all, our lives will change. So often our creative impulses are invisible to us and are, therefore, discounted. Arranging a bowl of fruit on the counter is a creative act. Feeling delighted by wildflowers growing on a hill or noticing the scent of woodsmoke in the air, are all creative experiences. We associate creativity with productivity. But what if creativity is actually just living in those timeless spaces that bring us joy?

the weekly workshop

Using the precepts of Jungian psychology, this eight week course explores creative expression through art, writing, visualization, and discussion. No prior experience is necessary; this workshop is open to anyone willing to leave their cell phone in the car for two hours, carve out a little space for themselves, and engage with others on a creative journey. Each session is comprised of three main parts - a creative exercise in writing, art, or visualization, a short lecture on the weekly concept, and time for sharing and discussion.

the retreat

The course is also taught as an abridged, weekend retreat. Starting on Friday evening with sessions through Sunday noon, participants are immersed in the concepts and exercises, while also having some free time to absorb the material, embrace solitude, or build friendships.

DREAM GROUPS

The only course offered virtually, Sara explores the mystery and transformational experience of working with dreams in a small group setting. The course includes instruction and hands on methods to more easily access a dream’s infinite wisdom.

who should take this course

Whether you are in transition and making big life changes, or if you are just curious about how to live life in a more fulfilling way, this course is for you. It is for the young and the old, the poor and the rich, women and men, those who identify as creative and those who feel they posses no creativity at all. Simply by attending to the inklings that tug at our consciousness, we say yes to what is coming.

small groups

Workshop size is kept intentionally small. Jung believed that the individual growth of one affects growth for us all. Building intentional communities where people talk about what is really important to them is one way to bring light to the world at large. We all need support as we take risks and clear space for those Mandorla Moments.

Sara Hanson Sera

Sara Hanson Sera, M.Ed.,ET/P is an educational therapist in private practice in Pasadena, CA. For over twenty-five years Sara has worked with children and adults, many of whom struggle with learning differences and self-expression. Focusing on written language, Sara is most excited about helping others find their voice in writing, and in their lives. She teaches writing, leads creativity workshops, and, through her work as an educational therapist, helps children and adults alike to uncover and embrace their uniqueness.  Sara's desire to understand the basis for how learning takes place, what hinders learning, and the psychological underpinnings of growth and development, led her to pursue a master's degree in education. Her introduction to Carl Jung in graduate school fueled decades of study in formal and informal settings. Attending intensive courses at the Jungian Institute of New York City and classes and retreats at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Sara has incorporated these soulful concepts into her work with groups and individuals. Most recently, Sara completed a year long training with the Institute for Dream Studies in order to become a certified dreamwork professional (CDP).

Contact sara

626.379.1522

sarasera@verizon.net or livemandorla@gmail.com

sarahansonsera.com

upcoming workshops

ILLUMINATING DREAMS WORKSHOP

On-going. Call to inquire about current workshops.

Five Mondays from 10:30-12:30 PST via Zoom

Class fee: $30 per class

Email or call Sara to register and for workshop details:

626.379.1522

livemandorla@gmail.com

sarasera@verizon.net (preferred email)

Since my early 20s, I have relied on the mysteries of my dreams as a way to understand the deep inner workings of my unconscious self - the unknown wounds, desires, and dreams that have found their way to the surface of my awareness making a daily impact on my waking reality.

I invite you to join me on an exploration of the most authentic parts of self (and Self) through a collective dream work experience. Working with others on the messages and wisdom in your dreams brings the awareness from the shadowy places in your heart, spirit and mind, into an interactive place of value in your waking life. Your dreams are your individual template, tailor made for you from you, to embrace what you want for your now and your future and to rid yourself of the beliefs and experiences that no longer serve you.

Virtual dream groups meet twice monthly for a 2 hour session. Each session is comprised of a lesson or exercise teaching you how to approach your dreams, a time for sharing in dyads through break out rooms, as well as more in depth work with one dream in a group setting. Classes will be kept intentionally small to foster a sense of safety and camaraderie.

Session topics:

Session 1 - Why dreams? The science behind dreaming; the psychological and spiritual benefit of dreamwork

Session 2 - A Dreamworker’s Toolbox

Sessions 3 - Dream Explication: Working with Symbols

Session 4 - Encountering the shadow in dreams

Session 5 - How color reveals  emotions in dreams 

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MANDORLA Session Topics

Each session begins with a quiet, meditative practice to calm our monkey brains and invite us into a liminal space apart from daily worries and to do lists. There will be exercises in writing, art, and visualization but in no way do you need to be a “writer” or “artist” – these activities are utilized as tools for discovery and play.

• Session 1: To open the workshop, we explore the principles for the creative life and learn how to search out symbols as a tenant to creative living. Symbols are the precursor to “knowing” that come to us as surprising inklings or ideas, servings as the “bearers of new life.”

• Session 2: Creative living calls us to be navigators between the conscious (known) parts and the unconscious (intuit) parts of self. We learn to view the unconscious as a well-spring of creative ideas that helps us maneuver moments of suffering, struggle, and fear.

• Session 3: We investigate the Cycle of Growth and Development, observing how life transitions push us through phases of stability and confidence but also times of uncertainty. We learn how the collective unconscious works on our behalf and can be an endless source of inspiration and guidance.

• Session 4: At the midpoint, we return to the topic of symbols with an exercise that taps into our unconscious beliefs about self and the world around us. Playfully, this leads us into the practice of active imagination, a powerhouse tool for creative living.

• Session 5: We delve into archetypes, the symbolic patterns that inform our identity. We learn how to recognize the primary archetypes at work in our lives and look to myths, stories, and fairy tales to provide a road map for spiritual tasks on life’s journey.

• Session 6: Then we look into the “shadow self”, getting closer to understanding our creative blocks and learning about the invigorating, life-giving direction that arises from parts of the self not consciously known.

• Session 7: Through dreamwork, we continue to delve into the shadow. We investigate nighttime dreams as “soul documents.” Using the tools of active imagination, we explore dreams as the dramatic texts that inform our waking, conscious hopes and dreams for our lives.

• Session 8: Anthropologists who study cultures have found that those cultures who had a vision for their futures thrived. To conclude our time together, we explore the vision you hold for your life; the conscious, “known” version, as well as the unconscious version felt through inklings, nudges, and the “I had the craziest idea…!” moments.

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