Aion Institute

Course Description

This class includes two two-hour sessions representing an overview of foundational types of talk therapy, including cognitive-behavioral models, contextual models (such as feminist, cross cultural, and Marxist psychotherapy), humanistic and existential models, attachment and trauma models, and psychodynamic perspectives including psychoanalytic and Jungian traditions in context.

Learning Objectives

• Describe major philosophical and cultural traditions—including ancient spiritual systems, classical Greek philosophy, empiricism, phenomenology, critical theory, and Zen—and explain how these traditions shaped foundational assumptions about mind, self, suffering, and change within psychodynamic psychology.
• Differentiate contrasting philosophical orientations to human experience (e.g., rationalist, phenomenological, spiritual, and critical perspectives) and identify how these differences implicitly inform clinical stance, therapeutic authority, and models of psychological change.
• Apply philosophical reflection to clinical practice by articulating a more coherent and self-aware theoretical orientation, supporting greater intentionality, flexibility, and ethical clarity in psychodynamic work with diverse patients.

The Aion Institute is approved by the California Psychological Association to provide continuing professional education for psychologists. The Aion Institute (AIO279) maintains responsibility for this program and its content.