04-25-2021
9:30 am - 10:45 am

Dr. Steven Herrmann has graced UUCB each year with his profound and fascinating talks as a Jungian therapist, prolific writer, dream worker and shamanic journeying.  Steven will talk with us about the insights he has gained during his spiritual journey as a Jungian, meditator, poet, writer, father and husband. 

Biography:  Steven Herrmann was born in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. He grew up in Pacific Grove, California for the first four years of his life and lived in Pleasant Hill during his latency and early adolescence. Steven attended Las Lomas High in Walnut Creek and he competed in the California State Track and Field championships. At Diablo Valley College he took a life-changing English class taught by Clark McKowen. At 19, Steven was introduced to Carl Jung’s popular book  Man and his Symbols. He entered his first Jungian therapy with Katherine Whiteside Taylor, a Jungian psychologist who was 80 years old when they first met. She mentored Steven until her death at 92. Through these initial exposures to the field of analytical depth-psychotherapy, Steven pursued his BA Degree at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). It was there that he met the Jungian poet, William Everson, a former Dominican lay brother at St. Albert’s Priory in Oakland. After numerous spiritual experiences, while practicing yoga, recording his dreams daily, and attending Everson’s course on the UCSC campus, Steven worked as a teaching assistant for Everson from 1980 to 1981. Steven taught Jung’s theories of dream interpretation and led dream groups with a special research focus on vocational dreams. As an undergraduate, Steven created his own individual major in “Depth Psychology and Religion” and wrote his senior thesis on the thirteenth century theologian and preacher, Meister Eckhart. Steven received his Master’s degree in clinical psychology at John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, CA, and his PhD from Rosebridge Graduate School of Integrative Psychology. During his graduate studies, Steven was in analysis with Jungian analyst Donald F. Sandner for 13 years, followed by work with two more San Francisco analysts. In 1995, Steven met Jungian analyst John Beebe, who became his consultant and mentor for two decades. Steven has also been an active member of several shamanic journeying groups. Steven has published numerous journal articles, several book chapters, and six books. His works cover the subjects of analytical psychology, sandplay, Jungian child psychotherapy and analysis, shamanism and American poetry, religion, transpersonal psychology, and William James.

Steven is an analyst member of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco and has a private practice in Oakland California. He has been a regular presenter at the UU’s Personal Theology program for the past ten years. He lives with his wife, Jungian analyst Lori Goldrich Ph.D., in the Oakland Hills and he is the proud father of a son. Steven enjoys gardening, hiking, cooking, meditating, Yoga, wood carving, photography, teaching, and writing poetry.