Dr. Phyllis Marie Jensen
Alberta-born, I began my career as a registered nurse in open-heart surgery and intensive care before moving to Oxford, UK with my “wasband” reading for his doctorate in moral philosophy. Intending to return to university in Canada, I was inspired by Oxford quest for knowledge, and instead of continuing in the Fine Arts program that I had started, I completed a BA and a MA at the University of Western Ontario and a PhD at the University of Toronto (1984). This was followed by research positions in health and justice and evidentiary medicine. First, was the Committee on Sexual Offences against Children and Youth, child prostitution and child pornography; later I headed a study of the response of the police & courts to reported spousal abuse before joining Family Medicine, McMaster University as an evidence-based primary care health researcher. During this time, I set up a private practice in addiction counselling with studies in art therapy and sandplay therapy as a way to heal the unconscious.
Personally vicariously traumatized working in health & Justice documenting horrific crimes against women and children, I began a healing journey of Jungian dream analysis. Eventually, this led to Jungian psychoanalytic training in Zurich. After twenty-five years in Toronto, I returned to Western Canada and the University of Alberta’s Health Sciences Council & Family Medicine before settling in Vancouver and opening a private Jungian psychoanalytic practice.
Current Professional Memberships
AGAP (Association of Graduate Analytic Psychologists)
BCACC (BC Association of Clinical Counselors)
IAAP (International Association of Analytic Psychologists)
JSV (C.G. Jung Society of Vancouver)
TWUC (The Writer’s Union of Canada)
Clinical Experience
Before graduating from the ISAPZürich training in Jungian psychoanalysis, I was a registered nurse with training in Western psychiatry, and later graduated as a health systems evidence-based researcher. I also had a part-time clinical practice in addiction counselling and psychotherapy and trained in art therapy and in Zurich trained in Sandplay–both are adjunct art methods that access hidden wisdom. I was on faculty in Family Medicine at McMaster University and later at the University of Alberta where I currently hold an adjunct clinical position whilst completing research on intersectoral collaboration in Jasper, Alberta.
Former Memberships
AARN (Alberta Association of Registered Nurses, now CARNA)
CAPT (Canadian Association of Psychodynamic Therapists)
CAST (Canadian Association of Sandplay Therapists)
CNO (College of Nurses of Ontario)
JFO (CG Jung Foundation of Ontario)
JFAE (Jung Forum Association of Edmonton & former president)
RCN (Royal College of Nurses, UK)
STA (Sandplay Therapists of America)