Dream Tending and Deep Imagination Certificate III Program with Stephen Aizenstat, Ph.D.

Journeying in the Matrix of Deep Imagination

December 13, 2023 – June 7, 2024

The Dream Tending and Deep Imagination Certificate III program continues the transformational journey to explore the depths of the Imagination Matrix. Students dive into imaginal intelligence and sustaining states of access to deep imagination and expand – from the personal to the collective to the universal. Dream Tending expands from sleeping to waking life and toward possibility and innovation.

In Certificate III, We participate in the praxis of increasing Imaginal Intelligence and anchoring into your Innate Genius.  Deep shifts in consciousness are elaborated into the ongoing lived experience. Contexts of applying illuminated consciousness and the four-fold gifts of the Imagination Matrix System to relationships, community, workplace, and world. Tools and technos of navigating the realms of Deep Imagination are woven into creative empowerment. Insight processes extend from awareness, visitation, and moments of epiphany toward sustaining an imagination-centered life.

In Certificate III, the journey deepens and widens. Led by Dr. Stephen Aizenstat and Mentors of Dream Tending, this online program offers a supportive and creative space where you can deepen in practices that cultivate  and hone your expanding skills set. Through a combination of experiential learning, group discussions, and individual journeying, you will learn how to translate the wisdom of your dreams and the gifts gleaned from journeying through deep imagination into everyday contexts.

The Dream Tending and Deep Imagination Certificate III program is structured around a series of four modules consisting of three days each.

A deep dive into imaginal intelligence offers fresh ways to access portals of imagination in waking and dreaming life. These creative openings become sites of innovation in the waking world. We explore the many benefits of extended theta states of deep imagination. Purpose expands as imagination extends into advanced practice and skills in Module One.

In Module Two, dream tenders continue to deepen their understanding and work with each of the four quadrants of the Imagination Matrix. Students become adept at asking questions inspired from each of the four quadrants of the Imagination Matrix and receiving insight from them. In this realm, dreams are used as portals to journey into the deep imagination and explore the imagination matrix. The Imagination Matrix System is the way of utilizing and applying these approaches, now, as a system, to contexts in the world. Certificate III students gain fluency in attaining confluence between these streams of insight to envision fresh possibilities, in self, relationships, community, and the workplace.

Module Three delves into the shadow and the promise of technology. Questions posed in this module include: how do we attend to the threat of the takeover of the new technologies. How can we coexist with ChatGPT in a way that deepens our sense of humanity?  Through transmutation of the “monster in the machine,” technology can actually be used as a tool to enable or enhance creative processes and spark innovative revelation. In addition, we look at the functional qualities of new technologies and correlate and apply these findings to the structural wellbeing of somatic experience.

Module Four continues this expansion of imaginal intelligence, unique genius, metabolizing the quadrants, and reclaiming deep creativity, into the Story-Web. We are now journeying in the The Story-Web of the deep imagination to discover our unique story. We are leaving behind the expectations or stories of others. We meet the archetype of the storyteller. The Storyteller is the presence of the Story Weaver. To be in alignment with our authentic story opens our sense of well-being and activates the healing energies that move through ourselves and others. This is also where we hear the new stories emerging in the community, the collective, and in the world.

Prerequisites: Dream Tending Level II Certificate Program

Live and Interactive Schedule

December 13, 2023 – June 7, 2024

This is a live and interactive program hosted by Dr. Stephen Aizenstat

The Dream Tending and Deep Imagination Certificate III Program is a limited-enrollment program that takes place over four separate three-day modules. The four modules reflect the multiple dimensions of psychic life and the dream.
Space is limited for this event and is reserved for graduates of the Certificate I & II programs. For more information, please reach out to Samantha or Myka at programs@DreamTending.com. Don’t miss out on this special opportunity!

Module One – Cultivating Imaginal Intelligence and Innate Genius

December 13, 14, 15, 2023

When people open their Curious Mind and connect to the Four Quadrants of the Imagination Matrix, their Imaginal Intelligence increases. There are many kinds of intelligence—intellectual, emotional, physiological, to name but a few. Imaginal Intelligence is the capacity to utilize the insights from the multiplicity of forces that inform all things seen and unseen. These supercharged sparks are generated by the many interconnected points of the Imagination Matrix. Like the genetic messages located in your biological DNA, dreamers are encoded with an Imaginal Intelligence. We experience the expanded imagination as a kind of inheritance, as we reconnect somatically and imaginally with the playful states of our inner Creatrix. Dream Tending III supports sustained access to the body’s instinctual knowledge and somatic wisdom for self-healing. Shifting context between the micro and the macro, as dream tenders have done in our Dig experiences between the worldview and the cosmic view, opens the reception. As awareness of somatic experience grows, Imaginal Intelligence enlivens. As the body relaxes and life force flows, breath deepens and the heart warms. Getting a larger perspective sparks creativity. Space is opened for the unexpected, for intuition, and for abstraction. Journeying in the deep imagination begins with the Dig to open the Curious Mind. Numinous imagery comes forward. As this experience unfolds, brain wave activity shifts from the alpha state to the theta state. Research demonstrates that theta brain wave activity increases as the journey through deep imagination continues, and so does Imaginal Intelligence. Advanced dream tending involves deepening in the spiral of active practices and dream tending skills building to access and live illuminated from within the Imagination Matrix.  The glimpses and occasional profound states become further integrated into everyday life.

Concepts covered:

  • Deep imagination as the home place of creativity
  • The neurobiology of deep imagination states, including shifting from alpha to theta
  • Cultivating sustained theta states
  • Advanced skills in spotting and opening portals to creativity, in waking and dreaming life
  • Sustaining contact and relationship with the realms, places, and figures of the deep imagination
  • Methods for enhancing imaginal intelligence
  • Identification of Unique Genius, our personal “superpower”
  • Listening for hints of call and purpose
  • Aligning our Unique Genius with the call for planetary healing and social justice
  • Cultivating relationship with the Illuminated Supportive Soul Companions and Shadow Companions of Curiosity, the Creatrix, and/or Unique Genius 

Module Two – At the Generative Confluence of the Imagination Matrix System

February 21, 22, 23, 2024

The resources available in the Imagination Matrix seed new ideation, creativity, and innovation. More than a theoretical idea, the Imagination Matrix is a fertile medium for problem-solving and a potent incubator of new solutions. In a world that requires nonlinear innovation, it is imperative to have a process to reimagine old structures in new ways to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. The Imagination Matrix System transforms the elements of the Four Quadrants so they can be optimized and applied. This methodology combines cutting-edge research and breakthrough applications from the fields of earth sciences, depth psychology, new technology, and cosmology. In Module Two, we learn and practice the Quick Shift Protocol for dropping from rational mind to Curious mind. From this place, dream tenders ask orienting questions in each of the four quadrants, receive insights from each of the four quadrants, then attain confluence to integrate the new possible. Module Two dwells at the confluence of the four quadrants,  which can be applied to family, business, individual, and community contexts. We examine four case studies with abundant exercises.

Concepts Covered:

  • Refresh on the four dimensions/quadrants of the Imagination Matrix: earth, mind, machine, universe
  • Systematizing the understanding of the four dimensions of the Imagination Matrix
  • Working at the confluence of the four quadrants in tending dreams
  • Applying the Tools of the System of the Imagination Matrix in different settings
  • The Quick Shift Protocol for moving from rational mind to activate the curious mind
  • Asking orienting questions and receiving insights from each of the four quadrants
  • Attaining confluence to integrate the new possible
  • Cultivating relationship with the Illuminated Supportive Soul Companions and Shadow Companions of Convergence or Alchemy

Module Three – Living a Soul-Centered Life: Keeping our Humanity in the Digital Age

April 10, 11, 12, 2024

As machine driven technology increases, so too must human consciousness evolve. Keeping your humanity in a technological world requires both humans and machines to evolve in co-creative, collaborative ways. This module explores how the very ingenuity, creativity, and imagination that went into creating the technology from the beginning offers the Imaginal Healing needed to prevent disharmony and live a Soul-Centered Life. In Module Three we discover how the relationship to the Imagination Matrix is what treats the alienation caused by the too muchness of technology and, in turn, sustains connection to the well-springs of our essential humanity. Living images of dreams and imagination are seen as originating in all sectors of the Imagination Matrix, including new applications of technology. Tools and methods of working with embodied images that give voice to the omnipresence of new technologies will be offered. Case examples illuminate how the psyche of children, family systems, the workplace, and community life are being shaped in pathological ways by the imposition, often intrusion of new technologies In counter distinction, skill sets are presented that describe new possibilities of integrating digital information in generative ways. These modes of learning enhance, rather than limit, the embrace of a soul-centered life. Module Three is designed to increase a sense of Deep Belonging and Humanity in the technological world of today.

Concepts Covered:

  • The relationship between the Imagination Matrix and Technology
  • Working with living images of dreams and imagination in keeping humanity alive in a technological world.
  • Exploring the interactive nature of machines and people: challenges and opportunities
  • Living a Soul-Centered Life in a data driven culture
  • “The Monster in the Machine” — the fear of the “take-over” – the psychological/emotional/physiological impact on human development
  • Re-imagining family life and the workplace in the context of living in a digital world
  • Including imaginal figures and avatars in clinical work – challenges and opportunities
  • Technology and teenagers – navigating a new “playing field” –
  • Digital Natives in the world of today and tomorrow – from psychopathology to psycho-possibility
  • Cultivating relationship with the Illuminated Supportive Soul Companions and Shadow Companions  of the Imagination-Centered Life

Module Four – The Story-Web of Deep Imagination: Healing Self and World

June 5, 6, 7, 2024

The Story-Web exists behind the veil of the Imagination Matrix. This vast interactive network of meta-patterns holds the interconnection of ideas, myths, and dreams across space and time. Module Four is a “deep dive” into the imaginal genius of this realm of never-ending story. Here we learn to listen to stories that implicate personal life, and too, awakening stories that tell of the pull of the future. This web is the home ground of the archetypal Soul-Companion, Storyteller.   We explore cross culturally the role this central elder figure plays in the articulation and evolution of community life. Skills and methods of hearing the Storyteller open the ways of standing in our authenticity and inherent purpose are presented. We discover once again that the language of the Imagination Matrix is Story. Through sensation, myth, and dreams the stories that come forward from the Imagination Matrix are distinctly different from narratives that are by and large imposed by other people’s or institution’s expectations and judgements. Stories originating in the Story-Web are based on the generative abundance found in the Imagination Matrix.  They tell of the healing needed for personal and world well-being. In this module, we look back to historical concepts of the “mundis imaginalis” and forward to newly applied models of the “intersubjective imaginal fields.”  Module Four describes ways of accessing the Story-Web to attain the new possible in personal and professional life. Particularized skills and exercises are offered for student use. Demonstration, dyad work, case examples, and discussion further enhance the learning.

Concepts Covered:

  • The concept of The Story-Web of Deep Imagination
  • How the Story-Web informs personal and collective life
  • Differentiating between native stories originating in the Story-Web and scripted stories deriving from other peoples’ expectations and/or agenda
  • The impact of data generated stores on the quality of life for individuals and communities.
  • The role of the archetypal Soul-Companion, Storyteller
  • An in-depth look at the concepts “mundis imaginalis” and the “intersubjective imaginal field”
  • Ways of accessing and navigating the Story-Web
  • Discovering the new-possible in the emerging stories illuminated in the Story-Web
  • In-depth experimentation with tools, methods, and approaches of utilizing the resources of the Story-Web for wellbeing . . . concept of The Story-Web as an ongoing process with a life and momentum of its own making . . .
  • The Story-Web as a mode of healing for Self and World – a “psychotherapeutic praxis”
  • The value of living in a larger story in relation to treating anxiety disorders, depressive/isolating behaviors, and in the treatment of PTSD
  • Listening to the fate of the planet tell of its evolution through the creatures, things, landscapes, and persons located in the Story-Web of Deep Imagination
  • Cultivating relationship with the Illuminated Supportive Soul Companions and Shadow Companions of Story Weaver

Earn 40 Continuing Education Credits

40 continuing education credits are available for MFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEPs through the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (provider #67021), for RNs through the California Board of Registered Nurses (provider #CEP 7177), and for psychologists through the California Psychological Association (PAC014). Pacifica Graduate Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Full attendance at the program is required to receive a certificate. A $40 fee will be charged for each certificate requested.

Certificate III Benefits

  1. Certificate III is an advanced training program designed to broaden the mastery of skills and the depth of personal experience
  2. Graduates of Certificate III may find teaching opportunities in the Dream Tending community, and in Certificates I and II
  3. Graduates are also eligible to apply to train as mentors of the Academy of Imaginal Arts and Sciences

Join the Certificate Cohort Community

Application Process

To learn more about the Dream Tending Certificate programs, please contact Samantha or Myka at programs@dreamtending.com or 805-770-0195 and schedule a phone call or Zoom video meeting to discuss questions, program price, and payment plan options. Limited spaces are available on a first-come first serve basis. 

Meet Dr. Stephen Aizenstat


Stephen Aizenstat, Ph.D., is the Founder of Dream Tending, Pacifica Graduate Institute, and Academy of Imaginal Arts and Sciences. He is a world-renowned Professor of Depth Psychology, an imagination specialist, and innovator. He has served as an organizational consultant to major companies, institutions, Hollywood films, and has lectured extensively in the U.S., Asia, and Europe. He is affiliated with the Earth Charter International project through the United Nations where he has spoken. He has collaborated with many notable masters in the field including Joseph Campbell, James Hillman, Marion Woodman, and Robert Johnson.

General Information

*Continuing Education Credits
40 continuing education credits are available for MFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEPs through the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (provider #67021), for RNs through the California Board of Registered Nurses (provider #CEP 7177), and for psychologists through the California Psychological Association (PAC014). Pacifica Graduate Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Full attendance at the program is required to receive a certificate. A $40 fee will be charged for each certificate requested.

 

Module One Learning Outcomes

By the end of this module, students will demonstrate the ability to:

  1. Utilize or explain two characteristics of portal awareness in waking life

  2. Describe at least two ways the use of  portals differ in dream life versus waking life

  3. Connect how one portal of imagination can lead to imaginal journeying

  4. Describe one way an individual can somatically downshifts from alpha to theta states through sustained imaginal journeying

  5. Describe two aspects of  your own heroic ego, germinated from the deep imagination

  6. Discuss two aspects of your personal call and purpose that have been sourced from the journeys in deep imagination

  7. Demonstrate two to three creative insights from the imaginal processes that can be utilized as proposals for innovation

  8. Design or plan one way you can cultivate a relationship with the Illuminated Supportive Soul Companions

  9. Design or plan one way you can cultivate a relationship with the Shadow Companions of Curiosity

  10. Design or plan one way you can cultivate a relationship with the Creatrix and/or Unique Genius

Module Two Learning Outcomes

By the end of this module, the student will demonstrate the ability to:

  1. Demonstrate one way to use the Quick Shift Protocol to shift states of consciousness into curiosity

  2. Describe at least one characteristic unique to the earth domain of the Imagination Matrix.

  3. Describe at least one characteristic unique to  the mind domain of the Imagination Matrix.

  4. Describe at least one characteristic unique to the machine domain of the Imagination Matrix.

  5. Describe at least one characteristic unique to the universe domain of the Imagination Matrix.

  6. Identify one orienting question that would allow accessibility to insights from the earth domain.

  7. Identify one orienting question that would allow accessibility to insights from the mind domain.

  8. Identify one orienting question that would allow accessibility to insights from the machine domain.

  9. Identify one orienting question that would allow accessibility to insights from the universe domain.

  10. Explain two aspects or insights of the confluence at the intersections of the Four Quadrants

Module Three Learning Outcomes

By the end of this module, the student will demonstrate the ability to:

  1. Identify one way dehumanizing technologies threaten human imagination.

  2. Describe one way that machine learning and artificial intelligence can open up creative possibilities for humanity.

  3. Describe one way that machine learning and artificial intelligence can open up creative possibilities for earth.

  4. Connect one way how to work with living images of dreams and imagination to keep the mind alive in a technological world

  5. Identify three ways for sustaining a soul-centered life in a data-driven culture.

  6. Demonstrate one way to use the Quick Shift Protocol move from isolation into relationship

  7. List three ways in which the use of imaginal figures or avatars in family life, the workplace and in a clinical setting can be beneficial in the context of living in a digital world

  8. List three ways in which the use of imaginal figures or avatars in family life, the workplace and in a clinical setting can be detrimental in the context of living in a digital world

  9. Explain one way to use the quick shift protocol when feeling overtaken by technology

  10. Discuss two indicators of a shift from psychopathology to psycho-possibility

Module Four Learning Outcomes

By the end of this module, the student will demonstrate the ability to:

  1. Differentiate two aspects of emergent stories originating in the Story-Web from scripted stories deriving from others peoples’ expectations and/or agenda

  2. Create one multimedia project that describes the figure of the archetypal Soul-Companion, Storyteller

  3. Plan one way the concept of the Story-Web can utilize therapeutic contexts as a mode of healing for the self in the the workplace

  4. Plan one way the concept of the Story-Web can utilize therapeutic contexts as a mode of healing for the world in the the workplace

  5. Identify one way expanded sourcing in the Story-Web can support living a larger story in relation to those facing challenges with anxiety

  6. Identify one way expanded sourcing in the Story-Web can support living a larger story in relation to those facing challenges with isolating behaviors

  7. Discuss two insights of the living world telling of its evolution through the creatures located in the Story-Web of Deep Imagination

  8. Discuss two insights of the living world telling of its evolution through the inanimate objects located in the Story-Web of Deep Imagination

  9. Discuss two insights of the living world telling of its evolution through the landscape Located in the Story-Web of Deep Imagination

  10. Discuss two insights of the living world telling of its evolution through the persons located in the Story-Web of Deep Imagination

 

Continuing Education Credit
This program meets the qualifications for 24 hours of continuing education credit for Psychologists through the California Psychological Association (PAC014) Pacifica Graduate Institute is approved by the California Psychological Association to provide continuing education for psychologists.  Pacifica Graduate Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content.  Full attendance is required to receive a certificate.

This course meets the qualifications for 24 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.  Pacifica Graduate Institute is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (#60721) to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs.  Pacifica Graduate Institute maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content.  Full attendance is required to obtain a certificate.

For Registered Nurses through the California Board of Registered Nurses, this conference meets qualifications of 24 hours of continuing education credit are available for RNs through the California Board of Registered Nurses (provider #CEP 7177).  Full attendance is required to obtain a certificate.

Pacifica Graduate Institute is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs.  Pacifica Graduate Institute maintains responsibility for each program and its content.  Full day attendance is required to receive a certificate.

Continuing Education Goal.  Pacifica Graduate Institute is committed to offering continuing education courses to train LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEPs to treat any client in an ethically and clinically sound manner based upon current accepted standards of practice.  Course completion certificates will be awarded at the conclusion of the training and upon participant’s submission of his or her completed evaluation.

CECs and Online Program Attendance: Participants requesting Continuing Education Credits (CECs) for Online programs must attend all live sessions (offered via Zoom) in order to receive CECs. Please make sure that your Zoom account name matches the name of the attendee requesting CECs.

 

Enroll Today
To enroll and secure your place, we encourage you to call or write Samantha, the Program Director now in order to explore enrollment options.  Please email programs@DreamTending.com, or call 805-770-0195.

 

Schedule a Time to Talk
Please feel free to schedule a time to contact Samantha, the Program Coordinator by clicking here, or email with any questions at programs@DreamTending.com or call 805-770-0195.

 

Payment Plans Available
Please contact programs@DreamTending.com regarding payment plans.

 

Location
Use of Pacifica Graduate Institute Lambert campus is pending on Pacifica’s campus reopening plans.

 

Cancellations
Cancellations 21 days or more prior to the program start date receive a 100% refund of program registrations. After 21 days, no refund is available, but the balance will be transferred to a future program.