Background

While growing up my involvement in the arts provided pivotal support and guidance as I grew into young adulthood. Before I understood anything about therapy or psychoanalysis, I encountered the transformative processes through my engagement with the creative process. Such nonverbal experiences as improvisational dance and process painting revealed how the creative instinct, play, and imagination can shift levels of awareness and states of consciousness. These continued explorations with the creative realm and multimodal expressions as well and meditation practices continue to inform my understanding of psychological work.

Nora Swan-Foster | Jungian Analyst and Art Psychotherapist

In 1983, I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in English Literature with a focus in Creative Writing. In the attempts to integrate my experiences with the creative processes, I discovered Expressive Arts Therapy, a clinical field that draws on the interactive and integrated nature of the arts for healing and multimodal approaches. In 1986, I earned a Masters in Expressive Arts Therapy, with an Art Therapy focus, from Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I draw on nearly 30 years of clinical experience with people of all ages and in various clinical settings. I am licensed as a Professional Counselor (LPC) in the state of Colorado #2612 and have completed the hours and passed the national exam for the American Art Therapy Association (AATA) Registration and Certification (ATR-BC). I have also completed Colorado’s 6 hour requirement for supervision.

Interested in expanding and deepening my work as a counselor and psychotherapist, I completed my analytic training with the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts (IRSJA), a PhD level training program. My analytic training and supervision hours fulfilled the certification requirements as a psychoanalyst (NCPsyA) under the National Association of the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP). I have other introductory trainings in EMDR resourcing, NLP, Focusing, Psychodrama and Somatic Processing, and I have completed Level Two of Brainspotting with Rocky Mountain Brainspotting.

Over the years I have been influenced by teachers, colleagues, thinkers and supervisors such as Joe McNair, Gus Cwik, Don Kalsched, Suzy Spradlin, Tom Kelly, Mark Winborn, Laurel Howe, Monika Wikman, Stephen Foster, Marcus West, Mary Sue Moore, Alan Schore, Nancy McWilliams, Pie Frye, Larry Junkins, Joan Anderson, Peter London, Shaun McNiff, Laury Rappaport, Michael Franklin and many others. While my artist and analytic attitude has been influenced by a range of brilliant minds, the best teacher has been my abiding engagement with the unconscious through my own artmaking, Jungian analysis and dream work.

Work Experience:
Since 1994, my clinical practice has been in Boulder, Colorado serving the Boulder/Denver/Ft Collins area, but I have worked in various mental health settings, including early intervention nurseries with high risk and neurodivergent children, therapeutic school, residential and outpatient with children, adolescents and adults, and a city hospital environment with a range of medical conditions and people of all ages. During this time, I also conducted independent art therapy research with pregnant women (HRB accepted at Presbyterian St. Lukes Hospital in Denver), which led to several academic presentations and publications. Since 1994 I have taught and been a faculty member at Naropa University. I participated in curriculum development and admissions, and taught graduate art psychotherapy course work, including professional seminar and ethics, adult development, and group dynamics and skills. For 7 years I taught a section of the graduate transpersonal psychology requirement focused on the Introduction to Jung’s concepts and analytical psychology. This led to my book Jungian Art Therapy.

Along with my private practice, I served for 8 years as the local seminar coordinator for the Boulder Association of Jungian Analysts (BAJA), a Jung Study Seminar, which was an affiliate training seminar of the IRSJA, where I regularly taught seminars on analytical psychology until it was closed in the spring 2021. Within the IRSJA, I have served on various exam committees for training. I served on the Journal’s editorial board for five years. Currently I am honored to serve as the North American editor for the Journal of Analytical Psychology, the primary journal for clinical theory and application, published by Wiley Online Library.