We park by the gingko and walk along a stone path through a torii-style gate. The air is filled with jasmine. We pass by a bamboo fountain and enter into a high-fenced, lush miniature Japanese landscape. We pass maples, green mounds, tall stones, and an ancient, moss-covered stone basin into which water drips slowly from bamboo. A small black dog, clearly under the delusion he is a bird, is leaping heroically in an attempt to open a sliding door to welcome us. His plumed tail is waving madly with ecstasy.

Hi! I’m Jill! You’ve already met my dog!

Jill tries to dampen the dog’s enthusiasm, which is as large as they each are small; the dog clearly thinks we’re interviewing the wrong person. We enter an office through wide sliding doors that open onto the garden and we settle in to armchairs in the off-white room. A wall of books covers every topic from Eastern philosophy to Danish artists. Small Japanese chests host vases of iris; there are peaceful landscape paintings. The dog settles in the center of a Tibetan rug....

You have an unusual accent!

I’m Australian by birth and upbringing but I’ve lived In California for donkey’s years. My accent is probably mid-Pacific! Hawaii!?

Everyone seems to call you something different--artist, therapist, writer.... Who’s the real Jill?

All of them! It depends which hour of the day you catch me!

But what’s your main work?

I’ve been in private practice as a Jungian-oriented psychogist in Palo Alto [California] for over twenty-five years. However, I don’t only "do" Jungian work; for example, I enjoy expanding at times using my background in the expressive arts. I also founded and for many years directed the masters and doctoral programs in creative expression at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. I enjoy accepting invitations to present at conferences and workshops all over--but not too many because I’m an addicted painter and photographer--and I love to write books and poetry.

Your first studies were in literature, weren’t they?

My first graduate degree was in English at the University of Queensland [Australia]. My mother was--and is--a composer and pianist but she’s a reader and gave me a love of books and after long careers in other professions, my father chose academic life teaching and publishing Australian literary history. The arts have always been part of my life.

After you graduated, what did you do?

I taught English at high school and university and then directed a distance education program training people in trades and technical jobs. It was a great introduction to about 40 professions with which I had little familiarity; we had 7,000 multicultural students in Australasia.

But how did you end up as a psychotherapist?!

Well, there was another profession in there first! When I came to California, I freelanced as a textbook editor for a few years. Then I knew I needed to pursue my fascination with psychology-- the power of word and image to express and heal; the connection between psyche and symbolic self-expression, between spirit and matter..... I found a doctoral program that included that orientation.

You’re interested in Native Americans, too, aren’t you? How did someone from Australia come to be interested in the Pueblo Indians?

I was introduced to New Mexico early in my time in the States and I’ve spent many very hot summers and some freezing Christmases there. I worked or just spent time with friends in the Pueblos. I worked as a psych intern, for example,at the Indian Hospital. Another summer, I studied at the Santa Fe Institute of Fine Arts--and then for 17 years I went back and forth on other trips writing a biography of a remarkable Native American woman, Geronima Montoya, with a co-author friend.

Seventeen years?! That’s a long time to take to write a book!

Well, I was working full time and had a full personal life. Also my Native American friends have a different sense of time and find Anglo questioning rude and tiresome, so writing a biography with the cooperation and approval of all participants was a challenge!

Now where does your interest in yoga fit in to all this?

It doesn’t "fit in." It just weaves itself quietly in and out. I’ve always been interested in contemplative traditions and practices since I was in my teens. When I took a course in raja yoga during my doctoral studies, it was like recognizing an old friend. I studied kundalini yoga and meditation practices for about 12 years and received permission to teach.

You travel a lot. For travel’s sake? Pleasure? Work?

I got the travel bug early. My family had all travelled and I was captivated by their photographs and stories. I borrowed money from my father and went to Papua New Guinea to see where he had spent the war. I stayed with two tribes. I was hooked! As soon as I had worked to save some money, I spent a year travelling around the world; lots of Australians do that.

I love to learn about other cultures and arts. Travel also lets me explore the influence of place on the psyche. I’ve been able to travel to over 20 countries to see how the arts are used. I’ve gone back and back to special places-- France, Japan, Greece.... I use many images from my travels in my art.

When do you find time to write ?

Early in the morning and late in the evening!

Why those books in particular? Dreams, for example?

I’ve recorded my dreams since I was 11. I explored them with Jungian analysts. I also took courses at the Jung institute in Zurich and San Francisco, and others in Italy and Barbados. I got interested in crosscultural dreamwork and started making up nonlinear, multimedia ways to explore dreams.... My lifelong personal, academic, and clinical fascination with dreaming gave birth to two books on dreams. The book I wrote with Marion Woodman grew out of our long friendship: it was a joy to create together and gave me an excuse to illustrate with watercolors.


How do you find time for your painting and photography?

With difficulty! I tuck it into weekends and trips. That’s how I work with my poetry, too.

Ever bored?

Never! I look forward to every office hour. The people I see teach me so much. You never know what’s going to unfold--it’s like making art together! My problem is the opposite: finding time for my other passions!

[Permission to reprint. From an interview with a friend and colleague.]

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