CIIS Public Programs

What if dreams are not simply images that dissolve upon waking, but living communications from the depths of the soul? CIIS professor Willow Pearson Trimbach and co-author Eva Tuschman Leonard explore how dreams reveal emotional truths that transform psychotherapeutic and spiritual practice. The book just launched and has already drawn recognition from leading voices in psychoanalysis and contemplative practice, and now anyone from the community is welcome to experience the conversation. Want to hear from the authors and meet them in person? Pearson Trimbach and Tuschman Leonard will celebrate the release of The Emotional Truth of Dreams at a book launch event hosted by CIIS Public Programs on July 22, 2026. #IntegralEducation #DiscoverCIIS #ClinicalPsychology #EmotionalTruthOfDreams

How do Audre Lorde and James Baldwin illuminate Buddhism's path to liberation? Join Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad, author of "The Fire Inside," as she explores Dharma through Black, queer, radical thought. Discover how liberation depends on inner well-being, authenticity, art, and embodiment alongside organizing. Learn Buddhist principles through Lorde and Baldwin's enduring legacies. Celebrate how creative fire and love ignite revolutionary transformation. Event name: On Black Buddhism and Radical Thought (Livestream and In Person) Date & Time: Jun 04, 2026, 6:00pm - 7:30pm PDT Location: Online and California Institute of Integral Studies - Main building Tickets: $11 - $32 (Members: Free)

June 4th, 6pm, in-person and online. Use the @anthciis link in bio to sign up! $11 - $32 sliding scale. @ciispubprograms member or happen to be a @ciis_sf prospective student? Get free admission! A co-production of @blackbuddhiststudies and @ciispubprograms with book partner, @marcus.books Join author Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad for a conversation exploring a Dharma of liberation, offering timely lessons to help us meet this moment, using the writings of Audre Lorde and James Baldwin to provide real world examples of this dharma in practice. Dr. Vesely-Flad’s latest book The Fire Inside, examines the writings of Lorde and Baldwin through a Dharmic lens, and discusses how two of America’s greatest literary voices reflect—and expand—Buddhism’s most timeless truths toward justice and liberation. In this conversation with mindfulness teacher Rhonda V. Magee, she will share how the writers’ enduring legacies show that liberation depends not only on organizing and mass movements, but the generative power of inner well-being, authenticity, art, and embodiment. She invites us to examine Baldwin and Lorde through key Buddhist principles such as suffering as teacher, impermanence, karma, anger, and compassion in order to deepen and enhance our own understanding of Buddhism, and liberation. Through her work and writing, Dr. Vesely-Flad centers and celebrates Black, queer, radical thought and invites us to embrace the ways our inner lives, creative fire, sensuality, and expressions of love can ignite and sustain revolutionary liberation. 1. The new book, The Fire Inside: The Dharma of James Baldwin & Audre Lorde on @natlanticbooks 2. Rima Vesely-Flad, PhD 3. Rhonda V. Magee, M.A., J.D.

Can AI deepen human connection? Kaamna Bhojwani and Dr. Michelle Marzullo explore how we can use AI in ways that expand human flourishing. This hybrid event is part of Human + Tech Week 2026. In a world where technology simulates connection, what do we lose—and what might we become? Sexologist Kaamna Bhojwani and AI leader Dr. Michelle Marzullo explore engaging AI not as a substitute but as a tool for deepening human flourishing. As the personal and systemic mirror each other, discover how to create technology that's pro-social and aligned with our values. A necessary conversation for disconnected times. Event name: AI and Human Connection Date & Time: May 12, 2026, 6:00pm - 7:30pm PDT Location: California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco (In-Person and Online) Tickets: $20 (Members: Free)

This illuminating conversation explores the potential role of somatic practices in creative leadership. Somatic practices are practices that aim to bring about positive psychological change through intentional adjustments to how one uses one’s body. Dr. Montuori, a founding faculty member in the Transformative Leadership program at CIIS and co-editor of the Routledge Handbook for Creative Futures, and Dr. Walker, a somatic psychologist and longtime practitioner/teacher of aikido and other forms of somatic work, will examine how such practices can help us to cultivate the psychological capacities associated with effective creative leadership. 👉REGISTRATION LINK: https://www.ciis.edu/events/somatics-and-creative-leadership 👉COMPLIMENTARY TICKET FOR POTENTIAL CIIS STUDENTS: https://apply.ciis.edu/register/?id=46bc184a-20d2-477c-8f2b-af480901e3f8 #ciis #somatics #onlineevent #creativeleadership #creativity

Join CIIS Public Programs, on Wed April 29th (7-8:30pm PDT) for an illuminating conversation exploring the potential role of somatic practices in creative leadership! The discussion will be led by faculty Alfonso Montuori & Nick Walker and include a live Q&A with the audience. Tickets are sliding scale $11-32 and prospective students can receive complimentary tickets! Link with details in our bio. What is creative leadership? It could mean leadership that’s distributed and collaborative, rather than top-down and authoritarian. It could mean leadership that’s flexible enough to continually reinvent its structures and approaches to meet emerging circumstances. It could mean leadership that views diversity and difference as opportunities for learning, growth, and creative synergy rather than as problems to be managed. It could be leadership that actively works toward envisioning and manifesting more positive futures. Ideally, creative leadership is all of these things.

Choosing Earth Day every day! There is a reason CIIS is called an integral institution. For more than five decades, it has brought together mind, body, spirit, community — and Earth. The natural world is a foundational teacher, partner, and home. From experiential learning along waterways to leadership retreats among ancient forests, from ancestral healing practices woven into clinical training to doctoral research conducted at mountain retreat centers, CIIS offers an education rooted in — and in reverence of — our living world. #DiscoverCIIS #IntegralEducation #EarthDayEveryDay #Ecology #EarthDay

Looking for a podcast for Earth Month? Check out a recent episode on our CIIS Public Programs podcast where Rowen White — seedkeeper, author, and founder of Sierra Seeds — joined CIIS Associate Professor of Anthropology and Social Change Michelle Glowa for a conversation about Indigenous seed sovereignty, the politics of food, and what it means to truly nourish a community. #EarthMonth #SeedSoverignty #FoodPolitics #Anthropology #SocialChange

CIIS community @bioneers ! Alex Elliott of CIIS Public Programs and Patty Pforte of Division of Community Engagement and Belonging heading to today’s keynote sessions! Thank you Bioneers! #Bioneers #CIIS #DCEB #BelovedCommunity

✨ ICYMI: Our Desire on the Couch exhibition with @ciis_sf brought together the history behind major shifts in modern understandings of sexuality and gender, including the background behind removing homosexuality from the DSM, alongside this year’s @psychoanalysis_ conference. If you weren’t able to visit the exhibition, here’s a look at 5 things that on display from our Kinsey Institute archives: 1. A letter from Freud stating homosexuality is nothing to be ashamed of and cannot be classified as an illness. 2. Letters and works from influential fine art photographer and the first staff photographer @voguemagazine George Platt Lynes, who donated hundreds of prints to the Kinsey Institute. [photos edited for social media] 3. One-of-a-kind scrapbooks with articles, photos, news clippings and ephemera from self-identified male-to-female cross-dressing activist Louise Lawrence. 4. Letters, journal articles, and position statements detailing years of internal conflict, fears of politicization, and professional debate surrounding the removal of homosexuality from the DSM. 5. Flyers, leaflets, conference notes, and other materials from activist organizations advocating for change.

Use our link in bio @ciis_somatics for tickets to this March 21, 10am to 4pm online workshop! Free admission also available for CIIS prospective students! Your body holds the story of your life. It also holds the key to your healing. A deeper understanding of how trauma works within your body can be incredibly empowering. Learning breath and movement techniques to support your body’s natural process to release chronic tension, self-restricting patterns, and emotional trauma clears the way for feelings of joy, self-love, and deep relaxation. Join somatic psychotherapist & trauma educator Jennifer McKeever for a transformative workshop exploring the BioDynamic Breathwork & Trauma Release System®. In this experiential workshop, participants learn how to gently unwind the effects of stress and trauma from the body through the 6-Element approach to empower the body’s natural process for healing. Learn how trauma lives in the body and how to safely release it through somatic awareness and breath. Experience guided breathwork journeys that help you calm your mind or energize your system. Understand the role of the nervous system in emotional healing and discover simple daily practices to support regulation, relaxation, and embodied resilience. Through guided breath, movement, sound, touch, and meditation, you’ll learn to release chronic tension, shift stuck emotional energy, and reconnect with your natural flow of aliveness. Jennifer invites you to release the layers of armoring and tension your body has carried for years, freeing up tremendous energy for creativity, connection, and joy. This event is open to everyone* and no prior experience with breathwork or trauma healing is required. Whether you’re curious about somatic approaches or already on a healing path, you’ll gain practical tools to support ongoing integration in your daily life. *If you’re in your first trimester of pregnancy, have a history of seizures, or are recovering from a recent traumatic brain injury, please consult your physician before participating.

Link in bio for tickets! @east_west_psychology and @anthciis Free if you happen to be a @ciis_sf prospective student! April 2, 7pm Pacific Time online. . For centuries, Filipino lifeways were presented to outsiders through the distorted lens of colonization—and the oppression, exploitation, and denigration suffered by Filipino ancestors are well-documented. In his work, psychologist and author Carl Lorenz Cervantes draws from Filipino folklore, language, and culture to reorient toward an Indigenous worldview: one that rejects being seen as a passive object in history. Join Carl for a powerful conversation exploring Indigenous Filipino worldviews for embodied well-being. Drawing from his latest book, Sikodiwa, in which he reclaims Filipino identity, storytelling, and liberation on Filipino terms. In this illuminating conversation, Carl discusses how to restore Indigenous worldviews using the lens of creation myths, folk healing, native spirituality, and mystical realities. He examines the processes of decolonization and how to navigate the complexities of identity to reconnect with our most authentic selves. Carl also shares how we can apply vital cultural frameworks to our own self-help and empowerment practices, from learning to use existential tools like Bahala na (letting go of burden) to understanding the inherently collective meaning-making of Kasaysayan (history). Carl shares how to uplift Indigenized Filipino ways of knowing and offers a timely and inspired path toward collective consciousness, cultural authenticity, and embodied well-being.