The Montague
Ullman-approach of Working with Dreams in a Group Setting
The MARI: Shining a Flashlight
Into Your Own Psyche
Michele (Shelley) Takei
has a PhD in Transpersonal
Psychology. She is the president and co-owner of MARI Resources
and MARI Creative Resources. Shelley has taught psychology and
counseling in both traditional and non-traditional settings. She
is a Board Certified Counselor and has a private practice in
Raleigh, NC.
Abstract
We propose a workshop to
introduce participants to the Mandala Assessment Research
Instrument (MARI), a projective tool developed in Art Therapy by
the late Joan Kellogg. This instrument evolved largely out of the
archetype and symbol work of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell.
Participants will be invited to take an abbreviated, sample
version of the MARI. This workshop is envisioned as a totally
interactive experience.
Each participant will
receive three handout pages. The first page asks the participant
to choose two preferred symbol shapes out of five displayed.
Meanings for the displayed symbols are given in this exercise,
although this is not the case when the MARI is formally
administered to a client. In a formal administration of the MARI,
clients are simply asked to pick six preferred symbols and one
they dislike from a group of thirty-nine laid out in front of
them. The workshop participant is then asked to think of a current
issue that has personal significance. The issue is written down.
The participant is asked to choose one symbol from a group of
three that represents possible guidance for that issue.
Page
two of the three handouts asks the workshop participant to match a
color to each of the symbols (three in total) chosen. Six colors
are displayed out of forty-three color choices available in the
formal MARI. Potential attributes are given for the displayed
colors. Once again, these attributes would not be available to a
potential client during a formal administration of the MARI, but
are given as part of this workshop. Several questions are then put
to workshop participants as the attributes of the symbols are
merged with those of the colors. Can you intuitively link a color
with the associated attribute? What do your symbol and color
choices say about where you are in your life and on what levels
you are functioning? How does the attribute associated with your
chosen symbol and color help to resolve the issue you wrote down?
The
final handout shows how the symbol shapes correspond to one of the
thirteen stages of the Great Archetypal Round. The Great Round
reflects stages of development and growth. In the second phase of
this workshop, volunteers from the entire group will be invited to
take a more expanded version of the MARI to be shared as an
instructional exercise. There will be an explicit agreement
entered into by all participants to honor the confidentiality of
each of the volunteers who choose to share their MARI with the
group for strictly instructional purposes. Nothing discussed will
leave the workshop and personal information will not be solicited
from any of the volunteers. The discussion of symbol/color
combinations will not extend to a “diagnosis” or “treatment plan”.
Rather, the symbol/color combinations will serve as instructional
examples of how the MARI works. The MARI is a self-revelatory
instrument. Clients experience vivid insights into their own
psyche as the synergy of stage, symbol, and color manifest on the
Great Round, similar to how dreams are interpreted.
