“Nothing so promotes the growth of consciousness as this inner confrontation of opposites.”
Rapunzel is a tale which traces the long and difficult journey from psychic enclosure toward the restoration of embodied feminine soul-life.
A wife’s craving for the rapunzel plant sets in motion a series of events that unfold as an entire psychological process.
Through Rapunzel’s imprisonment within the witch’s tower, her meeting with the Prince through song, and her long period of exile, we witness the gradual re-emergence of instinct, eros, creativity, and relatedness.
In this talk we will explore Rapunzel’s encounters with opposing psychic forces including, the witch as a controlling complex, the dualistic psychic meaning of the tower as protective and imprisoning, rupture, exile, and suffering as part of the journey toward wholeness and the role of creativity and symbolic life during periods of psychic transformation.
Amelia Ducker is a Jungian-oriented psychotherapist practising in Richmond, Melbourne, where she works in private practice with adolescents and adults.
Prior to clinical training in counselling and psychotherapy, Amelia trained in Theatre Devising and Art & Community Engagement.
For a number of years, she facilitated groups and also worked creatively with neurodiverse young people, creating a series of theatre works, ‘Genius’, initially for the Festival of Live Art in Melbourne. This was followed by the documentary King Carl the Cool, which premiered at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival.
More recently, her creative practice has shifted towards music and songwriting.
Amelia’s work is grounded in an ongoing engagement with dreams, symbol, imagination and the individuation process.