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Jasenn Zaejian
Dr. Jasenn Zaejian retired from a long career as a well trained clinical psychologist.
Initially completing a Gestalt Therapy training program with trainers who had been trained b...view moreDr. Jasenn Zaejian retired from a long career as a well trained clinical psychologist.
Initially completing a Gestalt Therapy training program with trainers who had been trained by Frederick Perls, et al, while simultaneously attending graduate school in Los Angeles, he went on to study with George Dillinger, M.D., a psychiatrist who was trained by John Pierrakos, M.D., the creator of core energetics, an offshoot of orgonomy. For the next two years, he met with Dr. Dillinger in weekly individual and group training sessions, learning core energetics, nutritional and Tibetan Buddhist healing approaches. His initial Ph.D. dissertation proposal on "schizophrenia" was rejected by the school, as it involved a prospective study. Stimulated by studying the works of Wilhelm Reich on the Cancer Biopathy, he chose a research dissertation topic on cancer and personality. Dr. Dillinger became a crucial member of his doctoral committee.
During his doctoral program, he was influenced by his professors, existential analysts Rollo May, Ph.D. and Viktor Framkl, M.D. the social anthropologist, Ashley Montague, Ph.D. and the sociologist Herbert Blumer, Ph.D. He had a number of classes with each of them.
After earning a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, personal issues and an interest in Buddhist healing provided the impetus to briefly volunteer and live at a Chan Buddhist monastery, participating in the study of Buddhist thought.
During his post-doctoral internship, he completed another training program in Gestalt Therapy, with notables, including Isadore From, the first person to be trained in Gestalt Therapy by Frederick and Laura Perls after they immigrated to the U.S.
He then moved to Nebraska to accept a position providing a valuable learning experience in neuropsychology, an interest he acquired in an independent study and training course, during graduate school. In that 4 year period, he took an extended tutorial at a sleep study center, learning how sleep disturbances affect depression and other health concerns.
Upon moving back to New York, for the next 22 years he attended many workshops at the Jung Institute. For more than a decade he volunteered as a Red Cross Disaster Mental Health team member and supervisor for disasters, including airline disasters and the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center terrorist attack where he served as the acting officer on the evening shift for the Red Cross crisis counseling operation. Following that tragic and stressful operation, where he saw how a local politician manipulated the facts for political advantage, he decided to retire from volunteering for crisis duties.
After a brief and painful second marriage, he worked as a "patient" with a medical orgonomist in weekly and bi-weekly sessions. He continued on for five years to see how close he might come to the orgonomic definition of the healthy character. His orgonomist had training sessions with Reich and was trained by Reich's successor, Ellsworth Baker. Seeing first hand, the exceptional characterological restructuring and healing benefits of a biophysical approach, it was then that he became immersed in the study of orgonomy and the work of Wilhelm Reich. Reich had provided a primary influence in the development of Gestalt Therapy (as Reich was Frederick Perls' analyst). He also completed training in Thought Field Therapy (TFT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP).
Following a 30 year career in public service as a clinical psychologist and neuropsychologist, developing and operating two neuropsychology labs, and holding positions as a clinical supervisor and in psychiatric hospital management, he retired and returned to California. He was then employed as a consultant and a graduate school adjunct professor.
He is now pursuing literary interests in non-fiction and fiction writing, as well as art and music.view less