It is so hard to find stillness in our world. It's a vanishing, precious resource. Finding it -- especially in community -- can change our lives.

The Jung Center board granted me a sabbatical this summer, and I spent most of it on the road, alone, tent camping across much of the north and west, in tremendous natural beauty. I wanted to make room to be still, to listen. On a cool morning in late July, standing (mostly) alone in a mountain meadow about an hour west of Manitou Springs, Colorado, a clear, unmistakable voice in the stillness told me what I needed to hear.

It is time for me to leave my role as the executive director of The Jung Center. It's a transition, not a departure, which will happen at the end of our fiscal year, on June 30, 2026. My call now is to deepen my work as a wounded healer, a teacher, and a writer, work I will continue to do in The Jung Center community. The board has asked me to serve as a McMillan Institute Scholar, which will include teaching here and advising the staff and board regarding our work across the community.

Twenty-eight years ago, in 1997, I started work here at the reception desk, answering the phone a couple of times an hour and otherwise studying for grad school. When I conclude my time as executive director, I will have served in the role for eleven years, as long as my great mentor and friend, Jim Hollis. My whole adult life has been enriched by this precious community.

In that mountain meadow in late July, I was alone -- but not quite. After five weeks of sabbatical, I had stepped back into my Jung Center role for a week to facilitate a class of Houston leaders doing their own deep inner work in the Colorado high country. They were spread out across a half-mile around me, each sitting in solitude, in the stillness, listening for what each needed to hear.

What had been whispers around the edges of my awareness when I was camping by myself emerged in that moment because of the community around me. I could hear the voice of the Self, clearly, because of the care and integrity with which those leaders were listening to the stillness.

This is why The Jung Center matters. We do not do the work of becoming conscious alone. We recognize what matters most when we are in community. We heal our woundedness in relationships. This is why our divided world needs you to show up, to do the hard work of coming to know your inner divisions and to bridge them. None of us can do it alone.

Our board chair, John Price, along with the executive committee and the board, are beginning the work of guiding The Jung Center through this transition into its next phase. You will hear more in the months to come. Stay tuned.



Sean Fitzpatrick

Executive Director