Dennis Merritt, LCSW

I’m a Jungian analyst and ecopsychologist with a strong biological background (PhD from Berkeley in entomology [insects]) and a deep connection to the land having grown up on a small dairy farm in Wisconsin in the 1950s. I take a wholistic, ecological look at the individual starting with the relationship to the “little people within” the dream world and extending that to social, cultural, and environmental connections and pathologies.

My forte is dreamwork which is one of the most powerful forms of therapy and I look for ways to use dreams to connect us more deeply to the land, an important aspect of ecopsychology. My psychological foundation is what James Hollis calls “Old Zurich” with an emphasis on symbol, archetypes and dreams. Hollis and Marion Woodman were in training with me at the original Jung Institute in Zurich where I got my diploma in 1983. I’ve had decades of participation in Lakota Sioux ceremonies which have strongly influenced my worldview, and I understand why Vine Deloria, Jr., Native American writer and philosopher, said Jungian psychology is the best Western framework for approaching the indigenous worldview. I have traveled and taught in China and use the I Ching, a profound book of Chinese wisdom, personally and in my practice when appropriate. 

Jung foretold a paradigm shift, what in 1940 he labeled a “new age” and “Age of Aquarius”, that I maintain will have an ecological framework. I am particularly concerned about the future of young people and present them with the exciting challenge to bring about a paradigm shift which means a total change in our psychological, educational, economic, social, political and spiritual systems that will have the environment at its core and not a resource base and waste dump as currently construed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMhFhMmrkU8). 

My blog JungianEcopsychology.com has articles on climate change, George Floyd, “Guns and American Psyche”, “Cinderella” and “Iron Hans” fairytale interpretations, and many other topics. The foundational concepts are to be found in my four volumes of The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe—Jung, Hermes, and Ecopsychology. 

Professional affiliation is with the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts.

To schedule an appointment contact me at dmerritt@medpsychmke.com or select me as your preferred provide on our contact form.

Provider location: I work with adult individuals in person at the Northshore clinic and via teletherapy dealing with depression, anxiety, grief and men’s issues.