This panel will address “The Myth of the Body and the Body of Myth”
The ancient connection between the body and the stories that humankind has crafted around the body’s functions, purpose, and capabilities has been a key theme in mythological narratives for thousands of years. Healing, both physical and psychological, has been approached through forms ranging from rituals to mindful practices. In this panel, leaders from the Joseph Campbell Foundation will be in conversation with each other and with Renda Dionne Madrigal, PhD, a Turtle Mountain Chippewa clinical psychologist, around Campbell’s ideas concerning myth and healing, as well as practices from the cultures and traditions he studied, including those of First Nations people.
Renda Dionne Madrigal, PhD, Clinical Psychologist at Mindful Practice, Inc.
Renda is a Turtle Mountain Chippewa clinical psychologist and UCLA certified mindfulness facilitator. Featured on the cover of Mindful magazine in 2018, her workshops on Mindful Families, Storytelling as Healing, and Theatre of the Oppressed are popular nationally in the United States. She has over 20 years of experience creating and directing evidence-based family and child programs for better health. She regularly incorporates storytelling, writing, and mindfulness into her work. Her new book, The Mindful Family Guidebook, is available from Penguin/Random House.
Bradley Olson, Phd, MythBlast Series Editor at the Joseph Campbell Foundation
Brad is currently a psychotherapist in private practice at Mountain Waves Healing Arts in Flagstaff, Arizona. His work with clients is heavily influenced by his interest in Jungian analytical psychology and mythological studies. Brad is also the author of the acclaimed Falstaff Was My Tutor blog, which earned him a nomination for the 2012 Pushcart Prize in nonfiction.
Robert Walter, President of the Joseph Campbell Foundation
In 1979, Bob began work with Joseph Campbell on several projects, including Campbell’s multivolume Historical Atlas of World Mythology, for which Bob became editorial director. As Campbell’s literary executor, following the famed mythologist’s death in 1987, Bob completed and supervised the posthumous publication of the Historical Atlas. In 1990, when Bob and Joseph Campbell’s widow, Jean Erdman, together with his family and close friends, founded the Joseph Campbell Foundation (JCF), Bob was named vice president and executive director. He was appointed JCF president in 1998. He has spoken internationally about the connections between myth and healing.
This panel will be moderated by Joanna Gardner, PhD, Senior Editor on the Editorial Advisory Group at the Joseph Campbell Foundation.
