Anthony: “Meridian provided me with a path on how to walk with others in their darkest times.”

I am a licensed psychologist and graduate of Meridian University. I earned both a masters and doctoral degree from Meridian. I was a member of Cohort Nine and a volunteer teaching assistant for five years following the end of my coursework. I am also a former crisis supervisor and clinical supervisor of the Children System of Care (CSOC), and former clinical supervisor at the Mount Shasta office of Siskiyou County Behavioral Health.

I chose to go to Meridian University (then known as the Institute of Imaginal Studies after reading about it in Common Ground Magazine that spoke to me profoundly about reclaiming soul as the basis of psychological practice; recognizing the need for developing personal capacities such as collaboration, responsibility, and empathy; and doing this through both ancient and modern practices of spiritual traditions, indigenous wisdom, mythology, imagination, somatic practices, expressive arts, ecology, and social critique. These things spoke to my own interests and my deep longing to work in service to those in need.

Meridian University was offering something unique, something different in the way that psychology was being taught. There have been many luminaries in the field that had written in reference to Imaginal Psychology, such as Henry Corbin, James Hillman, Jean Houston, and Robert Romanyshyn. However, at Meridian, Aftab Omer was fleshing out a practical way of teaching and practicing it as a unique and new orientation of psychology. He possesses a brilliance in his capacity to organize thought in this way. I found Aftab Omer and Melissa Schwartz to be open and caring towards their students. And for those who were listening, they were also providing a foreshadowing of what was needed to work, survive, and excel in the field of psychology.

At the core of teaching of Imaginal Psychology was developing human capacities within its students that included, but was not limited to, capacities of empathy, collaboration, responsibility, and humility. These things are not book-taught. Human capacities in general tend to be slowly learned over time and through direct experience. Direct experience was and is highly valued at Meridian. The development of human capacities are transformational and can also be personally painful. Developing humility, for example, may require one to turn toward their own shame or arrogance and face and express some of their most painful experiences of their life. If one does not claim this pain as their own, blame can ensue, projecting the responsibility for their pain onto someone else. Empathy, as another example, may require experiencing extreme pain in order to develop the sensitivity needed to feel another’s pain, and to be present enough with them to not turn away from the other’s suffering. I have had such painful personal experiences and was grateful for knowing that I had been alerted that this would happen if I wanted to develop my own depth of character, and my soul, as this would be needed in my future practice.

As a licensed psychologist working with severe mental and emotional pain it is requisite to know the extremities of human suffering. As a crisis worker, one is challenged on every ER visit to know what inside of you is going to allow you keep standing tall and honor the sacred duty of being there for others. One continues to develop professionally by facing their own pain with the knowledge that they are not alone in their suffering, nor are the people they are trying to help. Meridian provided me with a path on how to walk with others in their darkest times.

There are a myriad of other schools that book-teach psychology, instructing one of the rules, the legalities of the profession, and how to keep one safe from being sued. However, to continue to develop as a human and professional one needs to risk facing pain, and that is not often talked about on other university web pages and catalogs.

I continue to be grateful for what I learned at Meridian. The faculty at Meridian challenged me to grow. The academics were rigorous and demanding. I left feeling confident in what I was doing as a therapist, a confidence not based in knowing everything I needed to know myself but a confidence knowing how to ask for help from others that did know. My education at Meridian has helped me remember what is important in life.

Most sincerely,

Anthony Scheving, Psy.D.
Licensed Psychologist