Continuing Conversations March 2024
Greetings Alumni!
I write to you on behalf of The Office of The President, your Brother Paul Steinke, and all your friends and fans at your Alma Mater/Pater here at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology. I’m so honored to be stepping back in the mix as your Supervisor of Alumni Outreach after a beautiful maternity leave. Please enjoy this bountiful Spring Edition of your Continuing Conversations alumni newsletter that includes updates on current job openings, amazing alumni news, alumni offerings, a special spotlight, and more.
We have so many exciting projects and plans:
- Together across leadership teams we are developing and launching an improved Alumni Directory. Stay tuned!
- We celebrated our unfurling transition to a new home (see below) on February 2 and marked the ways in which the Spirit moved and met us in the Red Brick Building. Please see our Campus Move page for the latest news and timeline.
- We newly get to listen in and enter the dynamic conversation between professors Dr. Paul Hoard, Dr. Doug Shirley, and friends …… in Ghosts & Shadows: A Conversation Series
Join us in Denver & Nashville in the coming months where we will honor Dan and Becky Allender in Benefit Dinners to bless and launch their legacy For Generations To Come.
RSVP for Denver RSVP for Nashville
Please know that you can reach us at alumni@theseattleschool.edu with any ongoing needs you find yourself facing. Remember you have lifelong access to research and interlibrary loans, audit vouchers for coursework (see below) and there is a beautiful web of interconnected community members sprawling across the US and beyond – connect with your local alumni chapters and alumni quad with news on local events, connections, and resources. If there’s any way we can support you do not hesitate to reach out to us.
As 2024 continues to unfurl we pray that deep breaths refresh you, friendships bloom and bless you, and that countless comforts bring rest and healing in all you traverse.
We send you all our love,
Jocelyn Skillman MACP ‘13
Supervisor of Alumni Outreach
P.S.
Join Ron Ruthruff and current students in Northwest Native History, Culture, and Spirituality next month in Yakima, WA- learn more here!
Community Updates
Beginning the Goodbye to 2501 Elliott Avenue
Alumni, staff, faculty, students, donors, program participants, and friends of The Seattle School gathered last month to start crossing the threshold into a year-long transition for our community, as we plan to move from 2501 Elliott Avenue to a new space and home at 1130 Rainier Avenue South in spring 2025. On February 2, 2024, we began the journey together of saying goodbye to the Red Brick Building, recognizing the stories and moments of encounter by placing notes and candles in these sacred spaces.
The Stanley Grenz Lecture Series 2024
Womanist theologian and ordained minister Dr. Angela Parker joined The Seattle School on January 12, 2024, for a conversation on “America’s Failing Empire: A Womanist New Testament Response to Rising White Christian Nationalism.” Watch this dynamic lecture!
Job Openings at The Seattle School
The Seattle School regularly posts teaching positions in the graduate programs at Current Openings. Currently, we are hiring two full-time positions to start Fall 2024: a Core Faculty member in the MACP program as well as a Director of Clinical Training, with preference given to candidates who apply by April 2.
In addition, each spring around April, we post open Adjunct Faculty, Listening Lab, and Assistant Instructor positions for the upcoming school year. If you have teaching or facilitating experience and are interested in working with us, keep an eye out for new postings in the coming months.
Faculty News & Conversations
New Book: Check out the new book from faculty member Joel Aguilar: A Human Catechism: A Journey from Violence and Collective Woundedness to Peacebuilding.
Ghosts & Shadows: A Conversation Series As we marked 25 years since the founding of The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology, Dr. Doug Shirley MDiv ’06 and Dr. Paul Hoard, two of our core faculty members, began exploring together what it means for our institution to have a history and to be haunted by a legacy. Check out the conversation in essays and podcasts beginning in this blog post. Podcast guests included Dr. Curt Thompson, Dr. Monique Gadson, Dr. Chelle Stearns, and Dr. J. Derek McNeil.
Board Games & Mental Health: Seattle School faculty Paul Hoard, PhD, and Jermaine Ma, PhD, along with Paul Steinke MACS ’05 MACP ’23 have started a series exploring the intersection of psychology, theology, and the art form of board games through some of the unique lenses of analysis and critique at The Seattle School. Check out this video–and look for more in this series soon!
Alumni Spotlight
Cynthia Beach, Certificate in Spiritual Direction ’02 authored The Surface of Water, a contemporary novel about Chicago megachurch pastor Matthew Goodman and his secret (InterVarsity, 2024). Learn more about Cynthia’s story–which dates back to the early days of The Seattle School–including her 30 years as a professor of English and Creative Writing at Cornerstone University.
Alumni News
- Martha McNeely MACP ’17 is excited to announce the launch of Buoy Financial Services, a business focused on bookkeeping for helping professionals and small business owners. Check out the website to learn more.
- Dan Cumberland MACS ‘12 just restarted the podcast after a year-long hiatus and invites the community to listen in to a public-style series around writing and promoting a novel. Dan also continues to write about wellbeing, entrepreneurship, and marketing on LinkedIn – take a peek at his recent post about burnout, all!
- Charlie Howell MACP ’16 is excited to announce the launch of his digital marketing business, Charlie Howell Creative, which has helped a number of therapists, including Seattle School grads, develop an online presence that fits the unique needs of their practice.
- New Supervisor: Kim (Caldwell) Warnick MACP ’16, LMHC, offers supervision, virtual or in person. Specializing in: Narcissistic Abuse Recovery, ADHD / Autism realization and support, and Identity Shifts (gender, sexuality, parenthood, divorce, faith, etc…. bring it on!) Learn more at kimcaldwellcounseling.com
- Jasmine Svare MACP ‘14 hosts the podcast: “Live Your Life” Listen to Episode 1 to hear the story behind the name of this podcast –a story from a Seattle School trip to Iona! Check out these conversations with alumni: Seth Taylor MATC’14 in Episode 31 and Andrew Bauman MACP ’10 in Episode 35. Learn more.
- Alejandra Morris MACP ’20 will receive a Local Chapter Service Award at the upcoming APA Division 39 conference in April; this award is given to graduate students or early-career clinicians in recognition of service to their local psychoanalytic chapter organization, which in this case is the Northwest Alliance for Psychoanalytic Study (NWAPS).
- Rachael Clinton Chen MDiv ’10 has been honored by Sojourners as one of 9 Christian Women Shaping the Church in 2024!
Alumni Offerings
- Erich Henninger MACP ‘22 will facilitate a new Divorce/Major Break-up men’s support group meeting in person (Fremont Office) and online (for out-of-area members) on Thursdays from 6:30 – 8:00 pm PST. See flier for more information.
- Matthew Smith MACP ‘15 and Graham Murtaugh MACP ‘18 are providing offerings through Dreamtime, their practice of exploring dream imagery/content to find inner wisdom and greater connection with self, others, and the unseen. Learn more and/or register for either on our website at www.thisisdreamtime.com.
- Rachel Elder MACP ‘17 at Connected Couples Counseling is excited to introduce two opportunities this spring for couples and new parents: ‘The ‘7 Principles for Making Marriage Work’ workshop on April 27, 2024, and the ‘Bringing Baby Home’ class on Mondays from 6:30-8:30 PM PST virtually beginning March 18th and ending April 22nd. For more information, please see the flier or email admin@connectedcouplescounseling.com.
- Adam Schneider MACP ‘17 will be teaching a course with the Alliance in the Spring on his seventh seminar, “The Ethics of Psychoanalysis.” It will be hybrid at the Phinney Center and online. Link here.
- Cairn Yakey MACP ‘16 (they/them) will be presenting “Making Birth Safer for Every Body” at the upcoming Do Something Identity(ies) Conference 2024 on May 31. Please see flier for details.
- Erin Wright MACP’11, Co-President of the NW Alliance for Psychoanalytic Study (NWAPS), shares an upcoming event on reparations entitled “Transforming Ghosts into Ancestors: The Psychological Case for Reparations to Descendants of American Slavery.” Speakers explore how we, as citizens and therapists, both unconsciously replicate and can resist replicating harmful, unequal relations. This NWAPS-sponsored event will be in-person at the Rainier Arts Center in Columbia City on March 30th, 9:00 am-1:00 pm. Link for more info and to register here.
Do you have any news? Let us know!
Christ & Cascadia Gathering April 2024
Join us for the inaugural Christ & Cascadia Gathering in Federal Way, WA on April 25, 2024!
You’re invited to join us for a unique, relationship-focused event this Spring that addresses the pressing questions of our time and place. The 2024 Christ & Cascadia Gathering marks the revival of an annual Christ & Cascadia tradition, now under the stewardship of The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology. This event is an opportunity for Christ followers to come together, share ideas, and collectively envision the future of Christianity in our region. This year, conversation will be centered around this question: What is distinct about ministry in Cascadia?
Note: This event is held in partnership with the Inhabit Conference. When you purchase a ticket for the Christ & Cascadia Gathering on April 25, you will receive a 10% discount for the Inhabit Conference on April 26-27.
Learn more about this event and reserve your spot: christandcascadia.com/gathering
Allender Center News
Stories That Shape Us: Webinar with Dr. Dan Allender and Adam Young
Join Dr. Dan Allender and Adam Young, LCSW, MDiv, for their upcoming webinar, Exploring Triangulation Within Your Family of Origin. In this two-hour, interactive webinar, you’ll delve into stories where some children are favored while others bear the weight of not being chosen, and discover the envy underlying many family narratives. Using the Joseph story in Genesis as a guide, we’ll examine family roles and the profound impacts of being chosen or unchosen. Register for the webinar and learn more about additional upcoming events at theallendercenter.org/calendar/
Updates from The Other Journal
Sign up to receive The Other Journal free newsletter where each month Editor-in-Chief Zac Settle shares insights and curated recommendations! For more access to each new issue and the entire archive, subscribe to The Other Journal!
In our next issue, we seek theological-infused submissions on themes of money. We accept essays, creative writing, art, and reviews that uniquely engage this complex topic. We seek contributions that table this theme with verve and slant by way of their distinctive style, ideas, and progressive consideration of the other.
Community Podcasts
- Center for Transforming Engagement: Join us this month for the new season of Transforming Engagement, the Podcast, where we are dedicated to exploring how each of us can serve God and neighbor in our unique communities and contexts. This season, as we prepare for the upcoming Christ & Cascadia Gathering in April, we’re inviting you into our extended backyard – the unique tapestry of the continental Pacific Northwest known as the “Cascadia” region. Here, ministry takes on its own distinct flavor. This season, we’re asking: What sets ministry in Cascadia apart from other regions of the US and Canada? Wherever you’re listening from, we hope these conversations inspire reflections on how you’re serving in your own context. You can find Transforming Engagement, the Podcast on your favorite listening platform or at transformingengagement.org/podcast
- Allender Center: Enjoy the Allender Center Podcast!
Alumni Community Audit Voucher & Reduced Tuition
With more online courses available now, you won’t want to miss your opportunity to redeem your annual community audit voucher! As lifelong learners, our Alumni may join a class for free once a year with the annual Community Audit Voucher. Auditing a class is different from earning graduate credit or continuing education hours for a course, however, CEUs may be purchased for $30/seat hour. In addition, all non-degree seeking alumni in need of additional course credits receive a discounted tuition rate of $500 per credit.
View the 2023-2024 course schedule to get an idea of what you may be interested in. To register for a course using the Community Audit Voucher, please email Kelsey Wallace at academics@theseattleschool.edu for details and class availability.
Alumni Announcements & News
If you would like to place an announcement or share news in our upcoming quarterly alumni newsletter, please email Jocelyn Skillman at jskillman@theseattleschool.edu. Thank you!
Facebook – At The Seattle School Alumni Association Facebook Group you can offer and gather professional resources, promote your own events and more, learn of upcoming events and information, and connect with fellow alumni. It has been an active and vibrant place for communication.