Welcome to the Sophia Center!

Wisdom Centered Learning for Personal and Professional Development

The Sophia Center's faculty features internationally recognized clinicians, scholars artists and authors in the fields of Jungian psychology, archetypal psychology, neuropsychology, women's studies, and the arts. It is both an on-line and in person community of transformational learning.

The Sophia Center's educational philosophy is rooted in transformational learning and focused on bringing together the academic, the psychoanalytic, the creative, the somatic and the soulful as equally valued ways of knowing. We are committed to fostering learning communities that encourage a creative, relational and trans-disciplinary approach to the study of psyche and soul in addition to offering a number of platforms for members to share their work.

Meet The Team

Loralee M. Scott, MFA

Founder and Director

Loralee brings over two decades of successful organizational leadership and a proven track record of post-graduate, Jungian informed curriculum design, development and delivery. A thought-leader, entrepreneur and sought-after speaker, she has lectured internationally in several countries. Her work as an award-winning choreographer was responsible for the passage of anti-trafficking legislation in Troy, NY and is featured in the book: Grief and the Expressive Arts published by Routledge. She is passionate about creating communities where soulful engagement and transformative learning can happen.

Elizabeth Nelson, PhD

Managing Editor & Senior Faculty

Elizabeth serves as core faculty and Dissertation Policy Director of Pacifica Graduate Institute near Santa Barbara, California, where she has been teaching since 2003. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. in depth psychology. As a professional writer and editor for more than 30 years, she coaches aspiring authors across a variety of genres and styles.

Sandy Salzillo, LMHC

Clinical Advisor & Senior Faculty

Sandy integrates her knowledge and experience with the visual arts along with her training in holistic counseling and depth psychology to enhance and expand the relationship between psyche and imagination. Foremost in her clinical practice is to engage her clients in exploring their innate abilities of creative expression thus allowing for a deepening perception of personal transformation.

Meet The Advisory Council

Ursula Wirtz, PhD

Switzerland

Ursula Wirtz, is a Jungian training and supervising analyst with a diploma from the C. G. Jung Institute Zürich (1982). She received her doctorate in philosophy from the University of Munich and a degree in Clinical and Anthropological Psychology from the University of Zürich. She is currently on the faculty of ISAPZURICH. She has taught at various European universities and published on trauma, ethics, and the spiritual dimension of analytical psychology. She is also involved in the training of fledgling Jungian groups in Eastern Europe and is a member of the ethics committee of the IAAP.

Demaris Wehr, PhD

USA

Demaris Wehr, Ph.D., is the author of Jung and Feminism (Beacon Press) and the forthcoming book, Making It Through: Bosnian Survivors Telling Stories of Truth. Demaris has a lifelong interest in peacebuilding, starting with her Quaker upbringing. She taught Religion and Psychology for many years, including at Swarthmore College and at Harvard Divinity School. Demaris began her practice as a Jungian psychotherapist in 1993. She and her late husband, Jungian analyst David Hart, had a joint practice in Dialogue Therapy (a form of couples therapy) which they did together as the therapist couple.

Andrew Samuels, PhD

Great Britain

Andrew Samuels, is recognized internationally as one of the foremost political commentators and theorists from the perspectives of psychotherapy and depth psychology. He works as a consultant with political leaders, parties and activist groups in several countries, including the United States. He also consults to the NHS.

Andrew is a Training Analyst of the Society of Analytical Psychology, in private practice in London, and Professor of Analytical Psychology at the University of Essex. He was Chair of the UK Council for Psychotherapy and one of the two founders (with Judy Ryde) of Psychotherapists and Counsellors for Social Responsibility.

His many books have been translated into 21 languages, including: Jung and the Post-Jungians (1985); A Critical Dictionary of Jungian Analysis (1986); The Father (1986); Psychopathology (1989); The Plural Psyche (1989); The Political Psyche (1993); Politics on the Couch (2001); Persons, Passions, Psychotherapy, Politics (2014); Relational Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis and Counselling: Appraisals and Reappraisals (edited with Del Loewenthal, 2014). His latest books are A New Therapy for Politics(2015) and Analysis and Activism: Social and Political Contributions of Jungian Analysis (editor)