Photo: Michelle Litvin
Anne Redlich, LCSW
I began my studies in psychology, astrology, and medical anthropology at 18 as a student in the Residential College at the University of Michigan. A trip to Mexico to study Spanish in 1978 began my long journey of self discovery and a career as a psychotherapist. While in Mexico, I was introduced to Eastern Philosophy and the Mexican Shamanic tradition of healing. During my stay in Cuernavaca, my host family introduced me to their Curandero and I underwent a traditional treatment. I found my experience intriguing and when I concluded my studies, I travelled through Mexico, synchronistically meeting and learning from others who practiced traditional native medicine.
When I returned to the Residential College at the University of Michigan, I designed an independent course of study in Medical Anthropology and Psychology, exploring and writing about the proliferation of mental illness in Western Postmodern culture. I was particularly interested in humans’ increasing detachment from the natural world and native traditions of healing and how this phenomena connected to the definitions and causes of mental illness. While at the University of Michigan, I studied medical anthropology with Michael Taussig, Ph.D. and Devva Kasnitz, Ph.D. I spent a summer apprenticed to Keewaynioquay Peshcel, an Ojibwa Mashkikikwe, on Garden Island in Northern Lake Michigan. I also studied Eco-Philosophy with Henryk Skolimowski Ph.D., as well as courses in humanistic psychology and literature.
I began my career as a Clinical Social Worker in 1982, working with severely emotionally disturbed children in residential facilities. As a graduate student at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, I wrote my final Master’s Paper on Astrology and Family Systems Theory, I have studied in the analyst training programs at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis and the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago. I have maintained a private practice in Chicago for over 25 years. I work with people suffering from trauma, depression, psychosis, and anxiety. I am committed to the process in my work of making the unconscious conscious through helping the patient to understand, connect and integrate dreams, memories, creative work and reflections. To this end, I have been a disciplined and deliberate student of psychoanalysis, art, literature, dreaming, nature and the symbolic life. I believe that an open and inquiring mind is necessary to undertake the complicated and lengthy process of helping another to become conscious.
I have enjoyed studying astrology since I first had my horoscope read at age nineteen. I was so surprised by the depth and accuracy of the reading I received that I decided to investigate the subject for myself and spent the next three years reading extensively about astrology. Then, when I moved to Chicago in 1981, I met Vonda and Irene Urban who became my close friends and teachers. Vonda and Irene taught a small group of students to calculate and erect horoscopes as well as to interpret the complex natal chart. Since, I have read hundreds of charts and have continued to study astrology. The combination of astrology and psychology has aided me in understanding myself and others. The contemplation and understanding of astrological symbolism has also helped me to understand the language of dreaming. The archetypal nature of dreams and astrology informs my approach to both psychotherapy and astrology. In fact, early in my studies of astrology, I recognized the profound value that astrology could add to psychotherapy and dream work. After a long career, I conclude that astrology and psychology are extremely compatible bedfellows. To quote Carl Jung, Astrology is assured of recognition from psychology, without further restrictions, because astrology represents the summation of all the psychological knowledge of antiquity.
I have also been committed to social justice work throughout my career. I am skilled in treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and have worked extensively as an expert witness for people seeking asylum in the United States. I conduct psychological evaluations for those seeking asylum and seeking to avoid deportation. I have executed this work for the National Immigrant Justice Center and the Marjorie Kovler Center for Survivors of Political Torture. I am a longtime volunteer at the Marjorie Kovler Center for Survivors of Political Torture where in addition to aiding in asylum cases, I have provided psychotherapy for survivors.
I have extensive experience teaching. I have taught at the Jung Center in Evanston, Illinois, in the continuing education department at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago and at Southwestern College. In addition, I conduct private workshops. These workshops and classes focus on dreaming, astrology and the creative mind.