I live in Atlanta with my partner of 18 years, two cats and the ghosts of two canaries. I was born outside Philadelphia but have lived most of my life in Atlanta.

My first career was journalism. I held the title of Georgia’s youngest editor and publisher in my early 20s, when I went to work on weekly newspapers in rural Georgia. I’ve edited city magazines in Houston and Atlanta, written for everything from medical newsletters to glossy monthlies  and the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Sunday Magazine.

In 1990, I embarked on a career change to psychology. I enrolled in a program to obtain a clinically oriented MA. Then I studied for a PhD with a theoretical orientation in depth psychology (psychology of the unconscious).

My initial ambition was to practice psychotherapy. In addition to my studies, I received almost three years of training at the nation’s only center for transpersonal therapy, in California. 

I became fascinated with the work of Carl Jung toward the end of my master’s program and then discovered the archetypal psychology (also called “imaginal psychology”) of James Hillman, whose work continues to inspire me. I developed a workshop, “Greeting the Muse,” based on Hillman’s work. It was during this work -- work with the imagination -- that I began to realize that for many clients, psychotherapy is not as effective as alternative approaches.

My workshop clients seemed to make better progress than clients in my regular practice. Eventually, I declared my independence from the official canon of psychotherapy, which treats almost every eccentric trait  as pathology.  Instead, I came to see, as Hillman puts it, that “the wound is the eye.” Our psychological wounds are the source of wisdom.

Besides seeing clients, I have continued to write my longtime dining column, “Grazing,” for Creative Loafing, where I was also editor for seven years.  (I help maintain a blog on dining, Omnivore, for Creative Loafing, too.) I also wrote a weekly column on popular culture and psychology, “Headcase.” It was cancelled in 2009 after nearly 20 years. I am planning to resume it as part of my Sacred Disorder blog. Headcase, like Sacred Disorder, is often a first-person account of my own experiences.

I see clients in my home office in Grant Park. Contact me at 404-518-4415 or CliffBostock@gmail.com.