Jungian Arts-Based Research: Knowing, Doing, and the Playful Unconscious

Jungian Arts-Based Research: Knowing, Doing, and the Playful Unconscious

with Dr. Roula-Maria Dib

When: 6 Tuesdays Sept 8, 15, 22, 29 and October 6, 13

Where: Online, via Zoom

Fee: £200

Early bird fee: £180 (registration before Aug 1)

15% off for LABRC Members

Course description:

Jungian Arts-Based Research begins with the image—but where does the image come from? How do dreams, symbols, synchronicities, archetypes, fragments, and poetic language become ways of generating knowledge? And what happens when we allow the unconscious to become an active collaborator in the research process? For Jung, creativity begins in play: a serious, imaginal engagement with the psyche through which new symbols, insights, and ways of knowing emerge.

This advanced course builds upon the foundations of Jungian Arts-Based Research by moving beyond methodology into the imaginal processes that animate creative inquiry. Rather than focusing primarily on how to conduct research, we will explore how research begins—through encounters with symbolic images, active imagination, dreams, embodied experience, creative practice, and the playful dialogue between conscious intention and the unconscious.

Drawing on Jungian psychology, poetic inquiry, arts-based research, depth aesthetics, alchemy, and transdisciplinary thinking, participants will cultivate methods of working playfully with the unconscious as a living source of knowledge. Throughout the course, we will investigate how artistic practice does not merely represent research but actively generates it, and how curiosity, experimentation, and symbolic play can become rigorous forms of inquiry.

Together we will explore questions such as:

• How do dreams become research?
• What is the difference between interpreting symbols and allowing symbols to think through us?
• How does synchronicity shape creative inquiry?
• What can poetry reveal that conventional academic language cannot?
• How might active imagination become a research methodology?
• What role does play have in the emergence of new knowledge?
• How do fragments, gaps, silence, and ambiguity generate meaning?
• In what ways does the artwork know more than its maker?

Each participant will develop an ongoing creative project throughout the course using their preferred artistic medium—including poetry, fiction, visual art, collage, photography, filmmaking, music, dance, performance, digital media, or interdisciplinary practice. Weekly creative exercises will encourage participants to work directly with dreams, symbols, images, myth, and imagination as forms of inquiry rather than illustration, approaching the creative process as a space of exploration, surprise, and play.

The course welcomes artists, researchers, therapists, educators, writers, and practitioners from all disciplines who wish to deepen their creative practice through Jungian thought. While previous experience of Jungian Arts-Based Research is beneficial, the emphasis is not on artistic skill but on openness to imagination, curiosity, symbolic exploration, and a willingness to play with the unexpected.

Rather than treating creativity as the outcome of research, this course invites participants to discover creativity as research itself.

The playful unconscious is not simply a source of inspiration—it is a way of knowing.

What you will get:

• A certificate of completion from the LABRC
• An opportunity to publish your work in literary and arts magazines (including our own Indelible) and to participate at one of Indelible’s online or in-person events
• A wealth of knowledge and new skills from sources, discussions, and practice, which you may develop into a conference paper, integrate into your research (eg: thesis), or publish as an article/book chapter.
• Become part of a new writing community by meeting fellow creatives from different disciplines and experiences. In other words, like-minded friends who may collaborate with you in future research/writing projects.
• Hone your creative research skills while receiving support and inspiration for exploring and developing your craft.
• Voucher for one free access to a paid Indelible event

About the Tutor :

Roula-Maria Dib, PhD, FRSA is a scholar, poet, and arts-based researcher whose work explores the intersections of literature, depth psychology, mythology, and creative inquiry. She is the founding director of the London Arts-Based Research Centre (LABRC) and Editor-in-Chief of Indelible, a journal dedicated to cross-disciplinary creative and scholarly expression.

Roula’s research focuses on poetic inquiry, ekphrasis, and the imaginal dimensions of knowledge, examining how image, metaphor, and artistic practice can function as modes of research and understanding. She is the author of Jungian Metaphor in Modernist Literature (Routledge, 2020), shortlisted for the International Association for Jungian Studies Book Awards, and the poetry collection Simply Being (Chiron Publications, 2021). She has also contributed to Patricia Leavy’s Handbook of Arts-Based Research.

A recipient of the British Council Alumni Award for Culture and Creativity and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Roula was endorsed by the British Academy for the UK Global Talent Visa in recognition of her contributions to the humanities and creative arts. Through LABRC, she has curated over one hundred international conferences, workshops, and creative research events, fostering dialogue between scholarship and artistic practice.

Her work continues to explore how image, language, and imagination can open new pathways of knowledge at the intersection of creativity, research, and inner life. She also writes The Icon Whisperer, a Substack publication devoted to the symbolic life of images and the imaginative dialogue between art, poetry, and the psyche.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Understand the key principles and practices of Jungian Arts-Based Research.
• Explore dreams, symbols, archetypes, synchronicity, active imagination, and play as pathways to creative inquiry.
• Develop confidence in working with the playful unconscious as a collaborator in artistic and scholarly research.
• Generate knowledge through creative practice using poetry, visual art, storytelling, performance, collage, digital media, or other artistic forms.
• Apply Jungian Arts-Based Research methodologies to personal, professional, therapeutic, educational, or community contexts.
• Cultivate an imaginal approach to research that embraces curiosity, ambiguity, symbolism, and creative discovery.

Who is this course for?

• Artists and creative practitioners
• Writers and poets
• Researchers and academics
• Therapists, counsellors, and coaches
• Educators and facilitators
• Jungian scholars and practitioners
• Arts-Based Research practitioners
• Students interested in creative research methodologies
• Anyone interested in dreams, symbols, imagination, and the creative unconscious
• Anyone wishing to discover new ways of knowing through artistic practice

Teaching Methods

• Interactive lectures exploring Jungian psychology and Arts-Based Research.
• Guided active imagination and symbolic exploration.
• Dreamwork and synchronicity practices.
• Creative workshops.
• Arts-based research activities across participants’ chosen creative disciplines.
• Group discussion, collaborative reflection, and peer dialogue.
• Feedback throughout the development of participants’ projects.

Weekly Creative Invitations

Rather than traditional assignments, participants will engage in a series of creative invitations designed to foster dialogue with the playful unconscious.

These include:

• Dream and symbol journalling
• Active imagination practices
• Poetic and visual inquiry exercises
• Synchronicity observations
• Creative responses across participants' chosen artistic medium
• Reflective writing connecting theory and practice
• Progressive development of an individual Jungian Arts-Based Research project

Final Creative Portfolio

Participants will present a completed Jungian Arts-Based Research project together with a reflective portfolio documenting their creative process, symbolic discoveries, methodological insights, and evolving dialogue with the playful unconscious.

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