Reviews of Journals of the Psyche

      "Through the whole spectrum of human development, its puzzles, pain, and poetry, Jan Elpel nods to mystery. Singular in its story and reflections, we see the emergence of a Self, multifaceted, mercurial, wild, and free."

--Linda Welsh, Author of Facing the Mountain

      "Jan Elpel's extensive knowledge of the psyche, her spiritual depth, and creative genius shine brightly in these soulful journal entries and poems. Beautifully rendered and thought provoking."

--Connie Myslik-McFadden, Jungian-oriented psychotherapist and author of The Second Bucket List and Willow's Gift

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      "Journals of the Psyche by Dr. Jan Elpel offers her exploration of ever-deepening self-awareness through her gifts of creative ex- pression. Using poetry and art---not linear memories or personal narrative---she has plumbed the depths through both Word and Im- age. The artistic images express a range of these aspects of the Self (versus ego): use of bold contrasting colors suggest a growing "core" of internal awareness; a mandala made of rocks create a small "spiral jetty" (reminiscent of nature artist Galsworthy): a classic more Jungian mandala of a beautiful 4-quadrant circle---the common symbol of Wholeness; and an image of a lone tree devoid of leaves but strong in gnarled trunk and roots-a powerful metaphor for a full life lived through seasons of both growth and decay. Elpel seeks new pos- sibilities and an ongoing "recreation" of Self through Words and the Images they evoke."

--Eugenia Funk, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist

About the Author: Jan Elpel, Psy.D, grew up near the Headwaters of the Missouri River. That sense of history frames the stories she creates set in the mid-nineteenth century. Her family's (Jewett's) lifestyle among descendants of early immigrants in the 1940s was little different than that of the settlers in Berrigan's Ride eighty years earlier. She wrote the 1958 John Colter pageant for the original Colter's Run in Three Forks, Montana. Her family later moved to historic gold camps of Virginia City and Pony. Elpel's series of historical novels celebrate the wild horses of Madison and Jefferson counties, and the Jewett's herd of horses that thundered off the dry hills to water at the handpump in front of the Parker Homestead.