Francis Weller

Francis Weller, MFT, is a psychotherapist, writer and soul activist. He is a master of synthesizing diverse streams of thought from psychology, anthropology, mythology, alchemy, indigenous cultures and poetic traditions. Author of Entering the Healing Ground: Grief, Ritual and the Soul of the World, he has introduced the healing work of ritual to thousands of people. The core of his work is creating pathways to reclaiming our indigenous soul, what psychologist Carl Jung called the “unforgotten wisdom” that resides in the heart of the psyche. To further this work, he founded and directs WisdomBridge, an organization that offers educational programs that seek to integrate the wisdom from traditional cultures with the insights and knowledge gathered from western cultures. For over thirty years Francis has worked as a therapist and has developed a style he calls soul-centered psychotherapy. As a gifted therapist and teacher, he has been described as a jazz artist, improvising and moving fluidly in and out of deep emotional territories with groups and individuals, bringing imagination and attention to places often held with judgment and shame. He has created three CD sets, two focusing on healing shame and one on “Restoring the Soul of the World.” Beginning in 1997, Francis helped to create Men of Spirit, an intensive year-long initiation program designed to restore the masculine community as a resource for cultural renewal. Since its inception, Francis has taken nearly two hundred men across this threshold, comprising twelve clans of men from Southern California north to the Canadian border. He has also facilitated a number of mixed-gender villages with the intention of creating sustainable communities that can tend the need of the soul for belonging. Francis received a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin Green Bay and two Master’s Degrees from John F. Kennedy University in Clinical Psychology and Transpersonal Psychology. His writings have appeared in anthologies and journals exploring the confluence between psyche, nature and culture. He is a frequent presenter and keynote speaker at conferences, bringing insight, poetry and a breath of humor to his talks. He has taught at Sonoma State University, New College of California and the Sophia Center in Oakland. He is currently completing his second book, A Trail on the Ground: Tracking the Ways of the Indigenous Soul.