ABOUT DAVID AND JANIS
David R. McCann and Janis E.McCann are both licensed psychodynamic psychotherapists and personal and relationship coaches. They coach highly motivated and successful individuals, and couples seeking conscious relationships. They are also depth psychologists exploring archetypal and universal themes in the lives of individuals and couples, challenging clients to find their dreams in the imaginal realm, to develop their imaginal abilities, so that they not only dare to dream their dreams, but to give birth to those dreams and realize them in the world. For more information on Counseling vs. Coaching, click here.
As the Co-founders of The Canyon Psychotherapy and Counseling Group, Janis and David have over fifty years of experience between them, as educators, therapists, and coaches. Having attended one of Harville Hendrix's Getting the Love You Want couples workshops some years ago, they were so excited at the prospects of healing their own relationship, that they resolved to help themselves, and then to help others with what they are now calling the creative potential of relationship or the 3 Cs--contact, communication, and communion. They have become Certified Imago Relationship Therapists, and Certified Imago Couples' Workshop Presenters for the couple’s weekend workshop. Both McCanns are members of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists and the Association for Imago Relationship Therapy. For more information about Imago Therapy, click here.
Janis is from the East coast (born in New Jersey) where she attended Smith College and Columbia University. David is from the Midwest (born in Wisconsin, grew up in Cleveland). They found each other at UCLA (their first marriages had gone south), where Janis was getting her education after giving birth to four daughters, David was a young professor of literature. One of their passions together is great literature and mythology, (which they use extensively in their workshops and seminars). They are co-authoring a book which will show the development of modern marriage and relationship out of mythology and the annals of literature.
Janis and David are approved by the State of California to provide Continuing Education Units for Registered Nurses, Marriage and Family Therapists, and Licensed Clinical Social Workers (Board of Registered Nursing, Provider No. CEP 13570; Board of Behavioral Science, Provider No. PCE 2320.
The Center for Conscious Relationships offers several different workshops, specifically targeted toward Couples, Individuals and Parents, and available at our home base in the Ojai - Santa Barbara and Central California areas. We also offer workshops at other locations around Southern California, including the Los Angeles and San Diego areas and Northern California, including San Jose, Marin and Mendocino Counties.
We also periodically conduct "retreat-style" workshops at locations such as Sedona, Santa Fe, Cancun and Puerto Vallarta.
About Janis
About David
Why We Revisit Childhood in Our Work
Our Workshops
Janis Elaine McCann, Ph.D.
Janis's personal interests include Mythology, Cinema, Travel, Classical Music, and Hiking. She undertakes ongoing personal and professional training to more effectively help her clients in their journey to wholeness.
She has had a life-long love affair with learning. Having completed one Ph.D. in Social-Clinical Psychology, she will shortly complete her second doctorate in Mythological Studies. For Janis, myth is about individual, cultural and archetypal stories as they exemplify the Soul's Journey. Jan believes that the Women's Movement points to new possibilities for the transformation of this society; for her, the interaction between the psycho-spiritual and cultural dimensions of people's lives and the blessings and challenges offered within relationships, provide profound arenas for personal and relationship healing.
An artist, poet, and writer as well as a Personal and Relationship coach, family therapist, and child psychoanalyst, Janis is the mother of four daughters and grandmother of seven; she shares with them her passionate interests in art, mythology, cinema, travel, classical music, and hiking. Having worked in career and organizational consultation with people of all cultural background, Janis undertakes ongoing personal and professional training to more effectively help her clients in their journey to fulfillment and wholeness.
Degrees:
Ph.D. Candidate Mythological Studies - Pacifica Graduate Institute
Ph.D.; Psychology - The Wright Institute
M.A.; Mythological Studies - Pacifica Graduate Institute
B.A.; Cultural History - U.C.L.A.
Licenses:
California Registered Research Psychoanalyst
Board of Medical Quality Assurance
California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
Licensed through California Board of Behavioral Sciences
Memberships:
International Coach Federation
CAMFT // California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
Association for Imago Therapy
Institute for Imago Therapy
American Counseling Association
American Academy of Religion
Diplomat: American Psychotherapists Association
David R. McCann, Ph.D.
David is a man of diverse education, training and background. He first earned a Ph.D. in German literature and Comparative literature at the University of California in Berkeley. As a university professor and instructor, he taught humanities at UCLA, and other colleges and schools in the LA area. As a passionate learner himself, he has also been involved teaching kids poetry and mythology at various private schools. Following the footsteps of Janis, he undertook training as a child psychoanalyst in mid-life, and for over twenty years he has been professionally active as a Research Psychoanalyst and family therapist.
David is a musician, a poet, a gardener, and an enthusiastic caretaker of chickens, with the occasional weekend assistance of seven grandchildren. Having played the violin expertly as a child and teenager, he has begun studying again in his early 60s and is rehearsing one of Bach’s unaccompanied partitas for unaccompanied violin in preparation for recital with children aged 6 through 20!
Why We Revisit Childhood in Our Work
Childhood wounding is present whether we want it or not. One hallmark of our work is that we address childhood.
When a wound in present time conjures up or resonates with a wound or painful experience from childhood, then it is worthy of sharing the story of that historical wound. Or the pain may be reflective of more recent or immediate history. It may be that the wound is not at all the same; the feelings may resonate. The sense of abandonment, for instance through death, or divorce and that terrifying feeling of emptiness, can be present in a different scenario, but the feelings resonate. The experience of being invisible in one's family of origin--or in a previous marriage, can be re-experienced in a present situation. We visit childhood--when appropriate--to better understand ourselves, for our partner to understand us. This does not give one permission to misbehave--so to speak--or to misuse another, but to be conscious of one's behavior, and through consciousness, NOT repeat the old reactive behavior. The idea is to move from reactivity to conscious intention, to have more options, and also more compassion.
