Cultivating transformation through flower mandalas

White rose mandala. Image: David Bookbinder

Boston-area psychotherapist and photographer David Bookbinder carries on Jung’s tradition by blending his work and art into unique mandala renderings.

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung viewed the mandala, the circular design considered a universal symbol of transformative healing, as a vessel for projecting one’s Self and sometimes used them as a therapeutic tool while treating patients. 

Boston-area psychotherapist and photographer David Bookbinder carries on Jung’s tradition by blending his work and art into unique mandala renderings created from photos of flowers. He wrote that his motivation for creating the flower mandalas “was to heal from a decade of physical and emotional trauma, the consequence of a near-fatal event in Albany, New York, in1993. This event, which culminated in a near-death experience, set me on a spiritual path I'm still following today.”

As a therapist, Bookbinder works with artists, children and families, and people with addictive behaviors. “Clients sometimes have no reaction at all, and sometimes the images become a topic of conversation, either as a way of my helping them develop some heretofore hidden creative urge they have, or as an entry into a discussion of their artistic process. I don't explicitly introduce my work into my psychotherapy, but I know that many of my artist clients have been drawn to me because I am also an artist.”

Blue Pansy 1 © 2008, David J. Bookbinder

Bookbinder plans to use selections from his Flower Mandalas blog at Beliefnet, where he facilitates a discussion on art, healing, and transformation, and his personal web site, in a book on using the power of the mandala to heal. He invites participation. “I'm looking for personal responses to the mandalas. "Ideally, I'd like to come up with one word which captures the essence of an image, and then a corresponding piece of original writing or an inspirational quote that relates to that word. For instance, one viewer told me that my pink peony image symbolized "protection" for her, though no quote related to "protection" came to mind. I'm also interested in any information about the flowers themselves. The white rose, for instance, has a fascinating history.”

People interested in participating in the book can do so by joining the Flower Mandalas Project forum at Beliefnet.

Bookbinder’s work is featured at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA, through the end of August.