Jean Dalby Clift

Jean Dalby Clift (1930–2020) was an American priest of the Episcopal Church and a pastoral counselor in private practice. She was the author of books in the fields of psychology and spirituality. "Dr. Clift has had many roles in her life, including lawyer, spiritual director, pastoral counselor, author, lecturer, workshop presenter, priest, mother, grandmother, and poet." She lectured and gave workshops in the United States, Australia, Europe, Asia and Africa on such topics as pastoral counseling, prayer, spiritual growth, journaling, pilgrimage, and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Three of her five books were co-authored with her husband, the Reverend Wallace Clift.

Early career and education Born February 21, 1930, in Texas, Clift received a B.A. (1950) and J.D. (1952) from the University of Texas at Austin. After her husband went to seminary, Jean Clift became involved in prayer ministry. In 1964, Jean and Wallace Clift were awarded a joint grant by the Farish Foundation to study the psychology of Carl Jung. At the C. G. Jung Institute in Zürich, Switzerland, she studied for two years with analyst Marie-Louise von Franz, to whom she dedicated one of her books.

Academic career Clift applied her psychological training to the study of literature, earning a Ph.D. from the University of Denver in 1978 with the dissertation Little Nell and the lost feminine: An archetypal analysis of some projections in Victorian culture (1978). She co-founded the C. G. Jung Society of Colorado in 1976, and remained a trustee until her death. From 1975 to 1980, Clift was the first non-Catholic to hold the position of Director of the Center for Religious Meaning at Loretto Heights College. She also served as a faculty advisor for Loretto Heights' University Without Walls program for re-entry students, and taught short courses in religious studies and the humanities. In 1980, she was elected president of the American Academy of Religion, Rocky Mountain-Great Plains Region. After Clift left Loretto Heights in 1980, she continued her involvement with teaching as an adjunct professor of Anglican studies until 2002, first at St. Thomas Seminary and then at the Iliff School of Theology.

Pastoral counseling and ministry Clift left Loretto Heights in 1980 to establish a private counseling practice. She joined the American Association of Pastoral Counselors in 1982, and served as its president from 1994 to 1996. She was Canon Pastor Emeritus of the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado and an associate priest at the Cathedral of St. John in the Wilderness.

Publications

Books Australia: .

Republished 2004 by Wipf & Stock. Australia: .

Articles

Poems and prayers

Encyclopedia entries Clift, Jean Dalby; Clift, Wallace (2012). "Symbols of Transformation in Dreams" in Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. 2nd ed. (Leeming, D., ed.) Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag