By Lauren Young
Staff Writer
While the yellow brick road usually leads to Emerald City, it may also lead to the unconscious mind — if you’re psychotherapist Gita Dorothy Morena, PhD.
Morena, the great-granddaughter of legendary “Wizard of Oz” author L. Frank Baum and the great-great-great-granddaughter of legendary suffragist and activist Matilda Joslyn Gage, never necessarily “wanted” her current profession, but rather, she was born to it.
“People have always talked to me, so I’m just doing what I know how to do,” she said. And when she’s talking about “people,” she’s not talking about her clients, or those who are currently alive, per se.
On June 5, Morena, a practicing psychotherapist specializing in sandplay and transpersonal psychotherapy, performed five personal tarot card readings at the Matilda Joslyn Gage Home in Fayetteville as a fundraising effort on behalf of the foundation.
“I support this center and the work that [Executive Director] Sally [Roesch Wagner, PhD] does — it’s one way I can put my energy into here,” said Morena, who remembers visiting the house with her mother in the 1970s to learn more about their heritage. “It feels like home to me, in a way.”
And in a way it is, as she also grew up with the same values held by her famous great-great-great grandmother.
“It’s the way I was raised — these are the values that have been passed down to me,” she said. “It’s amazing what Matilda did, and what she wrote about, it’s very timely now.”
Morena said she has always felt a connection to the paranormal and, in fact, carries on a multi-generational Gage-Baum family tradition of investigating and practicing the supernatural, as Morena herself has worked as a licensed marriage, family and child psychotherapist and transpersonal psychologist for over 50 years. She blends Jungian psychology and spirituality in her work to help clients “focus on the integration of mind, body and spirit to establish a sense of inner peace, wholeness and healthy connections with others,” according to Morena’s website.
“That intuitive, psychic feeling … that’s just something that [our family line] has,” said Morena. “I’ve always been interested in the inner world and the spiritual world — I have been since I was a child.”
“It’s been confusing sometimes,” she said. “People have always talked to me and I’ve always seen things. As I’ve gotten older I see more things. It’s getting to know myself in a way.”
Growing up she “looked at all the different ways to express that,” from studying psychology to working as a psychotherapist.
“The metaphysical and world of imagery and how imagery communicates … certainly the tarot cards are one way that’s expressed,” she said. “It gives me a way to connect with people in a deeper way.”
And a part of being able to connect with others relies on one’s sensitivity and intuitive sense — traits Morena said the best tarot card readers have.
“Some people see more,” said Morena. “They see more of what’s going on in the physical world and the deeper places in the psyche. Some people don’t see it that much, but others see it pretty easily.”
For those who have never had a card reading before, Morena said being open to the experience is the first step.
“You have to be ready for it,” she said. “You have to be ready to be open. The cards can show you anything, so you may have an idea about what you want to see, but you have to be open to the possibility that you might see things that are more uncomfortable, and are you ready for that? And not everybody is, and that’s fine.”
When clients ask Morena what certain cards mean, she says it is relative to “where they are” in their lives and how it personally applies to them. “I see these things as reflecting a deeper dimension of truth, I don’t use it or see it so much as predicting anything,” she said. “Out of that you begin to see what is possible, but the future depends on how we engage with what’s going on in the present. That’s how the future is determined more than anything.”
And like anything to do with the paranormal, what you see is up to your interpretation of it.
“That’s the art of it — what is this referring to, and what does this mean and what is it showing me? … those questions that take you into a deeper understanding of yourself,” she said.
For Morena, she enjoys the personal conversation cards can provide, and even performed someone’s first-time tarot card reading on Tuesday.
“Those kind of experiences really stay with someone — it’s powerful,” she said.
Over the years, Morena said her experience as a psychotherapist has been ‘incredible” and “mind-blowing.”
“I’ve learned so much from the people that come talk to me,” she said. “It’s such an honor to be in that kind of situation where people open up and share, and you can watch other lives shift and change. It’s kind of magical, and unbelievable.”
While some offer “quick judgements and quick advice,” Morena said that instruction “doesn’t help.”
“We know when it makes sense and when it doesn’t, and that’s when our questions arise,” she said. “I’m more for creating a safe space for a person to explore themselves, because I don’t know what you’re going through in your life, I don’t have that. But I can provide a place for you to figure it out, and what your questions are and confusion is, because that has to come to the light somehow. Otherwise it stays in the dark and stays confusing.”
While Morena understands some are skeptical of tarot card readings and other forms of fortune-telling, she said it is not up to her to tell others if they are right or wrong necessarily, but will help lead them on the right path if they so choose.
And to help clients along their journey, sometimes there’s no better place than Oz.
As the author of “The Wisdom of Oz: Reflections of a Jungian Sandplay Therapist,” Morena likes to use sandplay in her therapy, which sometimes involves using miniature “Wizard of Oz” figurines in a small sandbox. Clients can draw images in the sand, or whatever helps them visually express what words cannot.
“It gives you a way to see what’s going on inside that you can’t do with words,” said Morena. “When you see that, it gives you a sense of your deeper self internally. It’s a way of doing art, but you don’t have to be an artist.”
Through this, Morena said clients will begin to see themselves “visually,” and a story “starts to unfold through the imagery.”
“You begin to see things about yourself you can’t see any other way — it’s very revealing,” she said. “It’s pretty powerful — it’s similar to the [tarot] cards in a way.”
But having a safe space to do so is essential. “You have to be in a safe space and feel trust with someone, that relationship is probably the most important part of it,” she said.
To learn more about The Matilda Joslyn Gage Home, located at 210 East Genesee Street in Fayetteville, visit its website at matildajoslyngage.org or call 315-637-9511 to schedule guided tours.
