In this compelling interview, Claudia Bader—licensed psychoanalyst, astrologer, art therapist, and regression guide—shares how she uniquely integrates astrology, psychoanalysis, and creative modalities to support deep personal transformation. From past life regressions to chart readings and dream work, Claudia’s approach honors both the spiritual and psychological dimensions of healing, offering her clients symbolic insight and soulful connection in every session.
Can you explain how you integrate astrology, psychoanalysis, and art therapy to guide your clients in understanding the deeper sources of their life challenges?
I want to make it clear that although I integrate astrology, art, psychoanalysis and regression work, I also offer stand-alone astrology sessions as well as stand-alone past life and spiritual regression.
When I integrate them together, it is usually in the context of ongoing therapy. My psychotherapy practice developed from the fact I was doing astrology sessions and my clients kept asking if I could be their therapist. After referring clients for a while, I realized that as I had my master’s in art therapy (a clinical psychotherapy degree), and years of work in psychiatric settings, I could agree to be their therapist. The astrology sessions are a fantastic first psychotherapy session. To be clinically responsible, at that point I hired a clinical supervisor and started attending a psychoanalytic institute to hone my skills.
For my final case to graduate I worked with both a Jungian supervisor for a year and then an object relations oriented psychoanalytic supervisor for a year. After graduating, I became the Director of Education, and then the Executive Director of the institute. The institute is the Institute for Expressive Analysis, which integrates nonverbal, creative modalities work with psychoanalysis. I am a licensed psychoanalyst and a licensed creative arts therapist. My PhD in psychoanalysis combines astrology with psychoanalysis.
There isn’t a rigid format I adhere to in integrating them; I have a large “toolbox” of modalities. Astrology and art therapy are two. I am attuned to symbolic communication on all levels; I mainly work verbally, working with dreams and unconscious communications; sometimes, I use art, movement, yoga, breathing exercises, mindfulness visualization, hypnosis, and of course, astrology. For me, the psyche has an autonomous piece that is communicating and participating in the therapy process. I always say my client’s psyche is my favorite consultant! The psyche communicates symbolically through dreams, art, movement, and unconscious behaviors. Astrology charts the archetypal themes being lived and the timing of issues in someone’s life.
All three disciplines work with symbolic communication; symbols are the means of communication between the unconscious and conscious parts of us. The alchemical maxim, as above, so below applies here. We can add, as within, so without.
Psychotherapy is a creative medium, and the therapist is like an artist. Like an artist, the analyst needs to have good technique. In the psychoanalytic world, this is an acute sensitivity to the relationship between the therapist and client, and the assumption that behaviors and resistances have meaning. All of this is examined within a clear frame; being specific and consistent with policies about payment, absences, and vacation, and keeping the time of starting and ending definite. This creates a good “holding” environment. Within this understanding, the analyst uses himself or herself and the different mediums as it seems useful; the point is to further process.
Art gets integrated into the process many ways: a dream or dream element can be drawn; someone can simply sit with art materials and use them as they speak or are present in a session, with or without talking. They can feel their way into one of the aspects of their chart and from that make an art image. The artwork can be experienced as a way to express but also give some distance from the intensity of trauma; it can “tell without talking,” even if the person does not yet know/remember.
Often people come to me because they want someone who respects astrology and can speak astrological language. In that case, we often start out talking about their chart. If I did an astrology session with them that led to therapy, then as they talk about their life, we use the chart as a map and guide and way to track meaning in their experience. I find that after a time astrology may fall away as we work with behavior and dreams and unconscious process; then gets interwoven at different points. Astrology works well when it mirrors experience accurately, combined with the nuances of therapeutic interaction. By nuances of our interaction, I mean the non-verbal communications in therapy such as voice tone, timing, empathic resonance; the right brain to right brain connection.
The clients with whom I use astrology are usually either astrologers themselves or have been referred by one. These people want to work with a therapist who speaks astrology’s symbolic language and will not pathologize them for their involvement with astrology. They have different levels of knowledge about astrology. Many clients do not know or use astrology at all; even so, at times I use astrology as a medium in their sessions.
That said, I think the relationship between client and therapist is the most important healing tool and all techniques are in service to furthering the dynamics occurring between client and therapist and within the client.
What led you to combine past life regression and spiritual regression with psychoanalysis in your work?
My interest in spiritual meaning of life predates my work as a therapist. I have known there is much more to life than our everyday experience as I have had and witnessed “miraculous” experiences. It runs in my family. Before I studied art therapy and later became a psychoanalyst, I was an astrologer. In addition, I had been exposed to past life regression in my early twenties and had a meaningful experience that I could relate to my knowledge of my astrology chart. I had had many past life readings trying to know myself, but nothing compares to having ones’ own regression in my opinion.
Whether someone believes in past lives or life after death ultimately doesn’t matter when experiencing a regression as it is a powerful symbolic experience that can only come from the person themselves and is a message from their higher self and deeper wisdom.
However, as I say on my website, there isn’t a split between the spiritual and the everyday life we lead. The spiritual meaning of our lives is here NOW. It is here in the themes and issues lived day to day. Thus, I became a psychoanalyst and psychotherapist, trained to understand and work with the sources of life issues, the inner templates that are laid down in our earliest years.
They weave into and through each other.
How do you help clients uncover and heal the “inner templates” from their early years that affect their current lives?
Despite their apparent differences, with astrology based on the sky outside of us and psychoanalysis based on the inner world, there are parallels between psychoanalysis and astrology. Both consider the interface of the inner and the outer worlds as key; both are interpretive mediums, both science and art. They both emphasize beginnings as crucial. Astrological charts are set up for the exact minute something begins. For psychoanalysis the experiences in the beginning of life are seen as impacting us for the rest of our lives. They both work with developmental cycles in life. Astrology does this by studying the unfoldment of being over time in life as seen through planetary cycles; in psychoanalysis, by studying developmental markers all through life. Astrology is descriptive; it describes the templates through the symbolic language of astrology, giving the map. Learning astrology for me was not about just prediction but a way to understand the meaning and purpose of life. It was, and is, spiritual, psychological and practical study. My concern was “What is the path of the soul in the life?”
Psychotherapy, work with dreams and therapeutic process gives first hand experience of the feelings and manifestations of these templates. We have habituated, reactive behaviors- some unconscious, some conscious. An example might be being late despite good intentions. It has us; understanding what the templates are, what is being acted out with lateness (i.e. unexpressed anger, or control issues, such as someone having been overcontrolled, so lateness is a way to have autonomy, are examples) helps free us. It is done by being able to express and process the feelings in a safe place of understanding and compassion.
In addition, both astrology and psychotherapy give names to the issues and templates. Names allow us to think about and integrate feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. I like to use the metaphor of “naming the demons.” In magical work, if you get the name of the demon, you have control over it. This is a deep process.
In your experience, how does understanding the spiritual meaning of one’s life through astrology or regression work influence their personal growth and healing process?
It gives context and meaning to suffering. It provides the sense that the universe is positive and that growth and evolution are what leads our lives. It opens the space I mentioned above to process with compassion and understanding when we “get” that the struggles we go through have a purpose. They give perspective, being cosmically conceived of. I believe it makes a huge difference in personal growth and healing.
What impact do you believe soul work and deep hypnosis have in understanding and addressing the broader patterns of life that transcend one’s current incarnation?
Soul work and deep hypnosis give first-hand experience so a person knows/feels that there are broader patterns of our soul that transcend the current incarnation, themes one is working with. The soul level is a place where this is experienced and felt. To visit the place where we are much more than this particular life and we are part of a loving universe.
