Mary Watkins

Mary Watkins is a Professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute, where she chairs the Depth Psychology Program and co-chairs the Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Eco-Psychologies (CLIE) Specialization. Her work bridges clinical and developmental psychology with archetypal/imaginal psychology, focusing on peacebuilding, diversity, social justice, and ecological restoration. She has authored and co-authored influential books such as Mutual Accompaniment and the Creation of the Commons (2019) and Up Against the Wall: Re-Imagining the U.S.-Mexico Border (2014).

Her research spans liberation psychology, mutual accompaniment, and imagination in community contexts. She integrates Quaker values of nonviolence and Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy to address systemic oppression and collective trauma. Recent work examines racial reparations and critical genealogy to confront historical legacies of slavery.

Watkins has taught courses like Public Conversation, Psychologies of Liberation, and Liberatory Pedagogies, emphasizing dialogue, community fieldwork, and transdisciplinary approaches. She co-founded the CLIE specialization, fostering participatory action research and community-based initiatives, and has contributed extensively to ecopsychology, forced migration studies, and adoption literature.