Pacifica Graduate Institute

Pacifica Graduate Institute is an accredited graduate school offering masters and doctoral degree programs framed in the traditions in depth psychology. The Institute has established an educational environment that nourishes respect for cultural diversity and individual differences, and an academic community that fosters a spirit of free and open inquiry. Students have access to an impressive array of education resources on Pacifica’s two campuses, both of which are located between the coastal foothills and the Pacific Ocean, a few miles south of Santa Barbara, California.

“Pacifica is a Mission with an Institute. The mission, “animae mundi colendae gratia,” (tending the soul of and in the world) has inspired a literal host of others far and wide-those who now carry the fire of the vision itself. The intensity of that calling is the seed impulse carried within the dreams of many. When cultivated, this soul spark, rooted in the animated presence of the deep psyche, opens to personal fulfillment and a more just and fertile planet. In an increasingly complex world, the scholarship and service of Pacifica’s faculty, staff, alumni, and students offers a soul centered “intelligence” integral to what is being asked of us now.” 
– Stephen Aizenstat, Ph.D., Chancellor, Founding President.

Pacifica Graduate Institute dates its nearly 40-year life as an educational institution from the 1976 inauguration of a nine-month, paraprofessional “Counseling Skills Certificate” program offered by the Human Relations Center; however the school had its real origin a bit farther back in history. In 1971, the Regents of the University of California provided initial funding for an “Isla Vista Human Relations Center” to meet the mental health needs of the small community immediately adjacent to the University’s Santa Barbara campus. This initial project grew and added a location on Hollister Avenue in nearby Goleta (called the Human Relations Center) to serve the larger Santa Barbara area community. Soon, HRC developed a Peer Counselor Training Program. The program quickly gained support from the University as well as State and County government. Each of those institutions sent many of its students and employees through what became a powerful training experience.