Biography | Psychotherapy | Teaching, Facilitation, Writing
Sean Fitzpatrick is a psychotherapist in private practice since 2009. He serves as a lead facilitator for the American Leadership Forum in Houston and teaches internationally. His book The Ethical Imagination: Exploring Fantasy and Desire in Analytical Psychology was published by Routledge in August 2019.
Sean holds masters degrees in religious studies from Rice University and in clinical psychology from the University of Houston — Clear Lake. He received his PhD in psychology, with a specialization in Jungian studies, from Saybrook University. Sean serves on the board of the Center for the Healing of Racism.
Sean is also a father, an avid photographer, and a film and music lover. He has a strong love of nature and was raised in Baltimore, Denver, and Dallas.
Psychotherapy
In this work, we listen deeply to the soul so that we can grow and change. The soul is the whole of who we are, not just the ways we have adapted to living in this specific body, within the families that raised us, the rules that shaped us, and the stories written for us about who we are supposed to become. Often, what allowed us to survive and succeed during early parts of our lives gets in the way of living fully as we grow older.
I have been privileged to work with clients living with a wide range of issues during nearly two decades of practice as a psychotherapist. In addition to addressing anxiety, depression, intrusive thoughts, difficult childhood experiences, primary and secondary trauma, and interpersonal struggles, my clients have used therapy to navigate key transitions and moments of growth. I have also done extensive work with leaders, creatives, and those whose work puts them in contact with human suffering. My training in religious studies makes me particularly attuned to the needs of those whose lives have been shaped, in good or bad ways, by religious traditions, and I have a special interest in spiritual experience.
My practice is hybrid -- I see clients online and in person. I am licensed as a professional counselor in Texas, and currently I only see Texas-based clients and do not work with couples. Contact me directly at sean@sfitzpatrick.com or (346) 553-1039 to learn more and to schedule an initial, free phone consultation to determine if we would be a good fit.
Teaching, Facilitation, and Writing
Some of the greatest joys of my professional life come from learning with people in classrooms, retreats, and organizations. I remain privileged to serve as a lead facilitator for American Leadership Forum, which joins and strengthens diverse leaders to serve the common good -- to learn more, visit their website at alfhouston.com. I've served as a visiting assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine and have presented and taught in a range of academic contexts, including Rice University, Saybrook University, and the University of Notre Dame of Haiti. And I continue to serve as a faculty member and McMillan Institute Scholar at The Jung Center in Houston.
My wide-ranging teaching, facilitation, and writing interests. include:
The inner and interpersonal work of leading others -- influenced deeply by adaptive leadership, my own decade-plus experience as the executive director of The Jung Center, and my ongoing work facilitating yearlong fellowship experiences for American Leadership Forum;
The effects of working in professions that touch human suffering, and the work of making those professions sustainable for practitioners;
The complexities of ethical choice, both broadly in this cultural moment and specifically for leaders and those working with human suffering;
The nuances of contemporary spirituality and its intersections with psychology.
Continue reading for a selected list of recent classroom and retreat offerings, and contact me at sean@sfitzpatrick.com to learn more. Visit the Writing and Audio/Video sections of this site to read and hear some of my work.
Selected recent lectures, workshops, and facilitation projects
Applied Jungian psychology
How Can We Accept Mortality? | An eight-hour class on behalf of The Jung Center
How Can We Be Free? | An eight-hour class on behalf of The Jung Center
Jung and the Psychology of Spiritual Experience | an eight-hour class on behalf of The Jung Center (November 2026)
The Soul's Invitation: An Immersive Midlife Retreat (March 2006) | a weekend-long retreat facilitated with Mel Taylor, for The Jung Center
Working with Human Suffering
Tending the Fire Without Burning Out | workshops in a range of organizational contexts, including Houston Area Women's Center, Boat People SOS, Harris County Public Health, and many others
The (Many) Problems with Self-Care | Grand rounds lecture for the Center for Professionalism, Baylor College of Medicine
Moral Injury in Haitian Caregiving Work | Keynote address for the fifteenth annual conference of the Center for Spirituality and Mental Health, sponsored with the University of Notre Dame of Haiti
Self-care in forensic investigation | six years of monthly one-hour workshops and facilitated discussions with Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences
Secondary and Vicarious Trauma in Public Defense | lectures and peer-support circles for the Minnesota Board of Public Defense
Ethics in Clinical Mental Health, Human Services, and Nonprofit Management
An Ethics of Compassion | three hour ethics workshop developed for case managers at SEARCH Homeless Services, and adapted and also presented through Compassionate Houston and The Jung Center
Attacks of Conscience and the Complexity of Ethical Choice | three hour ethics workshop taught at The Jung Center, The Montrose Center, and adapted for Saybrook University
Ethics and the Unsettling Other in the Consulting Room | three hour ethics workshop presented at The Jung Center, The Montrose Center, and Texas Criminal Justice Sex Offenders Rehabilitation Program providers
The Ethics of Cure | three hour ethics workshop taught at The Jung Center
Ethics: What Gets Lost Along the Way? | three hour ethics workshop taught at The Jung Center
Where Do We Need Boundaries in Nonprofit Organizations? | a presentation at Power Tools for Nonprofits, sponsored by United Way and Rice University
Other subjects
Trauma-Informed Facilitation | a workshop for American Leadership Forum
Compassion, Resilience, and the Imagination | workshop for Robert Wood Johnson Foundation stakeholders and staff
We Grow Down, Too | workshop for Brown Foundation Freshman Leadership Organization at Texas A&M University
