Our Philosophy
Pacific Institute employs a phenomenological approach to helping individuals in their own road to living and aging. This means that we try to remain aware of our own biases, assumptions, experiences when approaching the clients with whom we share the path of healing and discovery. Our stance is one of curiosity and openness to the phenomena that occurs in the here and now; it is one of wanting to know, rather than imposing onto the other what we do know. This means that our care is as much about the deepening of the world of the people we serve as of ours.

Our Programs and Services
Pacific Institute programs will change the course of your professional and personal lives ... and the lives of the people for which you care.

AgeSong Institute of Elder Wellness
The AgeSong Institute of Elder Wellness—ASIEW—follows a vision of promoting healthy aging for the growing elderly population by providing individualized and holistic care within a therapeutic environment. As a response for the need for mental health services and adequate approaches to help elders who present unique states of consciousness, Pacific Institute’s ASIEW cares for issues seniors face during the last phase of life. At the ASIEW, we have designed and helped to implement specialized programs of services for older adults and elders residing in care facilities and at home.

Awakenings Institute Of Mental Wellness
The Awakenings Institute Of Mental Wellness—AIMW—opening in 2010, will deliver a comprehensive concept of care to all those in need of mental health care. Specifically, this Institute would like to conceptulize mental illness not as a pathology but rather as a different state of conciousness in need of understanding. It is for the mental health professional to learn the different languages of these states of conciousness. This effort of learning will reward both the practicioner as well as the client for whom he or she cares.

Partnered with the City & County of San Francisco, we will provide comprehensive care to those living in our residential care home in San Francisco. We use a humanistic, process-oriented model and attitude to promote well-being and independent living.

The AIMW will also work in an outpatient basis to serve those in need of non-residential support.

The Pacific Institute Academia
Pacific Institute’s Academia is aimed at developing professional skills in the field of human awareness and its applications in the fields of mental health, geriatrics, and clinical care while raising personal awareness about the larger questions of meaning we humans face in this world. The Academia reaches its goals trough its educational and public programs, through professional development, internships, research and publications.

In 1992, a small group of dedicated professors, mental health practitioners, and community leaders started the organization that gave birth to Pacific Institute. In 1993, Pacific Institute started a series of lectures, public programs, seminars and an informal internship. That was the beginning of our Academia. Today we continue this tradition through our focus on deepening our awareness of the many dimensions and expressions of human nature and through teaching new perspectives in the field of Mental Health, Gerontology, and Education.