About the Course

The Five Elements is an ancient Chinese cosmology that attempts to understand all aspects of life by looking at phenomena through five primary forces or processes (wood, fire, earth, metal, water).


This course will investigate how the Elements inform our psychological life through inquiry into our emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and dreams. Both theoretical and practical, this course offers a comprehensive, complex, yet manageable schema for understanding yourself and others.

About the Instructor

Brian Falk PhD, LAc holds a Masters degree in Chinese Medicine from Five Branches University in Santa Cruz, California. He also earned a PhD in Depth Psychology with an emphasis in Somatic Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California. Brian’s doctoral research took an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the psychology of aromas.

His current interests involve writing and teaching about the intersections of Chinese medicine and Depth Psychology, and how each field can inform the other. Brian maintains a clinical practice in his hometown of Ventura, California. 

Brian has also created and taught two other courses at PRS: Air and Wind: Perspectives from Alchemy, Chinese Medicine, and Phenomenology and The Psychology of Scent.