Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Life and career

Dr. Estés was born in Gary, Indiana, to Emilio Maria Reyés and Cepción Ixtiz, who were from Mexico. She was later adopted by Hungarian immigrants. Dr. Estés earned her doctorate in ethno-clinical psychology from Union Institute & University in 1981, with a focus on social and psychological patterns in cultural and indigenous groups. She completed a post-doctoral diploma as a certified Jungian analyst in 1984 through the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Psychoanalysts, under the charter of Zurich, Switzerland. As of 2020, she has maintained a clinical practice for 50 years, working with war veterans, survivors of massacres, and disaster-affected communities. Her work has been published in 37 languages worldwide. Women Who Run with the Wolves appeared on multiple bestseller lists beyond the New York Times, including USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal, with combined bestseller status spanning over three years.

Dr. Estés began her work in the 1960s at the Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Administration Hospital in Hines, Illinois. There she worked with World War I, World War II, Korean and Vietnam War soldiers who were living with quadraplegia, incapacitated by loss of arms and legs. She has worked at other facilities caring for severely injured children as well as shell-shocked war veterans and their families. Her teaching of writing, storytelling and traditional medicine practices continued in prisons, beginning in the early 1970s at the Men's Penitentiary in Colorado; the Federal Women's Prison at Dublin, California; the Montview Facility for Youth in Colorado; and other institutions.

Dr. Estés developed the International Post-Trauma Recovery Protocol while serving earthquake survivors in Armenia, a methodology now used to train citizen responders for on-site psychological support within hours of disasters. Following the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, she provided trauma recovery services to students and the local community from 1999 to 2003. She continues to work with families of 9/11 victims on both the East and West coasts of the United States.

Dr. Estés served as a board member of the Maya Angelou Minority Health Foundation (now called Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity) at Wake Forest School of Medicine. Dr. Estés served as appointee by Colorado governors Romer and Owens to the Colorado State Grievance Board of the Department of Regulatory Agencies (D.O.R.A.) from 1993 to 2006. She was elected as chair and for thirteen years worked with the state of Colorado Attorney General's lawyers, as well as a board of legal experts and helping professionals, to focus on public safety regarding mental health practitioners. She has been an advisory board member for the National Writers Union, New York; and an advisory board member of the National Coalition Against Censorship, New York. She is an advisor to El Museo de las Americas, Denver, Colorado, and a contributing editor and storyteller-in-residence for The Bloomsbury Review.

Dr. Estés debuted in spoken word performance at Carnegie Hall, New York (2000), along with Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison. Together the author-poets wrote lyrical song-poems for a libretto of woman.life.song..

Dr. Estés serves as managing editor for The Moderate Voice, a political news blog. She has contributed commentary to the Huffington Post, the Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, and The Denver Post. Estés founded the Guadalupe Foundation (also known as la Sociedad de Guadalupe), a human rights educational organization that supports adult literacy programs and broadcasts storytelling content via shortwave radio to underserved communities worldwide.

In 2023, Dr. Estés was appointed to the Colorado Natural Medicine Advisory Board, which advises state regulators on psilocybin policy, with a term through January 31, 2027. She serves as the representative for traditional indigenous and religious use of natural medicines, drawing on her background in ethno-clinical psychology and her work as a practitioner of indigenous healing traditions. Dr. Estés has described herself as an ally of María Sabina, the Mexican curandera who introduced Western researchers to ceremonial psilocybin use in the 1950s. In her board application, she wrote: "Having served before with DORA for 13 years as governors' appointee to Colo. State Grievance Board, I see the deep importance of civic participation for public safety and for better lives for our citizens. I think I can help to bring new helping ways, while honoring old ways that still work well."

Dr. Estés was a recipient of the Joseph Campbell Keeper of the Lore Award in 1994, a Gradiva Award from the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis in 1995, a Catholic Press Association award for writing in 1994, the Book of the Year Honor Award, American Booksellers Association, and Colorado Authors League Award. She received the Las Primeras Award, "The First of Her Kind", from the Mexican American Women's Foundation, Washington D.C. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2006 in the Arts category, which honors women of statewide and nationwide impact. Dr. Estés is the recipient of the President's Medal for Social Justice.