He knew suffering intimately—and he knew how to accompany others into it, through it, and beyond. In The Soul in Anguish: Psychotherapeutic Approaches to Suffering, Lionel offered frameworks showing that suffering need not be a meaningless burden, but can instead become a portal to compassion, wisdom, and spiritual growth. A true shaman, he recognized that the therapist can take on the other's suffering, transmutes it, and returns it in a transformed form.
Gentle, erudite, never boastful, and a gifted teacher: these words capture his presence as a teacher. Though his scholarship was authoritative, his demeanor and heartfelt teaching made him deeply approachable. He encouraged others to explore their own vulnerability with curiosity and courage.
Chiron Publications was fortunate to count Lionel among its authors. His major titles include:
The Soul in Anguish: Psychotherapeutic Approaches to Suffering (2011)
The Sacred Cauldron: Psychotherapy as a Spiritual Practice (2015)
The God Image: From Antiquity to Jung (2021)
Through these works, he helped bridge psychotherapy and the numinous, always modelling the very accompaniment he spoke of—a compassionate bearing of soul.
Lionel leaves behind not only a profound oeuvre, but a community of loved colleagues, countless students, and fellow caregivers who were shaped by his kindness and clarity. His legacy—scholarship, spirit, caregiving—ensures that his presence lives on in every soul he touched.
We mourn his passing, but celebrate the light he brought into our lives: quiet yet brilliant, rooted in suffering—and transcendent.
